ABSTRACT
This chapter will consider two moments of medical translation, the Greco-Arabic translations peaking in the 9th century ce, and the Arabic-Hebrew translations in the 12th and 13th centuries. Both moments had wide implications for medical research and care in their own time and subsequent periods. The chapter will discuss the methods and techniques of pioneer translators such as al-Biṭrīq, as well as those of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and his colleagues, including Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn and Ḥubaysh ibn al-Ḥasan. It will consider leading views on the increased demand and production of medical translations between the 8th and 10th centuries, highlighting practices of the private patronage of translators by wealthy families as well as the state funding of translations. It will also explain patrons’ and translators’ selections of Greek, and occasionally Persian, medical texts, and the influence of the translations on healthcare, medical education and scholarship. The chapter will subsequently look at the development of practices of Hebrew translation in Italy and Southern France, including the work of Shem Tov ben Isaac and Nathan ha-Me’ati, and discuss the recent scholarship on the medical Hebrew vocabulary forged by these translators, as well as the role of the translations in Jewish communities in Southern Europe.
