When the Persian king reproached the Arabs with their poverty and their savage condition, the reply of the Saracen envoy contains a grand summary of the immediate results of Mahomet’s teaching.[694] “Whatever thou hast said,” replied Sheikh Maghareh, “respecting the former condition of the Arabs is true. Their food was green lizards; they buried their infant daughters alive; nay, some of them feasted on dead carcases and drank blood; while others slew their relations, and thought themselves great and valiant, when by such an act they became possessed of more property; they were clothed with hair garments; knew not good from evil; and made no distinction between that which is lawful and that which is unlawful. Such was our state. But God, in His mercy, has sent us by a holy prophet a sacred volume, which teaches us the true faith.”[695] GEORGE BACKTISCHWAH, or BOCHT JESU, was a Greek physician, a descendant of the persecuted Christians of the Greek empire, who embracing the heresy of Nestorius had been compelled to fly for safety and peace to the Persians. Al-Manzor (754-775) invited Backtischwah to his court, and this physician was the first to present to the Arabians translations of the medical works of the Greeks. The Nestorians had founded a school of medicine in the province of Gondisapor, which was already famous in the seventh century. From this school issued a crowd of learned Nestorians and Jews, famous for their knowledge of medicine and surgery, but still more for their ability to endow the East with all the treasures of Greek literature.[696] BAGHDAD. The city of Baghdad was built by the Caliph Almansor, in A.D. 763, on the ruins of a very ancient city; it soon became the most splendid city in the East. Almansor had personally cultivated science, and was a lover of letters and of learned men. He offered rewards for translations of Greek authors on philosophy, astronomy, mathematics, and medicine. A college was established by the Caliph which ultimately became famous. Public hospitals and a medical school were also established by the same enlightened ruler. Meryon says[697] that there is reason to suppose that in the laboratories established at Baghdad for the preparation of medicines the science of chemistry may have first originated.[698] The son of Mesuach presided over the translations of the works of Galen and all the treatises of Aristotle into Arabic; but when they had extracted the science from Greek literature, they consigned all the rest of it to the flames, as dangerous to the Moslem faith.[699] Many Christian physicians were employed at Baghdad. The vizier of a Sultan gave two hundred thousand pieces of gold to found a college at Baghdad, which he endowed with an annual revenue of fifteen thousand dinars.[700] Under the reign of Haroun-al-Raschid and his successors this school flourished vigorously, and many translations of Greek medical works were made therein.