79 Hunain Ibn Ishaq

Ḥunayn ibn isḥāq's Galen Translations and Greco-Arabic Philology: Some Observations
from the "Crises" ("De crisibus") and the "Critical Days" ("De diebus decretoriis")
Author(s): Glen M. Cooper
Source: Oriens, Vol. 44, No. 1/2 (2016), pp. 1-43
Published by: Brill
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24801758
Accessed: 06-05-2020 19:23 UTC
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms
Brill is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Oriens
This content downloaded from 128.228.0.55 on Wed, 06 May 2020 19:23:53 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43 =—=
It • »
ORIENS
BRILL brill.com/orie
Hunayn ibn Ishäq's Galen Translations and

Greco-Arabic Philology: Some Observations from
the Crises (De crisibus) and the Critical Days
(De diebus decretoriis)*
Glen M. Cooper
Department of History, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, ca, usa
glenmcooper@gmaiicom
Abstract
The author shows, from Hunayn ibn Ishäq's translations of Galen's Crises and Critical
Days, and borrowing a scheme from Sebastian Brock, that Hunayn's translation style
was "reader-oriented," in which he added whatever he thought necessary to help his
readers understand the text and its complex subject matter, rather than "text-oriented,"
which adhered closely to the original. Using several examples classified in a working
typology, the author shows how caution must be used when deriving Greek textual
variants from Arabic. Moreover, the author considers how the Arabic translations
creatively distorted certain scientifically significant concepts.
Keywords
Greco-Arabic philology - Hunayn - Galen - translation
* Glen M. Cooper, Department of History, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, CA, USA,
[email protected].
© KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2016 | D0I: 10.1163/18778372-04401002
2 COOPER
Introduction1
In reconstructing the texts of ancient authors, a modern editor attem

take account of all available textual evidence. For ancient Greek author
bic translations, mostly produced during the Abbasid Era, are an imp
resource. For example, Arabic versions often "freeze" certain readings in
lation that might have become corrupt in the process of Greek textual tran
sion, and such passages can provide variant readings.2 No translation, how
matches its original in every respect. When comparing Arabic translation
extant Greek texts, it would be desirable to have a disciplined approa
deciding whether a difference is merely the product of the translator's s
or of the syntactical differences between the languages, or whether it pres
a true textual variant that was present in his Greek exemplar. This task w
be facilitated if we had a general profile of the specific translator's habits.
we could sort differing passages, and rule out as possible variants thos
were due to the translator's style, whether an embellishment or error, or
unavoidable differences between Greek and Arabic.
In an effort to provide such a tool, as well as to gather as much data ab

the details of the Arabic translations, scholars have been preparing a num
of ever-growing data sets that register how various words and concepts w
translated from Greek into Arabic, gathered from a variety of translations
carefully analyzed body of data inspires hope that in some cases, at least,
may be able to identify, with high probability, a specific translator or tran
school on the basis of their style of translation. For example. M. Ullmann
shown, through lexical and stylistic analysis, that the major manuscript o
Arabic translation of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is not wholly by Hun
1 A preliminary version of this paper was read at the Sharing Ancient Wisdoms Conf
Kings College, London, June 3-4,2013. Many thanks to the anonymous reviewer whose
observations and suggestions for additional references have improved the present art
2 Dimitri Gutas, Theophrastus On First Principles (Known as his Metaphysics) (Leiden
2010), 93-101 (Appendix).
3 The compilations of M. Ullmann on the one hand, and G. Endress and D. Gutas on the
are troves of this sort of information. See Oliver Overwien, "The Art of the Translator, or
did Hunayn ibn Isljâq and his School Translate?" in Epidemics in Context: Greek Comme
on Hippocrates in the Arabic Tradition, ed. Peter E. Pormann (Berlin: De Gruyter, 201
Manfred Ullmann, Wörterbuch zu den griechisch-arabischen Übersetzungen des g. Jah
derts (Wiesbaden: Harrasssowitz Verlag, 2002); and Gerhard Endress and Dimitri Gu
Greek and Arabic Lexicon: Materialsfor a Dictionary of Medieval Translationsfrom Gree
Arabic (Leiden: Brill, 1992-).
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
HUNAYN IBN ISHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 3
but preserves the work of an earlier translator.4 Recently, E.A. Schmidt and
M. Ullmann have examined how the Arabic translation of the same Aristotelian
text can be used in the critical reconstruction of the Greek text, with implica
tions for Greco-Arabic philological method in general.5 The present author's
approach, though similar, was independently derived, and is intended to illus
trate the scientific and cultural implications of the transformations wrought
upon Greek texts in the process of translation.
Given that Hunayn ibn Ishäq (d. 873) is considered by many to represent the
highest standard of translation accuracy and philological method, the features
of his translations provide an important test case. Hunayn's translations have
occasioned many comments and isolated observations, but until recently there
have been few systematic or extended studies of his actual modus operandi
of translation. General features of his style has been observed, such as the
"hendiadys method" of rendering a Greek expression with two (or, on occasion,
more, i.e. hendiatris "one via three") Arabic words, to be discussed below.6 The
translation features surveyed here may be particular to Hunayn's style, or may
be features found in all responsible Greco-Arabic translations. In either case,
they can be ruled out by the editor as possible variants. The present article
samples only two of Hunayn's translations that offer interesting examples. Any
generalizations made here are for the sake of showing how care must be used
when employing any Arabic translation for Greek editions.
A byproduct of addressing the issue of procedures of translation is a better
understanding of how the Greek tradition was transformed as it entered Arabic,
conceptually as well as textually, which can lead to a better grasp of what were
truly original and creative conceptual developments in the Arabic tradition. In
some cases the Arabic translation itself added to or shifted key Greek concepts,
opening new possibilities for scientific theorizing, as has been shown in the
case of optics.7
4 Manfred Ulimann, Die Nikomachische Ethik des Aristoteles in arabischer Übersetzung, Teil 1:
Wortschatz; Teil 2: Überlieferung, Textkritik, Grammatik (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2011-12).
5 Ernst A. Schmidt, Manfred Ullmann, Aristoteles in Fes: Zum Wert der arabischen Überlieferung
der Nikomachischen Ethikflir die Kritik des griechischen Textes (Heidelberg, 2012).
6 Discussed in: Glen M. Cooper, Galen, De diebus decretoriis, from Greek into Arabic: A Critical
Edition, -with Translation and Commentary, and Historical Introduction ofHunayn ibn Ishäq,
Kitâb ayyàm al-buhrän (London: Ashgate, 2011), 85 and 504. (Hereafter, references to this
work will be as follows: Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 85 and 504). See also discussion
in: Overwien, "The Art of the Translator," 153.
7 Elaheh Kheirandish, "The Arabic 'Version' of Euclidean Optics: Transformations as Linguistic

Problems in Transmission," in Tradition, Transmission, Transformation: Proceedings of Two
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
4 COOPER
The present study attempts shed light on the main philological issue an
byproduct by inferring what the act of translation meant for Hunayn, th
comparing several passages from two treatises of Galen's and Hunay
bic translations.8 A preliminary scheme for Hunayn's translation style w
sketched, and some implications of particular translation choices will
cussed.
Hunayn's Style of Translation

Hunayn notes in his Risâla, where he describes his translations of Gal
the circumstances under which they were completed, that he followe
sistent method of translation (tariqfi l-targama), which his nephew Huba
al-Hasan al-A'sam sought to emulate.9 Although Hunayn did not leave a "h
book" describing his translation principles, he did mention specific pract
such as either not rendering the names of pagan gods into Arabic, or tra
erating them, or adjusting his style in other ways to suit the requiremen
particular clients.10 So, for the most part, Hunayn's method must be inf
from examples. In the present article, several examples of Hunayn's tran
that highlight features of his translation style have been selected for disc
although, as stated earlier, some of these features may not be particular
alone.
These passages are drawn from Hunayn's translations of two Galen

tises, the Crises and the Critical Days, which concern the therapeutic and
nostic theory of medical crises. Galen intended these treatises to form a
the former taught physicians how to classify the types of medical crises
how to use this knowledge effectively in therapy, while the latter showed
combine observations of crises with a series of days counted from the (inf
Conferences on Pre-modern Science Held at the University of Oklahoma, ed. F. Jami

and Sally P. Ragep with Steven Livesey (Leiden: Brill, 1996), 227-45.
8 The present author is preparing a Greek edition of the De diebus decretoriis, as vol
of a pair. The first volume [Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days] contains a Graeco-
Apparatus of translation, which registers all significant differences between Kiihn
Greek edition and Hunayn's translation.
9 Gotthelf Bergsträsser, Hunain ibn Ishaq, Über die syrischen und arabischen Galen-
zungen (Leipzig: Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, 1925), 15, line 9 (Ar
cited hereafter as Hunayn (ed. Bergsträsser), Risàla. Discussed in Overwien, "The
the Translator," 152.
îo See Hunayn's own accounts, in Hunayn (ed. Bergsträsser), Risäla, 6-7, 24-5, a
Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Mov
in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-ioth Centuries) (London: Rou
1998), 142-4. Also discussed in: Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 85-6.
0RIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
beginning of the illness, and thought to be influenced by the moon, in order to

predict the course of the illness.11 Both treatises enjoyed long lives in Arabic,
and later, Latin versions, with some of the basic concepts surviving in medical
thought into modern times.12 Although the critical days and crises featured in
theoretical treatises and discussions of medicine, it is not yet clear, however,
how this doctrine had an impact upon Arabic medical practice. The Critical
Days was occasionally at the center of philosophical and theological debates
in Arabic and Latin, since it advanced a contentious astrological dimension to
medicine.13
In describing his translations of the Critical Days and the Crises in his Risäla,
Hunayn states that Sergios of Re§ Aynä (d. 536) had translated these works into
Syriac.14 Hunayn corrected this version for his teacher, Yühannä ibn Mäsawayh
(d. 857), and later he himself translated it into Arabic for Muhammad ibn
Müsä (d. 873), which occurred sometime before 856 ad.15 It is unclear from
this passage whether Hunayn translated it from Syriac into Arabic, or directly
from Greek. As S. Brock has shown, evaluation of ancient translations is more
sensibly done via a scheme that considers broader criteria than how "faithful"
they were to their source text. According to his useful dichotomy, a translation
is "text-oriented" if the translator attempts to convey every textual detail of
the source text into the target language, as if the revered source text were not
to be changed. With a "reader-oriented" translation, on the other hand, the
11 Galen classified these two works as among his prognostic works: De libris propriis, 19,32,2
3 K. These two treatises are usually bound together, along with De differentiisfebrium ("On
the Distinguishing Characteristics of Fevers"), in Greek and Arabic manuscript collections.
See Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 17. They were treatises numbers 13,14, and 15, the
semiotic textbooks, which dealt with recognizing relevant signs in the patient for therapy
and prognosis; Albert Z. Iskandar, "An Attempted Reconstruction of the Late Alexandrian
Medical Curriculum " Medical History 20 (1976): 235-58, esp. 237-9.
12 See, for example, William Cullen, First Lines of the Practice of Physic (Worcester, Mass.:
Isaiah Thomas, 1790). Sudhoff gave an historical survey that showed the persistence of
the critical days doctrine that is still useful: Karl Sudhoff, "Zur Geschichte der Lehre von
den kritischen Tagen im Krankheitsverlaufe," Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin
2i, no. 1-4 (1929): 1-22.
13 See, e.g.: Glen M. Cooper, "Rational and Empirical Medicine in Ninth-Century Baghdad:
Qustà ibn Lüqä's 'Questions on the Critical Days in Acute Illnesses'," Arabic Sciences and
Philosophy 24 (2014): 69-102; and Idem, "Approaches to the Critical Days in Late Medieval
and Renaissance Thinkers," Early Science and Medicine 18, no. 6 (2013): 536-65.
14 Hunayn (ed. Bergsträsser) Risäla, 15 11. 4-12; and see editor's discussion in Galen (ed.
Cooper), Critical Days, 15 et seq.
15 See editor's discussion of chronology in Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 82-3.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
6 COOPER
translator has the reader in the target language as his primary concern
intertextual commentary, definition, or exposition of the cultural cont
target language, to convey the meaning of the source text and to rend
useful as possible.16 The latter style of translation presents a greater
to the textual critic.
Two historical examples show how translation approaches were i

by the relative stance of the source and target civilizations. During th
of the Abbasid translations, from the point of view of Arabic-speakin
tuals in Baghdad, Greek was the language of a defeated civilization: in
instance, classical Greek had been supplanted by Roman, then Chr
ilization, which had rejected much of it; and in the second place, t
(Byzantine Greek) Empire had been defeated by the armies of Islam, a
on the defensive. The ninth-century Arab philosopher, al-Kindï, altho
himself a translator, took no deferential stance toward Greek thought
fidently went about reconfiguring the Greek sciences, according t
needs, without regard for ancient disciplinary boundaries.17 Huna
shall see, confidently rendered his texts, even "correcting" them whe
fit. On the other hand, during the early period of the European
Latin translations, European intellectuals felt (appropriate) inferiority
bic scientists and philosophers.18 Accordingly, their early translations
fidence, tending to be text-oriented.
On the basis of my careful comparison of the Arabic and Greek ver
these two treatises and the preparation of editions of them, I conc
Hunayn was generally an accurate translator, and sometimes even
tional one. However, because Hunayn's translations are thoroughly
oriented," the textual critic must employ them with great care.
Having a general profile of his translation style would help, since if w
the sorts of additions and intrusions that Hunayn habitually employs,
i6 Sebastian Brock, "Towards a History of Syriac Translation Technique," Orient

