Christian scientists in the Orient

Many Christians worked as scientists in the Middle East and North Africa even before the Islamic expansion . They translated many philosophical and scientific works in Greek into Aramaic . The multilingualism of the graduates of the Christian institutions (Aramaic, Greek, Latin , Arabic or various liturgical languages ) was a great advantage.

In the academy of Gundischapur mainly Christian scientists were active as doctors. Gabriel ibn Bochtischu, for example, was a member of a family that had produced physicians for eight generations. For the House of Wisdom , Christians, including Hunayn ibn Ishaq , translated many Hellenistic works from Aramaic or Greek into Arabic.

Research on the influence of Greek antiquity on Arab science and culture forms a focus under the name Graeco-Arabistik . Oriental Christians (among other things as scientists and cultural workers) occupy an important place.

List of Christian Scientists in History

Arabic science and scholars

Mediciners

• Cosmas and Damian (? To 303), Syrian doctors, twin brothers
• Aëtios of Amida (* 502 in Amida , † 575 in Constantinople ), doctor, author
• Hunayn ibn Ishaq (808 to 873), Iraqi medic and translator
• Gregorius Bar-Hebraeus , 13th century, theologian and doctor
• Ibn Tufail , medic of Ahmad ibn Tulun (835 to 884)
• Said ibn Batriq , a physician to Caliph al-Qahir (932-934), Batriq was also appointed head of the Christian community in Egypt
• Yahya ibn Adi Abu Zakariyya (893–974), Jacobite Christian, philosopher
• Abu Bischr († 940 Baghdad), Jacobite Christian, philosopher
• Yuhanna ibn Haylan (9th century), Jacobite Christian, philosopher
• Ibrahim al-Marwazi (9th century from Merw, Turkmenistan), Nestorian Christian, medic and philosopher
• Qusta ibn Luqa al-Ba'labakki (9th century from Baalbeck ), Lebanese Christian, physician, author of 55 books (translations and his own on medicine)
• Ibn Butlan (11th century from Baghdad), Christian Nestorian doctor. Author of the medical work Taqwim es-sihha ( lat.Tacuinum sanitatis )

Armenian science and scientists

• Anania Schirakatsi (610 to 685), Armenian scholar, mathematician and geographer

Byzantine science and scientists

Mathematician, physicist

• Isidore of Miletus (442 to 537)
• Anthemios of Tralleis (6th century)
• Leon the mathematician , (9th century) mathematician, philosopher and scholar

Chemist

• Zosimos of Panopolis (350 to 420), alchemist (from Koptos, Egypt)
• Kallinikos from Heliopolis 7th century, alchemist, architect, inventor (Greek fire) (from Emesa, Syria)

Mediciners

• Aëtios von Amida (* 502 in Amida , † 575 in Constantinople ) doctor, author
• Alexandros von Tralleis (525 to 605)
• Stephanos (medic) (6th / 7th centuries)
• Theodorus Priscianus (6th century)
• Nikolaos Myrepsos (14th century)
• Niketas and Symeon Seth (13th century)
• Paulus of Aegina (7th century)
• Johannes Aktuarios (around 1275 to after 1328), Byzantine physician

Polymath

• Michael Psellos (1018 to 1081)
• Maximus Planudes (1255 to 1310)
• Manuel Chrysolaras (1350 to 1415)

Institutions (see also category historical university)

• University of Constantinople
• Academy of Mangana

Georgian science and scientists

• Ioann Petricci, (12th century)
• Arsen Ikaltoeli, (12th century)

Institutions (see also category historical university)

• Gelati Academy
• Academy of Ikalto

other

Persian science and scientists

Mediciners

• Gabriel ibn Bochtischu († 828), Persian doctor and promoter of translations
• Shapur ibn Sahl , (9th century), medic
• Burzoe , (6th century) medic and chief physician of Khosrau I.
• Yuhanna ibn Masawaih (* around 777, † around 857), Persian doctor and writer
• Gabriel von Schiggar Doctor in the Sassanid Empire at the beginning of the 7th century .

Institutions (see also category historical university)

• Academy of Gundischapur
• House of wisdom
• Edessa School

Modern times

More than a few made their way to Europe and North America via Christian training institutions in the Middle East, for example after further studies (doctorate and post-doc ). Some scientists have returned to their home countries, but the conditions are very different. Scientific work in the Middle East and North Africa mostly only allows applied research .

Many modern Eastern Christians have been forced to emigrate through displacement, persecution and war . Today, a large number of them can be found in Europe and North America at universities, research centers and clinics. In the West in particular (in contrast to their homeland) they can do more basic research .

List of Christian Scientists in the Middle East

• Raouf Salama Moussa (1929–2006), bacteriologist at the University of Alexandria and Nestlé Research Center until 1978, then publisher and editor
• Michel Sabbah (* 1933), theologian, university president and patriarch
• Georges Bahr, microbiologist ( Balamand University )
• Jad Hatem (* 1952), philosopher, theologian and man of letters ( University of Saint Joseph )
• Hanan Aschrawi (* 1946), English scholar and politician
• Sumaya Farhat-Naser (* 1948), biologist and peace activist
• Antoine Nachanakian (* 1949), neurosurgeon
• Ghassan Andoni (* 1956), physicist and peace activist
• André Megarbane (* 1963), geneticist ( University of Saint Joseph )

List of Christian scholars abroad

• George Hatem (1910–1988), doctor and health officer in China
• Philip Khuri Hitti (1886–1978), Islamic scholar
• Michael Ellis DeBakey (1908-2008) real name Dabaghi , American heart surgeon of Lebanese descent
• Lili Sahakyan, cognitive psychologist
• George Adomian (1922–1996), mathematician
• Adel Theodor Khoury (* 1930), theologian and Islamic scholar
• Boris Artashesovich Babaian (* 1933), computer scientist
• Estiphan Panoussi (* 1935) oriental philologist and Aramaic from Iran
• Edward Said (1935–2003), literary critic of Palestinian origin (concept of " Orientalism ")
• Raif Georges Khoury (1936–2017), Arabist and Islamic scholar
• Robert Nalbandyan (born 1937), chemist
• Charles Elachi (* 1947), director of Nasa JET
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb (* 1960), finance mathematician, epistemologist and essayist

literature

• Ferdinand Wüstenfeld : Arab doctors. 1840, pp. 15-16.
• L. Leclere: Medecine arabe. Volume 1, 1876, pp. 99-102.
• M. Meyerhof: New Light on Hunain. Isls, VIII, 1926, p. 717.
• D. Sourdel: Bukhtishu. In: Encyclopaedia of Islam . I, 1960, reprint: Leiden 1986, p. 1298.
• Samir Khalil Samir : Rôle culturel des chrétiens dans le monde arabe (=  Cahiers de l'Orient chrétien . Band 1 ). Cedrac, 2003, ZDB -ID 2160964-0 (French).

Web links

• Wolfgang U. Eckart: Byzantine and Arabic medicine. (PDF) at medgesch.uni-hd.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Erhart Kahle: The treatise on the interaction of the natures of Qustâ Ibn Lûqâ. In: Gundolf Keil (Ed.): Specialized prose studies. Contributions to medieval science and intellectual history , Berlin 1982, SS 133–142.