Ali ibn Sahl, Rabban al-Tabari

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari (Persian: علی ابن سهل ربن طبری‎) (c. 838 – c. 870 CE; also given as 810–855 or 808–864 also 783–858), was a Persian Muslim scholar, physician and psychologist, who produced one of the first encyclopedia of medicine entitled Firdous al-Hikmah ("Paradise of wisdom").

Life

Ali came from a Persian or Syriac family of Tabaristan (hence al-Tabari – "from Tabaristan"). Hossein Nasr states that he was a convert to Islam from Zoroastrianism, however Sami K. Hamarneh and Franz Rosenthal state he was a convert from Christianity. His father Sahl ibn Bishr was a state official, highly educated and well respected member of the Syriac community.

The Abbassid caliph al-Mu'tasim (833–842) took him into the service of the court, which he continued under al-Mutawakkil (847–861). Ali ibn Sahl was fluent in Syriac and Greek, the two sources for the medical tradition of antiquity, and versed in fine calligraphy.