Blackwell Reference Online

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(877–940) Known in Arabic as Sa‘īd ibn Baṭrīq; melkite Patriarch of alexandria from 935 to his death in 940. Ibn Baṭrīq was a practising physician, and information about his life is contained in the collection of biographies of famous physicians by Ibn Abī Uṣaybi‘a (d. 1270), which says that Ibn Baṭrīq had a comprehensive knowledge of the sciences of the Christians and of their doctrinal systems. Ibn Abī Uṣaybi‘a ascribes three major works to Ibn Baṭrīq: a book on medicine, now lost; a book called The Debate between the Opponent and the Christian ; and the Annals , or String of Pearls , under which title the Annals circulated in the Arabic-speaking world of his day. Another work, not mentioned by Ibn Abī Uṣaybi‘a, has been wrongly attributed to Eutychius of Alexandria: this is the Kitāb al-burhān , or Proof Book , an apologetic tract of composite character that in its present form was put together in the tenth century by a monk of the Palestinian monastery of St Chariton. The Annals , or String of Pearls , is Eutychius' most enduring work, albeit considerably enhanced by later hands. In conception, it is a universal chronicle, written in Arabic, beginning with an account of creation. For the portion of the Annals covering Islamic times it is clear the compiler drew on Muslim sources. The compiler's confessional allegiance clearly emerges in the account he renders ... log in or subscribe to read full text