The Greek Heritage

About the lecture

In this module, we look at the Baghdad translation movement of the 9th century. This sought to compile and translate the Ancient Greek Medical texts. The module explores Hunayn ibn Ishaq’s translations of Hippocrates and Galen. In particular, it looks at how Hunayn was able to compile and translate Greek works, and what methods he used to do this; showing how the translation movement created a new and sophisticated medical language based on Hippocratic ideas of humoral pathology.

About the lecturer

Professor Peter Pormann is Professor of Classics & Graeco-Arabic Studies at the University of Manchester. He is primarily concerned with the transmission of the Greek medical and scientific heritage into the Islamic world and the use of information technologies to facilitate its study. He has published on medicine and philosophy in late antique Alexandria, Greek-Syriac-Arabic translation technique, the history of mental illness, hospital provisions in tenth-century Baghdad, Arabic philosophy, and the reception of Graeco-Roman thought in the modern Middle East.