Abà « al-Khayr al-Ḥasan ibn SuwÃÂr ibn BÃÂbàibn BahnÃÂm, called Ibn al-KhammÃÂr (born 942), was an East Syriac Christian philosopher and physician who taught and worked in Baghdad. He was a prolific translator from Syriac into Arabic and also wrote original works of philosophy, ethics, theology, medicine and meteorology.
Ibn al-KhammÃÂr has an entry in the biographical dictionary of Ibn Abë Uá¹£aybiÿa. He was born in November or December 942 (c. AH 330) in Baghdad. He became a surgeon at the ÿAá¸Âudë hospital in Baghdad, where he taught Ibn al-Ṭayyib and Ibn Hindà «. According to áºÂahër al-Dën al-Bayhaqë, writing over a century later, Ibn al-KhammÃÂr spent his last years in KhwÃÂrizm and Ghazna, where he converted to Islam. His death can be dated in or after 1017.
The manuscript Arabe 2346 in the Bibliothèque nationale de France contains an Arabic translation of Aristotle's Organon copied from a copy made by Ibn al-KhammÃÂr, itself copied from a copy made by his teacher, Yaḥyàibn ÿAdë. Arabe 2346 contains various scholia on the Organon by the philosophers of Baghdad, including some by Ibn al-KhammÃÂr. In the debates between the mutakallimà «n (Islamic theologians) and the falÃÂsifa (Islamic philosophers) concerning whether God was known by intuition or by inferential reasoning, Ibn al-KhammÃÂr took the side of the falÃÂsifa. Most of his works are lost, but the titles of two are known: MaqÃÂla fë l-tawḥëd wa-l-tathlëth (Treatise on the Unity and Trinity) and KitÃÂb al-tawfëq bayna arÃÂþ al-falÃÂsifa wa-l-Naá¹£ÃÂra (The Concordance of the Views of the Philosophers and the Christians). Nothing is known about them beyond what can be inferred from their titles.
Ibn al-KhammÃÂr translated from Syriac into Arabic the Categories, On Interpretation and Prior Analytics of Aristotle; the Isagoge and two books of the History of Philosophy of Porphyry; the Meteorological Phenomena of Theophrastus; and the Book of Allënà «s. His translations were praised by al-Tawḥëdë for their elegance.
Ibn al-KhammÃÂr was revered by his contemporaries. Ibn al-Nadëm, who knew him, praises him as a logician. ÿAlë ibn Riá¸ÂwÃÂn, the Egyptian physician, recorded that Sultan Maḥmà «d of Ghazna kissed the ground before him out of respect. His fame was such that the philosopher Avicenna expressed an intention to meet him, which ultimately went unfulfilled.