0"T' LAERT> "! - USP

THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
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frequented ; Nisibis at one time numbered 800 students, of
whom some came even from Italy and Africa.
When the Nestorian men of learning were driven out of
Edessa by the religious fanaticism of the Byzantine Emperors,
they fled to Persia where they contributed
essentially to the rapid progress which the sciences, and
especially the science of medicine, made at the school of
Gondisapur. While its origin dated probably three centuries
earlier* the period of its prime was under KESRA
NUSCHIRVAN in the sixth century. This monarch was
thoroughly acquainted with Greek literature and was the
benevolent protector of all scientific effort. At his hands
the exiled Nestorians found the same hearty reception as
the philosophers of Athens ; in the same way he supported
and helped the Jewish and Syrian men of learning who
were the means of transmitting to the Persians the culture
of the Greeks. He sent his physician-in-ordinary,
BURZWEIH, to India, in order that he might make himself
acquainted with the medical practice of that country and
bring back drugs and medical writings : and he imposed as
a condition when concluding peace with the Emperor of -
Byzantium that the doctor TRIBUNUS of Palestine, one of
the most celebrated practitioners of his time, should be "
given over to him for a year. In Gondisapur the knowledge
of the West and the wisdom of the East came into contact.
Greek medicine here walked hand in hand with that of the
Persians and Indians, and this alliance concealed the germs
of the rapid growth which the science experienced under
the Arabs. Medical teaching at the School of Gondisapur
was chiefly, if not exclusively, carried on by the learned
Nestorians. It was not merely theoretical but more indeed
of a practical nature and took place in the Hospital.f This
hospital was maintained during the Arab rule and was
mentioned even at the end of the tenth century.
* J. H. SCHULZE: De Gondisapora Persarum quondam Academia Medica in
Comment. Acad. Petropolit. 1751, xiii, p. 437 et seq.
t ASSEMANI op. cit. iii, pars 2, p. 940 et seq.