Abū ʿAlī ʿĪsā ibn Isḥāq ibn Zurʿa (; 943–1008) was a medieval

Syriac Orthodox The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The church upholds the Mia ...

physician and philosopher. Ibn Zurʿa was born in 943 in

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

, then the capital of the

Abbasid Caliphate The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire (; ) was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (566–653 CE), from whom the dynasty takes ...

. In theology and philosophy, he was a student of

Yahya ibn Adi Abū Zakarīyā’ Yaḥyá ibn ʿAdī (''John, father of Zachary, son of Adi'') known as Yahya ibn Adi (893–974) was a Syriac Jacobite Christian philosopher, theologian and translator working in Arabic. Biography Yahya ibn Adi was born in Tikr ...

. He also studied medicine and was renowned as a physician, according to Ibn Abi Usaybi'a. According to

Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi Abū Ḥayyān al-Tawḥīdī () (923–1023), full name ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbbās al-Baghdadi (), was an Arab or Persian intellectual, writer, and philosopher of the 10th century. He is widely regarded as one of the most original and i ...

, he was accused of treason for engaging in trade with the Byzantines. Convicted, his possessions were confiscated and he died in Baghdad in 1008.. Ibn Zurʿa's works are listed in the ''

Fihrist The () (''The Book Catalogue'') is a compendium of the knowledge and literature of tenth-century Islam compiled by Ibn al-Nadim (d. 998). It references approx. 10,000 books and 2,000 authors.''The Biographical Dictionary of the Society for the ...

''. He translated several works from Syriac into

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. His translations include

Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...

's ''

History of Animals ''History of Animals'' (, ''Ton peri ta zoia historion'', "Inquiries on Animals"; , "History of Animals") is one of the major texts on biology by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. It was written in sometime between the mid-fourth centur ...

'' and '' Sophistici elenchi'' and

Proclus Proclus Lycius (; 8 February 412 – 17 April 485), called Proclus the Successor (, ''Próklos ho Diádokhos''), was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher, one of the last major classical philosophers of late antiquity. He set forth one of th ...

' commentary on

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

's ''

Phaedo ''Phaedo'' (; , ''Phaidōn'') is a dialogue written by Plato, in which Socrates discusses the immortality of the soul and the nature of the afterlife with his friends in the hours leading up to his death. Socrates explores various arguments fo ...

''. He also translated a commentary by

Nicolaus of Damascus Nicolaus of Damascus (Greek: , ''Nikolāos Damaskēnos''; Latin: ''Nicolaus Damascenus''; – after 4 AD) was a Greek historian, diplomat and philosopher who lived during the Augustan age of the Roman Empire. His name is derived from that of his ...

on Aristotle. He wrote original works on logic and intellection. He may be the philosopher "Antecer" cited by

Pedro Gallego Pedro González Pérez (c. 1197 – 19 November 1267), known as Pedro Gallego ( or ''Gallegus''), was a Franciscan scholar and prelate. He was the first bishop of Cartagena from the diocese's restoration in 1248 until his death, and play ...

in his

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

works of the 13th century, if the latter is a garbled version of Avençer.Hugo Marquant
"Pedro Gallego OFM (†1267) y la ciencia: ¿Escritor, compilador, traductor? Una reflexión traductológica"
in Antonio Bueno García (ed.), ''La Labor de traducción de los franciscanos'' (Editorial Cisneros, 2013), pp. 127–144, at p. 13 of the PDF.

Notes

Further reading