Persian Nestorian physicians, trained in Hellenized Syriac tradition, played a prominent role in early Abbasid history. An overwhelming amount of information on them, and other physicians, is found in a thirteenth century Arabic work titled 'UyUyn al-Anb-' f? Tabaqat al-Atibb ' by Ibn Abn Usaybi'a (d. 1269/70). The Bakhtish.' family, of Persian Nestorian background, is accredited with transferring the Jundishaprr school of medicine to Baghdad. It ought to be noted here that some scholars, like Roy Porter, while acknowledging Jundishapor as an intellectual meeting place and crossroads for scholars of various backgrounds, have cast doubt on whether a medical school physically existed. Whatever the case may be, in this paper I propose to address and clarify certain problems on the intellectual history concerning Persian Nestorian physicians. The Bakhtishc' family lived during a peak in the translation movement where rationalism played a significant role in the fields of medicine, science, theology and philosophy. Christopher Melchert has suggested that opposing theological parties in early ninth century Islam maybe better classified as rationalists, semi-rationalists and traditionists. I shall argue that this classification may be extended to the Nestorian physicians in this period as a well. I will further examine how the intellectual history of the Persian Nestorian community effected these physicians' relations with the caliphs, the church, and other court physicians.