Bukhtishu
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Bakhtshooa Gondishapoori (also spelled Bukhtishu and Bukht-Yishu in many a literature) were a family of Nestorian Christian Persian physicians from the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, spanning 6 generations and 250 years. Some of them served as the personal physicians of Caliphs. They spoke the Syriac language[1], as Syriac was the lingua franca of scholarship in Sassanid Persia.[2] The Sassanid civil law code was in fact translated from Syriac by Bukhtishu.[3]
For example, Jurjis son of Bukht-Yishu was awarded 10,000 dinars by al-Mansur after attending to his malady in 765CE. [4] It is even said that one of the members of this family was received as physician to Imam Sajjad (the 4th Shia holy Imam) during his illness in the events of Karbala.[5]
Like all physicians in the Abbasid courts, they came from the Academy of Gundishapur in Persia, and were well versed in the Greek and Hindi sciences.
Their family was originally from Ahvaz, near Jondishapur. Like all scholars of their day, they eventually moved to the new cosmopolitan city of Baghdad, and later on to Nsibin Northern Syria, which was part of the Persian Empire in the Sassanid era.[6]
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[edit] Etymology
The name Bukhtishu according to Kitab oyoon al anbaa fe tabaqat al-atebaa (كتاب عيون الأنباء في طبقات الأطباء) of the 12th century for Ibn abi usaybia (ابن أبي أصيبعة) means "servant of Jesus" (في اللغة السريانية البخت العبد ويشوع عيسى عليه السلام) in Syriac language.
Many modern scholars consider the word to be a derivation from the pre-Islamic Pahlavi root word of bukhtag (بُختَگ: رهایی یافته) meaning "that who is freed" and Yushu (یَشُوع) meaning "Jesus Christ". This claim is supported by Dehkhoda[7], MacKenzie[8], Azartash Azarnoush[9], Theodor Nöldeke[10], and Edward G. Browne.
[edit] Members
There are no known remaining records of the first two members of the family. And the remaining records of the chain start from Jurjis. But the geneological sequence follows as:
- Bukhtishu I (بختیشوع اول)
- Jibrail I (جِبرائیل اول)
- Jurjis (جرجیس)
- Bukhtishu II (بختیشوع دوم)
- Jabril ibn Bukhtishu (جبرائیل دوم)
- Bukhtishu III (بختیشوع سوم)
- Yuhanna ibn Bukhtishu
- Ubeidullah ibn Bukhtishu (عبیدالله اول)
- Jibrail III (جبرائیل سوم)
- Ubeidullah II (عبیدالله دوم)
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/islamic_medical/islamic_03.html
- ^ See Dehkhoda dictionary under "Syriac"
- ^ Dehkhoda dictionary. Even Mani wrote his six famous texts in Syriac.
- ^ Edward Granville Browne, Islamic Medicine, Goodword pub., 2002, ISBN 81-87570-19-9, p23
- ^ Imam Hossayn va Iran (امام حسین و ایران), by Zabihullah Mansouri (ذبیح الله منصوری). Tehran. Also: http://www.nabegheha.ir/imamsadegh/valid3.htm
- ^ Donald R. Hill, Islamic Science and Engineering. 1993. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748604553 p.4
- ^ Dehkhoda Dictionary
- ^ MacKenzie, D. N.: A Concise Pahlavi Dictionary, London, OUP, 1971
- ^ http://www.cgie.org.ir/shavad.asp?id=130&avaid=381
- ^ Geschichte des Artachšir i Pâpakân aus dem Pehlewi...
