Chapter 11 Physicians in the Lands of the Persians (Bilād al-ʿajam)

In: A Literary History of Medicine
Authors:
Alasdair Watson
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N. Peter Joosse
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Geert Jan van Gelder
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11.1 Tayādūrus (Theodorus)2

Tayādūrus was a Christian who had a good knowledge of the art and practice of medicine. Sābūr Dhū l-Aktāf3 built churches for him in his city4 although it is also said that the one who built the churches for him was Bahrām Gūr.5

Tayādūrus is the author of a medical compendium (Kunnāsh).6

11.2 Barzawayh7

It is said that Barzawayh was learned in the art of medicine, in which he was well-versed and was distinguished in his time. He excelled in the sciences of the Persians and the Indians and it was he who brought the book of Kalīlah wa-Dimnah from India to Anūshirwān ibn Qubādh ibn Fayrūz the King of the Persians8 and translated it for him from the Indian language into Persian.9 Then, after the advent of Islam, ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muqaffaʿ al-Khaṭīb10 translated it from the Persian language into the Arabic language.

I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that this book [Kalīlah wa-Dimnah] whose fame has become great is to do with the improvement of morals and the refinement of the soul and has no peer in its subject matter. ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muqaffaʿ al-Khaṭīb was also a Persian and was the secretary of Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr.11 He also translated The Book of Categories, On Interpretation, and The Analytics among the books of Aristotle.12 In addition, he translated the introduction to logic known as the Isagoge of Porphyry of Tyre.13 He translated in a smooth and easily-understood style.14

Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ composed other fine works as well, including an epistle on etiquette and governance (Fī l-adab wa-l-siyāsah), and an epistle known as The Solitary Pearl: on obedience to the ruler (al-Yatīmah fī ṭāʿat al-sulṭān).15

11.3 Rabban al-Ṭabarī

Al-Ṣāḥib Jamāl al-Dīn ibn al-Qifṭī says in his book:16

This Rabban al-Ṭabarī was a Jewish physician and astrologer from Tabaristan.17 He distinguished himself in medicine and was learned in geometry and in all forms of mathematics. He also translated philosophical books from one language to another.

Ibn al-Qifṭī continues:

His son ʿAlī ibn Rabban18 was a renowned physician who moved to Iraq and settled at Samarra.19 This Rabban was prominent in Judaism; Rabban, Ribbīn, and Rābb being names of leading scholars in the religion of the Jews.20

When Abū Maʿshar21 was asked about the loci of rays (maṭāriḥ al-shuʿāʿ), he spoke of them, ending by saying that those who translated the copies of the Almagest22 taken from the Greek language neither mentioned rays nor their loci and that the matter occurs only in the copy translated by Rabban al-Ṭabarī. Ptolemy’s locus of rays, he said, does not occur in the ancient copies and was known23 neither to Thābit24 nor to Ḥunayn al-Qalūsī,25 al-Kindī,26 nor to any of the great translators, nor to the sons of Nawbakht.27

11.4 Ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī28

His name is Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Sahl ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī, although Ibn al-Nadīm al-Baghdādī al-Kātib gives it as ‘ʿAlī ibn Rabbal’, with an ‘l’,29 and says of him that he used to be a secretary for al-Māzyār ibn Qārin.30 When he converted to Islam31 at the instance of al-Muʿtaṣim32 he became an associate of the caliph, and his merit was seen at court. Then al-Mutawakkil33 included him in his group of nadīms. Ibn Rabban had a good knowledge of letters and it was he who taught al-Rāzī34 the art of medicine. He was born and raised in Tabaristan.35

An example of his sayings is, ‘The ignorant physician encourages death.’

Ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī wrote the following books:36

  1. The paradise of wisdom (K. Firdaws al-ḥikmah), which he arranged in seven ‘species’, each species containing thirty discourses, and the discourses containing three hundred and sixty chapters.37

  2. The easement of life (K. Irfāq al-ḥayāh).38

  3. The gift for kings (K. Tuḥfat al-mulūk).39

  4. The medical compendium of the court (K. Kunnāsh al-ḥaḍrah).40

  5. The benefits of foodstuffs, potions, and drugs (K. Manāfiʿ al-aṭʿimah wa-l-ashribah wa-l-ʿaqāqīr).41

  6. The preservation of health (K. Ḥifẓ al-ṣiḥḥah).42

  7. On incantations (K. fī-l-Ruqā).43

  8. On cupping (K. fī-l-Ḥijāmah).44

  9. On the classification of nutriments (K. fī Tartīb al-aghdhiyah).45

11.5 Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī46

[11.5.1]

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī47 was born and raised in Rayy,48 but when he was in his thirties, he travelled to Baghdad and stayed there for a time. From a young age al-Rāzī was keen on the intellectual disciplines and studied them as well as literature. He was also a poet. He began to study the art of medicine when he was older,49 and his teacher in this subject was ʿAlī ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī.50

[11.5.2]

In his book On Hospitals (K. fī l-Bīmāristānāt), Abū Saʿīd Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ (The Abstinent Scholar)51 says:

The reason al-Rāzī began to study the medical art was that when he first came to the City of Peace, Baghdad, he visited the ʿAḍudī hospital52 so that he could see it for himself. There he was fortunate enough to meet the hospital’s pharmacist, a venerable man, whom al-Rāzī questioned about drugs and who had first discovered them. The pharmacist answered that the first drug to be known was Sempervivum (ḥayy al-ʿālam)53 and that this had occurred when Philon54 the descendant of Asclepius55 once had an inflamed swelling [waram ḥārr] on his forearm which caused him severe pain. During his treatment of it he felt the need to go outside to the riverside and ordered his servants to carry him to a riverbank where, as it happened, this plant grew. Philon placed some of the plant on his swelling to try to cool it and because of this his pain subsided. He continued to do this for a long time and repeated it the next day until he was cured. When the people saw how quickly he had been cured and realized that it was due to this drug they named it ‘The Life of the World’ (ḥayāt al-ʿālam), which, owing to frequent repetition, eventually became shortened to ‘World’s Life’ (ḥayy al-ʿālam). When al-Rāzī heard this, he was impressed and visited the hospital another time, where he saw a child who had been born with two faces in a single head. Al-Rāzī asked the physicians about the cause of this, and when he was informed he was impressed again with what he had heard and continued to enquire about one thing after another, remembering everything he was told until he decided to learn the medical art and eventually became the ‘Galen of the Arabs’.56 This is the account of Abū Saʿīd Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ.

[11.5.3]

A certain person has said:

Al-Rāzī was amongst those who took part in the building of the ʿAḍudī hospital, and ʿAḍud al-Dawlah57 consulted him about the location where the hospital should be built. Al-Rāzī instructed some of his servants to hang pieces of meat in every quarter of Baghdad and noted the one in which the meat had not gone bad or putrefied quickly. He then advised that the hospital should be built there, and that is its location.

[11.5.4]

Kamāl al-Dīn Abū l-Qāsim ibn Abī Turāb al-Kātib al-Baghdādī, may God show him mercy, told me:

When ʿAḍud al-Dawlah built the ʿAḍudī hospital that is named after him, he intended that a group of the best and most eminent physicians should be employed in the hospital. So he enquired about the most famous physicians at that time in Baghdad and its environs. Now, they numbered about one hundred, so he chose nearly fifty from among them, based on what was known of their qualities and skill in the art of medicine, and al-Rāzī was one of those chosen. Then he narrowed these down to ten, and again, al-Rāzī was amongst them. Of the ten he chose three, one of whom was al-Rāzī, and when he examined them it was clear that al-Rāzī had the most merit so ʿAḍud al-Dawlah placed him in charge of the ʿAḍudī hospital.

[11.5.5]

I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that according to my information, al-Rāzī lived before the time of ʿAḍud al-Dawlah ibn Buwayh, and he frequented the hospital at a time before ʿAḍud al-Dawlah came to renovate it. Al-Rāzī also authored a book describing the hospital and containing all the details of the conditions of the patients who were treated there.58

[11.5.6]

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl59 said:

When ʿAḍud al-Dawlah built the new hospital, which stands by the bridge on the west side of Baghdad, he gathered physicians there from every place and settled salaries upon twenty-four physicians, among them Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Baks60 who usually only taught medicine in the hospital because he was blind.61 Also among them were Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Kashkarāyā,62 who was known as ‘the Disciple of Sinān’,63 Abū Yaʿqūb al-Ahwāzī,64 Abū ʿĪsā Baqiyyah, al-Qass al-Rūmī,65 the sons of Ḥasnūn, and a group of natural philosophers (ṭabāʾiʿiyyīn).

ʿUbayd Allāh continues:

My father Jibrīl66 had come up with ʿAḍud al-Dawlah from Shiraz67 and was assigned a stipend along with a group of natural philosophers (ṭabāʾiʿiyyīn) in the hospital and among the court doctors.

He continues:

Among the oculists of merit in the hospital alongside the aforementioned people was Abū Naṣr ibn al-Daḥlī, among the surgeons, Abū l-Khayr,68 and Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Tuffāḥ, and his associates, and among the aforementioned bonesetters (mujabbirīn) there was Abū l-Ṣalt.

[11.5.7]

Sulaymān ibn Ḥassān [Ibn Juljul] says:

Al-Rāzī was in charge of the hospital at Rayy for a time before he began to practice and work in the ʿAḍudī hospital. He also says that at the beginning of his career, al-Rāzī used to play the lute,69 but then applied himself to medicine and philosophy, in both of which he excelled.70

[11.5.8]

In his book named An Introduction to the Classes of the Nations (K. al-Taʿrīf bi-ṭabaqāt al-umam), Ṣāʿid the Judge71 says:

Al-Rāzī did not delve into metaphysics (al-ʿilm al-ilāhī) much and could not understand its higher purpose.72 Because of this his thought became confused and he adopted naïve views, professed foul doctrines, and criticized certain sects about which he had no understanding and whose methods he did not follow.73

[11.5.9]

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm, who is known as Abū l-Faraj ibn Abī Yaʿqūb, says in his book The Catalogue (K. al-Fihrist):74

Al-Rāzī used to travel to various cities. He and Manṣūr ibn Ismāʿīl were close friends, and it was for the latter that al-Rāzī composed his Book for Manṣūr (K. al-Manṣūrī).75

Ibn al-Nadīm continues:

Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Warrāq told me that an old man from Rayy whom he had asked about al-Rāzī said: ‘He was an old man with a head as large as a casket. He used to sit in his salon with his students beside him and their students beside them and even more students beside them. Someone would come and describe his symptoms to the first person he met and if he didn’t know the answer, the patient would pass on to one of the others. Al-Rāzī was honourable and esteemed, amenable to the people, and kind to the poor and the sick. He would even give them generous stipends and tend to them himself.

He was constantly writing and copying, and whenever I visited him he would always be writing either a draft or a fair copy. He suffered from moisture in his eyes due to the excessive eating of broad beans (bāqillāʾ),76 and he became blind toward the end of his life. Abū Bakr al-Rāzī used to say that he studied philosophy with al-Balkhī’.

Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm continues:

Abū Zayd al-Balkhī77 was from Balkh and used to wander round to various cities and travel in the land. He had a good knowledge of philosophy and the ancient sciences. It was said that al-Rāzī claimed al-Balkhī’s books on these subjects as his own. I – Ibn al-Nadīm – have seen in al-Balkhī’s handwriting a great many draft copies and notebooks on many subjects of which no complete book has ever been published. It is also said that al-Balkhī’s books are to be found in Khorasan. During the time of al-Rāzī there was a man known as Shahīd ibn al-Ḥusayn whose kunyah was Abū l-Ḥasan and who adopted al-Balkhī’s philosophy of knowledge. This man was the author of some books and held discussions with al-Rāzī in which each of them would offer criticisms of the other.78

[11.5.10]

I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that al-Rāzī was clever and intelligent. He was kind to his patients, striving to treat and cure them by all possible means. He constantly investigated the obscurities of the medical art and sought to discover its truths and secrets. It was the same with other disciplines, so much so that, for the greater part of his time, he had no want or concern except the study and examination of what the foremost scholars had set down in their books. In one of his own books I have even found a passage in which he states that he had a learned friend with whom he used to study the books of Hippocrates79 and Galen80 at night. There are many stories and lessons about al-Rāzī and the proficiency he attained in the medical art, his unique treatment of patients, the deductions he made about the prognosis of their cases, and his experience with the properties of drugs that were unknown to many other physicians. A great number of anecdotes are told of him and are related in many of his books, including some in a particular chapter of his Comprehensive Book (al-Kitāb al-Ḥāwī), and in his book On the Secret of Medicine (K. fī Sirr al-ṭibb).81

[11.5.11]

One anecdote about his innovative diagnoses and excellent deductions is related by Abū ʿAlī al-Muḥassin ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī al-Fahm al-Tanūkhī82 in his Book of Relief after Hardship (K. al-Faraj baʿd al-shiddah), as follows:

Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Khallāl al-Baṣrī Abū l-Ḥusayn – who was born into a family of judges – told me: ‘A certain reliable physician told me that a young man of Baghdad came to Rayy spitting up blood – something which had afflicted him during his journey. He summoned Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, the physician famous for his skill and author of writings, and showed him what he was spitting up and described to him his symptoms. Al-Rāzī took his pulse, examined his urine, and enquired about his condition from its beginning, but al-Rāzī could see no indication of any wasting disease or ulcer and could not identify the cause. Al-Rāzī asked the man to give him time to consider the matter, at which the man panicked and said, “I am done for, since even this physician with his great skill does not know the cause.” and his condition worsened. Then al-Rāzī had an idea. Returning to the man he asked him about the water he had drunk on his journey. When man told him that he had drunk from swamps and pools, it occurred to al-Rāzī’s sharp and intelligent mind that a leech had been in the water and had entered his stomach, and that the discharge of blood was due to its effect. He said to the man, “I will come in the morning and treat you, and I will not leave until you are cured. However, there is one condition, and that is that you order your servants to obey me in all I command them to do to you.” The man agreed and al-Rāzī left. Then al-Rāzī had two large tubs of green moss (ṭuḥlub akhḍar) gathered, which he brought with him to the man the next morning. Showing them to him, he said, “You must swallow everything in these two tubs!” The man swallowed a little, and then stopped. Al-Rāzī told him to swallow more, and when the man said that he couldn’t, al-Rāzī told the servants to take him and place him on his back. They did so, throwing him on his back and holding his mouth open, and al-Rāzī began to force the moss down the man’s throat, pressing it hard and demanding that he swallow it, like-it-or-not. He threatened to beat him, until he had made him swallow, against his will, one of the tubs in its entirety. And all the while the man was crying out for help, but nothing would avail him: al-Rāzī was relentless. Then the man said, “I am going to vomit,” at which point al-Rāzī stuffed more moss into his throat until the man vomited. When al-Rāzī examined the vomit, he found a leech in it that, since it was by nature attracted to the moss, had left its place and attached itself to it. When the man vomited, the leech emerged along with the moss. And the man got up, his health restored.’83

[11.5.12]

The Judge al-Tanūkhī also said:

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Rāzī, who was known as Ibn Ḥamdūn, told me that Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī al-Rāzī, the jurist, had told him that he had heard the following from Abū Bakr ibn Qārin al-Rāzī, the skilled physician. Abū Bakr Ibn Ḥamdūn’s account runs:

I met this man [Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī] who was proficient in many disciplines, including prophetic traditions which he would relate and people would record them from him. He was, however, considered to be an unreliable transmitter, although I have not heard this from him.

The Judge al-Tanūkhī says, ‘Despite my frequent meetings with Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, I have never heard him say this himself.’

Ibn Qārin al-Rāzī, who was a student of medicine under Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, continues:

I heard the following account from Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, the physician, after his return from being with the emir of Khorasan who had summoned him and was treated by him for a severe illness. He told me:

On my way to Nishapur I passed by Bistam,84 which is half way between Nishapur and Rayy. The governor of the city received me, took me to his home, and provided every service. He asked me to look at a son of his who had dropsy (istisqāʾ) and took me to an apartment which had been set aside for him where I saw the patient, but I had no hope of curing him. So I said some diverting words in the presence of the young man, but when I was alone with his father he asked me to tell him the truth, and so I told him that his son had no hope of living. ‘Allow him to do as he wishes,’ I said, ‘for he will not live.’

After a year I left Khorasan and passed by Bistam again, where the man received me on my return. When I met him I felt extremely ashamed, for I was sure that his son had died, and since I was the one who had foretold his death, I feared he might find me burdensome. The governor took me to his house, but I did not see anything to indicate that his son had died, although I was reluctant to ask him about his son lest I renew his grief. One day he said to me, ‘Do you recognize that young man?’, pointing to a handsome youth, healthy, strong, and sanguine, who was standing with the servants attending us. When I said that I didn’t, he said, ‘It is my son who you said would die when you went to Khorasan!’ I was astonished. ‘Tell me the cause of his recovery,’ I said, whereupon the man said to me:

When you left me, my son realized that you had told me he would not live, and he said to me, ‘I have no doubt that this man – the greatest physician of his time – has told you I will not live. I only ask that you keep away the servants (that is, my servants who attended him), for they are persons of my own age, and if I see them in good health, knowing that I am to die, it will cause a fever in my heart which will bring my death on even more quickly. So relieve me of this by not letting me see them and let so-and-so, my nurse,85 attend to me.’

I did as he asked, and every day, food for the nurse was brought along with what my son requested but not according to any particular diet. After some days, a dish of madira86 was brought for the nurse to eat, which she left in a place where my son could see it and then went about her chores. She told me that when she returned she saw that my son had eaten most of what was in the bowl87 with only a little remaining, the colour of which had changed.

In the old woman’s own words:

So I said to him, ‘What is this?’ He said, ‘Don’t go near the bowl’, and he pulled it towards himself, saying, ‘I saw a great viper that came out from its hiding-place and slid towards the bowl, ate from it, then regurgitated, after which the colour of the food became as you see. I thought to myself, I am dying and I do not want to suffer great pain, and I will never have a better chance than this. So I crawled to the bowl and ate from it what I could so that I might die quickly and be relieved. When I could eat no more I returned to my place until you came.’

The nurse continued:

I could see the madira on his hands and mouth, so I shrieked, but he said, ‘Don’t say anything to anyone, but bury the bowl and its contents in case someone eats it and dies or an animal eats it, bites a person and kills him.’ So I did as he said.

The father then continued:

Then the nurse came out to me, and when she had told me everything I was shocked and went to see my son, but found him asleep. So I said he was not to be woken until we saw what would happen. He woke at the end of the day, having sweated profusely, and asked to go to the bathroom. When he was taken there his bowels opened and that night and the next day he passed more than one hundred bowel movements, which only increased our despair. After a few days of this and little food he asked for some chicken, which he ate, and his strength began to return after his belly had been stuck to his back. Our hopes of his recovery became stronger and we kept him in isolation and his strength increased until he became as you see him now.

Al-Rāzī continues his narrative:

I was amazed at this, but recalled that the Ancients had said that when a person suffering from dropsy eats the flesh of an old and long-lived snake, hundreds of years old, he will be cured. ‘But had I told you that this was his cure you would have thought I was making false promises. And in any case, how can you tell the age of a snake even if we could find one? So I kept silent.’88

[11.5.13]

I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that there are a great many other similar anecdotes about al-Rāzī, a large collection of which I have included in my book Anecdotes of Physicians in Treating Illnesses (K. Ḥikāyāt al-aṭibbāʾ fī ʿilājāt al-adwāʾ).89

[11.5.14]

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī lived most of his life in Persia (bilād al-ʿajam), as it was his homeland and that of his family and brother. He was in service as physician to many of the greatest rulers of the Persians and it was there he composed many books on medicine and other subjects, including his book al-Manṣūrī for al-Manṣūr ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Khāqān, the governor of Khorasan and Transoxiana.90 He also composed the book which he named The Book of Regal Medicine (K. al-Ṭibb al-mulūkī) for ʿAlī, the son of the governor of Tabaristan.91 Al-Rāzī also excelled in the study of the philosophical disciplines and composed many books on these subjects, all of which indicate his excellent knowledge and superb mastery. At the beginning of his career he was concerned with magic and alchemy and the like. and composed some works on these subjects also.92

[11.5.15]

I quote here from a work in the handwriting of Bulmuẓaffar ibn Muʿarrif:93

Abū Bakr al-Rāzī used to say: ‘I do not consider anyone who has not studied the art of alchemy to be a proper philosopher, for only then will he have no need to earn a living from dubious people and will have no interest in what they own nor have any need of them.’

[11.5.16]

A certain physician told me:

Al-Rāzī once sold gold ingots to some Byzantines. They took them home with them, but a number of years later discovered that the colour of the ingots had changed somewhat and they realized they were fake so they made al-Rāzī take them back.

[11.5.17]

Another person said:

The vizier was once a guest at al-Rāzī’s house where he ate some food that was as delicious as could be. Afterwards the vizier contrived to buy one of the maids who cooked for al-Rāzī, thinking that she would cook similar food for him. When she made the food it was not the same and when the vizier asked her about this she said that the food was the same, but all the cooking pots at al-Rāzī’s house were of gold and silver. The vizier then imagined that this was the reason for the quality of the food and that al-Rāzī had acquired knowledge of alchemy. When the vizier summoned al-Rāzī and asked him to teach him what he knew of alchemy, al-Rāzī could tell him nothing and denied all knowledge of it, so the vizier had him secretly garroted.

[11.5.18]

It is said that early in his life al-Rāzī was a moneychanger. This is supported by an old manuscript I have seen of al-Rāzī’s book al-Manṣūrī, which has pages missing at the end and is badly deteriorated with age. Its title is in the same script as the rest of it and is as follows: ‘The Manṣūrī Compendium, composed by Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī the moneychanger (Ṣayrafī).’ The owner of the manuscript said that it was in the handwriting of al-Rāzī.

[11.5.19]

Al-Rāzī was a contemporary of Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn94 and others of the time. He became blind towards the end of his life due to fluid entering his eyes. When he was advised to have his eyes couched, he said, ‘No, I have seen enough of the world and am weary of it’, and refused to undergo the operation.95

[11.5.20]

Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥasan ibn Suwār ibn Bābā,96 who was a near contemporary of al-Rāzī, said that al-Rāzī died between the years 290 and 300-odd [between 903–921 approx.], but that he was unsure of the exact date.

