- Masawaiyh
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Yuhanna ibn Masawaih, also written Ibn Masawaih, Masawaiyh, and in Latin Mesue, Masuya, Mesue Major, Msuya, and Mesue the Elder was an Assyrian physician[1] from the Academy of Gundishapur. According to The Canon of Medicine for Avicenna and 'Uyun al-Anba for the medieval Arabic historian Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, Masawaiyh's father was Assyrian and his mother was Slavic.[citation needed]
Born in 777 CE as the son of a pharmacist and physician from Gundishapur, he came to Baghdad and studied under Jabril ibn Bukhtishu. He wrote mostly in Syriac and Arabic.
He became director of a hospital in Baghdad. He composed medical treatises on a number of topics, including ophthalmology, fevers, headache, melancholia, diatetics, the testing of physicians, and medical aphorisms.
Masawayh became personal physician to four caliphs. He composed a considerable number of Arabic medical monographs, on topics including fevers, leprosy, melancholy, dietetics, eye diseases, and medical aphorisms.
It was reported that Ibn Masawayh regularly held an assembly of some sort, where he consulted with patients and discussed subjects with pupils. Ibn Masawayh apparently attracted considerable audiences, having acquired a reputation for repartee.
He was also the teacher of Hunain ibn Ishaq. He translated various Greek medical works into Syriac. Apes were supplied to him by the caliph al-Mu'tasim for dissection .
Many anatomical and medical writings are credited to him, notably the "Disorder of the Eye" (Daghal al-'ain), which is the earliest Systematic treatise on ophthalmology extant in Arabic and the Aphorisms, the Latin translation of which was very popular in the Middle Ages.
He died in Samarra in 857 CE.
Sources
For his life and writings, see:
- J.-C. Vadet, "Ibn Masawayh" in, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, ed. by H.A.R. Gibbs, B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat, C. Bosworth et al., 11 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960-2002) vol. 3, pp. 872-873
- Manfred Ullmann, Die Medizin im Islam, Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abteilung I, Ergänzungsband vi, Abschnitt 1 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), pp. 112-115
- Fuat Sezgin, Medizin-Pharmazie-Zoologie-Tierheilkunde bis ca 430 H., Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Band 3 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), pp. 231-236.
- Elgood, Cyril (2010-10-31). A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate: From the Earliest Times Until the Year A.D. 1932. Cambridge University Press. pp. 94–. ISBN 9781108015882. http://books.google.com/books?id=XFB8-xIyUpAC&pg=PA94. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
- Withington, Edward Theodore (1894). Medical history from the earliest times: a popular history of the healing art. The Scientific Press, Ltd.. pp. 141–. http://books.google.com/books?id=WH7SZO2qpk4C&pg=PA141. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
See also
References
- ^ Joubert, Laurent; Rocher, Gregory de (1995-07). The second part of the Popular errors. University of Alabama Press. pp. 99. ISBN 9780817307585. http://books.google.com/books?id=iJwrg8exGFMC&pg=PA324. Retrieved 23 May 2011.
Medicine in the medieval Islamic world Physicians Concepts Works The Canon of Medicine • Anatomy Charts of the Arabs • The Book of Healing • Book of the Ten Treatises of the Eye • De Gradibus • Al-Tasrif • Zakhireye Khwarazmshahi • Adab al-Tabib ("Practical Ethics of the Physician")
Centers Bimaristan • Nur al-Din Bimaristan • Al-'Adudi
Influences Influenced Category:Medieval Assyrian physicians
Categories:- Greek–Syriac translators
- 777 births
- 857 deaths
- 9th-century physicians
- Medieval Assyrian physicians
- Physicians of medieval Islam
- Medical biography stubs
- Assyrian stubs
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