tiana AnaLecta 221 (1983): 1-14; here, 4ff. See also the discussion in: Uwe Vagelp
'Abbasid Translation Movement in Context: Contemporary Voices on Transl
Abbasid Studies III: Occasional Papers of the School of 'Abbasid Studies Leuven
7July 2004, ed. J. Nawas, (Leuven: Peeters, 2010): 245-6.
17 Dimitri Gutas. "Origins in Baghdad." In The Cambridge History of Medieval P
edited by Robert Pasnau (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 18-23.
18 Dimitri Gutas. "What was there in Arabic for the Latins to Receive? Remarks on
ities of the Twelfth-Century Translation Movement in Spain." In Wissen über Gr

bisches Wissen und lateinisches Mittelalter (Miscellanea Mediaevalia 33), edited
Wegener and Andreas Speer (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2006), 11-19.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
can, with reasonable confidence, evaluate each case, to determine whether it

is a true variant reading, or merely an expansion for the readers' benefit. One
must, however, be cautious when generalizing to Hunayn's other translations,
since, as noted earlier, he adopted different approaches and styles to suit the
needs of his patrons or himself. With that said, Hunayn's transformations of
Galen's texts ought to be a special object of study, because of their implications
for the conceptual development of medicine in Arabic.
In medieval Islamic times, Hunayn's style was thought to be distinctive, but
(as it turned out) for the wrong reasons. In an oft-quoted passage, yalïl ibn
Aybak al-Safadl (d. 1363) suggests that there was a chronological evolution in
the translation styles of the early Greco-Arabic translators, proceeding from
a word-for-word to a thought-by-thought style, and that Hunayn typified the
latter.19 When scrutinizing the actual translations, however, it is clear that there
was no such evolution, and that Hunayn's translations do not always precisely
match their source texts for more sophisticated reasons, namely, that he is
trying to convey as much meaning and context as he feels is needed.20 Although
al-Safadi oversimplified the situation, I think his views reflect that there was
something distinctive about Hunayn's style.
Types of Transformation
In an attempt to outline a stylistic profile of Hunayn's translations, with no
claim of being exhaustive or comprehensive, I consider examples of several
general types of transformations, or tropes, that Hunayn wrought on Galen's
Greek as he translated it, in his efforts to produce a "reader-oriented" text.21
While these are elements of Hunayn's translations' stylistic profile, some of
them may not be particular to Hunayn, but may be shared with other trans
altors, since they may be necessary in any effort to produce accurate trans
lations between these two languages that differ widely in grammatical and
syntactical features. They include:
1. Expansions
2. Adding Context or Explanation
3. Defining a Term instead of Translating or Transliterating it
19 H alii ibn Aybak al-Safadî, al-Gayth al-musyjam (Cairo, 1887), 1,46. See Franz Rosenthal,
The Classical Heritage in Islam (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1975), 17-8.
20 Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture, 142-3.
21 My independently-derived scheme resembles generally those derived by other scholars:
see Overwien, "The Art of the Translator," 154-5, and Uwe Vagelpohl, "Cultural Accommo
dation and the Idea of Translation." Oriens 38 (2010): 168-84.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
8 COOPER
4. Deliberate (Mis)translation
5. Semantic Overlap and Shifting
Expansions: Hendiadys
One simple sort of expansion, which appears throughout Hunayn

tions, is his use of hendiacfys ("one via two"), namely, two Arabic wo
ally adjectives) to capture the meaning of a single Greek term, w
is no close single Arabic word that can do the job. V. Nutton calls
nique "doubles" or "double translation."22 The hendiadys approach
oriented, since its primary aim is to convey the meaning to the reade
than remaining strictly "faithful" to the original. Although the hendia
lation conveys the meaning more completely than a one-to-one transl
introducing additional words, it obscures the underlying Greek text.
cially fine example of Hunayn's effort to capture the original meaning
using hendiadys is found at 9,844,12 K, where Galen discusses the
the heavenly orbs to maintain order on the inherently chaotic earth,
renders xaX6ç ("good; beautiful") by hasan gamlL ("good and beauti
translation accurately captures the dual senses of the Greek original.2
Since hendiadys is an extensive feature of Hunayn's translations
be appropriate to discuss several other examples of how he uses it
the original meaning of an expression, which is usually an adjective, b
also be a verbal form. In some of these, when the passage is pivotal fo
overall argument, it is easy to understand why Hunayn was so car
conveying the meaning.
At 9,828,13 K,24 Galen describes how in a safe illness a patient migh
an accidental factor that usually frustrates the natural pattern of the
22 Vivian Nutton, "Review of: 'Galen, On examination by which the best physicia
nized, edition of the Arabic version with English translation and commentary
Z. Iskandar, Corpus Medicorum Graecorum, Supplementum Orientale IV, Be
Akademie Verlag, 1988'," Medical History 33 (1989): 379-80. Peter Pormann prov
examples from the Arabic translation of Paul of Aegina, generally assumed to
by Hunayn or his school, in The Oriental Tradition of Paul ofAegina's Pragmate
Brill, 2004), 249.
23 Henry G. Liddell and Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon. Ninth ed. (Oxfor
Press, 1996), 870. This word means both "beautiful" and "good" in the sense
upright, honorable."
24 Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 202-3.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
and throws off the expected pattern of crises in the critical day timeline, thereby
frustrating attempts to give an accurate prognosis, but which, however, in a safe
illness will have little dangerous effect. Here, mpiecvrjXÖTa ("to be surrounded,
i.e. protected") is rendered by as-saiäma wa-l-haläs ("(toward) recovery and
deliverance").
At 9,839,18 K,25 Galen stresses the depth of understanding a medical student
must gain, and how well he must know the signs of the crises and the critical
days, in order to be able to prognosticate the turns and outcomes of illnesses as
well as Hippocrates. The word cbcpißüq ("accurately, precisely") is rendered by
sahlh. wa-bayyin ("reliably and distinctly").
At 9,843,17 K,26 Galen, when discussing the regulating power of nature,
explains how all living beings have periods of growth and development that
are defined for individual species and cannot be transgressed, because nature
maintains these limits. The crucial term Teray^évaç ("are well-ordered") is
rendered by läzima li-tarïqin wähidin wa-nizämin wähidin ("adhere to one path
and to one system").
At 9,875,4 K,27 Galen recounts the "Golden Days" of medicine during Hip
pocrates' era (as he imagined it), when physicians cooperated in the medi
cal enterprise, to help it grow and improve, by sharing methods and newly
acquired knowledge. Galen contrasts this with his own day, when many phil
osophers and physicians were attempting to overthrow (in his view) what had
been established through proper scientific methods. As is clear from the rest
of the treatise, Galen is alluding to the Pyrrhonian Skeptical school and its
associated medical Methodism, whose aim, according to Galen, was to show,
through clever argument and paradoxes such as the sorites (to be discussed
later in this article), that no reliable knowledge is possible. Here, the crucial
term eûpr)|uévoiç ("discovered") is rendered by ustuhritfa wa-'urifa ("discovered
and known").
At 9,912,19 K,28 Galen scolds those who want to distract him from the aim
of his inquiry, which is to show how the lunar phases are connected with the
critical days and can thereby be used to predict and characterize the crises that
occur in them. They do this by insisting that he delve into natural philosophy
and explain the full causal scenario of the critical days. That, he explains,
would force him to deviate from his intention, which is more practical than

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
10 COOPER
theoretical. Here, àroxcopsî ("it turns away from") is rendered by qad

ba'uda giddan 'an garadinä ("would turn away from and be very far f
objective").
Lastly, at 9,935,17 K,29 in a passage crucial to his theory of the critical days,
Galen expresses impatience with those who have neither the interest nor the
endurance to follow a reasoned argument about the critical days—he says
they hate reasoned discourse—and who content themselves with simplistic
numerological explanations. The prominence of the number seven in the criti
cal day series led some, following the numerical speculations of the Pythagore
ans, to mistakenly find parallels with other things that come in sevens, whether
by nature or by convention. Galen explodes this idea neatly, by having already
shown in this treatise that the basis of the series is not the integer seven, but
a complicated fractional number of days, somewhat less than seven whole
days.30 When describing how they hate reasoned discourse, pooûoi ("they
hate") is rendered by yamqutüna wa-yaéna'ûna ("they detest and hate").
Both translation techniques that I call "hendiadys" and "adding context or
definition" (to be considered in the next section), while conveying meaning for
the readers' benefit, obscure the original text. While the purist might consider
both of these kinds of textual embellishments as tampering with the textual
tradition at best, or corrupting at worst, it seems that, historically, rather than
detracting from the medical tradition, these approaches actually made it more
useful to the practitioner, as part of a living and developing scientific tradition.
The evidence from Hunayn's translation practice suggests that a responsible
translator was expected to provide whatever context was required to render
his source text intelligible and useful in the target language. Whereas a modern
translator might use footnotes, that tool was not available to Hunayn.
Adding Context or Explanation
There are numerous passages in the Critical Days where, in an effort to trans
late the cultural context as well as the mere plain sense, Hunayn provided
explanations or amplifications that seem to be absent in the original. Such
insertions reveal his familiarity with the Greek medical corpus, the Greek lan
guage, and Greek culture. In these passages, Hunayn attempts to match the
spirit of the original, on the basis of his knowledge of other Galenic works. An

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
extreme example of this kind of insertion is found in Hunayn's Syriac trans

lation of Galen's Medical Names, as discussed by 0. Overwien. There Hunayn
notes that the Greek manuscript from which he prepared his Syriac translation
had so many errors that he had to correct them on the basis of his knowledge of
Galen's style and other works.31 Occasionally, as with a quotation from Aristo
phanes, Hunayn admits unfamiliarity with the language of that comic poet, and
decided to omit a quotation, judging that Galen's point had already been made
sufficiently in the rest of the text.32
To be considered here are a few examples where Hunayn provides additional
information or explanation that is either not in the original Greek text, or is
merely implied there. In the Critical Days, Hunayn regularly cites other relevant
Galenic works when he thinks they might be helpful to the reader in under
standing a difficult concept. For example, at 9,827,9 K, when Galen describes
how a mistake in treatment can cause crises to occur earlier or later than their
expected times, and how this can render accurate prognosis more difficult,
Hunayn adds: "and knowledge of this is derived from the Method of Healing."33
In that treatise, Galen indeed describes a situation where the prognosis can be
upset by harm (v) ßX<4ßv)) caused by the putrefaction or inflammation of the
humors, and the prognosis must be adjusted accordingly.34 Furthermore, at
Critical Days 9,828,1 K, Hunayn adds: "and knowledge of it (i.e. how to adjust the
prognosis) is found in the Crises."35 There are, in fact, many such passages in the
Crises that Hunayn might have cited. In yet another passage (9,872,5 K), Hunayn
correctly elaborates the Greek demonstrative pronoun èxslvoiç ("in these") from
context, as "in the Prognostic and in the Aphorisms," specifying where the Hip
pocratic author describes and enumerates the most significant of the critical
days.36
31 Hunayn evidently felt he knew Galen well enough to recognize an error in the text, and to
correct it.
32 Overwien, "The Art of the Translator," 154 n. 21. See also Galen (Max M. Meyerhof and
Joseph Schacht eds.): Galen über die medizinischen Namen (Berlin: Abhandlungen der
preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse Nr. 3,1931):
17, line 30-18, line 4 (Arabic).
33 Wa-ma'rifatu dâlika tu'hadu min kitäbi hilati l-bur'i. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 200
1.
34 10,693,16 seq. K. Galen, MethodofMedicine. Books 10-14. Edited and Translated by I. Johnston
and G.H.R Horsley (Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press, 2011), vol. hi, 48-51
35 Wa-ma'rifatuhu fikitâbi l-buhrâni. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 202-3.
36 Fi kitâbi taqdimati l-ma'rifati wa-kitäbi l-fii$üli. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 276
7
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
12 COOPER
Additions of this type are consistent with the hypothesis that

approach was essentially "reader-oriented," namely, that he was d
his own familiarity with the cited treatises, and offering this know
the reader's benefit. Since Hunayn habitually inserted such material,
be cautious about adopting passages such as these as representin
readings in the Greek tradition.
In other passages, Hunayn inserts an explanation, making explic
merely implied (or absent) in Greek. For example, at the beginning o
tise (9,769,6 K), when Galen is describing the necessary symptoms
occur in order to prevent the return of an illness, namely, a bodily
such as from the bladder or bowel, or a significant inflammation, such
abdomen or around a joint or the base of the ears, Hunayn adds: "so t
you see that the illness has abated without one of these two things o
before it subsides."37 Because this means the illness will return in its
the physician is instructed how to observe the patient carefully and
patient must not be allowed to do. This passage is not present in G
although it isn't really necessary for Galen's point, it is consistent w
crisis theory taken as a whole, and helps the reader.
In one last example, where Galen draws a comparison between
cian's prognosis and the prophecies of state diviners, in order to show
lay people expect the physician to predict the future more accurately
diviners, and that medical prognosis is superior to divination, Hunay
expansive translation. At 9,833,6 K, the Greek oi izpoaxonoi ("the hol
lookers") by itself offers little clue as to its meaning, and so Hunayn
dered this as "those who examine blood sacrifices"38 drew upon his k
of the Greco-Roman cultural context to offer this reader-oriented in
tion of the practice of entrail divination (extispicy).39
Define a Term or Transliterate it?
There are several passages in the Crises where Hunayn transliter