[11.5.21]

I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – quote here from a manuscript of Bulmuẓaffar ibn Muʿarrif,97 which states that al-Rāzī died in the year 320 [932–933].

[11.5.22]

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl98 says:

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī had a great position in Rayy and the rest of the lands of the Jibāl,99 and he lived until the time of Ibn al-ʿAmīd,100 the master of al-Ṣāḥib ibn ʿAbbād,101 who is the one who published al-Rāzī’s book known as The Comprehensive Book (al-Kitāb al-Ḥāwī). The book was found in Rayy after al-Rāzī’s death, and Ibn al-ʿAmīd requested it from al-Rāzī’s sister and paid her many gold dinars until she produced the drafts of the book. Then, Ibn al-ʿAmīd brought together the physicians who had been al-Rāzī’s students in Rayy, and they arranged the book and it was published, disorganized though it is.

[11.5.23]

Aphorisms of Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī:

  1. Certainty in medicine is an unattainable goal, and the treatment of patients according to what is written in books, without the skilful physician using his own judgement, is fraught with danger.

  2. Frequent reading of scholarly books, and understanding the secrets therein, is beneficial to every serious scholar.

  3. Life is too short to understand the effect of every plant growing on earth, so use the most well-known for which there is a consensus and avoid the unusual. Confine yourself to what you have tried and tested.

  4. Whoever does not concern himself with the natural and philosophical sciences and the canons of logic, but inclines towards worldly pleasures, be suspicious of his knowledge, particularly with regard to the art of medicine.

  5. When Galen and Aristotle are in agreement on a matter then it is correct. When they disagree, it is very difficult for the intellect to grasp the truth of the matter.

  6. Hot illnesses are more lethal than cold ones due to the rapidity of the movement of fire.

  7. When convalescents crave a certain food which is harmful to them the physician should contrive to manage the situation in such a way as to replace that foodstuff with something whose qualities are appropriate, and not simply refuse the patients what they crave.

  8. The physician, even though he has his doubts, must always make the patient believe that he will recover, for the state of the body is linked to the state of the mind.

  9. Physicians who are illiterate and tradition bound, those who are young and inexperienced, those who are careless, and those who are debauched – they are lethal.

  10. It is incumbent upon the physician to not neglect to question the patient about all the internal and external symptoms caused by his illness, for then he can come to a much better conclusion.

  11. The patient should confine himself to a single trustworthy physician as he will err but little and often be correct.

  12. The student of medicine who studies with many doctors runs the risk of falling into the errors of each one of them.

  13. When the physician confines himself to experience (tajārib), without also using sound reasoning (qiyās) and consulting books, he will fail.

  14. Confidence should not be placed in the excellence of the medical care provided by a physician until he reaches maturity and gains experience.

  15. The physician’s behaviour should be balanced – neither completely concerned with worldly matters, nor completely absorbed in otherworldly matters – and so be positioned between hope and fear.

  16. As the longitude and latitude of the fixed stars change, so do the dispositions (akhlāq), temperaments, and habits of people change.

  17. In keeping with the differences between the latitudes of cities, there are differences in dispositions, temperaments, habits, and the nature of medicines and foodstuffs, so that a drug of the second degree may be in the fourth, and vice versa.

  18. If the physician is able to treat a patient using foodstuffs rather than medicines, he has been truly fortunate.

  19. Let yourself be guided by what is subject to the consensus of the physicians, attested by sound reasoning (qiyās), and supported by experience (tajribah), but do not do so if that is not the case.

[11.5.24]

As an example of Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī’s poetry:102

Upon my life, I don’t know, even now that decay announces
an imminent departure, where I shall travel,
Or where the spirit will dwell after its exiting
from the dissolved frame and the decayed body.

[11.5.25]

The following books were written by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī:103

  1. The Comprehensive Book ([al-] Kitāb al-Ḥāwī)104 which is al-Rāzī’s greatest and most magnificent book on the art of medicine. In it al-Rāzī gathers everything about diseases and their cures which he found to be dispersed among all other medical books from the Ancients and those who came after them until his own time and he attributes every quote to its source.105 However, al-Rāzī died before he was able to publish the book.106

  2. The book of logical demonstration (K. al-Burhān), in two maqālahs, the first of which contains seventeen sections, the second twelve sections.

  3. Spiritual Medicine (K. al-Ṭibb al-rūḥānī),107 also known as Medicine for Souls (Ṭibb al-nufūs), the purpose of which is moral improvement. It is in twenty sections.

  4. On the fact that mankind has a wise and proficient Creator (K. fī anna lil-insān khāliqan mutqinan ḥakīman), in which there are proofs from anatomy and the properties of bodily members indicating that the generation of human beings could not have come about by chance.

  5. Lectures on nature (K. Samʿ al-kiyān),108 which the author intended to be an introduction to natural philosophy, and to make it simple for the student to grasp the concepts dispersed throughout the books of physics.

  6. The Isagoge (K. al-Īsāghūjī), which is an introduction to logic.109

  7. A summary of the concepts of Aristotle’s Categories (Jumal maʿānī Qāṭīghūrīyās).

  8. A summary of the concepts of Aristotle’s On Interpretation (Jumal maʿānī Bārīmīnīyās).

  9. A summary of the concepts of Aristotle’s Prior Analytics (Jumal maʿānī Anālūṭīqā al-ūlā), up to the end of the [section on] categorical syllogisms (al-qiyāsāt al-ḥamliyyah).

  10. The book of cosmography (Kitāb Hayʾat al-ʿālam), in which the author sought to show that the earth is a sphere in the centre of the celestial sphere which has two poles upon which it revolves, and that the sun is larger than the earth and the moon smaller than it, and so on and so forth.

  11. On geometers who hold to the pre-eminence of geometry (Kitāb fī man istaʿmala tafḍīl al-handasah min al-mawsūmīn bi-l-handasah), in which the author clarifies the scope of geometry and its use and refutes those who elevate it beyond its true worth.

  12. An essay on why the Simoom wind110 kills most animals (M. fī al-sabab fī qatl rīḥ al-samūm li-akthar al-ḥayawān).

  13. On what took place between al-Rāzī and Sīsin al-Mannānī111 (K. fī mā jarā baynahu wa-bayna Sīsin al-Mannānī), in which al-Rāzī shows the error of Sīsin’s doctrines and the corruptness of his Law. In seven discourses.

  14. On pleasure (K. fī l-Ladhdhah), in which his intention is to show that it is a part of comfort (al-rāḥah).112 In a single discourse.

  15. On the reason for Autumn being the cause of illnesses, and Spring being the opposite; even though the sun is in a single orbit during these two seasons (M. fī l-ʿIllah allatī lahā ṣār al-kharīf mumarriḍan wa-l-rabīʿ bi-l-ḍidd ʿalā ann al-shams fī hādhayn al-zamānayn fī madār wāḥid). This he wrote for a certain state official.

  16. On the difference between premonitory dreams and other types of dreams (K. fī l-farq bayna al-ruʾyā al-mundhirah wa-sāʾir ḍurūb al-ruʾyā).

  17. Doubts and contradictions which are in the Books of Galen (K. al-shukūk wa-l-munāqaḍāt allatī fī kutub Jālīnūs).113

  18. On how vision occurs (K. fī kayfiyyat al-ibṣār), in which he shows that vision does not occur due to a ray which emanates from the eye, and in which he invalidates certain figures (ashkāl) from Euclid’s Optics.114

  19. On the refutation of al-Nāshiʾ115 and his ten questions by which he sought to invalidate the medical art (K. fī l-radd ʿalā l-Nāshiʾ fī masāʾilihi al-ʿasharah allatī rāma bihā naqḍ al-ṭibb).

  20. On diseases of the joints, and gout, and sciatica (K. fī ʿilal al-mafāṣil wa-l-niqris wa-ʿirq al-nisā), in twenty-two sections.116

  21. Another smaller book on joint pain (K. ākhar ṣaghīr fī wajaʿ al-mafāṣil).

  22. The twelve books on the ‘Art’117 (al-ithnā ʿasharah kitāban fī l-ṣanʿah):

    1. The Instructional Introduction (K. al-Mudkhal al-taʿlīmī).118

    2. The Demonstrative Introduction (K. al-Mudkhal al-burhānī).119

    3. The Book of Affirmation (K. al-Ithbāt).120

    4. The Book of Regulation (K. al-Tadbīr).

    5. The Book of the Stone (K. al-Ḥajar).

    6. The Book of the Elixir (K. al-Iksīr). In ten chapters

    7. The Book of the Nobility and Merit of the Art (K. Sharaf al-ṣināʿah wa-faḍlihā).

    8. The Book of Arrangement (K. al-Tartīb).121

    9. The Book of Regulations (K. al-Tadābīr).

    10. The Book of Quotations and Symbols (K. al-Shawāhid wa-nukat al-rumūz).

    11. The Book of Love (K. al-Maḥabbah).

    12. The Book of Artifices (K. al-Ḥiyal).

  23. A book on the fact that the art of alchemy is more likely to exist than not exist, which he named The Book of Affirmation (K. al-Ithbāt).122

  24. The Book of Stones (K. al-Aḥjār), in which he shows what is needed for this task.

  25. The Book of Secrets (K. al-Asrār).

  26. The Secret of Secrets (K. Sirr al-asrār).

  27. The Book of Classification (K. al-Tabwīb).

  28. The Epistle of the Special Property. (K. Risālat al-khāṣṣah).123

  29. The Book of the Yellow Stone (K. al-Ḥajar al-aṣfar).124

  30. The Epistles of the Kings (K. Rasāʾil al-mulūk).

  31. The refutation of al-Kindī’s belief in the impossibility of the Art of Alchemy (K. al-Radd ʿalā l-Kindī fī idkhālihi ṣināʿat al-kīmiyāʾ fī l-mumtaniʿ).

  32. On the fact that an excessive diet and hastening to take drugs and limiting food does not preserve the health but brings about illnesses (K. fī ann al-ḥimyah al-mufriṭah wa-l-mubādarah ilā l-adwiyah wa-l-taqlīl min al-aghdhiyah lā taḥfaẓ al-ṣiḥḥah bal tajlib al-amrāḍ).

  33. On the fact that ignorant physicians – out of ignorance and folly – treat their patients harshly by forbidding them what they crave even when they are not seriously ill (M. fī anna juhhāl al-aṭibbāʾ yushaddidūna ʿalā l-marḍā fī manʿihim min shahawātihim wa-in lam yakun bi-him kabīr maraḍ jahlan wa-juzāfan).

  34. The conduct of the philosophers (K. Sīrat al-ḥukamāʾ).

  35. On the fact that the clay eaten as an accompaniment to wine has beneficial properties (M. fī anna al-ṭīn al-mutanaqqal bihi fīhi manāfiʿ).125 This he wrote for Abū Ḥāzim al-Qāḍī.

  36. On smallpox and measles (M. fī l-judarī wa-l-ḥaṣbah). In fourteen chapters.

  37. On stones in the kidneys and bladder (M. fī l-ḥaṣā fī l-kulā wa-l-mathānah).

  38. A book for those without a physician (K. ilā man lā yaḥḍuruhu ṭabīb), in which his aim was to explain illnesses at great length. In it he lists illnesses one by one and states that it is possible to cure them using commonly-found drugs. It is also known as The Poor Man’s Book of Medicine (K. Ṭibb al-fuqarāʾ).126

  39. Commonly-found drugs (K. al-Adwiyah al-mawjūdah bi-kull makān), in which he mentions drugs sufficient for a skilful physician when used with what may be found in kitchens and houses.

  40. On refuting al-Jāḥiẓ’s invalidation of the art of medicine (K. fī l-radd ʿalā l-Jāḥiẓ fī naqḍ ṣināʿat al-ṭibb).

  41. On al-Jāḥiẓ’s contradictions in his book ‘On the merit of scholastic theology’, and his harsh treatment of the philosophers therein (K. fī tanāquḍ qawl al-Jāḥiẓ fī kitābihi fī faḍīlat al-kalām wa-mā ghalaẓa fīhi ʿalā l-falāsifah).127

  42. Divisions and diagrams (K. al-Taqsīm wa-l-tashjīr) in which the author explains the divisions, causes, and treatment of diseases divided and arranged in diagrammatic format.128

  43. Regal Medicine (K. al-Ṭibb al-mulūkī), on illnesses and the treatment of all diseases through nutrition and the addition of medicine to food where necessary and where the patient is amenable to it.129

  44. On partial paralysis (K. fī l-Fālij).

  45. On facial paralysis (K. fī l-Laqwah).130

  46. On the form of the eye (K. fī Hayʾat al-ʿayn).

  47. On the form of the kidneys (K. fī Hayʾat al-kabid).

  48. On the form of the testicles (K. fī Hayʾat al-unthayayn).

  49. On the form of the heart (K. fī Hayʾat al-qalb).

  50. On the form of the ear hole (K. fī Hayʾat al-ṣimākh).

  51. On the form of the joints (K. fī Hayʾat al-mafāṣil).

  52. A medical formulary (Aqrābādhīn).131

  53. A criticism of and essay on the Muʿtazilites (K. fī l-Intiqād wa-l-taḥrīr ʿalā l-Muʿtazilah).

  54. On the bitter cucumber (K. fī l-khiyār al-murr).

  55. On how nourishment takes place (K. fī Kayfiyyat al-ightidhāʾ). This is a compendium of sayings regarding mineral medicines.

  56. On the weights of compund drugs (K. fī Athqāl al-adwiyah al-murakkabah).

  57. On the occult properties of things (K. fī khawāṣṣ al-ashyāʾ).

  58. A great book on primordial matter (K. kabīr fī l-hayūlā).

  59. On the reason the Earth stands at the centre of the heavenly sphere in orbit (K. fī sabab wuqūf al-arḍ wasaṭ al-falak ʿalā istidārah).

  60. On the invalidity of Ibn al-Tammār’s132 Spiritual Medicine (K. fī naqḍ al-Ṭibb al-Rūḥānī ʿalā Ibn al-Tammār).

  61. On the fact that it is not possible for the world to be other than as we see it to be (K. fī ann al-ʿālam lā yumkin an yakūn illā ʿalā mā nushāhiduhu).

  62. On motion and the fact that it is not visible but rather known (K. fī l-Ḥarakah wa annahā laysat marʾiyyah bal maʿlūmah).

  63. An essay on that fact that bodies are impelled by themselves and that motion is a natural principle (M. fī anna lil-jism taḥrīkan min dhātihi wa-ann al-ḥarakah mabdaʾ ṭabīʿī).

  64. A poem on logical matters (Qaṣīdah fī l-manṭiqiyyāt).

  65. A poem on metaphysics (Qaṣīdah fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī).

  66. A poem on Greek counsel (Qaṣīdah fī l-ʿiẓah al-Yūnāniyyah).

  67. The book of spheres and measures, abridged (K. al-Kurā wa-maqādīr mukhtaṣarah).

  68. On explaining the cause of the fact that heat can be countered, at times by removing clothes, and at others by putting them on (K. fī īḍāḥ al-ʿillah allatī bi-hā yudfaʿ al-ḥarr marratan bi-l-taʿarrī wa-marratan bi-l-tadaththur).133

  69. On setting broken bones and how the pain of it subsides and the indications of its heat or cold (K. fī l-jabr wa-kayfa yaskunu alamuhu wa-mā ʿalāmat al-ḥarr fīhi wa-l-bard).

  70. On the things which divert the minds of most people away from excellent physicians and towards base physicians (M. fī l-asbāb al-mumayyilah li-qulūb akthar al-nās ʿan afāḍil al-aṭibbāʾ ilā akhissāʾihim).

  71. On the foods and fruits which should be taken at the beginning of a meal and those which should be taken at the end (M. fī-mā yanbaghī an yuqaddam min al-aghdhiyah wa-l-fawākih wa-mā yuʾakhkhar minhā).134

  72. A reply to Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī’s135 refutation of Galen on the subject of bitter foods (M. fī l-radd ʿalā Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī fī-mā radda bihi ʿalā Jālīnūs fī amr al-ṭaʿām al-murr).

  73. A refutation of the theologian al-Mismaʿī’s136 refutation of the Materialists (K. fī l-radd ʿalā al-Mismaʿī al-Mutakallim fī raddihi ʿalā Aṣḥāb al-hayūlā).

  74. On time-span – i.e., time – and on the vacuum and the plenum – i.e., space (K. fī l-muddah wa-hiya al-zamān wa-fī l-khalāʾ wa-l-malāʾ wa-humā l-zamān).

  75. An essay explaining the error of Jarīr the Physician137 when he disputed al-Rāzī’s advice to the emir Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl138 to take Syrian mulberries139 directly after watermelon while in his condition, and clarifying his reason for doing so (M. abāna fī-hā khaṭaʾ Jarīr al-Ṭabīb fī inkārihi mashwaratahu ʿalā al-Amīr Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl fī tanāwul al-tūt al-shāmī ʿalā athar al-biṭṭīkh fī ḥālihi wa-īḍāḥ ʿudhrihi fīhā).140

  76. Refutation of Anebo’s141 letter to Porphyry explaining Aristotle’s metaphysicial doctrines (K. fī naqḍ kitāb Anābū ilā Furfūriyūs fī sharḥ madhāhib Arisṭūṭālīs fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī).

  77. On metaphysics (K. fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī).

  78. On universal and particular matter (K. fī l-hayūlā al-muṭlaqah wa-l-juzʾiyyah).

  79. A letter to Abū l-Qāsim al-Balkhī142 with supplementary responses to his answer and his answer to his respone (K. ilā Abī l-Qāsim al-Balkhī wa-l-ziyādah ʿalā jawābihi wa-jawāb hādhā l-jawāb).

  80. On metaphysics according to the doctrine of Plato143 (K. fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī ʿalā raʾy Aflāṭūn).

  81. A refutation of the contradictions in the second discourse of Abū l-Qāsim al-Balkhī’s book on metaphysics (K. fī l-radd ʿalā Abī l-Qāsim al-Balkhī fī-mā nāqaḍa bihi fī l-maqālah al-thāniyah min kitābihi fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī).144

  82. On testing gold and silver and the natural balance (K. fī miḥnat al-dhahab wa-l-fiḍḍah wa-l-mīzān al-ṭabīʿī).

  83. On being established in wisdom (K. fī l-thubūt fī l-ḥikmah).

  84. An apology for those who play chess (K. fī ʿudhr man ishtaghal bi-l-shaṭranj).

  85. On the wisdom of backgammon (K. fī ḥikmat al-nard).

  86. On the tricks of those who claim to be prophets (K. fī ḥiyal al-mutanabbiʾīn).145

  87. On the fact that the world has a wise creator (K. fī anna li-l-ʿālam khāliqan ḥakīman).

  88. On sexual intercourse (K. fī l-bāh). This book explains mixtures (amzāj) and the benefit and harm of intercourse.146

  89. An appendix to the book On Sexual Intercourse (K. al-ziyādah allatī zādahā fī l-bāh).

  90. The Book for Manṣūr (K. al-Manṣūrī).147 Al-Rāzī composed this for the emir Manṣūr ibn Isḥāq ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad governor of Khorasan.148 It is concise and brief while comprising sentences and summaries, points and rarities of both the theory and practice of the art of medicine in ten discourses:

    1. An introduction to medicine and on the form and generation of bodily members.

    2. On the constitutions and forms of bodies and the humours which preponderate in them and brief diagnoses obtained through examination.

    3. On the efficacy of foodstuffs and drugs.

    4. On the preservation of health.

    5. On cosmetics.

    6. On regimen for travellers.

    7. Sentences and summaries from the art of bonesetting, surgery, and ulcers.

    8. On poisons and venomous vermin.

    9. On diseases which may occur [in the body] from head to foot.

    10. On fevers and their consequences and what needs to be known in order to establish a cure for them.

  91. A discourse on natural science appended to The Manṣūrī Book (M. aḍāfahā ilā K. al-Manṣūrī wa-hiya fī l-umūr al-ṭabīʿiyyah).

  92. The Compendious Book ([al-] Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ).149 It is also called The all-encompassing book of the art of medicine (ḥāṣir ṣināʿat al-ṭibb). Al-Rāzī’s purpose in this book was to collect in one place, and in every branch, all the books of medicine whether ancient or modern that were available to him. It is divided into twelve sections:

    1. On the preservation of health, the treatment of diseases, dislocation and fractures, and other treatments.

    2. On the efficacy of drugs and foodstuffs and the requisites for medical regimen.

    3. On compound drugs. In this al-Rāzī discusses the requisite drugs in the form of a medical formulary.

    4. On the powdering, burning, distilling, and washing of drugs, and on extracting and preserving their useful properties, and on the extent they remain efficacious for each drug, and so on.

    5. On the dispensatory for medicine in which drugs are described along with their colours, tastes, odours, and sources, and those which are of good quality and those of poor quality, and other things necessary for a dispensatory.

    6. On substitute drugs. In this al-Rāzī describes what may replace each drug or foodstuff when it is not to be found.

    7. An explanation of the names, weights and measures used for drugs as well as naming the bodily members and diseases in Greek, Syriac, Persian, Indic, and Arabic as in the books called Bashaqshamāhī.150

    8. On anatomy and the usefulness of the bodily parts.

    9. On natural causes as part of the art of medicine. Al-Rāzī’s intention in this was to clarify the causes of diseases through natural science.

    10. An introduction to the art of medicine. This is in two discourses: the first on natural science, and the second on the principles of medicine.

    11. Collected treatments and recipes and such like.

    12. Appendices to the books of Galen151 which were not mentioned by Ḥunayn152 nor are in Galen’s Pinax.153

      I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that the divisions given here are not those of his book known as al-Ḥāwī, nor are they satisfactory [marḍī]. It is possible that these were drafts of books of al-Rāzī found after his death arranged in this way and considered to be a single book. This is supported by the fact that I have not seen any copy of this book nor have I heard of anyone who has seen it.

