{{short description|Persian physician}} thumb|''De consolatione medicinarum'', 1475

'''Yuhanna ibn Masawaih''' (circa 777–857), ({{langx|ar|يوحنا بن ماسويه}}), also written '''Ibn Masawaih''', '''Masawaiyh''', and in Latin '''Janus Damascenus''',<ref>V.C. Medvei, ''The History of Clinical Endocrinology'', p. 45.</ref> or '''Mesue''', '''Masuya''', '''Mesue Major''', '''Msuya''', and '''Mesuë the Elder''' was a Persian physician,<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Irwin|editor-first1=Robert|title=The new Cambridge history of Islam, Volume 4.|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-83824-5|page=663|edition=1. publ.}}</ref> trained by Jabril ibn Bukhtishu,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Versteegh |first1=Kees |editor1-last=Abdel Haleem |editor1-first=M. A. S. |editor2-last=Shah |editor2-first=Mustafa |editor1-link=Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem |editor2-link=Mustafa Shah |title=The I. B. Tauris Biographical Dictionary of Islamic Civilization |date=2025 |chapter=Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh}}</ref> who was a member of the Church of the East,<ref name="JoubertRocher1995">{{cite book|last=Beeston|first=Alfred Felix Landon|title=Arabic literature to the end of the Umayyad period|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0QkhaK4kBUC&pg=PA501|access-date=20 January 2011|date=1983|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-24015-4|pages=501}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | title = Compendium of Medical Texts by Mesue, with Additional Writings by Various Authors | work = World Digital Library | access-date = 2014-03-01 | url = http://www.wdl.org/en/item/10674/#languages=lat&page=2 }}</ref> from the Academy of Gondishapur. According to ''The Canon of Medicine'' for Avicenna and ''<nowiki>'</nowiki>Uyun al-Anba'' for the medieval Arab historian ibn Abi Usaybi'a, Masawaiyh's father was from Khuzestan and his mother was a Slav.<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunlop|first=D. M.|title=Arab civilization to A.D. 1500, Part 1500|year=1971|publisher=the University of Michigan|isbn=978-0-582-50273-4|pages=220|url=https://archive.org/details/arabcivilization0000dunl/page/220/mode/2up|access-date=3 February 2026}}</ref>

==Life== thumb|left|Mesue Born in 777 as the son of a pharmacist and physician from Gundeshapur, he came to Baghdad and studied under Jabril ibn Bukhtishu.<ref name="Sarton"/>

He became director of a hospital in Baghdad, and was personal physician to four Abbasid caliphs. He composed medical treatises on several topics, including ophthalmology, fevers, leprosy, headache, melancholia, dietetics, the testing of physicians, and medical aphorisms. One of Masawaiyh's treatises concerns aromatics, entitled, ''On Simple Aromatic Substances''.

It was reported that Ibn Masawayh regularly held an assembly where he consulted with patients and discussed subjects with his pupils. Ibn Masawayh attracted considerable audiences, having acquired a reputation for repartee.

He was also the teacher of Hunayn ibn Ishaq.<ref name="Sarton">{{cite book | last = Sarton | first = George | author-link = George Sarton | title = Introduction to the History of Science, Volume I. From Homer to Omar Khayyam | year = 1927 | publisher = Carnegie Institution of Washington | location = Baltimore | oclc = 874972552 | page=574}}</ref> He translated various Greek medical works into Syriac, but wrote his own work in Arabic.<ref name="Sarton"/> Apes were supplied to him by Caliph al-Mu'tasim for dissection.<ref name="Sarton"/>

Many anatomical and medical writings are credited to him, notably the ''Disorder of the Eye'' (''Daghal al-ʿayn''), which is the earliest systematic treatise on ophthalmology extant in Arabic, and ''The Aphorisms'', the Latin translation of which was very popular in the Middle Ages.<ref name="Sarton"/>

He died in Samarra in 857.

==See also== * Aegyptiacum * Ophthalmology in medieval Islam

==Sources== For his life and writings, see: * ''Liber primus, seu methodus medicamenta purgantia simplicia'' . Bernuz, Caesaraugustae 1550 [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:061:2-18130 Digital edition] by the University and State Library Düsseldorf * ''De re medica '' . Rouillius / Rolletius, Lugduni 1550 (translated by Jacques Dubois) [http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:061:2-26944 Digital edition] by the University and State Library Düsseldorf * J.-C. Vadet, "Ibn Masawayh" in, The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, ed. by H.A.R. Gibbs, B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat, C. Bosworth et al., 11 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960-2002) vol. 3, pp.&nbsp;872–873 * Manfred Ullmann, Die Medizin im Islam, Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abteilung I, Ergänzungsband vi, Abschnitt 1 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), pp.&nbsp;112–115 * Fuat Sezgin, Medizin-Pharmazie-Zoologie-Tierheilkunde bis ca 430 H., Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, Band 3 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), pp.&nbsp;231–236. * {{cite book|last=Elgood|first=Cyril|title=A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate: From the Earliest Times Until the Year A.D. 1932|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFB8-xIyUpAC&pg=PA94|access-date=23 May 2011|date=2010-10-31|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-01588-2|pages=94–}} * {{cite book|last=Withington|first=Edward Theodore|title=Medical history from the earliest times: a popular history of the healing art|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WH7SZO2qpk4C&pg=PA141|access-date=23 May 2011|year=1894|publisher=The Scientific Press, Ltd.|pages=141–}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{Islamic medicine}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Greek–Syriac translators Category:770s births Category:857 deaths Category:9th-century Iranian medical doctors Category:Medieval Iranian pharmacologists Category:Medieval Iranian medical doctors Category:Medical doctors from the Abbasid Caliphate Category:Translators of the medieval Islamic world Category:Church of the East writers Category:Church of the East Christians from the Abbasid Caliphate Category:Court physicians Category:Syriac-language writers Category:9th-century Arabic-language writers