# De Materia Medica

- id: materia-medica
- original title: Περὶ ὕλης ἰατρικῆς / Peri hylēs iatrikēs
- author: Dioscorides
- language: Greek
- composed: c. 50–70
- field: pharmacology

The Greek catalogue of drugs and the plants, minerals and animals they come from, in continuous medical use longer than almost any book ever written. Its Arabic career needed two cities and a diplomatic incident.

## The chain

- **c. 847–861** Greek -> Arabic, translation [attested]
  Istifan ibn Basil (translator), Hunayn ibn Ishaq (reviser), Baghdad
  Made during al-Mutawakkil's reign and corrected by Hunayn. Where Istifan could not identify a plant, he left its Greek name standing in Arabic letters rather than guess.
  Evidence: Ibn Juljul 987 (the primary account of the translation and its revision); Pormann 2007
  - **c. 951–962** Arabic -> Arabic, revision [attested]
    Nicholas the monk (reviser), Hasdai ibn Shaprut (scholar), Ibn Juljul (scholar), Abd al-Rahman III (patron), Cordoba
    An illustrated Greek codex arrived from Constantinople around 948 as a state gift; the monk Nicholas followed around 951, after the caliph asked for someone who could read it. The circle did not retranslate: it identified the transliterated Greek drug names against the pictures and the pharmacies of al-Andalus.
    Evidence: Ibn Juljul 987 (written by a participant in the circle)

## Worth knowing

When a lavishly illustrated Greek copy reached Cordoba as a Byzantine state gift, the accompanying note warned that it was useless without someone who could read Greek, and nobody in al-Andalus could. The caliph wrote back to Constantinople for help. The result was a working group of a Jewish vizier, a Byzantine monk and Muslim physicians, matching Greek plant pictures to real Andalusian drugs.

## Sources

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

Confidence grades: attested (named in the medieval record or settled in scholarship), probable (standard view with real uncertainty), disputed (scholars disagree).