  93. The Precious Book on Medicine ([al-]Kitāb al-Fākhir fī l-ṭibb).154 This book has been recorded as being one of al-Rāzī’s books since it has been attributed to him and is commonly thought to be so. In sum, it is an excellent book in which the author encompasses discussion of diseases and their cures, and the best treatments for them in a most perfect and excellent way. The greater part of it is taken from al-Rāzī’s Book of Divisions and Diagrams (K. al-taqsīm wa-l-tashjīr),155 and from the Medical Compendium of Ibn Sarābiyūn.156 Everything in it by al-Rāzī begins ‘Muḥammad said’. Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh157 wrote a gloss on this book, which is by al-Rāzī, saying, the ‘Muḥammad said’ often mentioned by al-Rāzī in The Precious Book is someone known as al-Ḥasan the physician to al-Muqtadir. He was a physician in Baghdad skilled in knowledge of medicine and whose house was a house known for medicine. He had three brothers one of whom was a skilled oculist known as Sulaymān, another – a physician but not of their rank known as Hārūn, and a third – a druggist of great repute in Baghdad for his profession and who had authored an extraordinary medical compendium (Kunnāsh) of his tested remedies. The compendium, however, is rarely to be found outside Baghdad.

  94. On why that which is removed from the body does not reattach itself to it though small, yet great wounds which are not removed from the body do reattach even though they are much larger (K. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā ṣāra matā nqaṭaʿa min al-badan shayʾ ḥattā yatabarraʾa minhu annahu lā yaltaṣiq bihi wa-in kāna ṣaghīran wa-yalṣaqu bihi min al-jirāḥāt al-ʿaẓīmat al-qadr ghayr al-mutabarraʾah bihi mā huwa aʿẓam min dhālik bi-kathīr).

  95. On water chilled over ice, water chilled without ice being put into it, water boiled and then chilled in ice (R. fī l-māʾ al-mubarrad ʿalā al-thalj wa-l-mubarrad min ghayr an yuṭraḥ fīhi l-thalj wa-lladhī yughlā thumma yubarrad fī l-jalīd wa-l-thalj).

  96. On why fresh fish causes thirst (R. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā ṣār al-samak al-ṭarī muʿaṭṭishan).

  97. On the fact that no non-intoxicating drink exists that delivers all the good effects of intoxicating drink on the body (R. fī annahu la yūjad sharāb ghayr muskir yafī bi-jamīʿ afʿāl al-sharāb al-muskir al-maḥmūd fī l-badan).

  98. On the signs of approaching good fortune (K. fī ʿalāmāt iqbāl al-dawlah).

  99. On the superiority of the eye over the other senses (K. fī faḍl al-ʿayn ʿalā sāʾir al-ḥawāss).

  100. On the fact that the rising and setting of the sun and the other planets is not due to the movement of the earth but rather the movement of the celestial sphere (R. fī anna ghurūb al-shams wa-sāʾir al-kawākib ʿannā wa-ṭulūʿahā ʿalaynā laysa min ajl ḥarakat al-arḍ bal min ḥarakat al-falak).

  101. On logic (K. fī l-manṭiq), in which al-Rāzī mentions everything required of logic using the vocabulary of the theologians of Islam.

  102. An invalidation of the opinion of those who imagine that the planets are not in orbit and such like (K. fī faskh ẓann man yatawahham ann al-kawākib laysat fī nihāyat al-istidārah wa-ghayr dhālik).

  103. On the fact that someone who has had no training in logical demonstration cannot conceive that the earth is a sphere with humans around it (K. fī annahu lā yutaṣawwar liman lā durbah lahu bi-l-burhān ann al-arḍ kuriyyah wa-ann al-nās ḥawlahā).

  104. A study of whether the natural earth is clay or stone, a part of physics (R. yabḥathu fīhā ʿan al-arḍ al-ṭabīʿiyyah ṭīn hiya am ḥajar dākhil samʿ al-kiyān).

  105. An explanation of the fact that there are two types of composition/synthesis, etc. (K. yuwaḍḍiḥu fīhi ann al-tarkīb nawʿān wa-ghayr dhālik).

  106. On habits and the fact that they are subject to natural changes (M. fī l-ʿādah wa-annahā tuḥawwalu ṭabīʿatan).

  107. On the benefits of constantly blinking the eyelids (M. fī al-manfaʿah fī iṭrāf al-ajfān dāʾiman).

  108. On what causes the eyes to contract in the light and to dilate in the dark (M. fī l-ʿillah allatī min ajlihā taḍīq al-nawāẓir fī l-nūr wa-tattasiʿ fī l-ẓulmah).

  109. On what causes ignorant people to claim that ice causes thirst (M. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā tazʿumu al-juhhāl ann al-thalj yuʿaṭṭish).

  110. On what causes ice to burn and wound (M. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā yuḥriq al-thalj wa-yaqraḥ).

  111. On foods for patients (K. aṭʿimah al-marḍā).

  112. Appendices to the chapter in theology on those who believe that bodies come into being and those who believe they are eternal (M. fīmā istadrakahu min al-faṣl fī l-kalām fī l-qāʾilīn bi-ḥadath al-ajsām wa-ʿalā l-qāʾilīn bi-qidamihā).

  113. On the fact that some minor illnesses are more difficult to diagnose and treat, etc. (K. fī ann al-ʿilal al-yasīrah baʿḍuhā aʿsar taʿarrufan wa-ʿilājan wa-ghayr dhālik).

  114. On what causes the public to blame skilled physicians (K. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā tadhumm al-ʿawāmm al-aṭibbāʾ al-ḥudhdhāq).

  115. On problem diseases and excusing the physician, etc. (R. fī l-ʿilal al-mushkilah wa-ʿudhr al-ṭabīb wa-ghayr dhālik).

  116. On illnesses which, due to their severity, cause death, and those which cause death due to their sudden onset such that the physician is unable to cure them, and excusing the physician for this (R. fī l-ʿilal al-qātilah li-ʿiẓamihā wa-l-qātilah li-ẓuhūrihā baghtah mimmā lā yaqdir al-ṭabīb ʿalā ṣalāḥihā wa-ʿudhrihi fī dhālik).

  117. A book on the fact that the skilled physician is not he who is able to cure all diseases for this is not possible, nor is it part of the Hippocratic Art. The physician should be shown gratitude and praise and the art of medicine should be respected and honoured even though he is not yet capable of this [i.e. curing all diseases] and he should be the foremost of his nation and his era (K. fī ann al-ṭabīb al-ḥādhiq laysa huwa man qadara ʿalā ibrāʾ jamīʿ al-ʿilal fa-inna dhālik lays fī l-wusʿ wa-lā fī ṣināʿat Buqrāṭ wa-annahu qad yastaḥiqqu an yushkar al-ṭabīb wa-yumdaḥ wa-an taʿẓum ṣināʿat al-ṭibb wa-tashraf wa-in huwa lam yaqdir ʿalā dhālik baʿd an yakūn mutaqaddiman fī baladihi wa-ʿaṣrih).

  118. On the fact that, for all the arts, there does not exist a practitioner recognized for his art, and this is particularly so for medicine, and on what causes ignorant physicians, the general public, and women in the cities to be more successful in some of their treatments of diseases than the learned, and on excusing the physician for this (R. fī anna al-ṣāniʿ al-mutaʿarrif bi-ṣināʿatihi maʿdūm fī jull al-ṣināʿāt lā fī l-ṭibb khāṣṣah wa-l-ʿillah allatī min ajlihā ṣāra yanjaḥu juhhāl al-aṭibbāʾ wa-l-ʿawāmm wa-l-nisāʾ fī l-mudun fī ʿilāj baʿḍ al-amrāḍ akthar min al-ʿulamāʾ wa-ʿudhr al-ṭabīb fī dhālik).

  119. On the tried and tested in medicine (K. al-mumtaḥan fī l-ṭibb) in the form of a compendium (kunnāsh).

  120. On the fact that the soul is not a body (K. fī ann al-nafs laysat bi-jism).

  121. On the seven planets: on wisdom (K. fī l-kawākib al-sabʿah fī l-ḥikmah).

  122. An epistle to al-Ḥasan ibn Isḥāq ibn Muḥārib al-Qummī158 (R. ilā al-Ḥasan ibn Isḥāq ibn Muḥārib al-Qummī).

  123. On the deluded soul (K. fī l-nafs al-mughtarrah).

  124. On the lofty soul (K. fī l-nafs al-kabīrah).

  125. On what causes Abū Zayd al-Balkhī159 to have symptoms of a common cold when he smells roses in springtime (M. fī l-ʿillah allatī min ajlihā yaʿriḍ al-zukām li-Abī Zayd al-Balkhī fī faṣl al-rabīʿ ʿinda shammihi l-ward).160

  126. On the physician’s profession, and how his self, body, conduct, and manners ought to be (R. fī miḥnat al-ṭabīb wa-kayfa yanbaghī an yakūna ḥāluhu fī nafsihi wa-badanihi wa-sīratihi wa-adabih).

  127. On the extent to which the opinions of the natural philosophers about stellar judgements may be understood, and on those who did not believe that the planets were living beings, and on what may be understood according to the opinions of those who believed they were living beings (R. fī miqdār mā yumkinu an yustadraka min aḥkām al-nujūm ʿalā raʾy al-falāsifah al-ṭabīʿiyyīn wa-man lam yaqul minhum inn al-kawākib aḥyāʾ wa-mā yumkinu an yustadraka ʿalā raʾy man qāla innahā aḥyāʾ).

  128. On the reason that sleep causes some people to experience symptoms of the common cold in their heads (K. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā ṣāra yuḥdith al-nawm fī ruʾūs baʿḍ al-nās shabīhan bi-l-zukām).

  129. On doubts about Proclus161 (K. fī l-shukūk allatī ʿalā Buruqlus).

  130. On Plutarch’s162 commentary on the Timaeus (K. fī tafsīr Aflūṭarkhus li-kitāb Ṭīmāwus).

  131. On the reason for the creation of wild beasts and venomous vermin (R. fī ʿillat khalq al-sibāʿ wa-l-hawāmm).

  132. A completion of the contradictions of the Materialists (K. fī itmām mā nāqaḍa bihi l-qāʾilīn bi-l-hayūlā).

  133. On the fact that the contradictions between Materialists and Monotheists on the cause of the coming into being of the world are allowable due to the lack of a mark for the causes of action, either according to those who believe the world endures, or according to those who believe it is eternal (K. fī ann al-munāqaḍah allatī bayn ahl al-dahr wa-ahl al-tawḥīd fī sabab iḥdāth al-ʿālam innamā jāza min nuqṣān al-simah fī asbāb al-fiʿl baʿḍuhu ʿalā l-tamādiyah wa-baʿḍuhu ʿalā l-qāʾilīn bi-qidam al-ʿālam).

  134. On refuting the contradictions of ʿAlī ibn Shahīd al-Balkhī163 regarding pleasure (K. fī naqḍihi ʿalā ʿAlī ibn Shahīd al-Balkhī fīmā nāqaḍahu bihi fī amr al-ladhdhah).

  135. On exercise (K. fī l-riyāḍah).

  136. A refutation of al-Kayyāl’s164 views on the Imamate (K. fī l-naqḍ ʿalā l-Kayyāl fī l-imāmah).

  137. On the impossibility of there being stasis and separation (K. fī annahu lā yajūzu an yakūna sukūn wa-iftirāq).

  138. A completion of Plutarch’s Book (K. fī itmām Kitāb Aflūṭarkhus).

  139. A refutation of the Book of Regimens (K. fī naqḍ Kitāb al-Tadbīr).

  140. An abridgement of Galen’s Method of Healing (Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Ḥīlat al-burʾ li-Jālīnūs).165

  141. An abridgement of Galen’s The Great Book of the Pulse (Ikhtiṣār Kitāb al-Nabḍ al-kabīr li-Jālīnūs).166

  142. An epitome of Galen’s Causes and Symptoms (Talkhīṣ Kitāb al-ʿIlal wa-l-aʿrāḍ li-Jālīnūs).167

  143. An epitome of Galen’s Affected Locations (Talkhīṣ Kitāb al-Aʿḍāʾ al-ālimah li-Jālīnūs).168

  144. A critique of the Muʿtazilites (K. al-intiqād ʿalā ahl al-iʿtizāl).

  145. A refutation of and reply to al-Balkhī’s169 book on the Metaphysics (K. fī naqḍ kitāb al-Balkhī li-Kitāb al-ʿIlm al-ilāhī wa-l-radd ʿalayhi).

  146. On the fact that it is possible for there to be stasis and union, but not for there to be perpetual motion and union (K. fī annahu yajūzu an yakūna sukūn wa-ijtimāʿ wa-lā yajūzu an yakūna ḥarakah wa-ijtimāʿ lam yazal).

  147. On the fact that the diagonal of a square does not share in its side (without the use of geometry) (R. fī anna quṭr al-murabbaʿ lā yushārik al-ḍilʿ min ghayr handasah).

  148. On sympathy for the learned who discourse on philosophy (K. fī l-ishfāq ʿalā ahl al-taḥṣīl min al-mutakallimīn bi-l-falsafah). The purpose of this book is to clarify the doctrines of the philosophers with regard to metaphysics so that the reader may be relieved of having to come to him.

  149. On virtuous conduct and the conduct of the people of the virtuous city (K. fī l-sīrah al-fāḍilah wa-sīrat ahl al-madīnah al-fāḍilah).

  150. On the necessity of prayers and supplications (K. fī wujūb al-duʿāʾ wa-l-daʿāwā).

  151. The Conclusion (K. al-Ḥāṣil), in which the author’s purpose is metaphysics derived via aspiration and via logical demonstration.

  152. A fine epistle on metaphysics (Risālah laṭīfah fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī).

  153. On the benefits of foodstuffs and preventing their harmful properties (K. manāfiʿ al-aghdhiyah wa-dafʿ maḍārrihā) in two discourses. The first treats of things which repel the harm of foodstuffs according to every season, constitution, and situation. The second treats of two topics: how to use foodstuffs, and how to prevent indigestion (al-takhm) and its ill effects. This al-Rāzī wrote for the emir Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī.

  154. An epistle to ʿAlī ibn Shahīd al-Balkhī170 affirming resurrection after death (R. ilā ʿAlī ibn Shahīd al-Balkhī fī tathbīt al-maʿād), the purpose of which was to refute those who denied resurrection and to affirm it.

  155. On what causes the magnetic stone to attract iron (K. fī ʿillat jadhb ḥajar al-maghniṭīs li-l-ḥadīd), in which there is much discourse about empty space (khalāʾ/vacuum).

  156. A large book on the soul (Kitāb kabīr fī l-nafs).

  157. A small book on the soul (Kitāb ṣaghīr fī l-nafs).

  158. On the equilbrium of the intellect (K. mīzān al-ʿaql).

  159. On intoxicating beverages (K. fī al-sharāb al-muskir), in two discourses.

  160. On oxymel and its beneficial and harmful properties (M. fī l-sikanjubīn wa-manāfiʿihi wa-maḍārrihi).

  161. On colic (K. fī l-qūlanj).171

  162. On the hot colic (M. fī l-qūlanj al-ḥārr), this is known as The Small Book on Colic (K. al-qūlanj al-ṣaghīr).

  163. On Galen’s Commentary on Hippocrates’ Aphorisms (K. fī tafsīr Jālīnūs li-Fuṣūl Abuqrāṭ).172

  164. On the craving to be sodomized, treatment and elucidation (K. fī l-ubnah wa-ʿilājihā wa-tabyīnihā).

  165. A refutation of Manṣūr ibn Ṭalḥah’s173 Book of Being (K. fī naqḍ Kitāb al-Wujūd li-Manṣūr ibn Ṭalḥah).

  166. On publicizing his claims about the vices of the Saints (K. fīmā yarūmuhu min iẓhār mā yaddaʿī min ʿuyūb al-awliyāʾ).

    I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that this book, if he did indeed compose it (and God only knows), may have been composed by an evil opponent of al-Rāzī and attributed to him so that whoever comes to see it or hear of it will form a bad opinion of al-Rāzī. Al-Rāzī, however, is far above having any dealings with such a subject or compiling a work on this matter. Even some of those who criticize al-Rāzī – or rather excommunicate him – such as ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān174 of Egypt and others name this book al-Rāzī’s book on the false-miracles of the Prophets (K. al-Rāzī fī makhārīq al-anbiyāʾ).175

  167. On the works of the eminent and impeccable Imam (K. fī āthār al-Imām al-fāḍil al-maʿṣūm).

  168. On purging fevered patients before maturation of the fever (K. fī istifrāgh al-maḥmūmīn qabl al-naḍj).

  169. On the rightful Imam and his rightful subjects (K. al-Imām wa-l-maʾmūm al-muḥiqqayn).

  170. On the qualities of students (K. fī khawāṣṣ al-talāmīdh).

  171. On the conditions of disputation (K. fī shurūṭ al-naẓar).

  172. On natural opinions (K. al-ārāʾ al-ṭabīʿiyyah).

  173. On the error of the purpose of the physician (K. khaṭaʾ gharaḍ al-ṭabīb).

  174. Poems on metaphysics (Ashʿār fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī).

  175. A recipe for an ink paste which has no equal (Ṣifat midād maʿjūn lā naẓīra lahu).

  176. A versification of Jābir’s176 Book of the Fundament (Naql Kitāb al-Uss li-Jābir ilā l-shiʿr).177

  177. On synthesis (R. fī l-tarkīb).

  178. On the qualities of grammar (R. fī kayfiyyat al-naḥw).

  179. On thirst and how it causes increase in temperature (R. fī l-ʿaṭash wa-izdiyād al-ḥarārah li-dhālik).

  180. On the generalities of music (K. fī jumal al-mūsīqī).

  181. On imaginations and emotions (K. fī l-awhām wa-l-ḥarakāt al-nafsāniyyah).

  182. On surgery and bonesetting (K. fī l-ʿamal bi-l-ḥadīd wa-l-jabr).

  183. On beliefs derived from his own judgement (K. fīmā yaʿtaqiduhu raʾyan).

  184. On things neglected by the philosophers (K. fīmā aghfalat’hu l-falāsifah).

  185. The Secret: on wisdom (K. al-Sirr fī l-ḥikmah).

  186. On the usefulness of bodily members (K. manāfiʿ al-aʿḍāʾ).

  187. The Sufficiency: on medicine (K. al-Kāfī fī l-ṭibb).178

  188. On condiments [taken with wine] (K. fī l-mutanaqqal).

  189. The abridged medical formulary (K. al-aqrābādhīn al-mukhtaṣar).179

  190. On curing (K. fī l-burʾ), in which al-Rāzī shows that composition is of two types: composition of differing bodies, and composition of bodies with similar parts and that in reality one is not like the other.

  191. A letter to Abū l-Qāsim ibn Abī Dulaf180 about philosophy (K. ilā Abī l-Qāsim ibn Abī Dulaf fī l-ḥikmah).

  192. A letter to ʿAlī ibn Wahbān181 containing a single chapter about the sun (K. ilā ʿAlī ibn Wahbān fīhi bāb wāḥid fī l-shams).

  193. A letter to Ibn Abī l-Sāj182 about philosophy (K. ilā Ibn Abī al-Sāj fī l-ḥikmah).

  194. A letter to the Missionary al-Uṭrūsh183 about philosophy (K. ilā al-Dāʿī al-Uṭrūsh fī l-ḥikmah).

  195. The Secret of Secrets: on philosophy (K. Sirr al-asrār fī l-ḥikmah).

  196. The Secret of Medicine (K. Sirr al-ṭibb).184

  197. On the superiority of bloodletting for purging repletion from foul qualities and quantities, and the merit of bloodletting compared to other purges, and showing that there is nothing at all to prevent bloodletting when needed (K. fī sharaf al-faṣd ʿind al-istifrāghāt al-imtilāʾiyyah radāʾah wa kammiyyah wa-faḍlihi ʿalā sāʾir al-istifrāghāt wa-l-ibānah ʿalā ann al-faṣd lā yamnaʿuhu ʿind al-iḥtiyāj shayʾ al-battah). This he composed for the emir Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad.185

  198. The Guide (K. al-Murshid). It is also called The Book of Aphorisms (K. al-Fuṣūl).

  199. On the fact that supplementary conditions which patients cannot describe require the continued presence of the physician and that he exercise some trial and error to deduce them and understand them and that they may confuse the physician (R. fī ann al-ʿilal al-mustakmalah allatī lā yaqdir al-aʿillāʾ an yuʿabbirū ʿanhā wa-yaḥtāj al-ṭabīb ilā luzūm al-ʿalīl wa-ilā istiʿmāl baʿḍ al-tajribah li-istikhrājihā wa-l-wuqūf ʿalayhā wa-tuḥayyir al-ṭabīb).

  200. A brief book on milk (Kitāb mukhtaṣar fī l-laban).186

  201. A discussion between al-Rāzī and al-Masʿūdī187 on the coming into being of the world (Kalām jarā baynahu wa-bayn al-Masʿūdī fī ḥadath al-ʿālam).

  202. An introduction to medicine (K. al-mudkhal ilā l-ṭibb).188

  203. On tastes (M. fī l-madhāqāt).

  204. On mild leprosy and leprosy (M. fī l-bahaq wa-l-baraṣ).

  205. The adornment of the secretaries (K. zīnat al-kuttāb).189

  206. Cure within an hour (K. Burʾ [al-]sāʿah). This he composed for the vizier Abū l-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd Allāh.190

  207. On haemorrhoids and anal fissures (M. fī l-bawāsīr wa-l-shiqāq fī l-maqʿadah).

  208. A discourse on the differences between diseases (Kalām fī l-furūq bayn al-amrāḍ).

  209. On the burning sensation which can occur in the meatus of the penis and the bladder (M. fī l-ḥurqah al-kāʾinah fī l-iḥlīl wa-l-mathānah).

  210. The Poor Man’s Book of Medicine (K. Ṭibb al-fuqarāʾ).191

  211. An epistle to the vizier Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn Dāwūd ibn al-Jarrāḥ al-Qunnāʾī192 on diseases occurring on the surface of the body (R. ilā Abī l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn Dāwūd ibn al-Jarrāḥ al-Qunnāʾī fī l-aʿlāl al-ḥādithah ʿalā ẓāhir al-jasad).

  212. An epistle to Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb193 on medicine and treatment for the eyes, and on compounding medicines as required (R. ilā Yūsuf ibn Yaʿqūb fī adwiyat al-ʿayn wa-ʿilājihā wa-mudāwātihā wa-tarkīb al-adwiyah lammā yaḥtāju ilayhi min dhālik).

