The Paradigmatic Translator and His Method: Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s Translation of the Hippocratic Aphorisms from Greek via Syriac into Arabic

Abstract

The present article deals with the role of the Syriac intermediary within Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s working process. In its first part I aim to show that the Syriac translation of the Hippocratic Aphorisms (ed. Pognon) was produced by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq. Since this is the first Syriac translation of an ancient medical text which can be definitely ascribed to Ḥunayn, we are now in a better position to understand his working method. In its second part I compare therefore samples of his Syriac translaton with the Greek Vorlage on the one hand and his Arabic version of this Hippocratic text on the other.