28 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



Living at the same time as Ebn Abu Oseibia was Abul 

 Faradsch Dschordschis (rather a roundabout way of spelling 

 George), or Gregorius Bar Hebriius. He was born at 

 Melitene, in Lesser Armenia, 1226. From his j^outh up he 

 was practised in the Syrian, Arabic, and Greek languages, 

 and studied theology, philosophy, and especially medicine, 

 under the best masters. When the Tartars penetrated into 

 Armenia, he removed with his parents to Antioch in 1244, 

 where he led for some time the life of an anchorite, in a 

 cavern near the town. Li the following year he went to 

 Tripoli, and was ordained bishop of Guba by the patriarch 

 Ignatius, the next jestr bishop of Lacaba, and in 1252, by 

 Dionysius, bishop of Aleppo. The patriarch Joshua raised 

 him in 1264 to the dignity of primate of the Jacobites, and 

 after obtaining considerable relief by his efforts for the 

 Christians, who were then much oppressed by the Moguls, he 

 died at Meraga, 1286. Besides his oriental history Gregorius 

 wrote theological, grammatical, mathematical, astronomical, 

 medical and other works, as well as commentaries on 

 Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Galen, Honein and Avicenna. 



After the middle of the fourteenth century there was a 

 great falling off in Arabic literature, though we have the 

 writings of several physicians more or less celebrated up to 

 the sixteenth century, when, however, learning had become 

 much more widely disseminated, and the Latin language 

 became universal, or nearly so, among the scientific writers 

 of all countries, being much more generally understood than 

 Arabic. Extending as they do over such a length of time, 

 and treating on such a number of subjects, it is difficult to 

 estimate the value of the labours of these great philosophers. 

 Besides being voluminous writers of commentaries on the 

 Greek and Eoman authors, they did much to advance every 

 known Science. We are told* they measured the circum- 



-■■ Dr. Draper, " Conflict between Eeligion and Science," Chap. iv. 