  213. On the dispensary for medicine (K. ṣaydalat al-ṭibb).

  214. On the substances of bodies (K. fī jawāhir al-ajsām).

  215. An autobiography (K. fī sīratihi).

  216. On the common cold and on catarrh and repletion of the head and preventing catarrh from descending to the chest, and the wind which blocks the two nostrils and prevents breathing from them (M. fī l-zukām wa-l-nazlah wa-imtilāʾ al-raʾs wa-manʿ al-nazlah ilā l-ṣadr wa-l-rīḥ allatī tasudd al-mankhirayn wa-tamnaʿ al-tanaffus bihimā).194

  217. On substitute drugs used in medicine and on treatments and their rules and on their method of use (M. fī abdāl al-adwiyah al-mustaʿmalah fī l-ṭibb wa-l-ʿilājāt wa-qawānīnihā wa-jihat istiʿmālihā).

  218. Description of the hospital (K. ṣifāt al-bīmāristān).195

  219. On nutriment (M. fī l-aghdhiyah), abridged.

  220. An essay on a question posed about why people who have little sexual intercourse have long lives (M. fīmā suʾila ʿanhu fī annahu lima ṣāra man qalla jimāʿuhu min al-insān ṭāla ʿumruh). He wrote it for the emir Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī.

  221. On what causes the bodies of animals to heat-up upon eating, all except humans who find that eating makes them tepid (M. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā idhā akalat al-ḥayawānāt sakhunat abdānuhā mā khalā l-insān fa-innahu yajidu ʿinda aklihi futūran).

  222. On the qualities (M. fī l-kayfiyyāt).

  223. On the bathhouse and its beneficial and harmful aspects (R. fī l-ḥammām wa-manāfiʿihi wa-maḍārrihi).

  224. On laxatives and emetics (K. fī l-dawāʾ al-mus′hil wa-l-muqayyiʾ).

  225. On treating the eye surgically196 (M. fī ʿilāj al-ʿayn bi-l-ḥadīd).

11.6 Abū l-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭabarī197

Abū l-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭabarī was an inhabitant of Tabaristan.198 He was eminent and learned in the art of medicine, and was physician to the emir Rukn al-Dawlah.199

Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭabarī is the author200 of a medical compendium (kunnāsh) known as The [Book of] Hippocratic Treatments (al-Muʿālajāt al-Buqrāṭiyyah).201 It is a most excellent and useful book in which the author discusses diseases and their treatments most comprehensively. It consists of many discourses.202

11.7 Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistānī203

Abū Sulaymān Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir ibn Bahrām al-Sijistānī the Logician [al-Manṭiqī] was an eminent scholar who was proficient in the philosophical disciplines, the intricacies of which he had mastered. In Baghdad he had met and studied with Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī.204

Abū Sulaymān had also studied belles-lettres (adab), and he composed poetry. An example of his poetry is the following:205

Do not envy anybody for an apparent blessing:
Death lies in wait for him.
After having attained what he hoped for,
will he not come to non-existence, as if he had never been?
If I were envious, my thoughts would not go beyond
envying the stars for their everlasting existence.

Another example:206

Hunger is repelled by dry bread,
so why do I have so many sorrows and melancholy thoughts?207
Death is just when it meets out equal judgment
between a caliph and a wretched pauper.

And another example:208

A pleasant life lies in the animal nature of pleasure,
not in what the philosopher says.
It is the judgment of Death’s cup that it is sipped
equally by a fool and by a brilliant mind.
A stupid man will dwell beneath the earth
just as a sharp-witted man will dwell beneath it;
They become a decayed corpse, abandoned by
its substantial and accidental characteristics.
Their animal nature is annihilated
and their rational distinction perishes.
So ask the earth about those two, if a hidden answer
will remove doubt and argument.
All these attributes are void,
but it is impossible for the Eternal to be void.

Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistānī composed the following works:209

  1. On the hierarchies of human faculties and the nature of the soul’s premonitions as to what will occur in the world of generation (Maqālah fī marātib quwā l-insān wa-kayfiyyat al-indhārāt allatī tundhar bihā l-nafs fī-mā yaḥduth fī ʿālam al-kawn).

  2. A discourse on logic (Kalām fī l-manṭiq).

  3. Many questions that were put to him and his answers to them (Masāʾil ʿiddah suʾila ʿanhā wa-jawābātuhu la-hā).

  4. Philosophical commentaries, anecdotes, and rarities (Taʿālīq ḥikmiyyah wa-mulaḥ wa-nawādir).210

  5. On the fact that the celestial bodies are of a ‘fifth’ nature,211 and that they possess rational souls (Maqālah fī anna al-ajrām al-ʿulwiyyah ṭabīʿatuhā ṭabīʿah khāmisah wa-annahā dhawāt anfus wa-ann al-nafs allatī lahā hiya al-nafs al-nāṭiqah).212

11.8 Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥasan ibn Suwār213

[11.8.1]

Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥasan ibn Suwār ibn Bābā ibn Bihnām was known as Ibn al-Khammār (son of the vintner).214 Bihnām is a Persian name composed of two words – bih good, and nām name, hence Goodname.

[11.8.2]

This particular Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥasan was a Christian215 who was learned in the fundamentals and branches of the art of medicine, possessing expertise and great knowledge of its intricacies, and skilled in the philosophical disciplines as well. He composed great works on medicine and other sciences. He was also an expert translator, and he translated many books from Syriac to Arabic. I have seen some of these in his own hand in which he shows his excellence. Ibn al-Khammār studied philosophy with Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī216 at Baghdad and was highly intelligent and clever. He was born in the month of Rabīʿ I in the year 381 [May/June 991].217

[11.8.3]

Abū l-Khaṭṭāb Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭālib,218 in The Comprehensive Book on Medicine (K. al-Shāmil fī l-ṭibb), said that Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥasan ibn Suwār was alive in the year 330/942.219

[11.8.4]

Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān,220 in the book Resolution al-Rāzī’s Doubts regarding Galen (K. Ḥall shukūk al-Rāzī ʿalā Jālīnūs),221 says the following:

Al-Ḥasan ibn Bābā, who is known as Ibn al-Khammār, did a similar thing in our time. He progressed so far in medicine that the emir Maḥmūd222 himself kissed the ground beneath his feet despite his great dominions, for Ibn al-Khammār was a philosopher with a great intellect and great knowledge.

Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān also said of Ibn al-Khammār:

He was adept at dealing with lawyers, notables, magnates, and rulers. Hence, whenever he was summoned by someone known for worship and abstinence, he would walk on foot to meet him, and would say to him, ‘I offer this walk as expiation for the times I have gone to visit sinners and tyrants.’ Whenever he was summoned by those in power he would ride out to meet them in the apparel of emirs and magnates, often with a bodyguard of three hundred Turkish slaves and with fine steeds and great pomp. But he remained true to his art by being humble towards the weak as well as vying with the great and good. This was the method of Hippocrates223 and Galen224 and other philosophers, some of whom practised humility, abstinence, and self-restraint, while others made a display of the finest benefits of wisdom.

[11.8.5]

Abū l-Faraj ibn Hindū225 in the book The Key to Medicine (K. Miftāḥ al-ṭibb),226 says that he saw in Persia a sect that used to shun (yattaqūna min) the art of medicine.227 He says:

The leader of the sect which denied nature used to oppose my master Abū l-Khayr ibn al-Khammār the philosopher and would incite the common people to annoy him. When it so happened that the leader complained of a headache and asked Abū l-Khayr for advice as to how to cure it he answered, ‘He must put a copy of his own book in which he denies the efficacy of nature under his turban so that God may cure him,’ and he refused to treat him himself.228

[11.8.6]

Abū l-Khayr ibn Suwār ibn Bābā [Ibn al-Khammār] is the author of the following works:229

  1. On primordial matter (M. fī l-hayūlā).

  2. A reconciliation between the opinions of the philosophers and the Christians (K. al-wifāq bayna raʾy al-falāsifah wa-l-naṣārā), in three discourses.230

  3. An explanation of the Isagoge (K. tafsīr Īsāghūjī), with commentary.

  4. An explanation of the Isagoge (K. tafsīr Īsāghūjī), abridged.

  5. On friendship and friends (M. fī l-ṣadāqah wa-l-ṣadīq).

  6. On the conduct of the philosopher (M. fī sīrat al-faylasūf).

  7. On the effects observed in the atmosphere arising from liquid vapour – namely, the halo, the rainbow, and fog – in question and answer format (M. fī l-āthār al-mukhayyalah fī-l-jaww al-ḥādithah ʿan al-bukhār al-māʾī wa-hiya al-hālah wa-l-qaws wa-l-ḍabāb ʿalā ṭarīq al-masʾalah wa-l-jawāb).231

  8. On happiness (M. fī l-saʿādah).

  9. On explaining the opinions of the Ancients with regard to the Creator – exalted is He – and on divine laws and those who brought them (M. fī l-ifṣāḥ ʿan raʾy al-qudamāʾ fī l-Bārī taʿālā wa-fī l-sharāʾiʿ wa-mūridīhā).

  10. On the examination of physicians (M. fī imtiḥān al-aṭibbāʾ). This he composed for the emir Khwārazmshāh Abū l-ʿAbbās Maʾmūn ibn Maʾmūn.232

  11. On the creation of the human being and the composition of his bodily parts (K. fī khalq al-insān wa-tarkīb aʿḍāʾihi) in four discourses.

  12. On regimen for the elderly (K. fī tadbīr al-mashāyikh). At the beginning of this book it is stated that Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq233 composed this book in Syriac and selected what was necessary for the regimen for the elderly from the discourses of Galen234 and Rufus,235 along with additions from himself composed in the form of questions and answers. Abū l-Khayr then simplified it and clarified it but not using question and answer format and arranged it into twenty-six chapters.

  13. On the discussions of Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī236 and Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Bakūs237 about the form of fire and showing the falseness of Abū Sulaymān Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir’s238 doctrines relaating to the forms of the elements (K. taṣaffuḥ mā jarā bayna Abī Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī wa-bayna Abī Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Bakūs fī ṣūrat al-nār wa-tabyīn fasād mā dhahab ilayhi Abū Sulaymān Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir fī ṣuwar al-usṭuqussāt).

  14. On the illness known as ‘that of the soothsayers’ – that is, epilepsy (M. fī l-maraḍ al-maʿrūf bi-l-kāhinī wa-huwa al-ṣarʿ).

  15. The divisions of the Isagoge and the Categories by Alīnūs of Alexandria239 (Taqāsīm Īsāghūjī wa-Qāṭīghūriyās li-Ālīnūs al-Iskandarānī). This was translated from Syriac into Arabic by al-Ḥasan ibn Suwār ibn Bābā, who also wrote a marginal commentary on it. This I have copied from the original book (dastūr) in the hand of al-Ḥasan ibn Suwār.

11.9 Abū l-Faraj ibn Hindū240

[11.9.1]

The honourable and learned scholar Abū l-Faraj ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Hindū was among the most distinguished and respected persons in the intellectual disciplines, medical matters, and the literary arts. He wrote delightful prose and outstanding poetry, and is the author of famous literary works. His merits are notable. He was also an excellent scribe and worked independently in that capacity. He studied the art of medicine and the intellectual disciplines under the guidance of the shaykh Abū l-Khayr al-Ḥasan ibn Suwār ibn Bābā, who was better known as Ibn al-Khammār.241 Ibn Hindū worked as an apprentice under him and became one of his most excellent students.

Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī,242 in his work A Completion of the Unique Book of its Time (Tatimmat al-yatīmah),243 describes Abū l-Faraj ibn Hindū as follows:

He was very successful in the literary arts and sciences and possessed a delicate style and similar skills. He was peerless in his time in poetry and unrivalled in his hunt for rhetorical expressions. He composed exquisite and precious poems, refining eloquent expressions and clarifying unusual concepts, and admonishing those who might read and transmit them. «Is this magic, or is it that you do not see244

Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī adds: ‘An original use of words once occurred to me. The words at the end of the following lines are mine’:245

My heart is aflame with passion
and full of worries.
In love I have been clothed
with the clothes of an amorous, ardent lover
By an enticing female person,
who would shame the full moon in the darkness.
When my eyes whore with her,
they perform the major ablution by means of tears.246

I was not aware that someone had already used this motif until someone recited to me these lines by Ibn Hindū:247

They asked me: How come your eyes, since they saw
the charms of this gazelle, are shedding a torrent of tears?
I replied, My eyes whored with its good-looking face,
and then performed the major ablution by pouring out tears.

Then I realized that he had been the first.

[11.9.2.1]

Another example of Ibn Hindū’s poetry is the following:248

Strike your tents, leave a land where you have been wronged,
and avoid humiliation. Humiliation must be averted.
And depart when homelands bring you loss.
Mandal wood from India is mere firewood in its homeland.249

Also by him:250

My roaming in various lands has been lengthened
by being short of cash and long of ambitions.
Whenever I left one place in the evening I arrived in the morning
at another; my luggage never stayed in one place.
It is as if I am the thought of a madman who hears voices,251
not staying in one state for a single moment.

He also said, recommending mobility and exertion:252

My two friends, what you believe is not right!
You two do what you like; I am gone to do my own thing.
My two friends, were there no high merit253 in moving on,
the sun and the moon would not one more day move so untiringly.

And he said as well:254

Truly, I have not delayed sending you my letters
because of the gossip of a slanderer or the words of a quarrelmonger;
But my tears, whenever I wrote, would disfigure
my letter; and what’s the use of a disfigured letter?

And he also said the following against having a family and in favour of remaining single:255

What has someone with a family of dependents to do with lofty deeds?
Only the lonely, solitary man rises up to them!
The sun widely roams through the sky, on its own,
while the Little Dipper’s father stagnates.256

Regarding fortitude, he said:257

Show fortitude when worry overcomes you;
for the worry and he who caused it will not last.

Another example:258

They said, ‘Busy yourself with others than them, for one day!
Deceive yourself! One’s self can be deceived.’
My heart is moulded to fit the size of my love of them;
there is no space left for love of others.

Another example:259

Roses on stems tried to emulate his cheeks:
they matched in beauty yet they differed:
The roses on his cheeks increase by plucking them,
the real roses diminish the more they are plucked.

Another:260

Say to that moon who appears,
he who can make me or break me:
Provide a heart that departs with a kiss:
A traveller must have provisions.

Another:261

I wished to see the one I loved; but when I met him
I was bewildered and could not control my tongue nor my eyes.
I bowed my head in reverence and awe
and tried to hide my state – but it was not hidden.
My heart held notebooks full of reproach,
but when we met I did not utter one letter.

Another:262

They criticized him when he sprouted a beard. But we said,
‘You criticise and have no idea of beauty.
He is a gazelle; it is not strange
that musk is created in a gazelle.’263

[11.9.2.2]

Regarding cheek-down, he said:264

A downy beard was revealed on his cheek, which did not leave
anything of my pious scruples or devoutness intact.
It was as if ants had crawled on it,
their feet dipped in musk.

He also said:265

They said, ‘The lover’s heart has sobered!’ But it has not;
and ‘The cheek-down has wiped out the loved one’s radiance!’ But it has not.
The hair on his cheek has not impaired him; it merely
showed up to chain his beauty, preventing it from absconding.

Ibn Hindū also said on the line of cheek-down:266

Now there is a true testimony for me
that there is nothing like his beauty for any painter:
A line, written around his cheek
by God’s pen, with an inscription with fragrant musk.

He also wrote:267

You, whose face is handsome like his name:268
If you sleep away from me I cannot sleep.
I suffered tribulations before your cheek-down was there,
and when it appeared my tribulations increased.
O hairs, all of which are temptations (fitan)
whose essence even intelligent minds (fiṭan) are at a loss how to describe!
What they criticized his cheek-down for was silly.
He was a tree branch; now the branch has sprouted leaves.

On displeasure with cheek-down, he says:269

It is bad enough for my heart that his cheek-down burns it,
so shield the eyes that drown in their tears!
Whenever a letter of the line of his cheek-down is written
it wipes out a page of his beauty.

[11.9.2.3]

On drinking wine:270

I find that wine is fire and the souls are essences;
if it is drunk, it shows the true nature of the essences.
So do not ever shame your soul by drinking wine,
if you do not trust that its innermost secrets are good.

Another example:271

The army clergyman272 enjoined us
to abstain from drinking wine.
But I disobeyed him. Wine (sharāb)
can restore a ruined house (kharāb).

When someone spilled some wine on his sleeve:273

Wine let itself be spilled on his sleeve
to kiss his sleeve respectfully.
If it had not intended to pay respect by what
it did, it would not have singled out his sleeve.

He said, writing it on a lute:274

I see that the derivation of ‘lute’ (ʿūd)
from aloe wood (ʿūd) is perfect:
One is the perfume for noses,
the other the perfume for ears.275

He also said:276

Once there was a friendly tree, whose fruits
were songs, plucked by drinking companions, convivial people:
Birds sang on it when it was flourishing;
and when it had withered people sang on its wood.

[11.9.2.4]

On ādharyūn, he said:277

On many a meadow I imagined the marigold flowers,
when they were ablaze.
To be gold that had set musk aflame
in stoves of peridot.

On the difficulty of being perfect, he said:278

Whenever you think that a man has attained perfection,
know that there is a hidden imperfection.
God’s omnipotence is too perfect for anyone of those one sees
to be seen second to His perfection.

He had the following complaint:279

I was lost in al-Rayy amongst its people
as the letter S is lost by those who lisp.280
After having attained all my desires,
now I am pleased if I attain the merest minimum to live on.

And he said:281

We have a king who is not equipped for kingship
apart from wearing a crown on a day of fighting.
He was set up for the improvement of mankind but he is himself depraved:
how can a shadow be straight when the stick is crooked?282

[11.9.2.5]

Another example:283

I am surprised at this Emir’s constipation:284
how and from where did he get it?
He has, after all, an enema daily
that purges, by means of a prick,285 his guts.

A witty epigram in praise of scabies:286

I am much pleased with the scabies on my hand,
even though it is considered among great evils:
Base people avoid me because of it, so that
I am spared shaking hands with them.

On composing poetry again after having abandoned it:287

I had given up composing poetry, scorning obscene language,288
feeling above eulogy, and renouncing love poetry.
But I still loved you, and finally poetic thoughts
rose up, after their once rising star had set,
While rhymes slipped from my tongue, like
a torrent sliding hurriedly from a hill;
And now the verse of the two Aʿshās is night-blind (ʿashā)
compared with it, and the verse of the two Akhṭals is drivel (khaṭal).289

[11.9.3]

Abū l-Faraj ibn Hindū is the author of the following works:

  1. The Key to Medicine. He wrote it for his peers, in ten chapters (Miftāḥ al-ṭibb).290

  2. A treatise arousing the desire to become initiated in the science of philosophy (al-M. al-mushawwiqah fī l-mudkhal ilā ʿilm al-falsafah).

  3. Spiritual expressions from the Greek wisdom literature (K. al-kalim al-rūḥāniyyah min al-ḥikam al-yūnāniyyah).

  4. His collected poetry.

  5. An amusing epistle entitled ‘The mediation between the fornicators and the sodomites’ (Risālah hazliyyah mutarjamah bi-l-wasāṭah bayna al-zunāh wa-l-lāṭah).

11.10 al-Ḥasan al-Fasawī291

Al-Ḥasan al-Fasawī was a well-known physician from the town of Fasā292 in Persia and an outstanding practitioner and researcher of medicine. He served the Būyid dynasty, in particular al-Malik Bahāʾ al-Dawlah ibn ʿAḍud al-Dawlah,293 whom he accompanied on his travels and who provided him with a powerful position. The crown prince, Abū Manṣūr Buwayh ibn Bahāʾ al-Dawlah fell ill in the month of Rajab of the year 398/1008, while residing with his father in Basra, at a time when Bahāʾ al-Dawlah had decided to go from Basra to Tustar294 to hunt and find distraction. He was very concerned about his sick son and very protective of him and, in fact, feared for him so much that he would not even allow the soldiers to visit his son. The young man had to stay with his father in a restricted environment and was not allowed to do the things he wanted to do. Now it happened that in the month of Rajab, on the eve of the day on which Bahāʾ al-Dawlah intended to travel, the son contracted a fever that sapped his strength considerably. One of his intimate friends said to Bahāʾ al-Dawlah: ‘The prince is feverish. It is not advisable to move him. Therefore, it would be best to leave him where he is.’

But he [Bahāʾ al-Dawlah] replied: ‘No, he must be carried and shall be taken out. No discussion!’ The man replied: ‘But he will die when he is disturbed and the period that he shall remain among us will then not be much longer’. Bahāʾ al-Dawlah, however, would not listen to his intimate friend, but approached the physician al-Ḥasan al-Fasawī, in whom he had much confidence. He asked him to go and see his son and report back to him. The physician went, examined his son, and then returned, saying: ‘It is indeed the proper thing to do to leave him behind and postpone his departure’. He then told Bahāʾ al-Dawlah in a private session about the graveness of his son’s illness and explained its symptoms, which caused the ruler to despair of his son’s life. He then ordered that his son was to be left behind. However, the prince’s fever persisted and he experienced further complications. He died on Sunday, the second of the month Shaʿbān of the year 398/1008.

11.11 Abū Manṣūr al-Ḥasan ibn Nūḥ al-Qamarī (or al-Qumrī)295

He was the leading scholar of his generation and peerless in his time. He was well-known for his excellence in the art of medicine, for he had praiseworthy methods and was distinguished in medical theory and its practical application. He – may God have mercy upon him – was an excellent practitioner and a good medical therapist who was favoured and held in great esteem by the rulers of his day and age. The shaykh and learned authority Shams al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Khusrawshāhī296 told me that the shaykh raʾīs Ibn Sīnā had met this physician when al-Qamarī was a very old man. Ibn Sīnā attended his study-circle, followed his lessons and profited from his knowledge of the art of medicine.

