The fifteenth-century travel regimen entitled
al-Isfār ʿan ḥikam al-asfār (‘The unveiling of the wisdoms of the books’) written by the Cairene jurist-physician Ibn al-Amshāṭī (d. 1496) is an interesting example of the postclassical medical literature. It includes, besides a travel regimen (written likely as a health guide for the pilgrimage to Mecca), a short pharmacopoeia of single and compound remedies deemed useful for the traveller.
The work was composed for Kamāl al-Dīn al-Bārizī (d. 1452), the head of the Mamluk Chancery. The Arabic edition, English translation, and commentary of this text are framed by a detailed introductory study of the Arabic-language tradition of travel regimens and various medico-pharmacological glossaries.
Zsuzsanna Csorba, Ph.D. (2022), Eötvös Loránd University, is a research fellow at the Avicenna Institute of Middle Eastern Studies.
Acknowledgements List of Tables
Introduction 1 Travel Regimens in the Medieval Arabic Medical Tradition
2 The Author, Ibn al-Amshāṭī
3
Al-Isfār ʿan ḥikam al-asfār
Critical Edition and Translation of Ibn al-Amshāṭī’s al-Isfār ʿan ḥikam al-asfār
Commentary 1 Preface: A Literary Analysis
2 Introduction and Chapters 1–8: The
Isfār as a Travel Regimen
3 Epilogue: Simple and Compound Medicaments for Travellers
Concluding Remarks
Appendix Glossaries Bibliography Indices
All those interested in the history of pre-modern medicine of the Middle East (particularly travel medicine), pharmacology, and cultural history and history of medicine of the late Mamluk period.