rather than translates them, which suggests that the Greek or Persian
term in question was already familiar to his readers. The best exa
37 Fa-idâ anta ra'ayta l-marada qad sakana min gayri an yakûna qabla suküni
dayni s-say'ayni. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 96-7.
38 Li-Uadlnayanzurünafi d-dabä'ihi. Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 212-3.
39 See, e.g., Derek Collins, "Mapping the Entrails: The Practice of Greek Hepato
icari Journal of Philo fogy 129 (2008): 319-45.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
word for "crisis" itself, buhrän, which was adopted directly from Syriac. In
other passages, Hunayn gives a translation followed by "which the Greeks call,"
or "which in Syriac is," and occasionally adds a Persian équivalent. Most of
these passages are concerned with describing the colors or other empirical
features of bodily fluids necessary for classifying crises. Because précision in
recognizing these features is crucial to the entire diagnostic and therapeutic
scheme, Hunayn was more concerned with conveying the meaning rather than
producing a "faithful" translation that corresponds closely to the original Greek,
and some of these technical terms were already part of the Persian and Syriac
médical vocabulary that had not already been adopted into Arabie. Here, there
is the same paradox we encountered in the case of hendiadys translation: the
very striving for accuracy results in obscuring the original text. As before, the
implication for Greco-Arabie philology is that the textual editor must use the
translation cautiously.
An example passage from the Crises illustrâtes how Hunayn expands on
the Greek in this way to clarify the meaning.40 Galen is discussing the causes
of, and the différences between four diseases: phrenitis, lethargy, pneumonia,
and pleurisy. After providing an expanded translation including définitions,
Hunayn adds a translitération of the Greek word corresponding to the disease,
and in the case of phrenitis, he includes the Persian équivalent.
170,7-12 A (9,707,8-i4)41
7 κρίνει δέ καΐ φρενίτιν ίδρώς χρηστός, καΐ μάλλον ε! έκ της κεφαλής πολύς και
θερμός έκρέοι σύμπαντος ίδρουντος τοΰ σώματος, αλλά και δι' αιμορραγίας της
έκ (ίηνών έστιν δτε φρενίτις έκρίθη βεβαίως, ίο ού μην λήθαργος ή περιπνευμονία
χαίρουσιν αίμορραγίαις. n έν μέσω δ' αύτών έστι πλευρίτις.
7 κρίνει... σώματος (1.9) om. L 8 καΐ (pr.) om. ELV || πολύ A πολλής Ε g έκρέει,
ss. καΐ χρηστός, 11| του άλλου σώμ. ALV του 8λου σ. Ε ίο αίμορρ. τε BQ || τής: τάς Α ||
καΐ φρεν. 11| Ικκρίθην Ε || ήδέως βεβαίως Ε π χαίρ. in ras. 11| αίμορρ.: αιμορραγίας,
deïnde ras. 7-8 litt., I comp. Β || έν μέσω... αίμορρ. (1.13) in marg. I.
40 Galen (ed. Bengt Alexanderson), Galenos Peri Kriseon: Überlieferung und Text (Göteborg:
Elanders Boktryckeri Aktiebolag, 1967): 169, line 20-171, line 17 (9,706,14-709,14 Κ). The
sigla key for his apparatus criticus is found in the Appendix to the present article.
41 "170,7 A" indicates De crisibus, Alexanderson édition, page 170, line 7. Here, the line number
indicates the line where the Greek sentence begins, and is a convenient referencing
system between Greek and Arabie versions. The apparatus criticus included here is from
Alexanderson's édition.
0RIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
14
COOPER
7 However, a useful sweat also brings phrenitis to a crisis, especially if

much heat flows from the head, while the entire body is sweating. But
it also occurs via nosebleed when phrenitis reaches a reliable crisis. 10
Certainly neither lethargy nor pneumonia welcome bleedings. 11 Pleurisy
is midway between them.
7 ‫إيممبؤ شطيارف نوحمانولا امسم قلا خلا شو غلمدنا يراح مرو ع* زا تتاك نإو‬
‫رحمك ءش قرلا س سأرا نع ىرج نإايّ ال يوحم قرمب بارحم نوكي دق امار سرغلا‬
‫ مات نارجب فاعراي العلا هده ي نوكي دقو هلةَ ندلا قرو زاح‬10 ‫فاعرلا لكامب سمنو‬
‫[ ح نوكث قلا زا‬ms. L, 6or] ‫و دراي مرو‬،‫نونانولا اينعم قلا ■؛مسا شو غامدلا ي ص‬
‫مرو ع»نوكت قلا زا اضيا فاعرلا لكاتيالو ناسل نم مألا اده قاقتشاو سوغراثيل‬
‫ ةئرلا تاذ يا اوموامر؛ف نوينانويلا إيمس قا العلا يو أثرا‬11 ‫عم نوكت قلا زا اتاو‬
‫تاذ يا سطرروا نويئوٍلا اهنمب قلا شو عالضالل نطتلا ءاثغلا ي ضرم مرو‬
‫نلاخلا ني ةطسوتم ىهن بجلا‬
Ms. L 6or and Ms. E io6r v
‫ )شطياز‬E: om. L: marg. L1 ‫للا شو‬-‫سرفلا اينم سطياز نوٍتانولاإسيفا‬.‫ اعاّر‬1

‫ ؛‬supra L ‫ سوءرامل‬: L ‫ صرل‬: E ‫ ؛شغري‬supra E ‫ سوءرظ؛ا‬5‫( اا‬E; uu L
E ‫ شطرولي‬: L ‫ ا سطرولي‬om• E ‫ ؛‬L ١‫ نوحنانونل‬7‫ اأ‬E ‫ ا اءتمومبراي‬: ‫ة ^مولمبراف‬1‫ا‬
‫مهوء‬،‫ااةىما؛‬
7 And if the fever is accompanied by a warm swelling in the brain, which is

the disease the Greeks call "phrenitis,"42 and the Persians call birsäm, then
its crisis will occur via a praiseworthy sweat, especially if much hot sweat
flows from the head, and the whole body is sweating. A complete crisis
occurs in this disease via a nosebleed, 10 and the nosebleed is not shared
with the fever that is accompanied [ms. L, 6or] by a cold phlegmatic

swelling in the brain, which is the disease that the Greeks call lltärgiis,43
and the derivation of this word is from "forgetfulness." Nor also is the
nosebleed shared with the fever that is accompanied by a swelling of
the lung, which is the disease that the Greeks call bärbaflümüntyä,_
42 φρενΐτις.
43 λήθαργος.
44 Following ms. Ε. Ms. L has färbaflümüniyä. The Greek has περιπνευμονία, which is différent
from the Arabie translitération, and is discussed below.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
which is some sort of affection of the lungs.45 u As for the fever that is
accompanied by a swelling that occurs in the deep membrane attached to
the ribs, which the Greeks call balürifis,46 which is some sort of affection
of the pleura, it is midway between the two conditions.
By inspection, it appears that the Arabie translation is significantly longer

than the Greek of this passage. The first of these conditions, phrenitis, will be
considered in detail, and the others only briefly noted.
Hunayn defines phrenitis as a warm swelling of the brain (170,7 A above).
Ms. Ε reads frä(ri)it(i)$, while Ms. L has fränlt(i)s, but also gives the (incorrect)
birsäm, from Persian b(a)rsäm.47 This should read sirsäm (from Persian sar
säm: "head pain").48 This error, which is common in Arabie médical texts
of the subséquent period, is probably of scribal origin rather than being the
translator's fault. The same confusion appears in the manuscript tradition for
the Critical Days, at 9,897,11 K,49 where phrenitis (sirsâm) was intended, but
birsäm appears in ail extant Arabie manuscripts. This troubled the i2th c. scribe
of ms. L, who explained in the margin that the text was referring to "a warm
swelling in the brain that accompanies an acute fever."50
According to M. Dols's extended discussion of these terms, phrenitis was
confused in the Arabie tradition because the translators did not devise an
unambiguous Arabie term for it. Galen's writings contributed to the problem,
since they are not always entirely clear about how to distinguish between ill
nesses. Phrenitis was transliterated into Arabie as farànltis, as here, but was
soon read as qaränltis, when the initial ß' was confused for a qäf (there is
one dot distinguishing them), as it appeared in al-Râzï, Ibn Sïnâ, and oth
ers.51 Birsäm ("ehest pain") was consistently used in translations of Hippocratic
works and Byzantine médical authors from early on. But then birsäm was fre
45 Dâtu r-ri'a.
46 πλευρίτις.
47 This is in text in Ms. E, but appears as a marginal note in Ms. L.
48 Persian sar = "head": Francis Joseph Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictio
nary, Including the Arabie Words and Phrases tobe met with in Persian Literature ( London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1963), 664; sarsâmï = "stupidity, delirious;" sarsäm = "Stupefied;
frenzy, delirium," Idem, 674. See also al-öawäliqi, al-Mu'arrab, 133.
49 Galen (ed. Cooper), CriticalDays, 316-7 and 476.
50 For a discussion of how the Greek for the diseases in Paul of Aegina were rendered in
Arabie, see: Pormann, The Oriental Tradition, 246-7.
51 Michael Dois, Majnün: TheMadman in MédiévalIslamic Society (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1992), 57-8·
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
16 COOPER
quently confused with sirsäm. M. Ullmann suggested this may b

two words appear often in pre-Islamic poetry.52 Dois continues:
Sïnâ claimed that the common people say birsäm for phrenitis, b
cally educated use sirsäm.53 Yet, al-Râzï perpetuates the confusio
ing two different illnesses by sirsäm: shawsa, a type of pleurisy
tis.54 Of these two, meningitis refers to the region of the head.
In the case of lethargy, at 170,10 A above, Hunayn expande
Xy)0apyoç with "a fever accompanied by a cold phlegmatic swellin
but includes a transliteration, lltärgüs. Hunayn then adds, correc
word is derived from the Greek word for "forgetfulness" (Xvjöv)
monia (TtEpOTVEUf-iovia) Hunayn correctly defined as a "swelling
adding the transliteration, bärlflümüniyä, which is actually a tr
of 7repi7tX£ujj.ovfa, a synonym of TrspiTrvEuyovia,57 and suggests
reading. Lastly, Hunayn defined pleurisy58 as "the fever tha
swelling in the deep membrane attached to the ribs,"59 addi
eration, balüritis. The correct Persian word for this disease is ba
pain,"60 which has been adopted into Arabic as birsäm.61 As
birsäm was mistakenly applied to phrenitis.62
Sometimes Hunayn's explanatory expansions are extensive, and
what the original Greek might have been. The following exa
passage from the Crises where Galen explains how the various pe
52 Manfred Ullmann, Islamic Medicine (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University P

53 al-Râzï, al-tfäwt, xv, 65. Dois, Majnün, 58. Ibn Slnä, Qänün, iii, 94. Dois,
54 al-Häwl, i, 219. Dois, Majnün, 58.
55 Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1044. The word derives from X
The form that Hunayn has transliterated is the adjective Xr)0<4pyoç "forg
XïjSapyéw means "to forget." The same explanation appears in Hunayn's t
passage on 171A / 9,709 K.
56 Al-hummä Llatïtakünu ma'a waramin bäridin balgamtyyinfi d-dimägi.
57 Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1383 "inflammation of the lun
58 Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1416 "inflammation of the sid
"ribs."
59 Al-hummä llatï takünu ma'a warami r-ri'ati.