Abū Manṣūr al-Ḥasan ibn Nūḥ al-Qamarī composed the following works:297

  1. On wealth and desirables (K. al-ghinā wa-l-munā), being a good notebook in which he mentions diseases and their treatments in the best possible way. The work contains summaries of citations by notable figures in the field of medicine, in particular what al-Rāzī mentions, scattered in his books.298

  2. On the causes of maladies (K. ʿilal al-ʿilal).

11.12 Abū Sahl al-Masīḥī299

Abū Sahl ʿĪsā ibn Yaḥyā al-Masīḥī al-Jurjānī was a distinguished physician who was proficient in both the theory and the practice of the art of medicine. He was eloquent and an excellent author. He possessed a nice handwriting and was well-versed in the Arabic language. I have seen his book On the Manifestation of God’s Wisdom in the Creation of Man in his handwriting, which reflects extreme correctness, precision, clarity, and accuracy. This book is his best and most useful work, because in it he has collected the sayings of Galen and others on the usefulness of the parts in the clearest and purest language, with valuable personal additions that point to his dazzling excellence and profound knowledge. In the introduction of his book he states:

Only he who compares our words and theirs can have knowledge of the excellence of our contribution. This comparison should be done with knowledge and impartiality, for a person who does not have knowledge of his subject is not entitled to judge it and a person who is not impartial regarding it cannot judge whether or not something is excellent and preferable to something else. The one who is most held in esteem is the impartial scholar, who meticulously examines our contribution and theirs; he will see that we have corrected, improved, supplemented, smoothened and arranged their contribution in a way that is better to the whole discourse and to each single part of it; that we have dropped what is not related to this kind of science and that we have added, each in its turn, detailed and remarkable meanings, which were hidden from them, either for their subtlety or their loftiness; that we have elucidated subsequent matters by former phenomena (as opposed to what they had done), so that the principles and causes of things will be clear, and prove to be true.

I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have heard the shaykh and leading physician Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿAlī300 – may God have mercy upon him – say: ‘I cannot find among the early and late Christian physicians anyone whose speech is better than that of Abū Sahl al-Masīḥī with regard to eloquence, articulation and verbal expression’.

It is said that al-Masīḥī was the teacher of shaykh raʾīs Ibn Sīnā in medicine, and that it was only after the shaykh raʾīs first became distinguished in the art of medicine and later became an expert in it, and likewise in the intellectual disciplines, that he started composing books for al-Masīḥī and dedicated them to him.

ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl301 says that al-Masīḥī lived in Khorasan and was favoured by its ruler. Al-Masīḥī died when he was forty years of age.

One of al-Masīḥī’s sayings is: ‘Taking a nap during the day after eating is better than swallowing a beneficial syrup’.

Abū Sahl al-Masīḥī composed the following works:

  1. One hundred (discourses) on the medical art (K. al-miʾah fī l-ṭibb),302 which is his best and most famous work. It carries a marginal note by Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh,303 which reads as follows: ‘The reader may rely upon this book, for it is very trustworthy, has few repetitions, is clear in expression and gives choice treatments’.

  2. On the manifestation of God’s wisdom in the creation of man (K. iẓhār ḥikmat allāh taʿālā fī khalq al-insān).

  3. On the natural sciences (K. fī l-ʿilm al-ṭabīʿī).

  4. On general medicine, in two volumes (K. al-ṭibb al-kullī).

  5. On smallpox (K. fī l-judarī).

  6. Summary of the Almagest (Ikhtiṣār kitāb al-Majisṭī).304

  7. On the interpretation of dreams (K. taʿbīr al-ruʾyā).

  8. On pestilential diseases (K. fī l-wabāʾ), dedicated to al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Khwārazm Shāh Abū l-ʿAbbās Maʾmūn ibn Maʾmūn.305

11.13 al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs306 Ibn Sīnā307

[11.13.1]

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnā,308 though too famous to need a mention and his virtues too outstanding to need to be set down in writing, he himself has recorded and described his own life and times in such a way that others need not do so. Hence, we confine ourselves here to what he has said of himself, as well as that which Abū ʿUbayd al-Jūzjānī,309 the Shaykh’s companion, has told of his life.

[11.13.2.1]

What follows is all that the Shaykh Raʾīs has said of himself, as transmitted from him by Abū ʿUbayd al-Jūzjānī.310

The Shaykh Raʾīs [Ibn Sīnā] said:

My father was a man of Balkh,311 from whence he moved to Bukhara312 in the time of Nūḥ ibn Manṣūr.313 During that time, he was employed in the administration and was given responsibility for a settlement named Kharmaythan,314 one of the estates of Bukhara and a major town. Close by was a village named Afshanah315 where my father married my mother316 and settled, and there my mother gave birth to me and then to my brother.317 We then moved to Bukhara, where I was taken to a teacher of the Qur’an and a teacher of literature (adab), and by the time I reached the age of ten, I had mastered the Qur’an and a great deal of literature, such that I occasioned amazement.318

[11.13.2.2]

My father was amongst those who accepted the missionary (dāʾī)319 of the Egyptians320 and was considered to be one of the Ismaili sect.321 He had heard them mention the soul and the intellect in the manner they themselves speak about them and define them, and so had my brother. They would often discuss this amongst themselves and I would overhear them. I would grasp what they were saying, but my soul would not accept it. They began to summon me also to it, and words such as philosophy,322 geometry,323 and Indian arithmetic324 would roll off their tongues. My father then began to send me to a greengrocer who was proficient in Indian arithmetic, so that I might learn it from him.

[11.13.2.3]

Then Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Nātilī325 came to Bukhara. He claimed knowledge of philosophy, and my father hosted him in our house hoping that I would learn from him. Before al-Nātilī came, I had been occupied with studying law and would frequent Ismāʿīl al-Zāhid [the Ascetic]326 for that purpose. I was one of the best disciples327 having become familiar with methods of questioning and ways of objecting to someone defending a point, in the manner customary for that group.

[11.13.2.4]

I began studying the Isagoge328 with al-Nātilī, and when he mentioned to me the definition of genus as being that which is predicated of many entities differing in species in answer to the question, ‘What is it?’,329 I took him aback by verifying that definition in a way the like of which had never been heard before, so that he was completely astonished and cautioned my father against occupying me with anything but learning. And so it was that whatever problem he would pose to me, I would have a better conception of it than he himself did, until I had studied the external aspects of logic with him. As for the intricacies of it, he had no knowledge of them. I then began to study books for myself and read the commentaries until I was proficient in the science of logic.

[11.13.2.5]

Similarly with the book of Euclid:330 I studied with al-Nātilī five or six figures from the beginning of the book, then took it upon myself to solve the remainder of the book in its entirety. Then I moved on to the Almagest,331 and when I had completed the preliminaries and came to the geometrical figures, al-Nātilī said to me, ‘Try reading them and solving them yourself. Then show them to me so that I can make clear to you what is correct and what is erroneous.’ But, in fact, the man had not mastered the book.332 I began to solve that book, and there was many a geometrical figure that he had no knowledge of until I showed it to him and gave him an understanding of it. Al-Nātilī then took his leave of me and headed for Kurkānj,333 while I occupied myself with the study of books, both the essential parts334 and commentaries, on physics and theology, and the doors of knowledge became opened up to me.

[11.13.2.6]

I then sought to learn medicine and began to read the books which have been composed on that subject. Medicine is not a difficult science and consequently I excelled in it in a very short time so that the eminent physicians began to study the science of medicine under me. I tended to the sick and doors to therapies derived from experience such as cannot be described were opened up to me. In addition to this, I continued to attend studies in the law and debated about it. At that time, I was sixteen years of age.

[11.13.2.7]

For the next year and a half I dedicated myself to learning and study; I reread logic and all parts of philosophy. During this time I didn’t sleep a single night in its entirety, nor did I occupy myself in any other way during the day. I gathered some scrap paper and for every proof (ḥujjah) I examined I would set down syllogistic premises (muqaddimāt qiyāsiyyah) and arrange them on those pieces of paper. Then I would speculate as to what might be concluded from them observing the conditions of the premises until the essence of truth was established for me in that problem. And whenever I was perplexed by a problem or could not find the middle term (al-ḥadd al-awsaṭ) in a syllogism,335 I would frequent the Congregational Mosque (al-jāmiʿ)336 and pray and supplicate to the Creator of the Universe (Mubdiʿ al-kull) until that which was incomprehensible became clear, and that which was difficult became simple.

[11.13.2.8]

I used to return at night to my house, place the lamp before me and occupy myself with reading and writing. And whenever I was overcome by sleep or felt some weakness I would turn to drink a cup of wine until my strength came back. Then I would return to my reading, and whenever the slightest sleep overtook me I would dream of those very problems so that the particulars of many problems became clear to me during sleep. And so it was until I had mastered all sciences and had become conversant with them as far as is humanly possible. All that I came to know during that time remains as I came to know it and I have not added to it to this day; hence I mastered logic, physics, and mathematics. I then turned to theology and read the Metaphysics,337 but could not understand its content and the object of its author was obscure to me until I had read it forty times and came to know it from memory. But still I could not understand it or its meaning until I despaired of it and said to myself, ‘there is no way to understand this book.’ One day, though, I happened to be in the booksellers’ quarter in the afternoon, and there was a broker with a volume in his hand calling for buyers. He offered it to me, but I refused it in annoyance, believing this science to be fruitless. But the broker said to me, ‘buy it from me for it is cheap; I’ll sell it to you for three silver dirhams for its owner is in need of the sum.’ So I bought it, and it turned out to be a book by Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī338 on the objects of the Book of Metaphysics.339 I returned home and read it quickly, and immediately the objects of that book became clear to me, since I already knew it by heart. I was overjoyed at this, and the next day gave a great amount in alms to the poor in thankfulness to God, the exalted.

[11.13.2.9]

Now, at that time, Nūḥ ibn Manṣūr340 was Sultan of Bukhara. It so happened that he fell ill with a disease which vexed the physicians. My name had become well known amongst them as someone dedicated to learning and study, so they mentioned me to the Sultan and asked him to send for me. Consequently, I came and took part with them in treating him and gained the distinction of entering into his service. One day I asked his permission to enter their library to peruse and read the books therein. Permission was given, and I entered a suite of many chambers each of which contained chests stacked one on top of another. In one chamber there were books on the Arabic language and poetry, in another, books on law, and similarly in every chamber there were the books of an individual science. I looked at the catalogue of the books of the Ancients and sought out those I required, and I saw books which many people have never even heard of and which I had never seen before then nor have I seen since. I read those books and absorbed what they contained, and thus came to know each author’s rank with regard to learning. And by the time I reached the age of eighteen, I had completed my studies of all those sciences, and although at that time I had a greater capacity for memorizing learning, my understanding of it is now more mature. Otherwise it is the same learning, and nothing since has come to me as new.

[11.13.2.10]

There was a man in my neighbourhood called Abū l-Ḥusayn al-ʿArūḍī. He asked me to compile a compendious book on this learning, so I compiled The Compendium (K. al-Majmūʿ)341 for him, naming it after him, and in it I covered all sciences other than the mathematical. At that time I was twenty-one years of age. Also in my neighbourhood there was a man called Abū Bakr al-Barqī,342 a Khorasmian by birth and a learned soul who was interested in law, Qur’anic commentary, and asceticism, and wished to learn more about those disciplines. He asked me to explain certain books for him, so I composed for him Sum and Product (K. al-Ḥāṣil wa-l-maḥṣūl)343 in close on twenty volumes. I also composed for him a book on ethics which I entitled On Piety and Sin (K. al-Birr wa-l-ithm).344 These two books are only to be found with him, and he never lent them to anyone so that they might make a copy from them.

[11.13.2.11]

Then my father died, and as my situation had become subject to vicissitudes,345 I accepted some government posts. It became necessary for me to leave Bukhara and move to Kurkānj where Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Sahlī,346 who loved the sciences, was a vizier. I was presented to the emir there, ʿAlī ibn al-Maʾmūn,347 dressed (as I usually was at that time) in the garb of a law student with a hood (ṭaylasān) wrapped under my neck.348 I was allotted a generous monthly stipend sufficient for my needs. Then it became necessary for me to move to Nasā,349 and from there to Bāward,350 then to Ṭūs,351 then to Samanqān,352 then to Jājarm353 at the border of Khorasan, then to Jurjān.354 I was hoping to serve the emir Qābūs,355 but during this time Qābūs was seized and imprisoned in a fortress, where he died. I then went on to Dihistān,356 where I became severely ill. Returning to Jurjān, I met Abū ʿUbayd al-Jūzjānī and recited forthwith a long poem that contains these lines of the poet:357

When I became great no metropolis was large enough for me;
when my price grew high I lacked a buyer.

[11.13.3.1]

Abū ʿUbayd al-Jūzjānī, continues:

This, then, is what the Shaykh [Ibn Sīnā] related to me in his own words, and from here on I witnessed the events of his life:

In Jurjān there was a man named Abū Muḥammad al-Shīrāzī who loved the sciences. He had bought a house for the Shaykh in his neighbourhood and had invited him to stay there. Every day I used to visit him [Ibn Sīnā] to study the Almagest and request dictation in logic, so he dictated to me the Middle Epitome of Logic (al-Mukhtaṣar al-awsaṭ fī l-manṭiq) and, for Abū Muḥammad al-Shīrāzī, he composed The Origin and the Return (K. al-Mabdaʾ wa-l-maʿād), and the Book of Universal Observations (K. al-Arṣād al-kulliyyah). There also, he composed many other works, such as the first part (awwal) of the Canon, and the summary of the Almagest, as well as a great many epistles. The remainder of his books he composed in the land of the Jabal.358

[11.13.3.2]

Here is the list (fihrist) of his works:359

  1. The compendium (K. al-Majmūʿ), one volume.360

  2. The Sum and Product (al-Ḥāṣil wa-l-maḥṣūl), twenty volumes.361

  3. Equitable Judgement (al-Inṣāf), twenty volumes.362

  4. On Piety and Sin (K. al-Birr wa-l-ithm), two volumes.363

  5. The Cure (al-Shifāʾ), eighteen volumes.364

  6. The Canon [on Medicine] (al-Qānūn [fī l-Ṭibb]), fourteen volumes.365

  7. Universal observations (K. al-Arṣād al-kulliyyah), one volume.366

  8. Salvation (K. al-Najāh), three volumes.367

  9. Guidance (al-Hidāyah), one volume.368

  10. Indications (al-Ishārāt), one volume.369

  11. The medium-sized epitome [of logic] (K. al-Mukhtaṣar al-awsaṭ [fī l-manṭiq]), one volume.370

  12. The book of philosophy, for ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah371 ([Dānish-nāmah-i] ʿAlāʾī), one volume.372

  13. On colic (K. al-Qūlanj), one volume.373

  14. The language of the Arabs (Lisān al-ʿArab), ten volumes.374

  15. Cardiac drugs (al-Adwiyah al-qalbiyyah), one volume.375

  16. The abridgement (al-Mūjaz), one volume.376

  17. Eastern philosophy (baʿḍ al-Ḥikmah al-Mashriqiyyah), one volume.377

  18. Exposition of modal propositions (Bayān dhawāt al-jihah), one volume.378

  19. The return (K. al-Maʿād), one volume.379

  20. The origin and the return (K. al-Mabdaʾ wa-l-maʿād), one volume.380

  21. [Philosophical] Inquiries (K. al-Mubāḥathāt), one volume.381

Among his epistles:

[11.13.3.3]

Then the Shaykh [Ibn Sīnā] moved to Rayy407 where he entered the service of the Regent (al-Sayyidah) and her son, Majd al-Dawlah.408 He was introduced to them by means of letters that he had brought with him containing a commendation of his merit. At that time, Majd al-Dawlah was overcome with melancholia, and the Shaykh was occupied in treating him. At Rayy he also composed The Origin and the Return (K. al-Mabdaʾ wa-l-maʿād), and he remained there [at Rayy] until Shams al-Dawlah409 sought to take that city after the killing of Hilāl ibn Badr ibn Ḥasanwayh410 and the routing of the Baghdadi troops. After that, it became necessary for him to leave for Qazwīn,411 and from there to Hamadan,412 where he entered the service of Kadbānuwayh413 to oversee her affairs. Then, Shams al-Dawlah came to know of him and summoned him to his court, as the emir was afflicted with colic. The Shaykh treated him until God restored him to health. At that court he won many robes of honour and returned home after forty days and nights, having become a confidant of the emir.

[11.13.3.4]

It then happened that the emir went up to Qarmīsīn414 to make war on ʿAnnāz.415 The Shaykh followed him in his service. Then, having been routed, the emir retreated towards Hamadan, after which the Shaykh was asked to assume the position of vizier. He accepted, but the troops mutinied against him, fearing for their own positions: they surrounded the Shaykh’s house, threw him into prison, raided his estates and took everything he owned, and petitioned the emir to kill him. The emir protected him. but agreed to banish him from the land in order to appease the troops, so the Shaykh withdrew to the house of the Shaykh Abū Saʿd ibn Dakhdūk for forty days. The emir Shams al-Dawlah, once again stricken with colic, sought the Shaykh [Ibn Sīnā], who, again, attended his court. The emir was utterly apologetic to the Shaykh, who occupied himself treating the emir. He remained there in a position of honour and esteem, and the viziership was given to him for a second time.

[11.13.3.5]

I, myself, asked the Shaykh to explain the books of Aristotle.416 He said that he had no time for that at that moment, but that if I agreed he would compose a book that would include everything he considered to be correct with regard to these sciences, without debating with those who held opposing views or being concerned with refuting them. I agreed, and he began with the natural philosophy (ṭabīʿiyyāt) of a book which he named The Cure (K. al-Shifāʾ). He had already composed the first book of the Canon [of Medicine] (K. al-Qānūn fī l-ṭibb), and every night, students would gather in his house and I would take a turn reading from The Cure, and someone else would take a turn teaching from the Canon. When we had finished, singers of all stripes would attend us, and the paraphernalia for a drinking party was prepared, of which we partook. Teaching usually took place at night, since there was no time for it during the day owing to the Shaykh’s service with the emir. This state of affairs went on for some time.

[11.13.3.6]

Shams al-Dawlah then went towards Ṭārum417 to fight the emir there,418 but was again stricken with colic near that place. The colic became severe, and it was exacerbated by other ailments brought on by his poor regimen and his failure to follow the Shaykh’s advice. The troops feared he would die. So they turned back towards Hamadan with the emir on a stretcher (mahd), but he died on the way.419

[11.13.3.7]

The oath of allegiance was then pledged to the son of Shams al-Dawlah,420 and the Shaykh [Ibn Sīnā] was asked to become vizier. He refused and sent letters in secret to ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah,421 seeking to enter his service and go to him and join his entourage. The Shaykh went into hiding in the house of Abū Ghālib al-ʿAṭṭār, and there I asked him to complete his book The Cure (K. al-Shifāʾ). The Shaykh called for Abū Ghālib and requested paper and ink, which he duly brought, and the Shaykh, in nearly twenty quires of octavo paper (ʿishrīn juzʾan ʿalā thumn), wrote in the script for subject headings and spent two days on it until he had written all the subject headings without having any book in front of him or exemplar to refer to, but rather from his memory and by heart. The Shaykh then placed these quires before him, took up paper and began to examine every subject and write a commentary on it. He would write fifty folios every day until he had completed all of the physics and metaphysics, apart from two books on animals and plants. Then he commenced with logic and had written one section of it, but Tāj al-Mulk422 became suspicious of him for corresponding with ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah and reproached him for doing so and had him sought out. One of his enemies gave him away, so they seized him and took him to a fortress called Fardajān.423 There he recited the poem that includes the verse:424

I have entered with certitude, as you can see.
Now all doubt is on the matter of exiting.

[11.13.3.8]

He remained there for four months. ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah then went to Hamadan and captured it. Tāj al-Mulk was routed and went to that very fortress, and when ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah retreated from Hamadan and Tāj al-Mulk and [Samāʾ al-Dawlah] the son of Shams al-Dawlah returned there, they brought the Shaykh with them to Hamadan, where he settled in the house of al-ʿAlawī.425 There he occupied himself with composing the section on logic in The Cure. While in the fortress he had composed Guidances (K. al-Hidāyāt), and the epistle entitled Living son of Awake (R. Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān), and On Colic (K. al-Qawlanj). As for his book On Cardiac Drugs (K. al-Adwiyah al-qalbiyyah), he had composed that when he first came to Hamadan. This situation remained unaltered for some time, while Tāj al-Mulk tried to raise the Shaykh’s hopes with fine promises.

[11.13.3.9]

It then occurred to the Shaykh to go to Isfahan, so he, his brother, two servants and myself left [Hamadan] disguised as Sufis until we arrived at Ṭabarān at the gates of Isfahan, after having suffered many hardships on the way. We were met by the Shaykh’s friends and the emir ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah’s courtiers and privy counsellors, and the Shaykh was provided with clothes and fine mounts and was housed in a quarter known as Gūn Gunbadh in the house of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Bībī, which had everything required in the way of utensils and furnishings. The Shaykh attended the court of ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah, where he was treated with the honour and esteem he deserved. ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah then designated the eve of Fridays for learned debates in his presence with all other categories of learned men in attendance. This included the Shaykh, who could not be defeated in any branch of learning.

[11.13.3.10]

In Isfahan the Shaykh worked on completing his book The Cure (K. al-Shifāʾ). He finished the portions on logic and the Almagest426 and had written eptomies of [the book of] Euclid,427 arithmetic, and music. In each book of the mathematical sciences he included additions he deemed necessary. In the Almagest he included ten optical figures, and at the end of the Almagest, in the section on astronomy, he included new discoveries. In the book of Euclid he identified some doubtful matters. In the arithmetic he indicated some fine properties [of numbers], and in music he included some subjects unknown to the Ancients. The book known as The Cure was now complete save for the two books on plants and animals which, in the year428 in which ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah went to Sābūr Khwāst,429 he wrote on the way. He also wrote Salvation (K. al-Najāh) while on the road.

[11.13.3.11]

The Shaykh [Ibn Sīnā] became one of ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah’s close confidants and courtiers, and when the emir decided to take Hamadan,430 the Shaykh accompanied him. One night, conversation with the emir turned to the errors which had occurred in calendars based on ancient observations. So the emir ordered the Shaykh to work on planetary observations and placed sufficient money at his disposal. The Shaykh commenced this work and charged me with arranging the instruments and employing those who would construct them, and, eventually, many problems were solved. Errors had come into the observations due to the difficulties of frequent travel. At Isfahan, the Shaykh also composed his book for ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah (K. al-ʿAlāʾī).

