fl. 860-900

Arab translator and scientist who was instrumental in transmitting Greek ideas to the Muslim world, and thus later to the West. As an original thinker, Qusta discussed the uses of tangents and cotangents in trigonometry and wrote on medicine, astronomy, logic, and natural science. His most important contribution, however, was in his translation of works by Aristotle, Diophantus, Aristarchus, and, in particular, the Mechanics by Hero of Alexandria.