A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

5. Besides the above-mentioned physicians the Arabic writers mention at least two persons of the name of Estefan (or Stephanus, who translated various Greek works into Arabic. The most eminent of these was the son of a person named Basil; he lived at Bagdad in the reign of the Chalíf Motawakkel, A. H. 232-247 (A. D. 847 --861), and translated Dioscorides and several treatises of Galen, some of which are still extant in MS. in different European libraries. It is, perhaps, his translation of Dioscorides which is quoted by Ibn Baitár (vol. i. p. 265); where Sontheimer, the translator, calls him Isthafan Ebn Nasl, by misplacing a single point, and thus confounding Nasíl with Basil. (See Nicoll and Pusey, Catal. MSS. Arab. Biblioth. Badl. p. 587; De Sacy's Translation of ' Abdallatif p. 495 ; Wenrich, De Auctor. Graecor. Version. et Comment. Syriac. Arab Armen. et Pers., 1842. pp. 36.216, &c.)

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