In early eleventh century Zaragoza, the eminent Jewish scholar Abū l-Walīd Marwān ibn Janāḥ wrote a glossary containing almost 1100 entries, entitled
Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ. This important text, considered lost until recently, contains Arabic and foreign-language names of simple drugs, weights, measures, and other medical terms. In the present volume, the
Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ is edited and translated for the first time by Gerrit Bos and Fabian Käs. In detailed commentaries, the editors identify the substances mentioned in the
Talkhīṣ. They also elaborate on the role of the text in the history of Arabic glossaries concerned with medical nomenclature. Special attention is paid to Ibn Janāḥ’s Ibero-Romance phytonyms, analysed in depth by Mailyn Lübke and Guido Mensching.
Gerrit Bos, Ph.D. (1989), is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne. He has published extensively on Arabic, Judeo-Arabic and Hebrew medical literature in the Middle Ages. He is the series editor of
Moses Maimonides, a book series published by Brill that contains critical editions and translations of Maimonides’ medical works.
Fabian Käs, Ph.D. (2008), is Research Fellow at the University of Cologne. His publications include
Die Mineralien in der arabischen Pharmakognosie (Wiesbaden 2010) and
Al-Maqrīzīs Traktat über die Mineralien (Leiden: Brill 2015).
Mailyn Lübke, M.A., is Research Fellow/Lecturer at the University of Göttingen. She studied Romance Philology, History, Papyrology, Epigraphy & Numismatics. In her forthcoming Ph.D. thesis she focuses on glosses containing Romance and Latin elements in an Arabic version of Dioscurides’
Materia Medica.
Guido Mensching, Ph.D. (1992), University of Cologne, habilitation 1997 ibid., holds the Chair of Romance linguistics at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. He has published extensively on Romance medical terminology with a special focus on Judeo-Romance texts and on synonym literature, as well as on the syntax of Romance languages. He is also a specialist in Sardinian.
“Sorprendido por la ingente, multitudinaria información, tengo que reconocer el imponente trabajo científico que han tenido que realizar los autores para darnos esta edición —la edición príncipe— de esta obra médica de Ibn µanâç.”
- Gerrit Bos,
The University of Cologne in:
Iberia Judacia, Volume 13 (2021).
“The commentary reveals how the authors have evidently striven to make this paramount work in medical terminology accessible to the non-specialist: it provides clear references and the book’s introduction elucidates the main issues related to the text. One cannot but applaud those responsible and commend their work heartily to the scholarly community across disciplinary boundaries.”
- Nicola Carpentieri,
Università di Padova in:
Early Medieval Europe Volume 13 (1), (2023).
Preface Acknowledgements
Introduction 1
Ibn Janāḥ: Life and Work (§§ 1–3) 2
The Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ (§§ 4–7) 3
History of Research (§ 8) 4
The Romance Component (§§ 9–12) 5
The Manuscript (§ 13) 6
Principles of the Edition (§ 14) 7
The Commentary (§ 16) 8
Sources of the Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ (§§ 17–110) 9
Texts Depending on the Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ (§§ 111–119)
Bibliography Index of Arabic and Arabicized Terms Index of Greek Terms Index of Berber Terms Index of Ibero-Romance Terms and Their Latin Etyma Index of Syriac and Aramaic Terms Index of Persian Terms Index of Sanskrit Terms Index of Scientific Nomenclature Index of Common Names and Technical Terms Arabic Index (in Arabic Script) Index of Authors and Books
All interested in the history of medicine, pharmacology, botany, Arabic and early Ibero-Romance nomenclature of medicinal drugs, medieval Jewish scholarship in islamicate countries, and Arabic philology.