Salmawaih ibn Bunan (died 840) was an Assyrian Nestorian Christian physician who translated works of Galen from Greek into Arabic. [1] He flourished at the time of the Abbasid caliphs al-Ma'mun (r. 813–833) and al-Mu'tasim (r. 833–842), serving as private physician to the latter. [2] It is reported that al-Mu'tasim trusted Salmawaih to such an extent that he called him "father", and that he prayed in person over Salmawaih's grave when he died. [3]
He was a patron of the fellow Nestorian physician and translator Hunayn ibn Ishaq, helping him in his translation of Galen's On The Therapeutic Method. [4] His scientific work included studies on the harmful effects of aphrodisiacs. [5] He was a rival of the fellow Nestorian physician Ibn Masawayh. [5]
Theophilos was the Byzantine Emperor from 829 until his death in 842. He was the second emperor of the Amorian dynasty and the last emperor to support iconoclasm. Theophilos personally led the armies in his long war against the Arabs, beginning in 831.
Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd, better known by his regnal name al-Muʿtaṣim biʾllāh, was the eighth Abbasid caliph, ruling from 833 until his death in 842. A younger son of Caliph Harun al-Rashid, he rose to prominence through his formation of a private army composed predominantly of Turkic slave-soldiers. This proved useful to his half-brother, Caliph al-Ma'mun, who employed al-Mu'tasim and his Turkish guard to counterbalance other powerful interest groups in the state, as well as employing them in campaigns against rebels and the Byzantine Empire. When al-Ma'mun died unexpectedly on campaign in August 833, al-Mu'tasim was thus well placed to succeed him, overriding the claims of al-Ma'mun's son al-Abbas.
The House of Wisdom, also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, was a major Abbasid public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad and one of the world's largest public libraries during the Islamic Golden Age. The House of Wisdom was founded either as a library for the collections of the Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the late 8th century or was a private collection created by al-Mansur to house rare books and collections of poetry in Arabic. During the reign of the Caliph al-Ma'mun, it was turned into a public academy and a library.
Abū Jaʿfar Hārūn ibn Muḥammad, better known by his regnal name al-Wāthiq bi-llāh, was an Abbasid caliph who reigned from 842 until 847 CE.
Abū al-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim bi-ʾllāh, better known by his regnal name al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh was the tenth Abbasid caliph. He succeeded his brother, al-Wathiq, and is known for expanding the empire to its maximum extent. He was deeply religious, and is remembered for discarding the Muʿtazila, ending the Mihna, and releasing Ahmad ibn Hanbal. He is also known for his tough rule, especially with respect to non-Muslim subjects.
Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-Ibadi ( Arabic: أبو زيد حنين بن إسحاق العبادي; ʾAbū Zayd Ḥunayn ibn ʾIsḥāq al-ʿIbādī was an influential Arab Nestorian Christian translator, scholar, physician, and scientist. During the apex of the Islamic Abbasid era, he worked with a group of translators, among whom were Abū 'Uthmān al-Dimashqi, Ibn Mūsā al-Nawbakhti, and Thābit ibn Qurra, to translate books of philosophy and classical Greek and Persian texts into Arabic and Syriac.
Yuhanna ibn Masawaih, , also written Ibn Masawaih, Masawaiyh, and in Latin Janus Damascenus, or Mesue, Masuya, Mesue Major, Msuya, and Mesuë the Elder was a Persian or Assyrian East Syriac Christian physician from the Academy of Gundishapur. According to The Canon of Medicine for Avicenna and 'Uyun al-Anba for the medieval Arabic historian Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, Masawaiyh's father was Assyrian and his mother was Slavic.
Abu Ja'far Ashinas was a general of the Abbasid Caliph Al-Mu'tasim. One of the earliest and most prominent members of al-Mu'tasim's Turkic guard, he rose to become one of the leading figures of the empire under al-Mu'tasim, serving as a commander in the Amorium campaign, and playing a leading role in the purge of the old Abbasid elites that followed. He was also governor of Egypt from 834, as well as of the Levant and Upper Mesopotamia from 838 on, although in practice he appointed deputies to govern in his stead. Under al-Mu'tasim's successor al-Wathiq, his powers were extended further into a virtual viceroyalty over all western provinces of the caliphate.