[11.13.3.12]

One of the amazing things about the Shaykh is that during the twenty-five years I spent in his company and in his service, I never knew him to read any new book he had received from beginning to end. Rather, he would seek out the difficult passages and perplexing questions and see what the book’s author had to say about them. In this way, the author’s level of learning and degree of understanding would become clear to him.

[11.13.3.13]

One day the Shaykh was sitting with the emir, with Abū Manṣūr al-Jabbān431 also present. A point of Arabic language was discussed, and the Shaykh spoke about it according to his knowledge. At this, Abū Manṣūr turned to the Shaykh and said, ‘You may be a philosopher and sage, but you are not sufficiently well read in the Arabic language to be able to speak about it.’ The Shaykh recoiled at these words and devoted himself to the study of works on Arabic for three years. He had the book The Refinement of Language (K. Tahdhīb al-lughah), compiled by Abū Manṣūr al-Azharī,432 sent to him from Khorasan. The Shaykh reached a rarely-attained proficiency in the Arabic language, and composed three longer poems containing obscure words. He also wrote three letters – one in the style of Ibn al-ʿAmīd,433 one in the style of al-Ṣābiʾ,434 and one in the style of al-Ṣāḥib.435 He had them bound into a volume, specifying a binding that had been made to look worn. Then he apprised the emir, who showed the volume to Abū Manṣūr al-Jabbān and said, ‘We found this volume in the desert during a hunt. You must examine it and tell us what it contains.’ Abū Manṣūr looked at it but much of what it contained was difficult for him to understand. The Shaykh said to him, ‘What you do not understand of this book is mentioned in such and such a place in works on the Arabic language.’ Then the Shaykh informed him of many well-known works on the Arabic language from which he had learned these words. Now Abū Manṣūr had been talking nonsense in his comments about the well-known words in the epistles, and he now realized that the epistles must have been composed by the Shaykh, instigated by his confrontation with him that day. So Abū Manṣūr retracted his comments and apologized to the Shaykh. After that, the Shaykh composed a book on lexicography that he named The Language of the Arabs (Lisān al-ʿArab), the like of which had never been composed before. He did not make a fair copy of it before his death, and it remained as a draft – no-one having had the opportunity to put it in order.

[11.13.3.14]

The Shaykh gained a great amount of experience in the remedies that he applied, all of which he had planned to record in his book the Canon [of Medicine]. He had written them down on quires of paper but they were lost before the Canon was completed.

One example of these is when the Shaykh himself was stricken with a headache one day. He conceived the notion that some disease matter was trying to descend towards the membrane of his skull (ḥijāb al-raʾs) and that the occurrence of some sort of swelling was unavoidable. He had a great quantity of ice brought, crushed, and wrapped in a cloth and his head covered with the cloth. This was done so that the area gained strength and was protected from allowing the disease matter to enter and so the Shaykh recovered.

Another example is that he ordered a woman with a wasting disease (imraʾah maslūlah) at Khwārazm not to take any drugs other than sugared rose conserve (julanjubīn sukkarī).436 When she had taken it for a number of days to the amount of one hundred mann,437 she was cured.

[11.13.3.15]

The Shaykh had, in Jurjān, composed the Smaller Epitome of Logic (al-Mukhtaṣar al-aṣghar fī l-manṭiq), which is the one he subsequently placed in Salvation (K. al-Najāh).438 A copy of this book made its way to Shiraz, and a group of scholars there studied it. Certain points were obscure to them, so they wrote them down on a quire of paper. Among that group was the judge of Shiraz, and he sent the quire to Abū l-Qāsim al-Kirmānī,439 the companion of Ibrāhīm ibn Bāyā al-Daylamī, who was concerned with the esoteric sciences. The judge added to the quire a letter to the Shaykh Abū l-Qāsim, sending it by a rider, asking Abū l-Qāsim to show the quire to the Shaykh [Ibn Sīnā] and to request a brief reply from him. The Shaykh Abū l-Qāsim visited the Shaykh just as the sun was yellowing on a summer’s day and showed him the letter and the quire. The Shaykh read the letter and Abū l-Qāsim’s reply and then placed the quire before him and set about examining it while the people conversed. When Abū l-Qāsim left, the Shaykh ordered me to bring paper. Some quires were cut from it, and I bound five quires each of ten folios in Pharaonic440 quarto. We performed the evening prayer (al-ʿIshāʾ), candles were brought, and the Shaykh had wine fetched and bade me and his brother441 sit down and start drinking. The Shaykh himself began answering the points at issue and wrote and drank until midnight, when sleep overcame me and his brother. The Shaykh told us we could go, but in the morning there was a knock at my door; it was the Shaykh’s messenger with a summons for me from his master. When I went to him, he was on his prayer mat with the five quires before him. ‘Take these to the Shaykh Abū l-Qāsim al-Kirmānī,’ he said, ‘and tell him that I hastened in answering the points so that the courier would not be held up.’ When I took them to him, he was utterly amazed and sent the courier (al-fayj) on his way. He then told others of this event, and it became a legendary story amongst the people.

[11.13.3.16]

During the time when the Shaykh [Ibn Sīnā] was engaged in astronomical observations, he invented new astronomical instruments about which he wrote a treatise. I myself spent eight years engaged in astronomical observation for the purpose of examining what Ptolemy442 relates about his experience of astronomical observations, some of which became clear to me.

[11.13.3.17]

The Shaykh composed Equitable Judgement (K. al-Inṣāf), but on the day Sulṭān Masʿūd443 took Isfahan444 the Sultan’s troops plundered the Shaykh’s possessions, including the book, no trace of which has ever been found.445

[11.13.3.18]

The Shaykh was powerful in all of his faculties but, of his appetitive faculties, the faculty for intercourse was most powerful and predominant. He frequently exercised this, so that it affected his constitution (mizāj). Now the Shaykh depended on the strength of his constitution, until, in the year ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah fought with Tāsh Farrāsh446 at the gates of al-Karaj,447 the Shaykh was stricken with colic, and because he was so intent on being cured and fearing that he would be the cause of a defeat since he could not travel due to the illness, he administered to himself eight enemas in one day, so that part of his bowel was lacerated and it became ulcerated (ẓahara bihi saḥj). He was obliged to travel with ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah, and they made haste towards Īdhaj,448 where he showed signs of the fits which can accompany colic. Still he kept on treating himself and administering enemas because of the ulcers and to prevent the colic. One day he ordered that two dāniqs449 of celery seed be taken and mixed with the ingredients for the enema, seeking to allay the flatus. However, a certain physician who himself used to go and treat the Shaykh put in five dirhams of celery seed – I know not whether deliberately or in error for I was not with him – and the Shaykh’s ulcers were exacerbated due to the sharpness of the seeds. The Shaykh also took Mithridatum450 for the fits but one of his servants put in it a great quantity of opium and gave it to him and he consumed it. The reason for this was that they had embezzled a large amount of money from the Shaykh’s treasury and wished to see him dead to escape the consequences of their actions. The Shaykh was taken in this state to Isfahan, where he continued to treat himself. He was so weak that he could not walk, but he continued to treat himself until he was able to walk and attend the court of ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah. But still he did not restrain himself and indulged in intercourse often. He did not fully recover from his illness, but would relapse and then recover every so often.

[11.13.3.19]

When ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah advanced against Hamadan, the Shaykh went out with him, but that same illness returned once again on the way. When they reached Hamadan the Shaykh realized that his strength had collapsed and that it would not be sufficient to stave off the disease. He left off treating himself and said repeatedly, ‘The person who used to look after my body is incapable of doing so and now no treatment will be of any use.’ He remained in this state for some days until he passed over to the precincts of his Lord.

He was fifty-three years of age [when he died], his death being in the year 428 [1037]. He was born in the year 375 [985].451

[11.13.4]

This is the end of Abū ʿUbayd’s account of the life of the Shaykh – may God show him mercy. His grave is beneath the city walls on the south side of Hamadan. It is also said that his body was taken to Isfahan and was buried at a place near the Gūn Gunbadh gate.

[11.13.5]

When Ibn Sīnā died from the colic which had afflicted him, one of his contemporaries452 said of him:453

I saw that Ibn Sīnā is an enemy of men;
he died a most lowly death, of constipation.454
He could not cure what befell him with The Cure
and The Salvation did not salvage him from death.

He meant by his words ‘in prison’ the constipation of the belly from the colic with which he was afflicted, and by ‘the cure’ and ‘the salvation’ he meant the two books written by the Shaykh, and by this he intended poetic paronomasia (jinās fī l-shiʿr).

[11.13.6]

An example of the sayings of the Shaykh Raʾīs is this advice (waṣiyyah) that he gave to one of his friends, namely Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī l-Khayr al-Ṣūfī:455

Let God, the exalted, be the foremost and uttermost of one’s thoughts, and let Him be the hidden and manifest aspect of one’s every perception. And let one’s own eye be salved by fixation on Him, and let one’s own foot be grounded in standing before Him. Let one’s intellect traverse the highest heavenly realms and the greatest signs of one’s Lord which are therein, and when it descends to its earthly abode then let it glorify God, the exalted, in His works, for He is hidden and manifest; He reveals Himself to everything through everything:456

Thus in every thing He has a sign,
showing that He is One.

When this state becomes one’s second nature, the impression of the heavenly realms will be stamped upon one’s soul and the holiness of the Godhead will become manifest to it. One will become familiar with the most sublime affection and experience the utmost pleasure and, instead of one’s self, one will focus on One who has priority over the self. Tranquility will pour down upon one and certainty will be realized. Then one will look upon the nether world as one who has compassion for its inhabitants, one who considers its devices to be paltry, its heavy loads to be light, and, due to one’s intellect, one who considers it to be altogether base, and its ways to be but error. And one should remind one’s self as one harps on about the world and takes delight in its delights, and one should be amazed at one’s soul and at the people of the world just as they are amazed at one who has bade ‘farewell’ to the world and is in the world but not of the world.

And one should know that the most virtuous motion is prayer, the most appropriate stasis is fasting, the most beneficial piety is charity, the most pure inner state is forbearance, and the most vain endeavour is ostentation. The soul will not be free from pollution as long as it pays attention to this or that opinion or discussion or debate or reacts to one state of affairs or another. The best of actions is that which arises from pure intentions, and the best intention is that which stems from the precincts of knowledge. Wisdom is the foremost of virtues, and knowledge of God is the first of priorities. «To Him ascend goodly words and He raises up righteous actions».457

Then let one turn towards this soul that has been adorned with its essential perfection and guard it from becoming sullied with disfiguring states of subservience to material souls which, if they remain in the beautified soul, its situation will be at the time of separation as it was at the time of conjunction, since the soul’s substance (jawhar) is neither polluted nor admixed. Rather, what pollutes the soul is the state of subservience to those concomitants. Indeed, what benefits the soul are the states of dominion, sublimity and primacy. Likewise, one should flee falsehood in word and in thought so that the state of truth occurs within the soul, and dreams and visions become true. As for pleasures, one should practice them only to improve one’s nature or to preserve one’s self or the species or good governance. And as for wine, one should flee from drinking it for pleasure, nay, even curatively or medicinally. One should treat every group according to its own customs and rules, and one should be satisfied with one’s allotted portion and decreed amount of wealth, and one should strive a great deal to assist people, even though that may entail going against one’s nature. One should not neglect the precepts of religion, and one should respect the divine codes and be regular in physical acts of worship. Then, if one secludes one’s self and is free from intimacy with people, one will, all one’s life, be edified by the beauty of one’s soul and by the contemplation of the First King and His kingdom, and one will be kept from the pitfalls of the people458 by not being known to the people. May one make a covenant with God that one will adopt this course and abide by this way, «and God is the Liege of those who have faith, and He is our sufficiency and the best of trustees».459

[11.13.7.1]

Some of the poetry of al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs:

He said regarding the soul:460

There descended to you from the highest place
an ash-coloured dove, inapproachable, proud,
One veiled from even every Knower’s eye,461
yet herself without burka or veil.
She came to you with reluctance; she may well part
from you reluctantly too, dismayed.
Disdainful at first, ill at ease; but, going along,
getting used to living so close to desolate wasteland,
5Forgetting, I think, her old haunts: sacred meadows
and dwellings, unhappy to have been left behind.
When joined to the D of Descent from the S
of her Station in Dhāt al-Ajraʿ,
She adhered to the H of Heavy and came to stay
among waymarks and humble vestigial abodes.462
Now she cries, when she thinks of the homes of
her meadows, her eyes full of tears unstinting,
Cooing continuously on the dung-strewn remains,
effaced by the four recurrent winds.
10The thick, coarse net has trapped her, a cage prevents her
from reaching the highest regions, spacious and lush.
But when it is nearly time to go to those grounds
and departure is nigh, to that widest expanse,
She coos;463 the covers are raised; and she sees
what will never be seen by slumbering eyes.
And she parts from all things left as allies of earth
that are not to accompany her,
And she starts to sing on the top of a lofty mount
 – and knowledge will raise all those not raised –.464
15So why was she made to descend from that high,
lofty place to the depth of the lowest abyss?
If God has made her descend in His wisdom,
that is hidden from even the cleverest mind,
Then her descent, if it had to be, was so that
she could hear what she had not yet heard,
And return with the knowledge of both worlds’ secrets;
the rents in her dress will never be mended.465
For Time has crossed her path, cut her off:
her sun has set, never to rise again.
20She was like the lightning that flashed in the meadow,
then vanished, as if it had never flared.

[11.13.7.2]

Regarding grey hair, wisdom, and renunciation, he said:466

Have you not woken up from the night of childishness,
now that you have woken up from the night467 of youth?
A dawn of grey hair has breathed in your beard
and its night has dissipated; so how much longer this foolish love?468
Your youth was a rebellious devil,
who was pelted away by the shooting star of your grey hair.469
A grey goshawk of Fate has lowered its wings
over my temples and chased away the crow.
5Obliterated are the traces of youth and the traces of an abode of theirs,470
that I used to know as Rabāb’s dwelling-place.471
One has become white, bleached by the drops of my tears,
and the other has darkened with the raindrops from the clouds.
The one announces to you the demise of your soul
and the other means the hills will be verdant again.
Thus is your world on earth: mended merely to be broken again,
misleadingly, and built only to become a ruin.472
The soul, abhorring it, comes to be attached to it
by means of snares that prevent any movement.
10But for this I would hurriedly have stripped myself
of this world, even though it was my skin.
I became aware of its recalcitrance and got over my love of it,
but when I came to loathe it you made it cling to me.473
I have been afflicted with a world in which injury rose higher
than anything save my fortitude and which is too low to for my rebuke.
A motley crowd of people were made to flow(?) to what is right474
and how often was ‘what is right’ anything but right!475
I mix with them, but my soul is in a place
that is elevated above them, veiled.
15I am not one of those who are sullied with a corrupted mind,476
when the sun’s rays are dust-coloured from earth.
When the eyelids are stuck together they acquire a phantom
and they shrink back from the core.

[11.13.7.3]

And he said:477

O encampment478 that has been made unrecognizable by events and antiquity!479
Your inhabitants480 have become doubtful, like the vestiges.
It is as if your traces are the secret about them that is with me,
and your trench is my obliterated, demolished481 fortitude.
It is as if the soot-black hearthstones that still remain
between the meadows are black-winged sandgrouse, squatting,
Or a gloomy sadness that has remained in my heart,
about a need they did not fulfil when they were near.
5Ah! Clouds have wept over it, whose tears poured down,
with thunder, and loaded with lightning, laughing.
Why did not clouds liberally rain on it with a lasting downpour482
of flowing tears, all of which were blood?
Would that the remains had answered him in whom there is always
a healthy love of them, and a sickness with love of them!
Or perhaps they are speaking silently:483
a circumstance may convey what words cannot convey.
Don’t you see my grey hair, which tellingly informs you
that the edge of my sword that I had unsheathed is blunted?
10Grey hair is promised,484 hopes make promises,
while a man is deluded and the days pass.
Why is it that I see the wisdom of deeds fallen low
and always hear words that are all wisdom?
Why is it that I see excellence as excess,485 to be despised,
while shortcoming is honoured now that honour is deemed a shortcoming?
I made my eyes roam over this world and its vain trappings
and I found it a dwelling in which nobody lived,
Like a cadaver full of maggots, the maggots having grown there
and deriving from it their protection and food.486
15It is equal to me if the people have been pious or debauched:487
the likes of them no pen will describe.
Do not envy them if their good fortune increases:488
good fortune is useful, but it gives no protection.
Though they live in comfort (naʿimū) they are but cattle (naʿam):
cattle may live a comfortable life.
Those who have found riches are those who lack understanding:
those who find are not like those who do not.
I have been created among them; also, I have been mixed with them,
unwillingly; I cannot do without them nor they without me.
20I have been made to dwell among them like a lion in a den:
have you ever seen a lion who hides from his own species in a fortress?489
Though those with whom I have been afflicted
(their eyes congenitally blind, their ears deaf) have gone, I am
Distinguished between the inhabitants of this world: distinguished
by the least of what is in me, not by the main part and the bulk (of my qualities).
With which glorious feat could anyone be compared with me?
With which noble deed could the nations imitate me?
Is it something like a porcupine490 bristling with spines that has overcome me?
Or is it something like a jackal of …, its goods being hunks of flesh?(?)491
25The former is an old woman, but one past the child-bearing age,
the latter is the injustice of dominion held jointly, suspect.(?)492
Although pens serve me,
the cutting sword also serves my hand.
Sometimes I witness a battle with a serene mind and I resolve it
while brave heroes shrink from its violent course.
Sword blows are struck fiercely, lance thrusts are stabbing,
blood493 flows thickly, harm is raging.
The cranium of Truth is covered in dust raised by them,
the pavilion of Falsehood is darkened by their shed blood.494
30The white swords and the brown spears are red under the battle-dust,
while Death is judge and the heroes are contestants.
The most just division in my war and their war
is spoils to us from them and losses to them from us.
As for eloquence, ask me as someone experienced in it:
I have been the tongue of yore495 in the mouth of Time.
No one but me knows what there is to know, marked with a distinguishing mark
for those who deserve it: I am that distinguishing mark.496
The maiden of the sciences of truth was unadorned
until understanding and the pen, with my exposition, unveiled her.497
35We destroy their souls with the terror we throw
into them, while their bodies are fused with the swords.498
The gift of this age in fertilizing my resolutions has died
and the parched camels have been giving dry food for them.(?)499
Had I wished, that which I would have disclosed – had I wished so – would have been;
it was not fear that kept (me) silent; rather (I did so) that diffidence should be observed.(?)500
Had I found the earth on which the sun shines wide enough
to put down the saddle of my resolution, I would have resolved.
Had my resolutions wept, prevented by diffidence,
and had not the multitude pervaded my road towards them, …501
40And the white (swords?) were a hoof (?) for the sword-sheaths,
now that the bulk(?) of horses and bridle-bits behave like mules(?),502
And they think that there is no bright marking except hair,503
and that horses have bridles at birth.
And justice has covered the surface of the earth,
so that lions eschew any pasture where there are cattle.
But it is a patch surrounded by misery:
anyone who inclines to it is contemptible and full of sorrow.

[11.13.7.4]

And he also said:504

Here is grey hair! Its onset had to come.
Now cut it, or dye it, or cover it!
Are you upset by the dew when it falls copiously?
Are you distressed by the sea at its shore?
So often the branch of youth that you were pleased you,
when in leaf; but the leaves had to fall.
So do not be distressed on account of a road you have walked,
on the middle of which so many others have been cut off.
5And do not covet, for nobody will gain a livelihood
other than what is his fair share.
So many a thing that was needed offered itself,
but greed then caused it to be missed, through its excess.
When a man is fertile in his intellect
he thrives in time in spite of its drought.
He who is too hurried to be prudent in his resolve
is bound to have to regret it.
So often flattery has murder behind it,505
just as hairs are plucked from a comb.
10When someone who has committed an error refers
to an excuse, then quickly cheer him up.(?)506
One’s soul is not tired by its powers of discernment,
so do not hurry to confound it.
Respect a grey-haired man and revile youth
when its acts recklessly, plodding blindly.
Do not be unjust in matters of justice507 but be moderate; so often
have I written in the past in its handwriting.508
Often a grey-haired person has stubbornly resisted sincere advice,
resisting like a tragacanth509 when it is stripped of its leaves.
15You see him moving quickly toward a coveted object,
like a young camel when it is freed from its rope.
Often someone bored and angry wanted
to provoke my forbearance, but I did not grant him this.
Many an envious person was made to fall by encounters(?),
but Fate did not disdain to pick him up again:
He would try to lower me in my standing,
but the Pleiades are too high to be lowered.
He remains forever angry,
but how Fate is laughing at his anger!

[11.13.7.5]

Another example:510

Stay, you two, we shall recompense these familiar haunts with a little,
giving the site, over which a year has passed, some rain with our tears.
The effacement has wreaked havoc with it, as you see,
and now no traces, no remains are left.
We lived there for a short time,
while suffering their remoteness511 for a long time.
He who wants this world to be stable in one condition
seeks the impossible (mustaḥīl) from the changeable (mustaḥīl).
5When this world is reviewed and considered
any greed will withdraw from it, asking to be exempt.
My friend, inform the reproachers that I
have abandoned my seemly behaviour in a seemly manner,
And that I am one of those people who, once we are committed to a resolution,
we let it follow by resigning it.
Whenever our eyes and our hands flow copiously512
you see that we disobey the rebuker.
I stopped the tears of my eyes, being without Suʿdā,513
on the remains, where they did not find a place to flow.
10On my eyelids there is a furrow of tears due514 to Suʿdā,
for which I set my heart as surety.
I have pledged my loyalty to her, and my pledge
is a pledge that will not change,
Many a sister of hers has wooed for my heart
but did not find a way to make me betray515 her.
You who reproach me, what you do is futile! Be prolix
all day and all night, or be a bit shorter!
For nothing as devoted as my heart has ever been seen,
nor has anything as bored as my ear ever been seen.
15The reproach of grey hairs is more apt for me, if I
could bear it and though I strive to accept it.
Yes, these nights have repeated
over my night a time that will not cease.516
Would you disapprove517 of the first grey hairs on my head when they appeared,
adorning it just as lustre adorns sword-blades?
Do you upbraid me for my wasting away or my emaciation?
I have been dressed in a wasting and emaciated body.
Just as al-Khufaysh Abū Wujaym(?)518
upbraids me for not being miserly.
20‘Spendthrift!’ he says, to detract me,
thinking that the loftiness of a generous man is lowliness.
When will the earth be wide enough for my purpose,
so that I can stand out or bestow amply with it.(?)519
He says, ‘He’s got a big hole in his hand!’
But I have patched up so many holes thereby, bestowing gifts.
So widen520 the gaps between your fingers and do your utmost;
perhaps you will not go round applying yourself
To scandalous things. Your wealth is larger than my wealth,
precious things that cannot be protected by what is made contemptible.
25The scrapings of the dust521 of what my spending has consumed
is sold for some of what you contain altogether.
Your loved ones warn you for the effect of my cunning,
but I am not scared or appalled by this.
You have sunk too low for me to believe there is evil in you,
so cheer up and do not fear … (?)522
If I have frightened you unintentionally,
well, elephants have always frightened newly weaned camels.

