The story of Hunayn ibn Ishaq, the man who coined the word “retina”, saved ancient science and showed how to work with information, informs Ukr.Media.
I regularly review medical press releases and am always amazed at how much empty pathos and attempts to sell air are there. Then suddenly I come across a fresh study about a guy from the ninth century who understood back then: only concreteness works.
A Syrian Christian who worked in Baghdad. An ophthalmologist, translator, and the man on whose shoulders, as it turned out, half of Western medicine still stands.
The University of Sharjah has just translated his manuscript, “On the Eye, 207 Questions,” into English. Do you know what the format is? Question-answer. No three-kopeck philosophical musings before getting to the point.
While the “experts” of the time argued hoarsely about how the eye worked, Hunayn simply laid everything out on the shelves.
He explained: there are seven layers in the eye. Only one sees. The rest are purely technical support. The brain moves the muscles through the nerve. Period. He closed all the debates of his colleagues with one diagnosis – they were simply confused in terminology.
But the most interesting thing is something else. Hunayn translated Hippocrates, Galen, and Plato into Arabic. And he did it in such a way that his approach is simply the dream of any modern Ukrainian localizer or editor. He didn’t care about literal translation. He was only interested in meaning.
Now, when we in Ukraine are actively getting rid of Russian tracing paper and massively translating Western literature, games, and movies, we should learn from him this courage.
If there was no exact equivalent in Arabic to a Greek medical term, he did not drag cumbersome foreign language into his language. He looked at things directly. The lace of blood vessels and arteries in the eye looks like a fishing net? So it would be “ash-Shabakiya”. That's how the term “retina” appeared. Simple, visually understandable, firmly embedded in the memory.
His texts were later translated into Latin. In the West, he appeared under the name Johannitius. His basic textbook was read aloud to the students of European universities for centuries to teach the first medical students.
We are used to thinking of science as someone's national monopoly or a linear movement from antiquity to modern Europe. In fact, this chain was not broken only because one Baghdad doctor, without pathos, qualitatively adapted the Greek base, cleaned it of delusions and structured the information normally.
A perfect skill. It works in the ninth century, as well as now.
Share
Subscribe to UkrMedia on Telegram.
⚡ Readers' Pulse
What is more important to you in texts and translations: bold adaptation of meanings or meticulous accuracy of the original?
3 people have already voted. Join the discussion.
🎯 Only the living meaning 📜 Strict accuracy of the original 🤔 I have my own opinion
📊 Mind map
🎯 Only the living meaning 33% 📜 Strict accuracy of the original 33% 🤔 I have my own opinion 33% 💡
The discussion is just beginning. Be the first to comment!
Comments
New ones first ↕
There are no comments yet. Be the first!