This book offers an Arabic edition and English translation of Sābūr ibn Sahl's (d. 869 CE) famous dispensatory as preserved in a recension made by the physicians of the ʿAḍudī hospital in Baghdad around the middle of the 11th century CE. Drawing on different exponents of Sābūr's original, the recension also constituted an attempt at revising the pharmacological material on empirical grounds. Edition and translation are framed by a detailed introductory study and various medico-pharmacological glossaries. The book thus not only highlights the lasting impact of Sābūr's contribution to the development of scientific pharmacy in medieval Islam, but also provides another landmark on the road to a deeper understanding of the history of Eastern Arabic pharmacology.
Oliver Kahl, Ph.D. (1993) in Middle Eastern Studies, Victoria University of Manchester, works on the history of Arabic pharmacy and medicine, and has published widely on these and related subjects. He is currently a Research Fellow at Manchester University.
"...this book constitutes an original, strong and very important research in the wide context of medicine."
Elianna Petta in
Journal of Oriental and African Studies, Volume 18 (2009).