[11.13.7.6]

Another:523

You have made me acquire a favour524 since I was noticed
by the ‘Sun525 of Protectors’ with the eyes of one who sees everything.526
Thus rubies, it is said, have their origin
in the favourable influence of the sun on stones.527

The vizier Abū Ṭālib al-ʿAlawī to Ibn Sīnā, complaining of pustules on his forehead:528

The protégé of our master, the Shaykh, and his friend,
the seedling of his benefaction, nay, the product grown from his favours,
Complains to him – may God give him lasting life! –
about the traces of pustules that appeared on his forehead.
So be so kind as to grant him the eradication of the ailment, thus earning
the gratitude of the Prophet together with that of his offspring.

The Shaykh Raʾīs replied to the above verses describing in his reply what the treatment should be, saying:

May God cure and banish the complaint he has
on his forehead and make him healthy in His mercy!
As for the treatment, that consists of a purge, preceded by
completing(?)529 the last of my verses, from the manuscript.
He should let loose the sucking leeches who will sip
some blood from the back of his neck, exempting him from cupping.
Meat he should shun, except light meat; nor should he
let his wine come near him.
He should daub his face with rosewater,
mixed with pressed willow, when he sleeps.
He should not tighten the button, choking him,
nor shout loudly in anger.
This is the treatment, and he who acts accordingly will see
good results and it will take care of his ailment.

[11.13.7.7]

And he said:530

The best souls are those that know themselves531
and what is due to the quantities of their quiddities,
And in what it is that the organs of their constitution in their forms have inhered,
and from what they have come into existence.
A soul of vegetation and a soul of sense perception, assembled:
aren’t, likewise, its/his(?) characteristics like their/its(?) characteristics?532
Men! What a heavy loss, because of which
souls have never ceased to amble in their darknesses!533

And also:534

Refine your soul with knowledge so that it may rise,
and leave the whole, for it is a house for the whole.535
The soul is like nothing but a glass, knowledge
is a lamp, and God’s wisdom is the oil.536
If it shines, you are alive
and if it is dark, you are dead.

Another:537

He poured it into the cup, unmixed;
it vanquished the light of the lamp.
He thought it was a fire,
so he quenched it by mixing it.

Another:538

Come, pour it out for me: a wine like the blood of necks,539
O friend with the cup, full, publicly!540
A wine for which the Christians keep prostrating themselves
and to which Amram’s sons541 pledge their sincere loyalty.
If, one day when it has played its effect on them,
it were to say, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ they would reply, ‘Yes, you are!’542

Another:543

Divinity descended in its humanity
as the sun descends in the solar houses.544
Someone who was fond of it545 said
something similar to what the Christians say about Christ:
It, the cup, and what is mixed with it
are united, like Father, Son, and Spirit.546

[Another:547]

At the old tune we drank an old wine
that was prior to every prior, pre-existent thing.
If it had not been in a place548 I would have said that
it was the First Cause, which was not caused itself.

[11.13.7.8]

[Another:]549

How strange, those people who envy me for my virtues,
from those who censure me550 to those who reproach me!
They censure my excellence and blame my wisdom,
but they are strangers to their own shortcoming and my perfection.
I, with their malice and their censure,
am like a lofty mountain that despises the butts of the ibexes’ horns.
When a man knows he is right himself
the blame of the ignorant is insignificant to him.

[Another:]551

You with languid eyelids, are the traits
of every young woman borrowed from excellent wine?
It is the reddish one whose inner spirit is an enemy
though she whispers gently as if a friend.

[Another:]552

I almost become mad (ujannu) from what I conceal (ujinnu);
neither humans nor jinnees have seen what I see.
Misfortunes have aimed lethal blows at me
that penetrate and which no shield can withstand.
My neighbours are people who, if asked for
the crumbs of what they have eaten, would be stingy with them.
If complicated problems present themselves
conjecture and assumption shuffle their arrows,553
And if difficult matters occur
they abscond, lie low, and hide themselves.

[Another:]554

I complain to God about Time: its adversity555
has worn out my new powers, while it is always new.
They are tribulations aiming for me: it is as if I
have become a magnet while they are iron.

[And he said:]556

Hold back, beware, lest suddenly you be hurt
by the sword of my speech (kalām) or the wounds (kilām) of my sword!

[He said:] ‘If these lines are said on seeing the planet Mercury at the moment of its ascendancy, they will bring knowledge and good things, with the permission of God, the Exalted.’557

Mercury! I have, by God! long been coming and going,
evening and morning, hoping to see you and gain profit.
Now there you are! Provide me with powers with which I can reach my desires
and obscure sciences, as a generous deed!
And protect me against forbidden things and all evil,
at the command of a King, the Creator of earth and heaven.

[11.13.7.9]

Among the poems attributed to al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs Ibn Sīnā is a poem on the events and circumstances that will occur at the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the constellation of Capricorn, in the house of Saturn, which is the most inauspicious of houses, because it is the house of Saturn, the inauspicious planet of the celestial sphere, the Great Unlucky planet.558 The poem begins ‘Dear son (, beware of the tenth conjunction)’.559 Everything that is said in the poem, about the Tatars560 and how they massacred the people and destroyed fortresses, in fact happened; we have seen it in our time. One of the most amazing things said in it about the Tatars is ‘Al-Malik al-Muẓaffar will annihilate them’, for al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Quṭuz did indeed annihilate them when he arrived from Egypt with the soldiers of Islam. His defeat of them took place in the Wadi of Kanaan, as is mentioned; it was in Ramadan of the year 658. There are many other things in the poem that came true, such as what it says about the Caliph of Baghdad: ‘Likewise the Caliph, Jaʿfar’ and the rest of the line, and the line that follows: ‘His caliphate is obliterated’,561 and the Tatars reigned, as is mentioned. That happened at the beginning of the year 657. In this poem the poet relied on the Book of Divination by the Commander of the Believers, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, peace be upon him.562 God knows best if al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs really composed this poem or someone else, but it occurred to me that I should quote the poem here, whether it is by Ibn Sīnā or someone else.563

Beware, dear son, the tenth conjunction,
and save yourself, fleeing before everybody else flees,
Don’t occupy yourself with pleasure to divert yourself with,
for death is more befitting to any unjust sinner,
And settle in some place in the Hijaz and stay there,564
and patiently endure the outrage of outrageous Time!
Do not resort to (other) countries, for they will all be struck
by the edge of the severing sword,
5By men with flat noses, who come like
an overflowing torrent or like locusts swarming,
With slanting eyes; you see them as lowly
but how many powerful kings have they destroyed!
Their only aim is to shed blood, as if they have
to wreak vengeance on all those who prohibit and command,
And the destruction of what mankind has built, so that one sees
a desert where there were buildings, despite the builders.
Khorasan565 will turn into places where weeds grow;
the inhabitants will have no one to set it right.
10Likewise Chorasmia,566 and Balkh567 after it,
will become a place where no birds whistle.
And al-Daylamān,568 its mountains and valleys,
and Edessa569 will be made a ruin after the taking of Nishapur.570
And in al-Rayy571 will be shed the blood of a group of people
from the family of Aḥmad, not with the sword of the infidel.572
Those who have shed their blood will flee
as doves flee from the eagle that pounces with folded wings.
The Chorasmian will defeat their army
in the middle of the second Rabīʿ month,573
15But he will die, grieving for the realm
that he once held, in the waves of an overflowing river.
His progeny will be humbled, his children will be miserable,
because of the appearance of a star, shining with a tail.574
Its appearance will be in the middle of the conjunction
but its luck will be like the glance of the eye.
His enemies will rise against him; he will meet them in battle
and return routed, empty-handed.
His last days will be in Āmid575
where he will go, though no one else goes there.
20The bulk of his army will desert him
and join his depraved grim opponent.
In Diyār Bakr some of them will be killed
by the sword, both young and old,
And in Azerbaijan you will see the nomads576 of his tents
set up in a great mass by an infidel foe.
His soldiers will perish and his army will perish,
broken to pieces, in every rugged desert.
Woe on account of what the Christians will suffer from them,
being humbled, both young and old,577
25And woe if they alight in Diyār Rabīʿah,
between the Tigris and al-Jāzir!578
They will lay Diyār Bābil in ruins, all of it,
from Shahrazūr to the lands of al-Sāmir.579
Khilāṭ,580 after the splendour of its appearance, will turn
into a desert, trampled581 by the frequent passing of hooves.
Irbil will be closed to them
for nine days but will be taken on the tenth day.582
They will tread Nineveh583 underfoot584 and its wealth will be taken
and its cattle,585 from people in the vicinity.
30Perhaps the soldiers of Mosul will appear,
asking for safe-conduct from the perfidious traitor.586
You will see them, encamped on the bank of the Tigris,
and they go to Balad587 without flagging.
And you will see, towards al-Tharthār,588 pillaging taking place,
blood flowing, and violation.
There will be, on the day of the burning of its splendour that
comes to them(?), a rain like an overflowing sea.589
Alas for the land and its people!
What will be become of them, not having anyone to aid them?
35Perhaps men will present themselves to them,
from the clan of Ṣaʿṣaʿah, of noble tribes,590
Who water their horses from the Euphrates,
every thirsty man of them on the back of a lean horse.
Aleppo will meet them with an army that, if it marched
in the sea, it would turn dark with the dust that was stirred.591
When the edge of the conjunction has passed you will see
that they arrive at Damascus,592 which is full of soldiers.
Al-Malik al-Muẓaffar593 will annihilate them, just as
Thamūd was annihilated in ancient times.594
40And the scion of the Imam Muḥammad595 will exterminate them
with his severing sword of cutting edge.
But perhaps Time will let a group of them survive,
who will then be destroyed by the sword of al-Nāṣir.596
And the Turks will annihilate the Persians and not a trace
will be left of them: thus is the decree of the Mighty King.597
In the land of Kanaan598 their corpses will remain
a pasture ground for wolves and every flying vulture.
The worshippers of the Cross will wield the sword over them,
with right wings and left wings.
45O abode of Baghdad, with all the … (?)599 corpses
you hold, and heads that fly!
Likewise the Caliph, Jaʿfar, will remain in
a land where no one will tread its paths.600
Likewise Iraq, its fortresses and abodes,
those regions and buildings full of people:
The sword of the conjunction will destroy them. Ah,
what a journey that ruins a merchant’s wealth!
The Byzantines will break them and will themselves be broken
afterwards, for a year, and there no one will set the broken bone.
50His caliphate will be obliterated and his memory forgotten
among mankind: the doing of a Mighty Lord.
You will see towering fortresses razed,601
no refuge left in them for a traveller,
And you will see how its villages and lands are inhabited,
in exchange for familiar friends, by shy wild beasts.602

A certain aged trader from Persia recited to me a longer poem by the Raʾīs Ibn Sīnā on the same subject rhyming in the unvowelled letter rāʾ, which begins as follows:603

When Mars shines in the east from the land of Babel
and the two inauspicious planets are in conjunction,604 beware, beware!
Strange things are bound to happen
and the Tatars are bound to come to your lands.

The man had only memorized part of the poem, and incorrectly at that, so I will not quote the rest of it.

[11.13.8]

Al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs wrote the following books according to our – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah’s – findings, and other than that which was set down previously in the account of Abū ʿUbayd al-Jūzjānī:605

  1. The Addenda (K. al-Lawāḥiq). It is said that this is the commentary on The Cure (Sharḥ al-Shifāʾ).606

  2. The Cure (K. al-Shifāʾ), in which the author summarized all four sciences. He composed the parts on Physics and Metaphysics in twenty days at Hamadan.607

  3. The Sum and Product (K. al-Ḥāṣil wa-l-maḥṣūl), which he composed in his home town for the Jurist Abū Bakr al-Barqī608 at the beginning of his career in nearly twenty volumes. It is only extant in the original copy.609

  4. Piety and Sin (K. al-Birr wa-l-ithm). Also composed for Jurist Abū Bakr al-Barqī. On ethics in two volumes not to be found except with al-Barqī.610

  5. Equitable Judgement (K. al-Inṣāf). Twenty volumes of commentary on all the books of Aristotle611 in which the author judges equitably (anṣafa bayna) between the Eastern and Western Philosophers.612 The book was lost amongst the plunder of Sultan Masʿūd.613

  6. The compendium (K. al-Majmūʿ). Also known as The Book of Philosophy for al-ʿArūḍī (al-Ḥikmah al-ʿArūḍiyyah) which he composed at the age of twenty-one years for Abū l-Ḥusayn al-ʿArūḍī but not including mathematical sciences (riyāḍiyyāt).614

  7. The Canon of Medicine (K. al-Qānūn fī l-ṭibb). He composed parts of it at Jurjān and Rayy and completed it at Hamadan. He had hoped to compose a commentary and case notes (tajārib).615

  8. The middle Jurjānī book of Logic (K. al-Awsaṭ al-Jurjānī fī l-manṭiq).616 Composed in Jurjān for Abū Muḥammad al-Shīrāzī.617

  9. The Origin and the Return (K. al-Mabdaʾ wa-l-maʿād).618 On the soul. Also composed for Abū Muḥammad al-Shīrāzī at Jurjān. At the beginning of this book I have found that he composed it for Shaykh Abū Aḥmad Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Fārisī.

  10. Universal Observations (K. al-Arṣād al-kulliyyah).619 Also composed at Jurjān for Abū Muḥammad al-Shīrāzī.

  11. The Return (K. al-Maʿād).620 Composed at Rayy for the ruler Majd al-Dawlah.621

  12. The Language of the Arabs (K. Lisān al-ʿArab).622 On lexicography. Composed at Isfahan, the author did not make a fair copy and no copy is extant, nor does it have an equal. I have seen part of this book, which is an extraordinary compilation.

  13. The book of philosophy for ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah (Dānish-nāmah-ʾi ʿAlāʾī).623 In Persian, composed for ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah ibn Kākawayh at Isfahan.624

  14. The Salvation (K. al-Najāh).625 Composed on the way to Sābūr Khwāst while in the service of ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah.626

  15. Pointers and Reminders (K. al-Ishārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt).627 This is the last and finest book he composed on philosophy and which he used to conceal.

  16. The Book of Guidance (K. al-Hidāyah).628 On Philosophy which he composed while imprisoned in the fortress of Fardajān for his brother ʿAlī. It consists of an epitome of Philosophy.

  17. On colic (K. al-Qūlanj).629 Also composed at the fortress of Fardajān. It is not extant in a complete form.

  18. The Epistle of Living son of Awake (R. Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān).630 Also composed at the fortress of Fardajān as an allegory of the active intellect.

  19. Cardiac drugs (K. al-Adwiyah al-qalbiyyah).631 Composed at Hamadan and dedicated to the august and noble Sharīf Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Ḥusaynī.

  20. On the pulse (M. fī l-Nabḍ).632 In Persian.

  21. On phonetics (M. fī Makhārij al-ḥurūf).633 Composed at Isfahan for al-Jabbān.634

  22. An epistle to Abū Sahl al-Masīḥī635 on angles (R. ilā Abī Sahl al-Masīḥī fī l-zāwiyah).636 Composed at Jurjān.

  23. On the natural faculties (M. fī l-quwā al-tabīʿiyyah).637 For Abū Saʿd al-Yamāmī.638

  24. The Epistle of the Birds, an allegory. A composition about what brings about knowledge of the Truth (R. al-Ṭayr marmūzah taṣnīf fī-mā yūṣiluhu ilā ʿilm al-Ḥaqq).639

  25. Definitions (K. al-Ḥudūd).640

  26. A treatise opposing the Epistle of al-Ṭabīb641 on the natural faculties (M. fī taʿarruḍ risālat al-Ṭabīb fī l-quwā al-tabīʿiyyah).642

  27. The Well-Springs of Wisdom (K. ʿUyūn al-ḥikmah),643 summarizing the three disciplines.

  28. On the converses of modals (M. fī ʿukūs dhawāt al-jihah).644

  29. Monotheistic sermons (al-Khuṭab al-tawḥīdiyyah).645 On metaphysics.

  30. The large epitome on logic (K. al-Mūjaz al-kabīr fī l-manṭiq). The small epitome [on Logic] (al-Mūjaz al-ṣaghīr) is the logic part of The Salvation (K. al-Najāh).646

  31. The poem, in couplets, on logic (al-Qaṣīdah al-muzdawijah fī l-manṭiq).647 Composed for the Raʾīs Abū l-Ḥasan Sahl648 ibn Muḥammad al-Sahlī at Kurkānj.

  32. On attaining happiness (M. fī Taḥṣīl al-saʿādah). Also known as The Radiant Proofs (al-Ḥujaj al-ghurr).649

  33. On decree and destiny (M. fī l-Qaḍāʾ wa-l-qadar).650 Composed on the way, when he escaped and fled to Isfahan.

  34. On the endive (M. fī l-Hindibāʾ).651

  35. A treatise directing towards the science of logic (M. fī l-Ishārah ilā ʿilm al-manṭiq).652

  36. On the divisions of philosophy and the sciences (M. fī taqāsīm al-ḥikmah wa-l-ʿulūm).653

  37. On oxymel (R. fī l-Sikanjubīn).654

  38. On eternity (M. fī l-lā-nihāyah).655

  39. Comments recorded by the Shaykh’s student Abū Manṣūr ibn Zaylā656 (K. Taʿālīq ʿallaqahu ʿanhu tilmīdhuhu Abū Manṣūr ibn Zaylā).657

  40. On the occult properties of the equator (M. fī khawāṣṣ khaṭṭ al-istiwāʾ).658

  41. Philosophical Inquiries (al-Mubāḥathāt),659 answering the questions of Abū l-Ḥasan Bahmanyār ibn Marzubān,660 the Shaykh’s student.

  42. Answers to ten questions put to him by Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī (ʿashr masāʾil ajāba ʿanhā li-Abī Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī).661

  43. Answers to sixteen questions put to him by Abū Rayḥān [al-Bīrūnī] (jawāb sitta ʿasharah masʾalah li-Abī Rayḥān).662

  44. On the relation of the earth to the heavens and the fact that it is in the centre (M. fī Hayʾat al-arḍ min al-samāʾ wa-kawnihā fī l-wasaṭ).663

  45. Eastern Philosophy (K. al-Ḥikmah al-mashriqiyyah).664 Not extant in its entirety.

  46. An investigation of dialectical propositions (M. fī Taʿaqqub al-mawāḍiʿ al-jadaliyyah).665

  47. Introduction to the art of music (al-Mudkhal ilā ṣināʿat al-mūsīqā).666 This is other than the one found in The Deliverance (K. al-Najāh).

  48. On celestial bodies (M. fī l-Ajrām al-samāwiyyah).667

  49. On rectifying all types of erroneous regimens (K. al-Tadāruk li-anwāʿ khaṭaʾ al-tadbīr).668 In seven discourses, composed for Abū l-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Sahlī.

  50. On the method of astronomical observation and how it conforms to natural science (M. fī Kayfiyyat al-raṣd wa-muṭābaqatihi maʿa al-ʿilm al-ṭabīʿī).669

  51. A discourse on ethics (M. fī l-Akhlāq).670

  52. On alchemy (R. fī l-Kīmiyāʾ),671 for Abū l-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Sahlī.

  53. On an instrument for astronomical observation invented by the author in Isfahan when observing the heavens for ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah (M. fī Ālah raṣdiyyah ṣanaʿahā bi-Iṣfahān ʿinda raṣdihi li-ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah).672

  54. On the object of [Aristotle’s] Categories (M. fī gharaḍ Qāṭīghūriyās).673

  55. The essay on life after death written on the Feast of the Sacrifice (al-Risālah al-Aḍḥawiyyah fī l-maʿād).674 Written for the emir Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿUbayd.675

  56. The Reliance of the Poets (Muʿtaṣam al-shuʿarāʾ),676 on prosody (fī l-ʿarūḍ). Ibn Sīnā wrote this in his home town at the age of seventeen.

  57. On the definition of physical bodies (M. fī Ḥadd al-jism).677

  58. Exalted Philosophy (al-Ḥikmah al-ʿarshiyyah).678 A sublime discourse on Metaphysics.

  59. A Personal Covenant with God (ʿAhd lahu ʿāhada Allāh bihi li-nafsih).679

  60. On the fact that the knowledge of one particular person is other than the knowledge of another (M. fī anna ʿilm Zayd ghayr ʿilm ʿAmr).680

  61. On regimen and provisions for soldiers, slaves, and garrisons, and on land taxes (K. Tadbīr al-jund wa-l-mamālīk wa-l-ʿasākir wa-arzāqihim wa-kharāj al-mamālik).681

  62. Debates about the soul with Abū ʿAlī al-Nīsābūrī682 (Munāẓarāt jarat lahu fī l-nafs maʿa Abī ʿAlī al-Nīsābūrī).683

  63. Sermons, hymns, and prose poetry (Khuṭab wa-tamjīdāt wa-asjāʿ).684

  64. A letter containing an apology for sermons attributed to him (Jawāb taḍammana al-iʿtidhār fīmā nusiba ilayhi min al-khuṭab).685

  65. Abridgement of [the Elements of] Euclid (Mukhtaṣar Ūqlīdis).686 Presumably the one found in The Salvation (al-Najāh).

