Hunayn ibn Ishaq

Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a physician and boon companion of the caliph al-Wathiq, as al-Mas'udi mentions. ²

At an assembly in which physicians gathered, al-Wathiq asked him about the instruments of nourishment, and he detailed the thirty-two teeth, their kinds and their roots. Then al-Wathiq asked him for a book, and he composed it in three treatises. He asked him about the things that alter the air, and he listed the seasons of the year, the risings of the stars, the winds, the lands and the seas. In his questions he composed the book "Natural Questions". ²

Ibn al-Nadim reports that the Banu Shakir al-Munajjim used to give him, together with Hubaysh ibn al-Hasan and Thabit ibn Qurra, about five hundred dinars a month for transcription and attendance. They sent him to the land of the Byzantines, and he brought them rare books. ³