Timothy of B aghdad (727–823)

Abstract

Abstract Born into a wealthy Christian family in 727 in what is now Iran, Timothy was sent to the revered Rabban Mar Abraham the Expositor where he learned interpretations from Theodore of Mopsuestia (d. c.428) and Diodore of Tarsus (d. c.390). Later at the Adiabene monastery, Bayt ‘Abhe, “Mother of Patriarchs and Bishops,” he studied Greek philosophy, more hermeneutics, theology, and probably some medicine, not only in his native tongue, Syriac, but also in Greek, Persian, and Arabic. He read Greek and Christian classics. One caliph considered his translation of Aristotle's Topics into Arabic a superior work. He also had a copy of Origen's Hexapla made so that he could have an accurate Old Testament text.