60 bar = "side, bosom;" see Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, 166; bar
sâm = "A pain in the breast, an oppression, wind, or swelling in the stomach; pleurisy,"
Idem, 174. Alternate Arabic: dätu l-ganabi: Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written
Arabic (Beirut: Librairie du Liban, 1974), 139 and 314.
61 Edward W. Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon (Cambridge: The Islamic Texts Society, 1984), 187.
62 See the discussion at: Bilal W. Orfali and Maurice A. Pomerantz, "A Lost Maqäma of Bad!'
al-Zamân al-Hamadanï?" Arabica 60, (2013): 245-71 especially 265, n. 101.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
can arise from inflammations that are shared between the liver and the spleen.
Here, the translation is longer than the original, because Hunayn explains each
of the fevers—and in this case, he improvises meanings. As should be clear
from comparing the translations, which I have made explicit below, Hunayn
has probably not understood the original, or he was attempting to explain these
swellings on the basis of his own knowledge of medicine. He translitérâtes
φλεγμονή as flagmûnï ("inflammation; swelling"),63 which is a Greek word that
also appears in Hunayn's translation at 143 A/667 K. There it is defined as "a
swelling that occurs from the blood," (al-waramu lladlyakünu mina d-dami). As
will be seen, Hunayn's translation ends up conveying a rather différent meaning
from Galen's Greek.
143,4-8 A (9,667,13-15 K)
4 όμοίως γαρ τοις πυρετοίς οί πεπονθότες τόποι τήν μίξιν ϊσχουσιν, ή διαφε
ρόντων μορίων ίδιον έκατέρου πυρετόν έξάπτοντος οίον σπληνός εί τύχοι καΐ
ήπατος, ή διαθέσεως μικτής οίον φλεγμονής έρυσιπελατώδους ή έρυσιπέλατος
φλεγμονώδους ή φλεγμονής σκιρρώδους ή σκίρρου φλεγμονώδους
4 γάρ: etiam LM autem Lv 5 Ιχουσιν A 6 έκάτερα Ζ έκάτερον Μ || έξάπτονται Α

7 φλεγμ... φλεγμονώδους (pr. 1.8) ή om. BC 8 ή φλεγμ... φλεγμονώδους om. ALM
4 For the affected places hold the mixture similarly to the fevers, either
a particular fever of each that is connected to the différent parts, such as
if it should be connected to the spleen or the liver, or a fever of a mixed
disposition, such as 1) a swelling that has the nature of an erysipelas, or 2)
an erysipelas64 that has the nature of a swelling, or 3) of a swelling that has
the nature of a tumor,65 or 4) of a tumor that has the nature of a swelling.
٧٥،^‫؛‬، ‫ بيكما نم لتحت دث ةمراولا ءاضعألا‬U ‫ثدح اممر هنا كلذو تاخا هلمتحت‬
‫قلا زادض ز امم* دحاو لك ثدحأو دكلاو لاحطلا لثم يفلحم يضع ي مرولا‬
‫اممر هنا كلذ لاثم بكر مرو دحاولاوضخلا ي ثدح امبرو رنالا امدحن‬، ‫نم أكِم‬
‫ىذلا مرولا‬.‫ءارفصلا س لوكُينلا مرونا سو قوشن دويانولا هنمب يذلا مدلا س نوك‬
63 Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1944,

64 ερυσίπελας ("red skirf ): Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 693. By "red skin" is
meant the patches of inflammation in the skin, such as cellulitis.
65 From σκιρός ("hard, cancerous tumor"). Liddell and Scott, A Greek-Engäsh Lexicon, 1611.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
18 COOPER
‫مماي ىمسم هيلع بلغا نعوكا دحا لوكيف مرولا اده ىصرعي ام اريكؤ هرمخ ا هل لام يللا‬
‫رغألا عٍما ما فصوئؤ بلغألا‬- ‫مرولاو مدلا ن* ثدمب يذلا مرولا س ناك امبرو‬
‫ءادرلاوا مغللا نم ث دجب يذلا‬

Ms. L 45v; Ms. E 97r
1 ‫ لوتأف‬E : ‫ لوقأو‬L II |‫ ثدحأو‬2‫ أ‬E : ‫»ثدحا‬L I ‫ ز‬L: om. E
And I maintain that the swollen organs sufferwhatever mixture the fevers
permit. This is because sometimes the swelling occurs in two different
organs, such as the spleen and the liver, and each of these two produces
a fever that is different from the fever that the other produces. And
sometimes a similar composite swelling occurs in the one organ, such
as when it sometimes is composed of l) the swelling that arises from the
blood, which the Greeks call flagmunl, and 2) from the swelling that arises
from the yellow bile, which is called erysipelas (ihumra). Often whenever
this swelling occurs 3) one of the two kinds predominates, and it is called
by the name of the predominant one, and is described by the name of
the other kind. Sometimes 4) it is mixed from the swelling that arises
from the blood and the swelling that arises from the phlegm or the black
bile.
There are four types of ailments listed in this passage. It is difficult to know
what Galen actually means by them, since he inverts the subject and pred
icate elements of each descriptive phrase, features that are not conveyed by
Hunayn, although for the third part Hunayn seems to recognize that Galen has
done this. There, Hunayn states: "The swelling in which one of the two kinds
predominates, and it is called by the name of the predominant one, and is
described by the name of the other kind." Here, "is called by" refers to what I call
the subject element, and "is described by" referes to what ‫ آ‬call the predicate
element. The Greek and Arabic versions align as follows: l) ،pXsYHOvv‫؛؟ ف‬puol7‫آة‬
AaraSou‫"( ؟‬swelling that has the nature of an erysipelas") Arabic: "The swelling
that arises from the blood, which the Greeks call flagmUni" 2) ‫؟‬0‫؛َآ‬0‫آه‬7‫جمتأ‬
<pX£Y|_5ou‫"( ؟‬an erysipelas that has the nature of a swelling") Arabic: "The
swelling that arises from the yellow bile, which is called erysipelas [humra)."66
66 The apparent contradiction here between red (the root h-m-r "red" ofhumra) and yellow
arises from the yellow bile sometimes being called "red" or "fiery" in the Greek tradition:
Trupp،‫( ؟‬Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1559).
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1 43
3) çÀey^ovvjç crxippcoSouç ("a swelling that has the nature of a tumor")-Arabic:

"The swelling where one of the two kinds predominates, and is called by the
name of the predominant one, and is described by the name of the other kind."
And, 4) oxtppou <pXey|jiové8ouç ("a tumor that has the nature of a swellings
Arabic: "The swelling that arises from the blood and the swelling that arises
from the phlegm or the black bile." In this passage, there does not appear to
be a close correspondence between the Greek and the Arabic. Hunayn seems
to be improvising his translation, and perhaps intending that each of the four
humors should be represented in the definitions of these swellings. It seems
that Hunayn's expansions in this passage may be his explanations based on his
knowledge of Greek medicine from other sources, since they do not correspond
clearly to any of the Greek in this passage.
Sorites, or Fallacy of the Heap

The sorites (oxopltvjç) or "fallacy of the heap" was one of the puzzles devised by
the logician Eubulides of Miletus (fl. 4th c. bc), in order to expose the limits
of language and logic, which he directed primarily at the Stoics.67 Another of
his puzzles was the Liar Paradox.68 The Skeptics used these and other such
conundrums to undermine ancient claims to secure knowledge.69 The Greeks
felt that for something to have the status of knowledge, it must be so clear
that no reasonable person could doubt it—and Galen thinks that the Skeptics
are not reasonable. Galen thinks that it is reasonable to stop compounding
examples of days with frequent crises when it becomes reasonably obvious
that there is a necessary connection between that day and its tendency to
have crises in it. In other words, it would then be reasonable to count that
day as a critical day. Galen thus invokes a leap of reason to obviate the need
to compile an exhaustive and potentially endless list of examples. A sorites
argument considers quantity words, such as "heap," and asks, for example, how
many grains of wheat would be enough to qualify as a "heap." Surely one grain
does not, nor does a hundred. But what about ten thousand? At what specific
number of grains does the transition from grains to heap occur? The concept of
a heap, therefore, and by extension all such concepts, the Skeptics concluded to
67 Diogenes Laertius, Vitae PhUosophorum. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Books i-ii. 108
(Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press, 1972), 236-7.
68 I.e. a certain man says he is lying. Is he telling the truth?
69 On the sorites paradox in ancient medicine in general, see the recent: Miira Tuominen,
"Heaps, Experience, and Method: On the Sorites Argument in Ancient Medicine," History
of Philosophy Quarterly 242, no. 2 (2007): 109-25.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
20 COOPER
be too "fuzzy" a notion on which to base knowledge.70 In the pr

Galen is arguing a point in philosophy of science: How many
observed to occur on a given day for that day to be considered a
général terms, how many positive instances or corrélations of ph
sufficient on which to conclude that a natural law governs those
Hunayn's rendering of the ancient so rites paradox shows some f
Greek skeptical philosophy, and provides a helpfül définitio
less familiar to an Arabie reader. Hunayn's careful defining t
preserved in the médiéval Latin versions.71
In this connection, consider Hunayn's translations of two passa
Critical Days. The first is from near the beginning of the treati
from near the end. The Greek collation here, as noted earlie
comparison of the major manuscript families that were dete
initial collation. (This passage does not represent a completed
édition).72
9,780,1-6 Κ
ι δήλον ώς εις σωριτικήν άπορίαν εμπίπτει τό σύμπαν, εί γαρ τινά

προσείη, τινά δ' άπείη, και ΐσάζοι γε τα παρόντα τοις μή παρούσ
τις ε'ίη των ετέρων υπεροχή, δήλον ώς έν αμφιβολία καταστησόμ
τοιαύτης ημέρας, εϊτε χρή ταύτην κρίσιμον καλείν εϊτε μή.
ι σωριτικήν: σωρειτικήν Η : σωρητικήν Ρ : σωτηρικήν Β || εμπίπτει: συμπ
άπηει Β || ίσάζοι γε: ίσάζοιτε Β : ίσάζει Ρ 4ΧΡή ταύτην: om. Β || ταύτην κ
Η II καλείν: om. Β || ε'ίτε: καλείν αύτήν εϊτε μη add Β ||
70 See Jon Moline, "Aristotle, Eubulides, and the Sorites," Mind 78 (19
sorites continues to be of interest to modem philosophers, e.g. Délia Graf
Continua and the Sorites,"Mind 110, no. 440 (2001): 905-35.
71 Glen M. Cooper, "Hagar Banished: Anti-Arabism and the Aldine Edition
Days," Earty Science andMedicine 17, no. 6 (2012): 604-42; here, 612-3.
72 I am in the process of editing the Greek text of the Critical Days, so here
tentative results of the collation. As near as I can determine, the eleven ex
belong to two major families, with four significant branches, which are
manuscripts Β, H, M, and Ρ (see Appendix for détails). It is also notew
Venetian M is virtually identical to Kühn's Greek édition (1825), which st
that it was the exemplar for the original Aldine édition (1525), which was
Venetian Aldine Publishing house, of which Kühn's édition is a direct des
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
HUNAYN IBN !SHÄQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 21
1 Consequently, it is clear that the whole (argument) falls into the fallacy
of the heap. For if something of what I said should be present, and some
thing absent, then the things present would be equal to the things that
are absent, or a certain thing would surpass the other things by a small
margin—then it is clear that we are settled in a quandary about this kind
of day, whether it must be called a critical day or not.
‫وا درت قلا ءايئالا عمب ي ضرمم قلا لثاملا صٍوء نارحلا مايا ما ف عقن لتاف ئ‬
‫ضم ناك وا امودع»هضعبو ادوجو• اتوّد ام ضم لاك ق* هنا كلذو أليلت اللق صقت‬
‫إرُا نم كث ي امتو اريسد الحم صم ض لصفن ابضمب ناكوا دجون رل امل انؤام دجونام‬
‫ال مأ نارمب مون همن نأ له مرلا كلذ‬
1 ‫ صفتوا‬L ‫ ؛صقهو‬E II 2 ‫ هضمو‬E:‫ امسو‬L I ‫ ضم أداكوا‬E ‫ ؛ أذاكو‬L |‫ أذأك وا‬3‫ أ‬L (١١
"or") ‫ ؛ناكو‬E I ‫ امس‬E ‫ ؛صمب‬L
1 Consequently, in the subject of the critical days an impasse is reached in

questioning that pertains to everything that increases or decreases little
by little. For when some ofwhat we have mentioned is present, and some
of it is absent, or some ofwhat is present is equal to what is absent, or the
one surpasses the other slightly, then we fall into doubt about this day:
Must we call it a critical day or not?73
Hunayn does not use the Arabic term, sabib "heap" in his Critical Days trans
lation, but renders crwpiTija] aTropfa ("sorites impasse")74 using a periphrastic
explanatory expression: gamV l-asyä' Uatl tatazayyadu aw tatanaqqasu qalllan
qatilan ("everything that increases or decreases little by little").75 It is useful
to compare how the sorites concept is rendered in another Arabic translation
from Hunayn's school, that of Galen's On Medical Experience, by his nephew,
73 Galen (ed. Cooper), CriticaiDqys, 116-7.

74 Galen uses forms of the term awprnxvj dTtopia at De differentiisfebrium (7,372,10 K) and In
Hippocratis prognosticum commentaria (18b, 254,9 K).
75 The medieval Latin _tion (as found in
re[bus) qu[a)e adduntur aut minuuntur paulati{m) ("in everything that is increased or
diminished gradually"). See Cooper, "Hagar Banished," 612-3: Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical
Days, 117,11.1-2; GaL Lat, fol. 95\ col. 2,1. 36; GaL Aid., fol. 121V, 1.14. The Latin Critical
Days, i.e. GaL Lat., is found at: vol. 1, ff. 95r-io8r of: Galen, Opera (Venice, 1490). In the
Aldine edition, i.e. GaL Aid., the Critical Days is found at: ff. I20v-I35r of: Galeni librorum
pars quanta (Venice, 1525).
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1 43
22 COOPER
Hubayä. This treatise survives only in Arabie, and contains a

cussion of the sorites.76 The heading of this treatise states th
translated the text into Syriac from the (now lost) Greek, and Hu
it from Syriac into Arabie.77 Hubayâ has rendered sorites as sabl
to heaps"), and he explains that it is "the argument that proceeds
(ιal-qawlu lladïyakûnu qalïtan ba'da qalîlin).78
Hunayn's expanded rendering resembles another synonymo
pression for the sorites, namely, "the argument by incréments" (ό
λόγος), which J. Barnes describes as the argument that proceeds "
from palpable truth to palpable falsity," but where it is unc
what point the transition occurs.79 By adding or subtracting wh
involved, when does the entity qualify to be called by the term
In the second passage, Hunayn expands the sorites concept s
ferently.
9.895.1-3 Κ
ι Χρή δέ είδέναι καθόλου περί των τοιούτων απάντων ώς δ σα ποσού τίνος εις
μόρια διαιρουμένου γίνεται, έχει τήν σωριτικήν άπορίαν έπομένην.
ι δέ: γαρ BP || ποσού: πολλού Η 2 διαιρουμένου: διαιρούμενα Β || εχει: om. BP ||

σωριτικήν: σωρητικήν HP : corrected in Ρ || έπομένην: ίχει add Ρ
ι And one must know in général about everything of this sort, that as many
things that anse, when a certain magnitude is divided into parts, have the
impasse of the sorites that follows as a conséquence.
‫ ءازجألا نم هب‬U ‫يكلا لإ بمب ءيق همسقي نوكنام لك نا رلم نا ىنس الحيايو‬4‫لإ‬
‫المم اليلق ةدانلاو ناضلا لن نم مزاللا صيوعلا ب عني دقن‬
76 Galen, On Medical Experience: First Edition of the Arabic Version with English Transla
tion and Notes. Edited by Richard Walzer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1947), 38-43
(Arabic); 115-9 (English). See also: Gerhard Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum:Bibliographie der
galenischen undpseudogalenischen Schriften (Tübingen: Institut fur Geschichte der Medi
zin, 2011), 107-8.
77 Galen, On Medical Experience, Introduction, ed. Walzer, 1.
78 Galen, On Medical Experience, ed. Walzer, 38 (Arabic); 115 (English).
79 Jonathan Barnes, "Medicine, Experience, and Logic," in Science and Speculation: Studies in
Hellenistic Theory and Practice, ed. J. Barnes, J. Brunschwig, M. Burnyeat and M. Schofield,
24-68 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 32 n. 16. Several contexts are listed.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
HUNAYN IBN ISHAq'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 23
1 ‫ نأ‬read ed., no sadda EL ‫ ةداراو‬2‫ اأ‬E ‫ ؛وأ ةدارا‬L
1 In general, you must know that in the case of everything in which some
thing connected with magnitude divides into the parts of which it is com
prised, there will occur in it a necessary obscurity (i.e. an unavoidable
difficulty of understanding) due to the diminishing or increasing grad
ually.80
Hunayn's translations accurately render the meaning of the sorites argument.

