(), –943, was a medieval scholar who served as the court physician of the

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

caliphs

al-Muqtadir Abū’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Al-Mu'tadid, Aḥmad ibn Al-Muwaffaq, Ṭalḥa ibn Al-Mutawakkil, Jaʿfar ibn al-Mu'tasim, Muḥammad ibn Harun al-Rashid, Hārūn Al-Muqtadir bi'Llāh () (895 – 31 October 932 AD), better known by his regnal name a ...

(),

al-Qahir Abū al-Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥa ibn Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Qāhir bi'Llāh (), usually known simply by his regnal title al-Qahir bi'Llah (), was the nineteenth caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate from 932 ...

(), and

al-Radi Abu'l-Abbas Muhammad ibn Ja'far al-Muqtadir (; 1 January 909 – 23 December 940), usually simply known by his regnal name al-Radi bi'llah (), was the twentieth Caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate, reigning from 934 to his death. He died on 23 Decemb ...

(). As the son of

Thabit ibn Qurra Thabit () is an Arabic name Arabic names have historically been based on a long naming system. Many people from Arabic-speaking and also non-Arab Muslim countries have not had given name, given, middle name, middle, and family names but rather a ...

() and the father of

Ibrahim ibn Sinan Ibrahim ibn Sinan (Arabic: ''Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurra'', ; born 295296 AH/ in Baghdad, died: 334-335 AH/946 in Baghdad, aged 38) was a mathematician and astronomer who belonged to a family of scholars originally from Harran in n ...

(908–946), Sinan belonged to an illustrious family of astronomers and mathematicians who hailed from the Upper-Mesopotamian city of

Harran Harran is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Şanlıurfa Province, Turkey. Its area is 904 km2, and its population is 96,072 (2022). It is approximately southeast of Urfa and from the Syrian border crossing at Akçakale. ...

and who worked at the Abbasid court 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 ...

. He and his family belonged to a religious sect of

star worship The worship of heavenly bodies is the veneration of stars (individually or together as the night sky), the planets, or other astronomical objects as deities, or the association of deities with heavenly bodies. In anthropological literature these ...

pers known as the Sabians of Harran, though Sinan was forced to convert to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

during al-Qahir's brief reign (932–934), in which the Abbasid

caliph A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...

persecuted the Sabians and eventually forced Sinan to flee to

Khurasan KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West Asia, West and Central Asia that encompasses wes ...

for a short period. It appears that his children remained Sabian: his sons Ibrahim ibn Sinan and Thabit ibn Sinan (died 976) both remained Sabian, while one his daughters married into another Sabian family, giving birth to Ibrahim ibn Hilal al-Sabi' (925–994), who also resisted multiple attempts to convert him from his ancestral faith. Although Sinan ibn Thabit was primarily known as a physician, having built several hospitals in Baghdad and having overseen a licensing system for physicians, he apparently did not write anything on medicine. His works, which dealt with

political philosophy Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and Political legitimacy, legitimacy of political institutions, such as State (polity), states. This field investigates different ...

, mathematics, and astronomy, are all lost except for a short treatise on

moral philosophy Ethics is the philosophical study of moral phenomena. Also called moral philosophy, it investigates normative questions about what people ought to do or which behavior is morally right. Its main branches include normative ethics, applied et ...

called ("On Governing Souls"). His work on political philosophy, which was inspired by

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 ''

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

'', was criticized by the historian

al-Mas'udi al-Masʿūdī (full name , ), –956, was a historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus of the Arabs". A polymath and prolific author of over twenty works on theology, history (Islamic and universal), geo ...

(died 956)..

References

Sources

* * * * * Astronomers from the Abbasid Caliphate Mathematicians from the Abbasid Caliphate Physicians from the Abbasid Caliphate People from Baghdad Converts to Islam 880s births 943 deaths Sabian scholars from the Abbasid Caliphate Court physicians {{asia-mathematician-stub

See also

References

Sources