# Istifan ibn Basil

- id: istifan-ibn-basil
- dates: fl. mid-9th century, Baghdad
- roles: translator

Translator of Dioscorides into Arabic in Hunayn's circle. Where he could not identify a plant he left its Greek name standing in Arabic letters, an honest gap that took a century and a Byzantine manuscript to close.

## Crossings

- c. 847–861: De Materia Medica into Arabic (translator) [attested]

## Sources

- Ibn Juljul (987). Tabaqat al-atibba wa-l-hukama.
- Pormann, Peter E. and Savage-Smith, Emilie (2007). Medieval Islamic Medicine.