Some scholars have argued that bits of Aristotelian logic had entered Arabie, via
contact with Syriac intellectuel communities, before these works were trans
lated into Arabie in the gth Century.81 Hunayn and his associâtes translated
some of this material, and so they familiar not only with the Organon, but also
with the commentary tradition, which no doubt discussed argument forms like
the sorites.
Deliberate (Mis)translation: Zeus vs. Asklepios
In one passage of the CriticalDays, Hunayn strikingly rendered "Zeus" as "Askle

pios," the better known Greek healing deity. While this may at first appear to
have been a mistake, a case can be made that it was intentional, as I shall
endeavor to show.
9.773.16-774.2 Κ
ι6 άλλα τήν μέν τούτων άμαθίαν τε καΐ φιλονεικίαν ούδ' αν αύτός δ Ζεύς
έξιάσαιτο, καί μοι καΐ ταύτα πλε(ω τοΰ δέοντος ε'ίρηται πρδς αύτούς. ι8 δσοις δ'
80 Galen (ed. Cooper), CriticalDays, 312-3. Note that this is a corrected version of this passage.
In my édition I mistranslated the passage slightly, due to my having transcribed part of the
Arabie incorrectly.
81 Uwe Vagelpohl. "The Prior Analytics in the Syriac and Arabie Traditions," Vivarium 48,
no. 1-2 (2010): 134-58. See also: Joep Lameer, "The Organen of Aristotle in the Médiéval Ori
ental and Occidental TraditionsJournal of the American Oriental Society 116, no. 1 (1996):
90-8; Daniel King, "The Genesis and Development of a Logical Lexicon in the Syriac Tradi
tion," in Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in LateAntiquity: TheAlexandrian Commentary
Tradition Between Rome andBaghdad, edited byJ. Watt and J. Lössl (Farnham, Surrey: Ash
gate, 2011), 225-38.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
24 COOPER
εστί [9,77
προτεθέντ
ι τε: θ' άμ
ι6 But no
and these
18 But f
medicine
‫ال‬ ‫بسحا‬
‫نأ‬ ‫مممب‬
‫ه؛لإجاحم‬ ‫س‬
‫لك‬
1 ‫باحمكاي‬
3 ‫حمهاوا‬
6‫أ‬ Nevert
rant that
for this
I directed
who [9,77
will expla
Galen sar
ing that n
for confli
extant G
ered the e
deity her
ther that
for the b
Galen wa
healing, r
82 Galen (e
83 On Ask
ORI
reports of personal religious experiences with the god, the most famous exam
ple of which occurs in his treatise, On Therapeutic Bloodletting. Galen was
himself ill, and he received two divine dreams in which Asklepios instructed
him where to cut his vessels to effect a cure. The god told him to open a vein
between the index finger and thumb of his right hand, and after draining a cer
tain amount of blood, he was cured.84 Furthermore, Galen refers occasionally
to the famous Asklepieion healing temple of Pergamon.85
Had Galen been addressing fellow physicians, he might have used Askle
pios. However, as I have argued elsewhere, the Critical Days is a Stoic-oriented
treatise, directed to those with a "popular," basic understanding of Stoicism, as
reflected by his quoting the Phainomena of the popular Stoic poet, Aratus.86
In that work, Zeus is presented as the power that holds the universe together,
guaranteeing its smooth operation. The opening lines extol Zeus as the begin
ning of all things, as present everywhere—in human highways, marketplaces,
ships and harbors, and that mankind needs him in all things.87 Moreover—and
this is the point of Aratus's poem, and why Galen quotes him—Zeus provides
all natural signs: astronomical, medical, meteorological, etc. for the benefit of
mankind (for planting, harvesting, healing, predicting the future, etc.). In sum,
Zeus is the world-mind, the personification of reason, and the guarantor of cos
mic order. Since Galen was addressing readers who were sympathetic to the
Stoic view, then Zeus would be a more appropriate choice than Asklepios.
If Zeus was in Hunayn's Greek exemplar, as I believe to have been the case,
then why would Hunayn choose to change it? Asklepios as a healing deity was
certainly more obvious than Zeus, and thus would have been less confusing to
Hunayn's readers. G. Strohmaier's discussion of the Arabic translation of the
Hippocratic Oath gives a clue. The translation of the Arabic version of the Oath
reads: "I swear by God, Master of life and death, giver of health and creator of
healing and every cure, and I swear by Asclepius, and I swear by all God's saints,
male and female, and I call on all of them as witnesses that I will fulfill this oath
ledge, 2013), 104-5; W9-10; 162-3. Pergamum also had the famous Asklepieion healing
temple.
84 De curandi ratione per venae sectionem, sect. 23,11,314-5 K. For other experiences with
Asklepios, see: Galen, De libris propriis 2 (19,18-9 K) and De usu partium 10.12 (3,812-4 K).
See also Susan P. Mattem, The Prince of Physicians: Galen in the Roman Empire (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2013), 38.
85 For example, De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos (13,272,1 K).

86 See Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, Introduction, 8,62,69-71, and the references there.
87 Aratus, Phaenomena, edited by D. Kidd (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998),
72-3; 161-7.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
26 COOPER
and this condition."88 Strohmaier notes that, although the gods Apollo, Hy
Panaceia, and "all the gods and goddesses," present in the Greek vers
the Oath, are omitted—replaced with "all God's saints, both male and fem
(bi-ccwliyä'i llähi mina r-rigäli wa-n-nisä'igamVan), Asklepios is retained.8
notes, moreover, that this transformation (French: "effacement") of trac
paganism is characteristic of the Syriac and Arabic translations from Gre
Asklepios was less threatening in the oath context as a lesser pagan deity
Apollo, and in the present context, than Zeus. Moreover, in other transla
Strohmaier observed that Hunayn rendered the names of the Greek gods
Islamic terms to accommodate Islamic sensibility, or omitted them entire
In the Critical Days, however, several other Greek deities are mentioned b
Asklepios: Athena, Artemis, and Apollo at 9,934,16-17 K.91 So, it seems lik
that Hunayn has here removed the more powerful and more threatening
Zeus, and replaced him with a lesser god, Asklepios, who was, anyway
closely connected with healing than Zeus.
Semantic Overlap and Shifting
Semantic shifting is a necessary feature of translation, of course, since n

languages perfectly match semantically. In some cases, Hunayn chose
in the target language that, although meaning approximately the same as
88 Translation from: Franz Rosenthal, The ClassicalHeritage in Islam (Berkeley, ca: Un

of California Press, 1975), 183-4. Arabic: aqsimu bi-Uähi rabbi l-hayâti wa-l-maw
wähibi s-sihhati wa-hâliqi s-Sifä'i wa-kulli 'ilâjj wa-aqsimu bi-asqlîbiyûsa wa-aqsi
awltyâ'i äähi mina r-rigäli wa-n-nisä'i flamfan wa-ashaduhum gamVan 'alä anni
hädihi al-yamxni wa-hädä S-§arti. Excerpted from: Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, Ahmad ibn al-Q
'Uyün al-anbä'ß tabaqât al-atibbä', herausgegeben von August Müller (Cairo-König
1882-84), 125, lines 18-20. The classic article on the oath is: Ludwig Edelstein
Hippocratic Oath: Text, Translation and Interpretation," in Ancient Medicine, ed.
Temkin and C.L. Temkin, 1-63 (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 196
(Greek text).
8g Gotthard Strohmaier, "Hunayn Ibn Ishâq et le Serment hippocratique," Arabica 21, no. 3
(i974): 318-23. especially 321.
90 Gotthard Strohmaier, "Die griechischen Götter in einer christlich-arabischen Überset
zung. Zum Traumbuch des Artemidor in der Version des Hunain ibn Ishak," in Die Araber
in der alten Welt, ed. F. Altheim and R. Stiehl (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1967), 127-62; Idem,
"Galen in Arabic: Prospects and Projects," in Galen: Problems and Prospects, ed. Vivian Nut
ton (London: Wellcome Trust, 1981), 187-96.
91 Galen (ed. Cooper), CriticalDays, 85.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
original, significantly narrowed the semantic field, thus losing one network of
senses, and adding new ones to the basic concept. Such shifting may be more or
less significant for the transmission of the scientific ideas of the text, but they
are certainly less helpful for reconstructing a Greek text—unless one has estab
lished a translator's habitual word choices, and can rule them out as possible
variant readings. Three such cases, "scientific conjecture," "making a mistake,"
and "seeking causes" are considered here: The first, scientific conjecture, is a
good match that reveals underlying semantic associations that imply a broader
conceptual metaphor ("applying a theory is shooting an arrow at a target") in
understanding how scientific knowledge is both attained and applied. The lat
ter two cases lose important senses of the original in translation. However, as I
will show, in the case of making a mistake, the Arabic adds a sense that is con
sistent with the "applying a theory is shooting an arrow at a target" metaphor,
that is not present in Greek.
Medicine as a Stochastic or Conjectural Science

One of the most important tools inherited from the Greek tradition for acquir
ing and applying natural knowledge was a conjectural reasoning (from (rtoyà
Çoj^ai), which was described as aiming for something at first dimly perceived,
which is gradually better understood as one continues to "shoot" at it, as one
aims and shoots at a target, and evaluating one's accuracy. The verb crrox<4Ço
Hai embeds the archery conceptual metaphor, since it is derived from axôxoç,
a target.92 Thus, OTOxàÇcJfxai meant literally "to aim, shoot at" (as an arrow at a
target). It came to mean "to conjecture" metaphorically. Greek thinkers under
stood that this is how humans acquire understanding of most natural enti
ties, as a give and take between theoretical knowledge and experience, since
things in the world of experience are not neatly and tidily systematic, as are
mathematical entities. More than any thinker before his time, Galen showed
how this conjectural reasoning was to be used in medicine, a science known
for being primarily empirical.93 A physician is expected to make mistakes in
diagnosis and therapy, but those mistakes lessen in frequency as he masters
medical skills. As I will show, this word "stochastic" derives from an archery
context.
Hunayn's translation of <7ToxcicÇo[xai, hadasa, has a sense in Arabic that is also

derived from archery, which, as in the Greek case, provided the underlying
metaphor for its meaning of "to conjecture," and made it a close match to the
92 στόχος, "a post to aim at." Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1650.
93 στοχαστικός, from στοχάζομαι. Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1650.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
28 COOPER
Greek. According to the Lisän al-'Arab, hadasa can mean "to t

