ABSTRACT
A scientist and linguist, born in Qusain near Kufa in Iraq. His scholarly interests included chemistry, astronomy, agriculture, magic, and languages. In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful, and Praise be to Muẖammad and his Family. Translation was essential to these efforts, as intellectuals and litterateurs from the various ethnic and linguistic communities within the Islamic empire strove to preserve the legacy of their pre-Islamic cultures and raise their profile by making their cultural and literary products available within the medieval Islamic “republic of letters”. The other translation method that enables Ibn Wahshiya to adapt an explicitly pagan text into Islamic terms is his emphasis on innate abilities and the capacity for knowledge as common to all humans.
