seem first to have been made into Syriac, and afterwards 
into the Arabian language, by Christian Physicians 
of the School of Alexandria, resident at Bagdad. These 
Christian Physicians were held in high estimation in the 
Court of Harun-al-Rashid, in consequence of having 
cured both himself of apoplexy, and an Egyptian slave of 
great beauty of a dangerous illness, which had baffled the 
skill of the Arabian practitioners of medicine. But it was 
chiefly under the Caliphate of Harun's second son, Al- 
Mamoon, that Grecian science and medicine was made 
known to the Eastern World ; as he, while holding the 
government of Khorassan, collected learned men together 
from all countries, and formed them into a college, appoint- 
ing for their president, John Mesue of Damascus. On 
his father complaining that so distinguished an honour 
had been conferred on a Christian, Al Mamoon replied, 
" I have made choice of Mesue, not as a teacher of reli- 
gion, but as an able preceptor in useful sciences and arts ; 
and my father well knows, that the most learned men, and 
the most skilful artists in his dominions, are Jews and 
Christians." On succeeding to the Caliphate, Al-Mamoon 
employed the learned men whom he had collected in making 
translations of the works of Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, 
Hippocrates, Galen, and Dioscorides. That the Arabs 
were still unable to proceed without the assistance of 
Christians, is evident from the physician Honain being the 
principal person employed, of whom it is related, that being 
threatened with death for refusing to prepare a poison, 
and being asked what prevented his compliance with the 
Caliph's command, answered, " Two things, my religion 
and my profession ; my religion, which commands me to do 
good to my enemies, and my profession, which was insti- 
tuted purely for the benefit of mankind." 
From the Arabs we pass naturally to the Greeks, whom 
