RÔLE OF THE NESTORIANS AS THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN GREEK AND ARABIC MEDICINE* By ALLEN O. WHIPPLE, M.D. NEW YORK HIS paper deals with a period by the question of how Greek culture, of history which is rather dif- which so nearly perished, was trans- ficult to define, for its study in- mitted through the Dark Ages to renas- cludes the last part of the an- cent Europe. As Sarton1 so clearly states cient period and the early centuriesin his of “Introduction to the History of Tthe Middle Ages. Even from the point Science”: of view of Mediterranean culture it is From the point of view of the history of difficult to say when ancient thought science transmission is as essential as dis- ended and medieval thought began. If covery. If the results of Ptolemy’s investi- the Fathers of the Church ushered in gations [in astronomy] had been hidden the medieval period and ended pagan instead of published, or if they had been civilization their chief accomplishment, lost in transit, they would be almost as if considered from the standpoint of sci- they had never been. ence and world culture, lay in the fact If there were no other reason to study that they created a new contact between medieval science than to find out how an- Greek and Oriental thought. It is im- cient knowledge was handed down to us, portant to conceive of Ancient Civiliza- that reason would be sufficient. The aver- tion, the Middle Ages and Renaissance age man of science, perhaps lacking in as not exclusive but as overlapping. historical training, cannot imagine the Certainly in the period of history under complexity of the problems involved. The consideration antiquity merges by im- transmission of modern science is almost perceptible gradations into the Middle automatic; a discovery published in any Ages. scientific journal is within a relatively short time quoted and discussed in a num- In many students of medical history ber of other papers which circulate all over and medical science the mention of the the world. Any scientist, working along Middle or Dark Ages creates a feeling the same line, is bound to hear of it, either of disinterest. if not antagonism. The directly or indirectly, and in the latter case term Dark Ages implies a period of re- he will have no difliculty in obtaining a gression, a time of endless controversy, copy of the original text. A hundred agen- the fruitless arguments of Scholasticism. cies have solved the problem of transmis- If one admires—and who does not—that sion so completely that the individual sci- marvelous bloom of Greek art, science entist does not think of it any more. In and culture in the short period of the the Middle Ages these agencies did not sixth to the fourth centuries before the exist, publication in manuscript form was Christian Era, well termed the “Greek necessarily very limited, and it could never Miracle,” one cannot but be intrigued be standardized. Moreover, political vicis- *From the Department of Surgery, Columbia University. Read before the Section of Historical and Cultural Medicine, N. Y. Academy of Medicine, January 8, 1936. situdes caused innumerable difficulties. was the transmitting medium. It is the Some discoveries had to cross in slow stages w/zy rather than the how which has in- the whole of Asia and Europe before reach- terested the writer. In this paper an ing the West and being integrated into the attempt will be made to analyze the sev- main scientific current wliich has come eral factors that resulted in the Nes- down to us. Some writings had to be trans- torians playing this role of the connect- lated many times before reaching their ing link between Greek and Arabic fmal assimilation; thus many Greek texts became a part of our intellectual patri- medicine. mony only after having been translated Who were the Nestorians and their from Greek to Syriac, from Syriac to Ara- ancestors? Where did they live? What bic, then into Latin, and finally into our were the political and economic factors own language. These translations were in the history of that time that molded imperfect, and in the case of important them and determined their course? works, seldom unique; thus occurred con- How was their national character influ- flicting traditions which caused new dif- enced by the religion and philosophy of ficulties. the period? These are some of the ques- It does not matter whether we like me- tions that naturally come to mind. diaeval science or not; the fact remains Their answers will very largely explain that we cannot arbitrarily neglect it, if we would understand the continuity of hu- the wliy of the title of this communica- man progress. Even if mediaeval scien- tion. tists had not made any original contribu- Exact knowledge of the origin of the tions we should still be obliged to study Nestorians is lacking. In all probability their activity, else it