Jabril ibn Bukhtishu

Jabril ibn Bukhtishu, (Jibril ibn Bakhtisha) also written as Bakhtyshu, was an 8th-9th century physician from the Bukhtishu family of Assyrian Nestorian physicians from the Persian Academy of Gundishapur. He was a Nestorian^[1] and spoke the Syriac language.^[2]

A folio of the earliest manuscript of the Kitāb naʿt al-hayawān, attributed to ibn Bukhtishu, depicting Aristotle.

Grandson of Jirjis ibn Jibril, he lived in the second half of the eighth century.

He was physician to Ja'far the Barmakide, then in 805-6 to Harun al-Rashid and later to al-Ma'mun; died in 828-29; buried in the monastery of St. Sergios in al-Madain (Ctesiphon).

He wrote various medical works and exerted much influence upon the progress of science in Baghdad. Works attributed to him include Kitāb ṭabā’i‘ al-ḥayawān wa-khawāṣṣihā wa-manāfi‘ a‘ḍā’ihā ('Book of the Characteristics of Animals and Their Properties and the Usefulness of Their Organs'), written for Nasir al-Dawla; Risāla fī al-ṭibb wa-al-aḥdāth al-nafsāniyya ('Treatise on Medicine and Psychological Phenomena'); and Kitāb naʿt al-hayawān.^[1] He was a member of the Bukhtīshūʿ family. He took pains to obtain Greek medical manuscripts and patronized the translators.

See also

• List of Persian scientists
• The Bukhtishu family.
• Bukhtishu, Abdollah ibn.
• Yuhanna ibn Bukhtishu

Further reading

• F. Wüstenfeld, Arabische Aerzte (15-16, 1840).
• Lucien Leclerc, Médecine arabe (vol. 1, 99-102, 1876).
• Max Meyerhof, New Light on Hunain ibn Ishaq (Isis, VIII, 717, 1926).