shoot (an arrow)."94
Hunayn thus successfully conveys the original Greek seman
with archery. The archery analogy as applied to scientific knowled
one in at least three languages: Greek, Arabic, and Latin (with
hurling coniectura95). This qualifies as a "conceptual metaphor" o
Lakoff and Johnson described—in this case "applying a theory i
arrow at a target," in that it exists not merely in isolated poetic
but in the very conceptual fabric of these languages and con
in them,96 and suggests that the archery image for acquirin
knowledge has been semantically fundamental to these lang
Galen in the Crises explicitly compared the acquisition of med
to learning the art of archery.97 It is noteworthy, moreover, tha
god of prophecy, medicine, divination, and archery. Hads (the ver
of hadasa) had a long history in later Arabic philosophy, whe
wandered far from the original sense, coming to mean "intuition
philosophy.98 Documenting precisely how that shift occurred
subject of a fascinating study.
Forms of orox^Cofxai appear twice in the Critical Days (9,838,12
K), although Hunayn employed different Arabic words to re
The first is rendered by hadasa ("to conjecture") and the sec
("to infer"). The fact that Hunayn is not consistent suggests tha
emphasize a different sense for each context. Nevertheless, this
could be a trap for those relying on the Arabic translation to re
Greek text.
94 Hadastu bi-sahmin: ramaytu, "to hurl an arrow" is the equivalent of "to shoot a bow"Lisän
al-'Arab (Cairo: Där al-Ma'ärif, 1981), vol. 6, p. 47; cited in: Lane. Arabic-English Lexicon, 531.
95 From coniecto, literally, "to hurl (together)." However, it already had the metaphorical
sense of inference, guesswork, and even to interpret dreams, in classical Latin. P.G.W.
Glare, ed. Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 407.
96 George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1980).
97 Galen, De crisibus, 644-5 K (Alexanderson ed., 128-9).
98 For a lengthy discussion of this tradition, see: Herbert A. Davidson, Alfarabi, Avicenna,
and Averroes, on Intellect: Their Cosmologies, Theories of the Active Inteäect, and Theories
of Human Intellect (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 166-86. Also, Dimitri Gutas,
Avicenna and the AristoteUan Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenna's Philosophical
Works. Second, Revised and Enlarged Edition, Including an Inventory of Avicenna's Authentic
Works (Leiden: Brill, 2014), 179-201.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
9,838,11-12 Κ
έπΐ μέν της δευτέρας τετράδος εστι που στοχαζομένω πλατύτερον, άκριβέστε
ρον δ' έπΐ της τρίτης.
ι στοχαζομένω: στοχαζομένων BP
"... and to you who are conjecturing about the second four-day period, it
is somewhat wide (of the mark), but it is more accurate in the case of the
third four-day period."
‫مايألا ي م قث هوجول المحم اممض نوكن عاملا لإ عارا ن* قلا مايألا ي كسدحو‬
‫ةرمك اهوجو لتمب ال نا ن* برثاو أما كملح نوكيرقص يداخلا لإ عئاملا س قلا‬
read ed.: w.p.yä', EL .‫ لص‬LI ‫ألأ‬: E ‫ ال نأ‬2‫ اا‬i^readed.:w.p.yä',EL
Your conjecture about the days from the fourth day to the seventh day is
weak, permitting various interpretations. Afterward, however, in the days
from the seventh to the eleventh day your conjecture is more reliable, and
does notpermit many interpretations ‫ء‬، is more likely that ‫ء‬،
9,885,9-10 K
٣٤٧ ‫ه؟‬0‫ءوحما‬vchto xai‫؛‬،9o ‫؛مانءس‬،‫م‬0‫؛(ءآ‬T، TOIOUXOV dvspwravTi xal auTt ]٠ a ‫ةأ ةأاإ‬
Xiipwv S،a،p0p0tT0 ‫ة‬
B ،‫؛ثممسمسأ‬،B II avepcoTcovT ‫؟‬0،5' ia :‫؛‬GO ١١§ 1
"Now, if something of this sort should become apparent to you as you

inquire, and as you make conjectures about him, and the patient (is the
sort that) would easily be carried off
‫ابيط كم لالدتسا وا هلاح نع ىمريل هتع كتلثمب ءايثالا ْذه ى»ء يتل ترعث نإف‬
‫ضرا ندب ذا تلعو‬-‫امرحم م‬
om. L ‫ ؛‬E ‫ ٌلاء نع‬L I ‫هحن‬.add ‫ ككئمب‬L I aft ‫اذه‬:E _، ‫ ءائألا‬1
99 The itaHcized portion is
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
30 COOPER
Then, if you perceive any of these things through your questioni

patient about his condition, or by drawing an inference about it o
own, and you know that the body of the patient melts quickly100
The medieval Arabo-Latin tradition of the Critical Days, which was tr

directly from the Arabic, preserves the distinction between these tw
with extimatio (for existimatio "judgement, estimation") for the first
significationem ("via a mark, sign, or indicator") for the second.101 Cle
second case is a rendering of the Arabic (istidläl "to infer") rather
Greek. The Latin translation that Kühn provided at the bottom of the
edition has conjectura "the inferring (of one fact from another)" for the
conjicienti for the second, both from the verb conicio "to throw, hurl,
a target)" or better coniecto, -are "to draw a conclusion, infer."102 Kiih
which was a translation of the early Greek printed editions, was thus
the original Greek sense than the medieval Arabo-Latin tradition and
the projectile metaphor.
The physician Abd al-Latlf al-Bagdäd! (1162-1231AD) discussed th
analogy in medicine in his Book of the Two Pieces of Advice}03 He lik
skilled physician to an archer who, if he is aiming at the target, will h
of the time, but if he is pointing the bow in the wrong direction will
anything. In a move similar to other Arabic philosophers, such as
al-Bagdädl suggests that the world of particulars is too complex a net
causes and effects to be encompassed by a universal theory, such as as
would require for their art to be a valid science.104 Because medi
empirical and conjectural science, physicians cannot reasonably be
to be right all of the time. P. Pormann's and N. Joosse's claim that we
no earlier comparison of medicine with archery105 must be revised in
100 I.e. the patient withers away and dies.

101 Galen, Opera (Venice, 1490), Gal Lat., fol. ioor. For a general discussion o
translation and its differences from the Arabic and Greek, see Cooper, "Hagar
(entire article).
102 Glare, Oxford Latin Dictionary, 406-7.
103 The passage in question is: Abd al-Latïf ibn Yüsuf al-Bagdâdï, The Book of the T
Advice (Kitäb al-Nasïhatayn), Bursa: MS Hüseyin Çelebi 823, item no. 5; medical
fols. 62a~78a; philosophical section: fols. 78b-ioob. Discussed in: N. Peter Joosse
E. Pormann, "Archery, Mathematics, and Conceptualising Inaccuracies in Medicin
Century Iraq and Syria "Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 101, no. 8 (2008):
104 Ibn Slnä's extended critical discussion of astrology is found in: Ibn Sînâ, Avicen
tion de l'astrologie. Edited by Y. Michot (Beirut-Paris: Albouraq, 2006).
105 Joosse and Pormann, "Archery, Mathematics, and Conceptualising Inaccuraci
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
HUNAYN IBN ISHÂQ'S GALEN TRANSLATIONS 31
of these observations about the presence of a similar metaphor in Hunayn's

translations, and the fact that Galen compares the process of leaming medicine
to learning archery in a text that was translated into Arabie in an earlier period.
"To Play a Wrong Note"Rendered as "To Make a Mistake"

An especially intriguing case concerns the word πλημμελέω, whose surface
meaning is "to make a mistake," but which has rich musical connections, mean
ing literally "to play a wrong note."106 In passages of the Critical Days where
Galen describes the factors (or "errors") that knock the patient's ideal natural
system off course, he employs forms of the word πλημμελέω. This word was,
however, mostly used metaphorically by Greek authors to mean an "error in
taste or judgment." Hunayn consistently rendered πλημμελέω as ahta'a,xm ("to
make a mistake"). This reflects part of the original Greek meaning, although
as I show in a moment, ahta'a literally means "to miss a target," and is thus
consistent with the archery metaphor discussed in the previous section. In
effect, although the musical association is lost in translation, the archery con
nection links this concept with conjecture, and makes another rich semantic
association in Arabie, which is not present in Greek. In Galenic medicine, the
very possibility of prognosis depends on the properly functioning harmonie
relationship between physician, nature, and patient. The context of the entire
Critical Days treatise, however, suggests that a physicians mistake in treating
a patient is more than just a mistake, rather, it upsets the cosmic harmony
between physician, patient, and nature, frustrating nature's efforts on behalf of
the patient.108 This rich cosmic-harmonic metaphor is lost in Hunayn's trans
lation.
The following passage from the Critical Days illustrâtes how πλημμελέω
fonctions in context, when Galen memorably describes the conséquences of
practicing medicine without proper éducation:
9,789,6-10 Κ
6 καΐ ταύτα ποιούσιν ëvioi των ιατρών είς τοσούτον ή διαλεκτικής, ή γραμμα
τικής, ή Ρητορικής έπαΐοντες είς δσον ovo ι λύρας. 8 οδτοι μέν ουν καΐ τά των
106 Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1418-419. Literally, it is formed of πλην ("ex
cept") and μέλος ("limb"). "Limb" is a metaphor for an articulated part of a harmony,
namely a "melody", and means "out of tune; out of harmony."
107 Form IV of hati'a, meaning "to commit an error." Lane, Arabic-Engtish Lexicon, 761.
108 See discussion at: Galen, Critical Days, ed. Cooper, Introduction, 73-4.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
32 COOPER
-‫ صأأاّا‬xa0' ixa Tspa ‫؛‬svo،-‫؛‬،ffc‫؛‬p‫؛‬STaxs^ ‫؛(؟‬،ax،( ‫ ما‬1 Ttx TOV_ ‫ هوس؟‬orrpwv،'

.‫آل‬،‫ةء‬0‫زيحما‬
:Tpwv،‫؛‬، BITWV ‫؟‬transp. BII 2 iniyßlvTe ‫[؟؛‬ypa_T،)d ١١‫؛؟‬SiaXsxTixr ٩ ‫ ا‬1 fwoi: Ivia p
‫ ا‬B ‫أ‬0‫أل‬£‫أءأحهرع‬£‫وع‬0‫آ‬£‫إل‬:‫آلهأ‬£‫إع‬،‫حه‬،‫ام‬£‫وع‬0‫آ‬£‫ زع‬TMU p I‫ س‬HII 3 post __v add ٩٥٧‫ ؛‬٥٧!
vB<‫؛‬Exarepa: _T£p
6 And some physicians do these things, although they understand as

8 .much of logic, grammar, or rhetoric as asses understand of the lyre
Therefore, then, these having relinquished the activities of medicine and,
having taken up the business of others poorly, they play wrong notes in
.both
6 ‫راجلا مهف حلةَةءأللاورحلاو قطنلا نم مهمهف غلمو ءاطألا سرحمك كلذ لضر‬
‫إلا س‬,‫ عامب‬8 ‫ نع ثحلا اوكر"منا امهدحا نهجو س ءالؤه اطفن‬١٠ ‫ءاطالا ئ بحم‬
‫ مت الا هحولاو هنع نحم‬١‫ رقع نم مهرثع نعانص نم م ام اوطاعت من‬١‫هوكحن ن‬
2 ‫ أطفن‬L (oSv "therefore"):‫ اطنق‬E|_E^L|U_E:Uf-L||3 ‫ نحم‬E : ‫ ثحلا‬L I ‫هحن‬

L:om. E
6 Many of the physicians do this, although they understand as much of

logic, grammar, and rhetoric as donkeys understand of music. 8 Therefore,
the error of these people is twofold: on the one hand they abandon
researching what is appropriate for physicians to research, and on the
other, they practice another profession109 without having mastered its
rudiments.
This word 7‫ ميالالحمافمس‬is significant within the Platonic tradition, parts ofwhich
Galen sought to emulate. For example, Galen uses a related word,‫أمأألمنذ‬
("mistake, error"), in a manner similar to how Plato criticized the skilled crafts
men (0‫آفثمهأ‬0‫ء‬،‫ة‬/‫ )أ‬for claiming knowledge outside their areas of expertise.110
The Platonic writings, however, were less translated and hence less known in
the Arabic tradition than, say, Aristotle and Galen, and so the musical associ
ations of this word might have failed to resonate. Hunayn himself, although
he probably grasped etymologically the word's musical connections, might not
log I.e. "art" (sinâ'a, normally used to render τέχνη),

no Plato, Apology 2ie-22 e.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
have been familiar with its Platonic contexts, or ifhe did, he considered them
irrelevant. If we did not already know that Hunayn's habit was to render πλημ
μελέω as the simpler ahta'a, then we could not reliably guess what Greek word
lay behind this Arabie expression when attempting to reconstruct the Greek
text. Conceptually, the loss may be less significant, for enough of Galen's grand
scheme of natural harmony remains in the translation, although on a less sub
tle level.
As noted, although ahta'a does not convey the sense of "playing a wrong
note," it is consistent with the archery conceptual metaphor of hadasa already
discussed. This sense is illustrated in a passage from the Täj al-'arüs dictionary,
cited by Lane: ahta'a r-râml l-garada ("The archer, or thrower, missed the
mark; or failed of hitting it").111 Moreover, ahta'a is sometimes used by the
Arabie translators to render άμαρτάνω ("to miss the mark"), a word with clear
archery connections in Greek, including Hunayn in his translation of Galen's
Commentaria in Hippocratis De officina medici.112 This raises another question:
Why didn't Galen use άμαρτάνω or σφάζομαι instead of πλημμελέω, since either
of these seems to be a more straightforward expressions of making an error
than πλημμελέω?113I suppose it was because that for Galen making an error in
treating a patient was more disruptive of a harmonious relationship between
natural and human factors than merely "missing the mark." His choice of
πλημμελέω was also consistent with his Stoic-inclined audience, for whom
cosmic harmony was an important concem. It seems, however, that Hunayn
intended for his translation to pivot conceptually on these two archery words:
one for shooting at a target (hadasa), and the other for missing it (ahta'a).
Therefore, Hunayn has given his translation a conceptual coherence that is not
found in the Greek.
Seeking Causes as Tracking an Animal

Galen occasionally employs a verb for searching out causes (έξιχνεύω ... τάς ...
αιτίας) that means literally "to hunt or track" (something, such as an animal).114
in Lane, Arabic-EnglishLexicon, 761 (Lane's translation).

