 Sixteen of Choniades' letters have survived, which confirm that he received assistance from Alexios II and traveled to Persia.Choniades translated a number of Arabic and Persian works on mathematics and astronomy, including the astronomical tables of his teacher Ajall Shams al-Din Omar, who had worked at the famous Maragheh observatory under the polymath Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.Choniades played an important role in transmitting several innovations from the Islamic world to Europe.