A Nestorian Christian physician of Damascus known in the Latin tradition as Serapion the Elder, Yahya ibn Sarafyun wrote originally in Syriac two medical compendia: the Great Kunnash (twelve books) and the Small Kunnash (seven), on practical medicine and diet. Both, translated into Arabic and then Latin (twice, first by Gerard of Cremona, then by Andrea Alpago), had exceptionally well-documented textual transmission.