The Translations of al-Biṭrīq and Yaḥyā (Yuḥannā) b. al-Biṭrīq

Abstract

Accounts of the two notable translators into Arabic, al-Biṭrīq and his son Yaḥyā are, even in our best works of reference, inadequate and often confused. One gathers the general impression that their translations were displaced by the works of Ḥunain b. Isḥāq and his school, who flourished about sixty years later. It is to this loss of popularity, it would seem, that the paucity of information about the two earlier translators and the limited number of existing MSS. of their works are due. Enough survives, however, to make clear that the translations of Yaḥyā b. al-Biṭrīq and his father covered a wide field, and that at one time their numerous works were well known.

Pre‐modern Islamic Medical Ethics and Graeco‐Islamic‐Jewish Embryology

“…(23: [12][13][14] 'And the bearing of him (the baby) and the weaning of him take thirty months' (46:15). if you are in doubt about the Resurrection, then surely We created you from dust, then from a sperm-drop (nut · fa), then from a clot of congealed blood ( alaqa), then from a little lump of flesh (mud · gha), complete in make and incomplete, that We may make clear to you; and We cause what We will to remain in the wombs till an appointed time, then We bring you forth as infants, then that you may attain your full strength.'…”

“…So blessed be Allah, the best to create!' (23: [12][13][14] 'And the bearing of him (the baby) and the weaning of him take thirty months' (46:15).…”

“…9 Both jurists lived in the post-al-Ghazālī era, during which Muslim religious scholars should have been hostile to the ancient sciences according to the thesis proposed by Goldziher and likeminded researchers. 12 Information on the development of the embryo and fetus inside the uterus, as recorded in the translation of al-Bit · rīq, reads: Ibn al-Qayyim should also be classified as being in the 'orthodox' camp because he is one of the most influential disciples of the aforementioned H · anbalī scholar Ibn Taymiyya.…”

“…10 This book, whose attribution to Hippocrates seems to be accepted without hesitation in the Islamic tradition, 11 was translated into Arabic under the title Kitāb al-ghidhā', probably in the 8th century, by a certain al-Bit · rīq. 12 Information on the development of the embryo and fetus inside the uterus, as recorded in the translation of al-Bit · rīq, reads:…”