I were later revised under Caliph Al-Ma'mun, most notably by Hunayn ibn Ishaq" (Baker & Hanna, 2011: 333).
As for Hunayn Ibn Is-haq's (809-873) method, it was mainly a free method.
In other words, it consisted of translating sense for sense, not word for word.
Using this method in his translation made his target text (TT) convey the meanings of the ST without distorting the target language (TL). Ibn Is-hag's free method of translation seems to have been favoured and preferred over the literal method of Ibn Batriq because it gave the translator the liberty to omit what was not necessary and add what was necessary for the understanding of the message needing to be translated. Although lon Is-haq can be considered one of the most outstanding translators of his time, this does not mean that his method is perfect or is the ideal method of translation, for various reasons.
Nevertheless, those two general methods of translation seem to have dominated the process and products of translation throughout its long history.
For an extensive overview of these two Arabic translation pioneers, their works and their impacts on the Arabic translation movement in the Abbasid period, refer to Gutus (1998). This topic will also be briefly revisited throughout our discussion in the present work.