would be impossible their ancestors were a Semitic race, to explain the origin of our present knowl- known as the Aramaeans, which mi- edge. Whatever we learned from the an- grated north from the Arabian penin- cients could not be taught us directly; it sula into what is now spoken of as Syria, could only reach us by some continuous and spread eastward into what the traditions which it is our duty to ferret out. Greeks later called Mesopotamia. The Arab chroniclers referred to them as the So to students of medical history Nabateans. I am indebted to Professor there are now available many brief, more or less accurate accounts of how Hitti of Princeton University for the Greek science and Greek culture were data regarding the probable origin of transmitted through the Mesopotamian the Nestorians. (Map i.) schools, especially those of Edessa and For centuries as Aramaeans they had Gondi-Sapor, in the translations from been given to commerce and by their the Greek into Syriac or Aramaic, and caravans had come in contact witli coun- from the Syriac into Arabic, by the tries north, south, east and west of Meso- rather small, unorthodox Christian sect potamia. Conquered by the forces of of Nestorians who dominated these Alexandria they remained under Greek Mesopotamian schools during the third control until the Seleucidae, torn by in- to the seventh centuries of the Christian ternal strife and political intrigue, gave era. But the mere recording of how up the defense of their Mesopotamian Greek culture and Greek medicine were possessions. There then arose small transmitted by the Nestorians to the kingdoms or principalities in northern Arabic conquerors does not tell why this Mesopotamia, among them Osrhoëne Christian community of Semitic race and Adiabene. The small kingdom of Osrhoëne is of special interest to our given in its relation to Edessan litera- subject. for it was in this principality ture and thcology by Duval5 in his “His- that we first hear of Edessa, its capital. toire d'Edesse.” History2 fairly definitely assigns the Edessa is the Greek name for what founding or rebuilding of Edessa to was called by the Assyrians Ourhai, by Seleucus Nicator in 304 b .c . After the the Arabs Ar-Ruha, and today still withdrawal of the Seleucidae, Edessa exists under Turkish rule as the town was the capital of Osrhoëne under the of Urfa. After its founding in the third rule of a line of kings of a mixed race century b .c . it rcmained a pagan town of Nabatean, Armenian and Parthian until about the middle of the second origin. Barhebraeus,3 speaking of these century when it is said to have been the people, says: “Parthian, Persian, Edes- first city in Mesopotamia to be Chris- san and Armenian are all one.” tianized. Thcre is a most attractive leg- The chronicle and chronology of the cnd, inaccurate though it bc chrono- Osrhoëne kings are based upon a single logically, connccted with the conversion ms in the Vatican, known as the “Chron- of the city to Christianity: Abgar Ouk- icle of Dionysios of Tell-Mahre” writ- hatna, thcn reigning over Osrhoëne, ten in 776 a .d . and translated bv As- hearingof the miraculous cures of Jesus, semani in his “Bibliotheca Orientalis.” scnt him a lettcr asking him to come to This was retranslated by Noëldeke4 and Edcssa to cure him, the King, of a fatal this revised and corrected Chronicle is disease. Jesus rcplied to Abgar: Thou art fortunate, thou who believest living in what is now the province of in me, not having seen me. For it is writ- Kansu, left their ancestral home and ten of me that those who see me do not began swarming to the west and south. believe in me, but those who do not see Within a scant two centuries they had me, believe in me. As to your asking me taken over the eastern provinces of what to come to you, the work for which I was sent is about to be accomplished and I had been Alexander’s empire, con- am to return to my Father who sent me. quered part of Persia, and had become After I have ascended to Him I shall send a threat to Rome. When China con- you one of my disciples who will cure your quered eastern Turkestan a caravan sickness and will convert you and those route was opened between China across about you to life eternal. Thy city shall the Indo-Scythian kingdom to the Per- be blessed and no enemy shall prevail sian and Roman Orient. Thomas Fran- against it.6 cis Carter, in his monograph on the In- This “Legend of Abgar” states that vention of Printing in China,7 one of Addai, supposedly one of the seventy the most scholarly pieces of research of apostles, was sent by the disciple Judas the past decade, discusses the great silk Thomas, who healed Abgar and as a re- ways; he lists the peach and the apricot, sult of this miracle and his preaching silk and tea, porcelain and paper, play- converted Edessa to Christianity in 32 ing cards and probably gunpowder and a .