Abū 'l-Ḥasan al-Muḫtār Yuwānnīs ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdūn ibn Saʿdūn ibn Buṭlān (; ; ca. first quarter of the 11th century AD – 8 Šauwāl 458 AH/2 September 1066 AD) known as Ibn Buṭlān (; ) was a physician and Arab Christian theologian from Baghdad during the Abbasid era. He left his hometown for travels throughout the Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor during which he practiced medicine, studied, wrote, and engaged in intellectual debates most famously the Battle of the Physicians with Ibn Riḍwān. He was a first-hand witness of the Schism of 1054 in Constantinople, contributing a work to the discussions surrounding it for Patriarch Michael I Cerularius. After his time in Constantinople he remained in the Byzantine Empire, becoming a monk in Antioch during the end of the Macedonian Renaissance.
He is most renowned for his work Taqwīm aṣ-Ṣiḥḥa (; ) a handbook on dietetics and hygiene. It was named for its intricate tables, similar to those found within a (), a type of astrological almanac. He was the first person to use these tables in a non-astrological work, creating a new scientific writing format and should therefore be seen as the main influence on all subsequent uses of this format, like Ibn Ǧazla's and Abū 'l-Fidāʾ's . The many preserved manuscripts of Latin translations of the Taqwīm aṣ-Ṣiḥḥa in Europe are thought to illustrate the relationship between early modern Europe and the Arab World in the field of medical science. Despite increased European contact with Egypt and Syria because of the Crusades and trade into the sixteenth century there are no Latin translations of medical texts from Arab writers after Ibn Buṭlān.
Ibn Buṭlān is additionally noteworthy for being one of a few non-Muslim physicians about whom enough is known to paint a detailed biography, during a period when the People of the Pact, that is Christians, Jews, and Sabians, dominated the medical profession. Documents like the Cairo Geniza provide scientific records about the medical practices of such physicians but lack reliable information outside of that to create detailed biographies about them and to describe their perception and role within society. Ibn Buṭlān therefore presents an important exception to this general lack of sources.
Education
Ibn Buṭlān was the favourite student of Ibn aṭ-Ṭaiyib, a Nestorian leader, priest, and polymath, at al-ʿAḍudī Hospital. He taught him about philosophy and medicine. He instructed him in the works of Galen, Aristotle, and Hippocrates – additionally in those of Porphyry, Themistius, Dioscorides, and more contemporary Arab physicians like Ibn al-Ḫammār, Ibn Zurʿa, and Ḥunain ibn Isḥāq. He also was educated about practical medical procedures in line with a new experimentation-based medical learning approach proposed by Persian physician ar-Razī. Ibn Buṭlān studied in the al-Karḫ district of Baghdad, in which many Christians lived and also received an ecclesial education from his teacher, who is considered the most important exegete of Christian Arabic literature. He became a priest, taking up the name upon his ordination. It is claimed by al-Qifṭī and by Ibn Abī Uṣaibiʿa that he also was a student of Abū 'l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī, a Sabian physician and translator. Schacht and Meyerhof however find this claim doubtful as they argue he had been deceased prior to Ibn Buṭlān's birth, though in his own Essay on Hot and Cold Remedies Ibn Buṭlān states to have been in the presence of al-Ḥarrānī in Baghdad.
Schacht and Meyerhof, as well as Conrad, claim he knew Greek based on his Christian upbringing. However Graf proves in his translation of the Essay on the Holy Eucharist that he did not know Greek, as Ibn Buṭlān states so himself. However Ibn aṭ-Ṭaiyib taught him about the writers of Greek literary classics, such as Homer. Schacht and Meyerhof, as well as Conrad, also claim that he knew Syriac based on his upbringing, while the only surviving texts of his are written in Arabic, he did address Syriac medical learning and Syriac places of learning in the Compendium for the Monasteries and the Monks. It should also be noted that a major difference between him and his teacher's generation of Christian physicians in Baghdad – in many ways even between him and his own generation – is his turn away from Syriac literature to embracing Arabic literature. He showed great interest in Arabic poetry and pursued an education therein. He himself became a teacher of medicine and philosophy before leaving Baghdad in the beginning of Ramaḍān 440 AH/January 1049 AD.