The Graeco-Arabic translation movement was a large, well-funded, and sustained effort responsible for translating a significant volume of secular Greek texts into Arabic. The translation movement took place in Baghdad from the mid-eighth century to the late tenth century.
Christian influences in Islam can be traced back to Eastern Christianity, which surrounded the origins of Islam. Islam, emerging in the context of the Middle East that was largely Christian, was first seen as a Christological heresy known as the "heresy of the Ishmaelites", described as such in Concerning Heresy by Saint John of Damascus, a Syriac scholar.
Theophobos or Theophobus, originally Nasir (ناصر), Nasr (نصر), or Nusayr (نصیر), was an Iranian commander of the Khurramites who converted to Christianity and entered Byzantine service under Emperor Theophilos. Raised to high rank and married into the imperial family, Theophobos was given command of his fellow Khurramites and served under Theophilos in his wars against the Abbasid Caliphate in 837–838. After the Byzantines' defeat at the Battle of Anzen, he was proclaimed emperor by his own men, but did not pursue this claim. Instead he peacefully submitted to Theophilos in the next year and was apparently pardoned, until he was executed by the dying emperor in 842 to prevent a challenge to the accession of Michael III.
Aytākh or Ītākh al-Khazarī was a leading commander in the Turkic army of the Abbasid caliph al-Mu'tasim.
Al-Fadl ibn Marwan was a Christian Arab official of the Abbasid Caliphate, who rose to become vizier under Caliph al-Mu'tasim. He was the first of a series of Iraqi Christian officials who would come to play a significant role in the Caliphate's administration during the 9th century.
Mankjur or Minkajur al-Farghani or al-Ushrusani was a 9th-century Iranian military officer in the service of the Abbasid Caliphate. He was a cousin of the prominent Abbasid general Khaydhar ibn Kawus al-Afshin, thus belonging to the ruling family of Ushrusana. Mankjur accompanied al-Afshin in his campaign against the Khurramite Babak Khorramdin, and was later appointed as governor of Adharbayjan by him in 837. However, in 839, Mankjur, after refusing to give the caliph al-Mu'tasim some of Babak's booty, revolted against him. Al-Mu'tasim responded by sending against him Bugha al-Kabir, who managed to suppress his revolt and imprison him in Samarra. The affair of Mankjur raised suspicions about the loyalty of the al-Afshin, who was accused of encouraging the revolt, and contributed to the general's own downfall in the following year.
Abū Ḥarb al-Yamānī or, according to Ya'qubi, Tamīm al-Lak̲h̲mī, better known by his laqab of al-Mubarqaʿ, was the leader of a rebellion against the Abbasid Caliphate in Palestine in 841/42.
Umayr ibn al-Walid al-Badhghisi al-Tamimi was an early ninth-century governor of Egypt for the Abbasid Caliphate, serving there from April 829 until he was killed while fighting an anti-tax rebellion a few months later.
Abu al-Husayn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim was a ninth-century official in the service of the Abbasid Caliphate. A member of the Mus'abid family, he was related to the Tahirid governors of Khurasan, and was himself a prominent enforcer of caliphal policy during the reigns of al-Ma'mun, al-Mu'tasim, al-Wathiq, and al-Mutawakkil.
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik, better known as Ibn al-Zayyāt, was a wealthy merchant who became a court official and served as vizier of the Abbasid caliphs al-Mu'tasim, al-Wathiq, and al-Mutawakkil, from 836 until his downfall and death by torture in 847.
Muḥammad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim was an Abbasid prince, the son of Caliph al-Mu'tasim. He was a contemporary of the caliph al-Wathiq and al-Mutawakkil. His son Ahmad became the twelfth Abbasid caliph as al-Musta'in. Muhammad was the first prince in the Abbasid history whose son became a caliph, no other Abbasid prince before him had this prestige.