Māsarjawaih ( ar, ماسرجويه) was one of the earliest

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

physicians of

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

origin, and the earliest

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

from the

Syriac Syriac may refer to: *Syriac language, an ancient dialect of Middle Aramaic *Sureth, one of the modern dialects of Syriac spoken in the Nineveh Plains region * Syriac alphabet ** Syriac (Unicode block) ** Syriac Supplement * Neo-Aramaic languages a ...

; he lived in

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

about 683 ( Anno Hegirae 64). His name, distorted, has been transmitted in European sources; it has not yet been satisfactorily explained. Neuda (in "Orient, Lit." vi. 132) compares the name "''Masarjawaih''" with the Hebrew proper name "''Mesharsheya''"; but the ending "''-waih''" points to a

origin. The form "''Masarjis''" has been compared with the Christian proper name "''Mar Serjis''"; but it is not known that Masarjis embraced either

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

or Islam. Masarjawaih's son, who also was a translator, and was the author of two treatises (on colors and on foods), was called " Isa''", that is, "

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

"; whose name indicates that this son had converted to Christianity. Masarjawaih translated the medical ''Pandects'' of the archdeacon or

presbyter Presbyter () is an honorific title for Christian clergy. The word derives from the Greek ''presbyteros,'' which means elder or senior, although many in the Christian antiquity would understand ''presbyteros'' to refer to the bishop functioning a ...

Aaron of Alexandria (fl. –641) from the Syriac into Arabic and added to the thirty chapters of this translation two of his own. This is believed to be the first scientific book to have been translated into Arabic. He also wrote in Arabic two treatises, "The Virtues of Foods, Their Advantage and Their Disadvantage", and "The Virtues of the Medicinal Plants, Their Advantage and Their Disadvantage". None of these three writings has been preserved. Their contents, however, are known to a certain extent by quotations. How much Masarjawaih added to the translation of Aaron's pandects can hardly be decided, as the works themselves are preserved in fragments only.

Resources

Gottheil, Richard and Max Schloessinger. "Masarjawaih".
'' Jewish Encyclopedia''. Funk and Wagnalls, 1901–1906; which gives the following bibliography: :*Steinschneider, in Z. D. M. G. liii. 428 et seq.; :*''idem'', Die Arabische Literatur, § 16, pp. 13 et seq. G. M. Sc.

References

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JE
{{Islamic medicine Medieval Jewish physicians Syriac–Arabic translators 7th-century Iranian physicians Physicians from the Umayyad Caliphate 7th-century Jews 7th-century people from the Umayyad Caliphate Medieval Jewish physicians of Persia Jews from the Umayyad Caliphate

Resources

See also

References