UNSYSTEMATIC KNOWLEDGE. 299 



intellectual treasures of antiquity. The unhappy 

 dissensions which took place in the Christian church 

 had scattered these treasures over the East, al/a 

 period much antecedent to the rise of the Saracen 

 power. In the fifth century, the adherents of 

 Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, were declared 

 heretical by the Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431,) and 

 driven into exile. In this manner, many of the 

 most learned and ingenious men of the Christian 

 world were removed to the Euphrates, where they 

 formed the Chaldean church, erected the celebrated 

 Nestorian school of Edessa, and gave rise to many 

 offsets from this in various regions. Already, in the 

 fifth century, Hibas, Cumas, and Probus, translated 

 the writings of Aristotle into Syriac. But the learned 

 Nestorians paid an especial attention to the art of 

 medicine, and were the most zealous students of the 

 works of the Greek physicians. At Djondisabor, in 

 Khusistan, they became an ostensible medical school, 

 who distributed academical honours as the result of 

 public disputations. The califs of Bagdad heard of 

 the fame and the wisdom of the doctors of Djondis- 

 abor, summoned some of them to Bagdad, and took 

 measures for the foundation of a school of learning 

 in that city. The value of the skill, the learning, 

 and the virtues of the Nestorians, was so strongly 

 felt, that they were allowed by the Mohammedans 

 the free exercise of the Christian religion, and in- 

 trusted with the conduct of the studies of those of 

 the Moslemin, whose education was most cared for. 



