( ar, أبو سعيد سنان بن ثابت بن قرة), –943, was a medieval scholar who served as the court physician of the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Mutta ...

caliphs

al-Muqtadir Abu’l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn Ahmad al-Muʿtaḍid ( ar, أبو الفضل جعفر بن أحمد المعتضد) (895 – 31 October 932 AD), better known by his regnal name Al-Muqtadir bi-llāh ( ar, المقتدر بالله, "Mighty in God"), w ...

(),

al-Qahir Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mu'tadid ( ar, أبو المنصور محمد بن أحمد المعتضد, Abū al-Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Muʿtaḍid), usually known simply by his regnal title Al-Qahir bi'llah ( ar, القاهر � ...

(), and

al-Radi Abu'l-Abbas Ahmad (Muhammad) ibn Ja'far al-Muqtadir ( ar, أبو العباس أحمد (محمد) بن جعفر المقتدر, Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad (Muḥammad) ibn al-Muqtadir; December 909 – 23 December 940), usually simply known by his ...

(). As the son of

Thabit ibn Qurra Thabit ( ar, ) is an Arabic name for males that means "the imperturbable one". It is sometimes spelled Thabet. People with the patronymic * Ibn Thabit, Libyan hip-hop musician * Asim ibn Thabit, companion of Muhammad * Hassan ibn Sabit (died 674 ...

() and the father of

Ibrahim ibn Sinan Ibrahim ibn Sinan (Arabic: ''Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurra'', ; born 295-296 AH/c. 908 AD in Baghdad, died: 334-335 AH/946 AD in Baghdad, aged 38) was a mathematician and astronomer belonging to a family of scholars who originally ha ...

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

Harran Harran (), historically known as Carrhae ( el, Kάρραι, Kárrhai), is a rural town and district of the Şanlıurfa Province in southeastern Turkey, approximately 40 kilometres (25 miles) southeast of Urfa and 20 kilometers from the border ...

and who worked at the Abbasid court in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

. He and his family belonged to a religious sect of

star worship Astrotheology, astral mysticism, astral religion, astral or stellar theology (also referred to as astral or star worship) is the worship of the stars (individually or together as the night sky), the planets, and other heavenly bodies as deities, ...

pers known as the

Sabians of Harran The Sabians, sometimes also spelled Sabaeans or Sabeans, are a mysterious religious group mentioned three times in the Quran (as , in later sources ), where it is implied that they belonged to the 'People of the Book' (). Their original ident ...

, though Sinan was forced to convert to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

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

caliph A caliphate or khilāfah ( ar, خِلَافَة, ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with the title of caliph (; ar, خَلِيفَة , ), a person considered a political-religious successor to th ...

persecuted the Sabians and eventually forced Sinan to flee to

Khurasan Greater Khorāsān,Dabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 or Khorāsān ( pal, Xwarāsān; fa, خراسان ), is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plat ...

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 or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, ...

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

moral philosophy Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ...

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

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

's ''

Republic A republic () is a " state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...

'', was criticized by the historian

al-Mas'udi Al-Mas'udi ( ar, أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن عَلِيّ ٱبْن ٱلْحُسَيْن ٱبْن عَلِيّ ٱلْمَسْعُودِيّ, '; –956) was an Arab historian, geographer and traveler. He is sometimes referred to as the "Herodotus ...

(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 {{asia-mathematician-stub

See also

References

Sources