112 Liddell and Scott, A Greek-EngUsh Lexicon, 77. Source: Glossarium Grœco-Arabicum (on
line: http://telota.bbaw.de/glossga/), which lists works mostly by Aristotle and commen
tators. (Consulted 10/21/2014).
113 Ullmann gives άμαρτάνω and σφάλλομαι as sources for the translations ahta'a and hata'um
Ullmann. Wörterbuch zu den griechisch-arabischen Übersetzungen, 99; 661; and 827. σφάλ
λομαι means literally "to fall, stumble" and is used metaphorically for "to be mistaken."
Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1739.
114 Liddell and Scott, A Greek-EngUsh Lexicon, 595.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
34 COOPER
In the passage below, Hunayn renders this word with an expression m

simply "to search for" (bahata 'an).n5
901.8-13
8 τφ λόγω δ' έξιχνεύουσιν ήμίν τάς τούτων αιτίας έφαίνετο δύο αρχάς θέσθαι
χρήναι τάς πρώτας απάντων των γινομένων, άτακτον μέν την έκ της ένταΰθ'
ϋλης όρμωμένην, έν τάξει δέ τινι και κόσμω προϊουσαν άεί τήν έκ των κατ'
ούρανόν, δπαντα γάρ τα τήδε πρός έκείνων κοσμείται.
2 δύο αρχάς θέσθαι χρήναι: χρήναι δύο άρχάς θέσθαι Β Ρ (Transp) || άτακτον: "neither
adhering to a single system nor to a single path" add. Ar. (gayru läzimin li-nizämin
wâhidin wa-tarlqatin wähidatiri) || μέν: μέντοι Β 3 ένταΰθ': ένταΰθα Η || τινι: om.
Μ Ρ Κ προϊουσαν: προσοΰσαν Η 4 κατ' ούρανόν: κατ" ουρανών Μ : κατά τό ούρανόν
Β II γαρ: δέ Μ τά: om. Μν4 || έκείνων: Ar. adds "bodies" [clarifying] al-ajrâm 5
κοσμείται: κοσμεΐσθαι Η.
8 But to us who are hunting down the causes of these things by reason, it
seemed necessary to attribute the causes of these things to two principles,
which are the first causes of everything that exists. The one is disordered
and dépendent upon earthly matter, and the other always cornes forth
from the heavens (bodies) in a certain arrangement and order, since
everything here (on earth) is ordered by their influence.
‫ءإاهذرلغنلا تدجو ءايثالا هده لط نع ثحلا ي هتلمعتسا نف سايقلا انأو‬1 ,‫درطيؤ قش‬
‫ تعضو طا اذإ‬:‫ عيل‬u ‫ةدحاو ةميمطو لحاو ماظنل مزال ريغ برطضم امهدحا نلصا نوكي‬
‫ةدحاوةقؤطو دحاو ماظن ز يراحلامألارتألا لصألاو نوكلا هف يسرصمناوهو‬
‫ عمب ذا كلذو ةؤاملا ماربألا لن س‬U ‫ماجالا كلت لم نم ماظنلا هما ار؛إاندتء‬
‫ هنا اممإ اتلحم ام عم ذا ثللذو‬4‫ |ا‬E ‫ ؛دحاو قشو‬L ‫ ا ةدحاو ةقؤطو‬L ‫ ؛ضالاو‬E ‫ضألا‬3
E2L: om. E ‫مارجألا كلئ لق س ماظلا‬
8 When I employ reason to investigate the causes of these things, I find

the inquiry about them to be well-ordered and systematic only if I ascribe
115 Al-baht 'an 'ilali "searching for the causes": Galen, Critical Days, ed. Cooper, 320 n. 943,
(9,901,8 K). See also 9,917,2 K, where the Greek usage and Arabic translation are nearly
identical.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
two principles to everything that exists. The first of these principles is

disordered, adhering neither to a single system nor to a single path,
namely, the material substance in which existence resides. The second
principle is the power that tends toward a single system and a single path,
via the influence of the heavenly bodies, since ail of what is with us (on
the Earth) is endowed with order derived only from the influence of these
bodies.
The verb bahata 'an was also used by other translators to render more common
Greek expressions for seeking, such as ζητέω and σκέπτω.116 Galen could have
used a simpler word here for seeking, such as one of these or σκέψις. As it
is, however, Galen uses έξιχνεύω in only four contexts in his entire oeuvre.117
Three of these concern the seeking out of causes, and the fourth concerns the
diagnosis of a puise when some of its main attributes are obscured: in that case,
the puise must be tracked out via reason (λόγος), in other words, by inferring
from the visible signs to an unseen state of affairs.118
It is worth noting that, although Galen emphasizes reason (λόγος qiyäs) here
as a tool of scientific discovery, he is not a médical Dogmatist, since empirical
data is important to him as well. Neither is he an Empiricist, since the data of
experience alone is insufficient for him. Rather, in the CriticalDays treatise and
elsewhere, Galen stresses that both reason and experience (εμπειρία tajriba)
must be used together to arrive at scientific médical theories.
The word έξιχνεύω has several contexts in Vettius Valens (2nd c.), one of the
most important Greek astrologers, where he describes how the astrologer must
"track out" an astrological factor in explaining a natal chart. Given Galen's astro
logical leanings in the Criticai Days, there is perhaps a contextual connection
here. However, as tempting as it may be to conclude from Galen's usage of this
term that he was developing a revolutionary philosophy of science, he may sim
ply have been using the language poetically. Hunayn evidently thought that the
poetic sense of this verb was irrelevant to, and possibly distracting from, the
clear meaning of this passage.
ii6 Source: Glossarium Grœco-Arabicum (online: http://telota.bbaw.de/glossga/), which was

translated as ζητέω; ζητητέος; επίσκεψις; and σκεπτέος, all from the Arabie translation
of Aristotle, Physics. Also cited is έξηγέομαι from the translation of Galen, De nervorum
dissectione.
117 F°r example, Galen, De usu partium, 4,180,1 Κ: ού την πρώτην Ιτι και κυριωτάτην αίτίαν
έξιχνεύουσιν ("they do not seek the first and most dominant cause"). Note the use of
έξιχνεύω here.
118 De dignoscendis pulsibus, 8,901,10 K.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
36 COOPER
Conclusion
As I have attempted to show, comparing Greek and Arabie versions of a Classi

cal Greek text can yield more than just textual evidence. It can provoke ques
tions about how concepts shifted in transmission and through time. Further
research into the "knowledge is archery" conceptual metaphor is highly desir
able. Here I have been able merely to Scratch the surface of this potentially rich
trove of important associations and images. One such project could be to exam
ine and compare the uses of άμαρτάνω vs. πλημμελέω in Galen and in other
important thinkers such as Plato and Aristotle (and their versions in Arabie
and Latin) to see whether context had any bearing on the choice of one over the
other. Moreover, one could attempt to ascertain whether the particular senses
and implied metaphorical associations of each term helps us to understand the
respective contexts better.
It would be interesting to know more about how the meanings of στοχάζομαι,
άμαρτάνω, hads, and conjectura developed in time. By what process did hads
eventually become "intuition" in Ibn Sînâ, for example? Furthermore, since
this conceptual metaphor carries over into Latin, and hence became deeply
implicated in the Western conceptual tradition, it would be interesting to
know when people ceased to be aware of the archery associations of the word
"conjecture," for example, as well as how "stochastic" came to mean what it does
today, namely: "Randomly determined; that follows some random probability
distribution or pattern, so that its behaviour may be analysed statistically but
not predicted precisely."119
Moreover, since the Christian tradition understood άμαρτάνω ("to miss the
mark") in the sense of "to commit sin," which, as we have seen originally had
an epistemological dimension, it would be interesting to investigate whether
the early Christians' conception of "sin" was, for them, connected with knowl
edge, as was the case with Plato, for whom moral failings were thought to be
the results of a kind of ignorance.120 It would, moreover, be interesting to know
whether this idea carried over into the Arabie (or the Syriac) translation of the
Christian scriptures. The Qur'an occasionally uses hati'a for "sin," (which is the
base form of ahta'a that we considered earlier), among several other words,
including atima, danaba, garama, and ganä. One of the standard modem Ara
bie translations of the Gospels (Smith-Van Dyck) uses hati'a and its lexical cog
nâtes for άμαρτάνω and άμαρτία in most occurrences, which seems promising,
119 Oxford English Dictionary, online. This sense dates to 1923.

120 For example, Republic, 589c: ού γαρ έκών άμαρτάνει ("... for he does not err intentionally").
Ο RIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
but a full inquiry into the history of the concept of sin in Christian Arabic must
be the subject of other research. At present, it seems possible that Christian
Arabic continued the conceptual metaphor.
It would seem, from the foregoing discussion and other studies, that Hunayn
would not have shared the modern, post-Lachmannian ideal of reconstructing
textual archetypes through a scientific method. Rather, Hunayn's purpose was
to produce texts that were as useful as possible to his associates and his patrons,
and this meant expanding or contracting them, as needed.121 Features of his
general approach to texts and his translation style were shared by other trans
lators. The very freedom of the Arabic translators with their texts fell under
censure by the Renaissance humanists who, contrary to much of the history of
the transmission of scientific texts, aimed at a source Greek text that was as
pure as possible.122 And, as we have seen, Kühn's Latin translation from these
"purified" Greek texts was consistent with that ideal.
For the purposes of reconstructing a Greek source, where there are differ
ing readings between Greek and Arabic, we must in many instances remain
uncertain whether the differences represent true variant readings, or are the
product of the translator's interventions, or arising from differences between
the languages. One of the only cases where we can confidently apply the usual
principles of textual criticism is when the Arabic text corroborates a variant
reading in the Greek tradition, in which case, the common reading must have
been present in the archetype from which both that Greek manuscript and
the non-extant Greek manuscript on which the Arabic translation was made,
derived.123 In most other cases, as we have seen, the difference could have been
the result of Hunayn's expansions or judicious alterations as he prepared a
reader-oriented text, or even a translation that "guesses" at an obscure mean
ing. Such differences are certainly important to the study of how the text was
received and used in Arabic, but that's a different issue than textual reconstruc
tion. A comprehensive Graeco-Arabic apparatus, however, should register all
such differences, noting their probable origin.124 What actually ends up in the
Greek edition must, as always, be the result of the editor's careful judgment,
taking all of the textual evidence into consideration.
121 Cf. Overwien, "The Art of the Translator," 169. On page 155, he eloquently states: "The text
of the Greek original was not sacrosanct to Hunayn."
122 See: Cooper, "Hagar Banished."
123 Paul Maas, Textual Criticism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1958), 2-9.
124 As was done in G. Cooper's edition of the Critical Days, Appendix One, 503-28.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
38 COOPER
Appendix
Sigla
For the collation of the Greek De diebus decretoriis (ed. G. Cooper)
H London, B L Harley 6305, ff. 83-i48v

B Oxford, Bodleian, Laud. gr. 58, ff. 319-64*
P Paris, BnF, gr. 2272, ff. ioiv-i48v
M Venice, Marcianus, gr. app. V. 008 (coll. 1334), ff. 62-102
Arabic Tradition
*F The (inferred) Greek original from which Hunayn made his Arabic trans
lation
Relevant Printed Editions

Greek
k C.G. Kühn, Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia, vol. 9, Leipzig: C. Knobloch, 1825,
pp. 769-943 (reprint, Hildesheim, 1965).
Arabic
h Hunayn's Arabic translation: Galen, Critical Days from Greek into Arabic:
A Critical Edition, with Translation and Commentary, and Historical Intro
duction of Hunayn ibn Ishäq, Kitäb ayyäm al-buhrän, London: Ashgate,
2011.
Arabic Manuscripts of the De diebus decretoriis
L British Museum Or. 6670/2 (580a.h. / 1184A.D.), ff. 82v-i42v

E Escorial 797/2 (613A.H. /1217A.D.), ff. 32-69
Sigla for the Edition of the De crisibus (ed. B. Alexanderson)
Z cod. Parisinus gr. 2246

M cod. Marcianus gr. 282
A consensus Z and M
B cod. Marcianus gr. Append, cl. V, 8

Q cod. Parisinus gr. 2272
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
I BißXto0^)a] ptovvjç 'Ißvjpcüv, cod. 4309.189

E cod. Palatinus gr. 295
LM Latin translation, cod. Latinus Monacensis 35
Lv Latin translation, cod. Latinus Vaticanus 2384
L consensus Lv and LM
Arabic Manuscripts of the De crisibus
L British Museum Or. 6670/1 (580A.H. / 1184A.D.), ff. 4r-82r

E Escorial 797/3 (613A.H. /1217 A.D.), ff. 69v-i20r
Bibliography
Aratus of Soli. "Phaenomena." In Callimachus, Hymns and Epigrams. Lycophron. Aratus,

edited by G.R. Mair, 380-473. Loeb Classical Library, vol. 129. London: William
Heinemann, 1921.
Barnes, Jonathan. "Medicine, Experience, and Logic." In Science and Speculation: Stud
ies in Hellenistic Theory and Practice, edited by J. Barnes, J. Brunschwig, M. Burnyeat
and M. Schofield, 24-68. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.
Bergsträsser, Gotthelf. Hunain ihn Ishaq, Über die syrischen und arabischen Galen-über
setzungen. Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. 17. Leipzig: Deut
sche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, 1925.
Brock, Sebastian. "Towards a History of Syriac Translation Technique." In 111° Sympo
sium Syriacum, 7980: Les contacts du monde syriaque avec les autres cultures; Goslar
7-11 Septembre 1980, edited by René Lavenant, 1-14. Rome: Pont. Institutum Studior
ium Orientalium, 1983.
Collins, Derek. "Mapping the Entrails: The Practice of Greek Hepatoscopy." American
Journal of Philology 129, (2008): 319-45.
Cooper, Glen M. Galen, De diebus decretoriis, from Greek into Arabic: A Critical Edition,
with Translation and Commentary, and Historical Introduction ofHunayn ibn Ishaq,
Kitäb ayyäm al-buhrän. London: Ashgate, 2011.
. "Hagar Banished: Anti-Arabism and the Aldine Edition of Galen's Critical
Days "Early Science and Medicine 17, no. 6 (2012): 604-42.
Cullen, William. First Lines of the Practice of Physic. Worcester, Mass.: Isaiah Thomas,
1790.
Davidson, Herbert A. Alfarabi, Avicenna, and Averroes, on Intellect: Their Cosmologies,

Theories of the Active Intellect, and Theories of Human Intellect. Oxford: Oxford Uni
versity Press, 1992.
Diogenes Laertius. Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. Books 1-v. Translated by R.D.
Hicks. Loeb Classical Library, vol. 184. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
40 COOPER
Dois, Micha
Press, 1992.
Edelstein, Ludwig. Ancient Medicine: Selected Papers of Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore:

The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967.
Endress, Gerhard, and Dimitri Gutas. A Greek and Arabic Lexicon (galex): Materials
for a Dictionary of Medieval Translationsfrom Greek into Arabic. Vol. 11, Handbook of
Oriental Studies, Section One: The Near and Middle East. Leiden: Brill, 1992-.
Fichtner, Gerhard. Corpus Galenicum: Bibliographie dergalenischen undpseudogalenis
chen Schriften. Tübingen: Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, 2011.
Galen. Galen On Medical Experience: First Edition of the Arabic Version with English
Translation and Notes. Edited by Richard Walzer. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1947
. Galenos Peri Kriseon: Überlieferung und Text. Edited by Bengt Alexanderson.

Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia, vol. 23. Göteborg: Elanders Boktryckeri
Aktiebolag, 1967.
. Method of Medicine. Book 10-74. Edited and Translated by Ian Johnston and
G.H.R. Horsley, Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge, ma: Harvard University Press,
2011.
al-öawäliql, Abü Mansür Mawhüb. al-Mu'arrab min al-kaläm al-a'gaml 'alä hurüf al
mu'gam, ed. A.M. Säkir, 1969.
Glare, P.G.W., ed. Oxford Latin Dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
Graff, Delia. "Phenomenal Continua and the Sorites."Mind 110, no. 440 (2001): 905-35.
Gutas, Dimitri. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement
in Baghdad and Early Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-wth centuries). London / New
York: Routledge, 1998.
. "The Alexandria to Baghdad' complex of narratives: A contribution to the
study of philosophical and medical historiography among the Arabs." In Documenti
e Studi sulla Tradizione Filosofica Medievale: Rivista délia Società Internazionale per
lo Studio delMedioevo Latino, 155-93,1999.
. "What was there in Arabic for the Latins to Receive? Remarks on the Modali
ties of the Twelfth-Century Translation Movement in Spain." In Wissen über Grenzen:

Arabisches Wissen und lateinisches Mittelalter (Miscellanea Mediaevalia 33), edited
by Lydia Wegener Andreas Speer, 3-21. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2006.
. Theophrastus On First Principles (Known as his Metaphysics). Leiden: Brill,
2010.
. "Origins in Baghdad." In The Cambridge History of Medieval Philosophy, edi

by Robert Pasnau, 11-25. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
. Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition: Introduction to Reading Avicenn
Philosophical Works. Second Revised and Enlarged Edition, Including an Inventor
Avicenna's Authentic Works. Leiden: Brill, 2014.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
Iskandar, Albert Z. "An Attempted Reconstruction of the Late A

Curriculum "MedicalHistory 20, (1976): 235-58.
Jarcho, Saul. "A History of Semitertian Yever!' Bulletin of the History o
411-30.
Joosse, N. Peter, and Peter E. Pormann. "Archery, Mathematics, a

Inaccuracies in Medicine in 13th Century Iraq and Syria "Journal o
of Medicine 101, no. 8 (2008): 425-7.
Kheirandish, Elaheh. "The Arabic "Version" of Euclidean Optics: T
Linguistic Problems in Transmission." In Tradition, Transmission,
Proceedings of Two Conferences on Pre-modern Science Held at the U
homa, edited by F.Jamil Ragep and Sally P. Ragep with Steven Liv
den: Brill, 1996.
King, Daniel. "The Genesis and Development of a Logical Lexicon

tion." In Interpreting the Bible and Aristotle in Late Antiquity: Th
mentary Tradition Between Rome and Baghdad, edited by J. Watt an
Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate, 2011.
Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago:
go Press, 1980.
Lameer, Joep. "The Organon of Aristotle in the Medieval Orient
Traditions." Journal of the American Oriental Society 116, no. 1 (199
Lane, Edward William. Arabic-English Lexicon. Cambridge, UK: The
ety, 1984.
Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott A Greek-English Lexicon. Revised and Aug
mented Throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones with the Assistance of Roderick McKen
zie and with the Cooperation of Many Scholars. Ninth ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1996.
Maas, Paul. Textual Criticism. Translated by Barbara Flower. Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1958.
Mattern, Susan P. The Prince of Physicians: Galen in the Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2013.
Mattock, John N. "The Early Translations from the Greek into Arabic: An Experiment
in Comparative Assessment." In Symposium Graeco-Arabicum //, edited by Gerhard
Endress, 73-102. Amsterdam: B.R. Grüner, 1989.
Meyerhof, Max, and Joseph Schacht, eds. Galen über die medizinischen Namen, Abhand
lungen der preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische
Klasse Nr. 3. Berlin, 1931.
Moline, Jon. "Aristotle, Eubulides, and the Sorites."Mind 78, (1969): 393-407.
Nutton, Vivian. "Review of: "Galen, On examination by which the best physicians are
recognized, edition of the Arabic version with English translation and commentary
by Albert Z. Iskandar, Corpus Medicorum Graecorum Supplementum Orientale iv,
Berlin, ddr, Akademie Verlag, 1988"." Medical History 33, no. 3 (1989): 379-80.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
42 COOPER
. Ancient
Orfali, Bi
Hamadânï
Overwien,
School Tra
the Arabic
2012.
Pormann, Peter E., ed. Epidemics in Context: Greek Commentaries on Hippocrates in

Arabic Tradition. Edited by Marwan Rashed. Vol. 8, Scientia Graeco-Arabica. Berl
Walter De Gruyter, 2012.
Pormann, Peter E. The Oriental Tradition of Paul ofAegina's Pragmateia. Leiden: Br
2004.
Pormann, Peter E., and Emilie Savage-Smith. Medieval Islamic Medicine. Washington,
D.c.: Georgetown University Press, 2007.
Rosenthal, Franz. The Classical Heritage in Islam. Translated by Emile and Jenny Mar
morstein. Berkeley, ca: University of California Press, 1975.
al-Safadl, Halll ibn Aybak. al-Ghayth al-musajjam. Cairo, 1305 /1887.
Ibn Sïnâ. Avicenne: Réfutation de l'astrologie. Y. Michot (Ed.). Beirut-Paris: Albouraq,
2006.
Steingass, Francis Joseph. A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary, Including the

Arabic Words and Phrases to be met with in Persian Literature. London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul, 1963.
Strohmaier, Gotthard. "Die griechischen Götter in einer christlich-arabischen Überset
zung. Zum Traumbuch des Artemidor in der Version des Hunain ibn Ishak." In Die
Araber in der alten Welt, edited by F. Altheim and R. Stiehl, 127-62. Berlin, 1968.
. "Hunayn Ibn Ishäq et le Serment hippocratique." Arabica 21, no. 3 (1974): 318
23
. "Galen the Pagan and Hunayn the Christian: Specific Transformations in the
Commentaries on Airs, Waters, Places and the Epidemics." In Epidemics in Context:
Greek Commentaries on Hippocrates in the Arabic Tradition, edited by Peter Por
mann, 171-84. Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2012.
Sudhoff, Karl. "Zur Geschichte der Lehre von den kritischen Tagen im Krankheitsver
laufe." Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 21, no. 1-4 (1929): 1-22.
Toral-Niehoff, Isabel. "The 'Ibad of al-Hira: An Arab Christian Community in Late
Antique Iraq." In The Qur'än in Context: Historical and Literary Investigations Into
the Qur'ânic Milieu, edited by Michael Marx, Nicolai Sinai and Angelika Neuwirth,
323-47. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Tuominen, Miira. "Heaps, Experience, and Method: On the Sorites Argument in An
cient Medicine." History of Philosophy Quarterly 242, no. 2 (2007): 109-25.
Ullmann, Manfred. Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43
. Wörterbuch zu den griechisch-arabischen Übersetzungen des g

Wiesbaden: Harrasssowitz Verlag, 2002.
Vagelpohl, Uwe. "The 'Abbasid Translation Movement in Contex
Voices on Translation." In 'Abbasid Studies III: Occasional Papers
'Abbasid Studies Lernen, 28June-i July 2004, edited by John Nawa
Peeters, 2010.
. "The Prior Analytics in the Syriac and Arabic Traditions." Viva

(2010): 134-58.
. "Cultural Accommodation and the Idea of Translation." Oriens 38, (2010): 168
84.
von Staden, Heinrich. "Galen's daimon: Reflections on 'rational' and 'irrational'." In
Rationnel et irrationnel dans la Médicine ancienne et médiévale edited by N. Palmieri,
15-44. St. Etienne: Université de St. Etienne, 2003.
Wehr, Hans. A Dictionary of Modem Written Arabie. Edited by J. Milton Cowan. Beirut:
Librairie du Liban, 1974.
ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

79 Hunain Ibn Ishaq

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

79 Hunain Ibn Ishaq

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Ḥunayn ibn isḥāq's Galen Translations and Greco-Arabic Philology: Some Observations

Hunayn ibn Ishäq's Galen Translations and

Greco-Arabic philology - Hunayn - Galen - translation

© KONINKLIJKE BRILL NV, LEIDEN, 2016 | D0I: 10.1163/18778372-04401002

In reconstructing the texts of ancient authors, a modern editor attem

In an effort to provide such a tool, as well as to gather as much data ab

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

7 Elaheh Kheirandish, "The Arabic 'Version' of Euclidean Optics: Transformations as Linguistic

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

Hunayn's Style of Translation

These passages are drawn from Hunayn's translations of two Galen

Conferences on Pre-modern Science Held at the University of Oklahoma, ed. F. Jami

0RIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

beginning of the illness, and thought to be influenced by the moon, in order to

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

Two historical examples show how translation approaches were i

i6 Sebastian Brock, "Towards a History of Syriac Translation Technique," Orient

ities of the Twelfth-Century Translation Movement in Spain." In Wissen über Gr

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

can, with reasonable confidence, evaluate each case, to determine whether it

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

One simple sort of expansion, which appears throughout Hunayn

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

25 Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 226-7.

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

theoretical. Here, àroxcopsî ("it turns away from") is rendered by qad

Adding Context or Explanation

29 Galen (ed. Cooper), Critical Days, 378-9.

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

extreme example of this kind of insertion is found in Hunayn's Syriac trans

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

Additions of this type are consistent with the hypothesis that

Define a Term or Transliterate it?

There are several passages in the Crises where Hunayn transliter

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

0RIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

7 However, a useful sweat also brings phrenitis to a crisis, especially if

‫ )شطياز‬E: om. L: marg. L1 ‫للا شو‬-‫سرفلا اينم سطياز نوٍتانولاإسيفا‬.‫ اعاّر‬1

7 And if the fever is accompanied by a warm swelling in the brain, which is

with the fever that is accompanied [ms. L, 6or] by a cold phlegmatic

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

By inspection, it appears that the Arabie translation is significantly longer

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

quently confused with sirsäm. M. Ullmann suggested this may b

52 Manfred Ullmann, Islamic Medicine (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University P

59 Al-hummä llatï takünu ma'a warami r-ri'ati.

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

4 γάρ: etiam LM autem Lv 5 Ιχουσιν A 6 έκάτερα Ζ έκάτερον Μ || έξάπτονται Α

63 Liddell and Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, 1944,

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

‫ءادرلاوا مغللا نم ث دجب يذلا‬

1 ‫ لوتأف‬E : ‫ لوقأو‬L II |‫ ثدحأو‬2‫ أ‬E : ‫»ثدحا‬L I ‫ ز‬L: om. E

3) çÀey^ovvjç crxippcoSouç ("a swelling that has the nature of a tumor")-Arabic:

Sorites, or Fallacy of the Heap

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

be too "fuzzy" a notion on which to base knowledge.70 In the pr

ι δήλον ώς εις σωριτικήν άπορίαν εμπίπτει τό σύμπαν, εί γαρ τινά

ι σωριτικήν: σωρειτικήν Η : σωρητικήν Ρ : σωτηρικήν Β || εμπίπτει: συμπ

άπηει Β || ίσάζοι γε: ίσάζοιτε Β : ίσάζει Ρ 4ΧΡή ταύτην: om. Β || ταύτην κ

Η II καλείν: om. Β || ε'ίτε: καλείν αύτήν εϊτε μη add Β ||

ORIENS 44 (2016) 1-43

‫ال مأ نارمب مون همن نأ له مرلا كلذ‬