  66. On arithmetic (M. fī l-Arithmāṭīqī).687

  67. Ten longer poems and shorter pieces on renunciation and such like (ʿashr qaṣāʾid wa-ashʿār fī l-zuhd wa-ghayrihi),688 in which he describes his condition.

  68. Letters in Persian and Arabic: Conversations, Correspondence, and Pleasantries (Rasāʾil bi-l-Fārisiyyah wal-ʿArabiyyah wa-mukhāṭabāt wa-mukātabāt wa-hazliyyāt).689

  69. Comments on the Medical Questions of Ḥunayn690 (Taʿālīq Masāʾil Ḥunayn fī l-Ṭibb).691

  70. Medical rules and treatments (Qawānīn wa-muʿālajāt ṭibbiyyah).692

  71. Many medical questions (Masāʾil ʿiddah ṭibbiyyah).693

  72. Twenty questions put to him by one of his contemporaries (ʿIshrūn masʾalah saʾalahu ʿanhā baʿḍ ahl al-ʿaṣr).694

  73. Questions recorded as memoranda (Masāʾil tarjamahā bi-l-tadhākīr).695

  74. Answers to many questions (Jawāb masāʾil kathīrah).696

  75. A letter to the scholars of Baghdad asking them to judge between him and a man of Hamadan who claimed knowledge of philosophy (Risālah lahu ilā ʿulamāʾ Baghdād yasʾaluhum al-inṣāf baynahu wa-bayna rajul Hamadānī yaddaʿī al-ḥikmah).697

  76. A letter to a friend asking him to judge between him and a man of Hamadan who claimed knowledge of philosophy (Risālah ilā ṣadīq yasʾaluhu al-inṣāf baynahu wa-bayna al-Hamadānī alladhī yaddaʿī al-ḥikmah).698

  77. Answers to a number of questions (Jawāb li-ʿiddat masāʾil).699

  78. A discourse elucidating the nature of letters of the alphabet (Kalām lahu fī tabyīn māʾiyyat al-ḥurūf).700

  79. Commentary on Aristotle’s book On the Soul (Sharḥ Kitāb al-Nafs li-Arisṭūṭālīs).701 It is said that this comes from The Book of Equitable Judgement (K. al-Inṣāf).

  80. On the soul (M. fī l-Nafs). This is known as The Sentences (al-Fuṣūl).702

  81. On showing the falsehood of judicial astrology (M. fī ibṭāl aḥkām al-nujūm).703

  82. The Book of Rarities: on grammar (K. al-Mulaḥ fī l-naḥw).704

  83. Chapters in metaphysics on affirming the First (Fuṣūl Ilāhiyyah fī ithbāt al-Awwal).705

  84. Chapters on the soul and on the natural sciences (Fuṣūl fī l-nafs wa-ṭabīʿiyyāt).706

  85. An epistle to Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī l-Khayr707 on renunciation (R. ilā Abī Saʿīd ibn Abī l-Khayr fī l-zuhd).708

  86. On the fact that it is not possible for a single thing to be both substance and accident (M. fī annahu lā yajūz an yakūna shayʾ wāḥid jawharan wa-ʿaraḍan).709

  87. Debates on various branches of knowledge with a certain person of merit (Masāʾil jarat baynahu wa-bayna baʿḍ al-fuḍalāʾ fī funūn al-ʿulūm).710

  88. Commentaries and answers to questions which Abū l-Faraj, the physician of Hamadan,711 gleaned from his [the Shaykh’s] study sessions (Taʿlīqāt istafādahā Abū l-Faraj al-Ṭabīb al-Hamadānī min majlisihi wa-jawābāt lahu).712

  89. A discourse on realms and parts of the earth mentioned in his writings (Maqālah dhakarahā fī taṣānīfihi annahā fī l-mamālik wa-biqāʿ al-arḍ).

  90. A short work on the fact that angles in circumferences and tangents have no quantity (Mukhtaṣar fī anna al-zāwiyah allatī fī l-muḥīṭ wa-l-mumāss lā kammiyyah lahā).713

  91. Answers to fourteen questions posed by Abū l-Ḥasan al-ʿĀmirī714 (Ajwibah li-suʾālāt saʾalahu ʿanhā Abū l-Ḥasan al-ʿĀmirī wa-hiya arbaʿ ʿasharah masʾalah).

  92. The smaller epitome on logic (K. al-Mūjaz al-ṣaghīr fī l-manṭiq).715

  93. On the positioning of the earth in the centre of the heavens (K. Qiyām al-arḍ fī wasaṭ al-samāʾ).716 Written for Abū l-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Sahlī.

  94. Keys to the Treasure Houses: on logic (K. Mafātīḥ al-khazāʾin fī l-manṭiq).717

  95. Discourse on substance and accident (Kalām fī l-jawhar wa-l-ʿaraḍ).

  96. On dream interpretation (K. Taʾwīl al-ruʾyā).718

  97. A treatise refuting a work of Shaykh Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib719 (M. fī l-radd ʿalā maqālat al-Shaykh Abī l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib).720

  98. On passionate love (R. fī l-ʿishq).721 Written for Abū ʿUbayd Allāh the Jurist (al-Faqīh).722

  99. On human faculties and their perceptions (R. fī l-Quwā al-insāniyyah wa-idrākātihā).723

  100. A discourse explaining sadness and its causes (Qawl fī tabyīn mā l-ḥuzn wa-asbābihi).724

  101. A treatise on a doubtful matter (M. fī amr mashūb).725 Written for Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn Sahl ibn Muḥammad al-Sahlī.

11.14 al-Īlāqī726

Al-Īlāqī – that is, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf Sharaf al-Dīn – was a man of noble descent, a person of culture and refinement and an expert in the art of medicine and the philosophical sciences. He belonged to a group of students of Ibn Sīnā, the shaykh raʾīs. Al-Īlāqī wrote an abridgment of the Canon of Medicine, a task that he accomplished with consummate skill.

Al-Īlāqī composed the following books:

  1. Abridgment of the Canon of [Medicine of Ibn Sīnā] (Ikhtiṣār kitāb al-qānūn).727

  2. On causes and symptoms (K. al-asbāb wa-l-ʿalāmāt).

11.15 Abū l-Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī728

He is Abū l-Rayḥān Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Bīrūnī, the word Bīrūnī referring to Bīrūn, a town in Sind.729 He applied himself to the philosophical sciences, was outstanding in astronomy and astrology and acquired a fine knowledge of the art of medicine. He was a contemporary of the shaykh raʾīs Ibn Sīnā, with whom he held discussions and exchanged letters. I have seen the answers of the shaykh raʾīs to questions put to him by Abū l-Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, containing instructive matters with regard to philosophy. Abū l-Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī lived in Khwārazm.730

He is the author of the following books:731

  1. A Collection of Fine Gems, which contains a discussion on the different types of precious stones and related topics (K. al-jamāhīr fī l-jawāhir). It was written for al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam Shihāb al-Dawlah Abū l-Fatḥ Mawdūd ibn Masʿūd ibn Maḥmūd.732

  2. Traces left from past generations (of mankind) (K. al-āthār al-bāqiyah ʿan al-qurūn al-khāliyah).733

  3. The apothecary’s trade regarding materia medica (K. al-ṣaydalah fī l-ṭibb). In it an exhaustive account is given of the knowledge of the nature of the medicaments, their names, the different opinions held about them by earlier authors and statements made about them by individual physicians and others. It is arranged in alphabetical order.734

  4. The keys to [the science of] astronomy (K. maqālīd al-hayʾah).735

  5. Projecting the sphere onto a plane (K. tasṭīḥ al-kurah).736

  6. The use of the astrolabe (K. al-ʿamal bi-l-aṣṭurlāb).737

  7. The Canon written for Masʿūd (K. al-qānūn al-Masʿūdī). He wrote it for Masʿūd ibn Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegin, and in it he followed the example set by Ptolemy.738

  8. Instruction in the art of astrology (K. al-tafhīm fī ṣināʿat al-tanjīm).739

  9. Treatise on the correction of accidental mistakes in the book called Manual Towards the Direction in Praying (M. fī talāfī ʿawāriḍ al-zallah fī kitāb dalāʾil al-qiblah).740

  10. Epistle on the rectification of [certain] statements (R. fī tahdhīb al- aqwāl).741

  11. Treatise on the use of the spherical astrolabe (M. fī istiʿmāl al-aṣṭurlāb al-kurī).742

  12. Shadows (K. al-aẓlāl).743

  13. The astronomical table written for Masʿūd (K. al-zīj al-Masʿūdī). He wrote it for sultan Masʿūd ibn Maḥmūd, the ruler of Ghaznah.

  14. An abridgment of Claudius Ptolemy’s book (Ikhtiṣār kitāb Baṭlamīyūs al-Qalūdī).

Al-Bīrunī died in the thirties of the fifth century [= 1038–1048].

11.16 Ibn Mandawayh al-Iṣfahānī744

Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mandawayh was one of the most renowned physicians of Persia, where he served a number of rulers and dignitaries. His achievements in the art of medicine are widely known and deserve acknowledgment. He originated from one of the important families in Isfahan. His father, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Mandawayh, was a distinguished man of letters who possessed strong faith.

He composed good poems, of which the following lines are an example:745

Miserly men hoard possessions
and they are distracted from what is behind these things and unaware.
Upon your life, this world is nothing, desires are
nothing, and man is merely diverted.

He also wrote:746

A man’s appointed time is nigh
while his worldly hopes are high.
He will soon have to depart, but does not know
to what the journey will bring him near.

Abū ʿAlī ibn Mandawayh al-Iṣfahānī is the author of the following works:747

  1. A number of epistles, including the well-known Forty Epistles on Medicine that he addressed to fellow physicians. They are:

    1. Epistle to Aḥmad ibn Saʿd, on the regimen of the body (R. ilā Aḥmad ibn Saʿd fī tadbīr al-jasad).

    2. Epistle to ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbās, on the regimen of the body (R. ilā ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbās fī tadbīr al-jasad).

    3. Epistle to Abū l-Faḍl al-ʿĀriḍ, on the regimen of the body (R. ilā Abī l-Faḍl al-ʿĀriḍ fī tadbīr al-jasad).

    4. Epistle to Abū l-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Baḥr, on the regimen of the traveller (R. ilā Abī l-Qāsim Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Baḥr fī tadbīr al-musāfir).

    5. Epistle to Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan, on the structure of the tunics of the eye (R. ilā Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan fī tarkīb ṭabaqāt al-ʿayn).

    6. Epistle to Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Wārid, on the remedy against the swelling of the eye (R. ilā Abī l-Ḥusayn al-Wārid fi ʿilāj intishār al-ʿayn).

    7. Epistle to ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbās, on the description of the digestion of food (R. ilā ʿAbbād ibn ʿAbbās fī waṣf inhiḍām al-ṭaʿām).

    8. Epistle to Aḥmad ibn Saʿd on the description of the stomach and the intended treatment for stomach [problems] (R. ilā Aḥmad ibn Saʿd fī waṣf al-maʿidah wa-l-qaṣd li-ʿilājihā).

    9. Epistle to someone stricken with dropsy, on the regimen of his body and the treatment of his illness (R. ilā mustasqin fī tadbīr jasadih wa-ʿilāj dāʾih).

    10. Epistle to Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan, on colic (R. ilā Abī Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan fī l-qūlanj).

    11. Another epistle to the same person, on the regimen of all those affected with colic, to be applied in the days of their health, so that an attack may be prevented, with the help of God, exalted be He (R. ukhrā ilayhi fī tadbīr aṣḥāb al-qūlanj wa-tadbīr ṣāḥib al-qūlanj).

    12. Epistle to Abū Muḥammad ibn Abī Jaʿfar, on the regimen of those affected with a weakness of the kidneys, who find clysters repulsive (R. ilā Abī Muḥammad ibn Abī Jaʿfar fī tadbīr ḍuʿf al-kulā li-man yastabshiʿu al-ḥuqnah).

    13. An epistle to Abū l-Faḍl, on the treatment of the bladder (R. ilā Abī l-Faḍl fī ʿilāj al-mathānah).

    14. Epistle to the Principal Master, on the treatment of fissures caused by hemorrhoids (R. ilā al-ustādh al-raʾīs fī ʿilāj shiqāq al-bawāsīr).

    15. Epistle on matters connected with sexual intercourse (R. fī asbāb al-bāh).

    16. Epistle explaining why a rumbling is induced in the ear when fig-wood is kindled (R. fī l-ibānah ʿan al-sabab alladhī yuwallidu fī l-udhun al-qarqarah ʿinda ittiqād al-nār fī khashab al-tīn).

    17. Epistle to al-Wathāy, on the treatment of pain in the knee (R. ilā al-Wathāy fī ʿilāj wajaʿ al-rukbah).748

    18. Epistle to Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Dalīl, on the treatment of attacks of itching in the case of old men (R. ilā Abī l-Ḥasan ibn Dalīl fī ʿilāj al-ḥikkah al-ʿāriḍah lil-mashyakhah).

    19. Epistle on the effect of fluids in the body (R. fī l-ashribah fī l-jasad).

    20. Epistle on the description of alcoholic beverages, their benefits and dangers (R. fī waṣf muskir al-sharāb wa-manāfiʿihi wa-maḍārrihi).

    21. Epistle to Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan, on the absence of nutritional properties in water (R. ilā Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan fī anna l-māʾ lā yaghdhū).

    22. Epistle describing wine, its effects, benefits and dangers (R. fī naʿt al-nabīdh wa-waṣf afʿālihi wa-manāfiʿihi wa-maḍārrihi).

    23. Epistle to his son, on the use of whey to treat pimples that appeared on his body when he was young (R. ilā ibnihi fī ʿilāj buthūr kharajat bi-jasadihi bi-māʾ al-jubn wa-huwa ṣaghīr).

    24. Epistle on the benefits and dangers of a beer-like beverage made from fruit (R. fī manāfiʿ al-fuqqāʿ wa-maḍārrihi).

    25. An epistle to Abū l-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd, on ‘khanadīqūn’ [or ‘khandīqūn’] and beer made of fruit and Abū l-Ḥusayn’s reply to it (R. ilā Abī l-Ḥusayn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd fī khanadīqūn [or khandīqūn] wa-l-fuqqāʿ).749

    26. Epistle to one of his friends, on tamarind (R. ilā baʿḍ ikhwānihi fī l-tamr al-hindī).

    27. Epistle to one of his friends, on camphor (R. ilā baʿḍ ikhwānihi fī l-kāfūr).

    28. Epistle to Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan, on the soul and the spirit according to the opinion of the Greeks (R. ilā Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan fī l-nafs wa-l-rūḥ ʿalā raʾy al-yūnāniyyīn).

    29. Another epistle to Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan, in defence of the fact that physicians can also contract diseases (R. ukhrā ilā Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan fī iʿtidhār ʿan iʿtilāl al-aṭibbāʾ).

    30. Epistle dealing with the refutation of the book on the refutation of medicine attributed to al-Jāḥiẓ (R. fī l-radd ʿalā kitāb naqḍ al-ṭibb al-mansūb ilā l-Jāḥiẓ).

    31. Epistle to Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan, dealing with the refutation of those who deny that the physician is in need of lexicographical knowledge (R. ilā Ḥamzah ibn al-Ḥasan fī l-radd ʿalā man ankara ḥājat al-ṭabīb ilā ʿilm al-lughah).

    32. Epistle to those in charge of curing the patients at the hospital in Isfahan (R. ilā al-mutaqallidīn ʿilāj al-marḍā bi-bīmāristān Iṣfahān).

    33. Epistle to Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Saʿīd, discussing what was reported about the illness of Abū Ḥakīm Isḥāq ibn Yūḥannā, the physician from Ahwāz (R. ilā Abī l-Ḥasan ibn Saʿīd fī l-baḥth ʿammā warada min Abī Ḥakīm Isḥāq ibn Yūḥannā al-ṭabīb al-Ahwāzī fī shaʾn ʿillatihi).

    34. Epistle to the doctor Yūsuf ibn Yazdād, regarding his refusal to put the mucilage of linseed into the medicament for enemas (R. ilā Yūsuf ibn Yazdād al-mutaṭabbib fī inkārihi dukhūl luʿāb bizr al-kattān fī adwiyat al-ḥuqnah).

    35. Epistle to the physician Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Isḥāq, reproving him for using specific types of treatment (R. ilā Abī Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Isḥāq al-ṭabīb yunkiru ʿalayhi ḍurūban min al-ilāj).

    36. Another epistle to the doctor Abū Muḥammad, on the disease of the late emir Shīrzīl ibn Rukn al-Dawlah (R. ukhrā ilā Abī Muḥammad al-mutaṭabbib fī ʿillat al-amīr al-mutawaffā Shīrzīl ibn Rukn al-Dawlah).

    37. Another epistle to Abū Muḥammad al-Madīnī, on the matter of applying hot compresses containing sorghum (R. ukhrā ilā Abī Muḥammad al-Madīnī fī shaʾn al-takmīd bi l-jāwars).

    38. Another epistle to Abū Muslim Muḥammad ibn Baḥr, written on behalf of Abū Muḥammad, the doctor from Medina (R. ukhrā ilā Abī Muslim Muḥammad ibn Baḥr ʿan lisān Abī Muḥammad al-ṭabīb al-Madīnī),

    39. Epistle on the illness of al-Ahzal Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Burjī, and an account of the error committed by the doctor Yūsuf ibn Iṣṭifan (R. fī ʿillat al-Ahzal Aḥmad ibn Isḥāq al-Burjī wa-dhikr al-ghalaṭ al-jārī min Yūsuf ibn Iṣṭafan al-mutaṭabbib).750

    40. Epistle on the pains suffered by children (R. fī awjāʿ al-aṭfāl).

  2. A notebook (Kunnāsh).

  3. An introduction to medicine (K. al-mudkhal ilā l-ṭibb).

  4. The comprehensive book, a medical compendium comprising ten chapters (K. al-jāmiʿ al-mukhtaṣar min ʿilm al-ṭibb).

  5. The aid on medicine (K. al-mughīth fī l-ṭibb).

  6. On potions (K. al-sharāb).

  7. On food and drink (K. al-aṭʿimah wa l-ashribah).

  8. A very short book on medicine (K. nihāyat al-ikhtiṣār fī l-ṭibb).

  9. The sufficient book on medicine, also known as the Small Canon (K. al-kāfī fī l-ṭibb wa-yuʿrafu ayḍan bi-kitāb al-qānūn al-ṣaghīr).

11.17 Ibn Abī Ṣādiq751

Abū l-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Ṣādiq al-Nīsābūrī was a distinguished physician, well-versed in the philosophical sciences and very knowledgeable in the art of medicine. He had a strong desire to study the works of Galen, and what was written in them about the obscurities and mysteries of the medical art, and avidly explored the theoretical foundations and practical application of medicine. He used intelligible language and was an eloquent speaker. His commentaries on the books of Galen are excellent and well-arranged, an example being his commentary on Galen’s On the Usefulness of the Parts. He took great pains in writing it and summarized its thematic purport in an outstanding manner. At the beginning, he also says: ‘I have revised the thematic purport of this book, explained the difficult parts, deleted superfluous matter, assembled dispersed items and added material that I found in Galen’s other works and in works by other authors who acquired knowledge in this field. I systematically arranged the information contained in each chapter and appended to the end of each of them explanations of the anatomy of the organ under discussion and its use, thereby making it easier for someone to gather information on the anatomy of any organ or on the use of any of its parts’. He finished this book in the year 459/1068.

A certain physician told me that Ibn Abī Ṣādiq had met the shaykh raʾīs Ibn Sīnā, and that he belonged to a group of disciples who studied under him. I do not regard this report as unlikely. On the contrary, it may be close to the truth, for Ibn Abī Ṣādiq was Ibn Sīnā’s contemporary and they both resided in Persia. Ibn Sīnā’s reputation was enormous, as were his knowledge and the number of his disciples. He was also older and enjoyed greater prestige than Ibn Abī Ṣādiq.752

Ibn Abī Ṣādiq composed the following works:

  1. Commentary on the book Questions on Medicine by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (S. kitāb al-masāʾil fī l-ṭibb li-Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq).753

  2. Summary of his large commentary on the book Questions on Medicine by Ḥunayn (Ikhtiṣār sharḥihi al-kabīr li-kitāb al-masāʾil li-Ḥunayn).754

  3. Commentary on the Book of Aphorisms by Hippocrates (S. kitāb al-fuṣūl li-Abuqrāṭ). In the copy of this commentary, a note in his own handwriting was found, dated 460/1069, stating that someone had studied it under his guidance.755

  4. Commentary on the Prognosticon by Hippocrates (S. kitāb taqdimat al-maʿrifah li-Abuqrāṭ).756

  5. Commentary on Galen’s On the Usefulness of the Parts (S. kitāb manāfiʿ al-aʿḍāʾ li-Jālīnūs).757 I have seen the original copy of this book, in which the year of completion was given as 459/1068; a note on it in Ibn Abī Ṣādiq’s own handwriting reads: ‘I examined it and found it to be correct, if God, exalted be He, so wills’.

  6. Abū l-Qāsim [Ibn Abī Ṣādiq] wrote in his own hand The solution of al-Rāzī’s doubts regarding Galen’s writings (Ḥall shukūk al-Rāzī ʿalā kutub Jālīnūs).

  7. The calendar (K. al-taʾrīkh).

11.18 Ṭāhir ibn Ibrāhīm al-Sinjarī758

The shaykh Abū l-Ḥasan Ṭāhir ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir al-Sinjarī759 was a distinguished and outstanding physician, an expert in the art of medicine and an experienced practitioner.

He composed the following works:

  1. Elucidation of the procedure that leads to the path of healing (K. īḍāḥ minhāj maḥajjat al-ʿilāj). He dedicated it to the judge Abū l-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn Ḥamawayh.760

  2. Commentary on urine and the pulse (K. fī sharḥ al-bawl wa-l-nabḍ).

  3. A section of the Book of Aphorisms by Hippocrates (Taqsīm kitāb al-fuṣūl li-Abuqrāṭ).761

11.19 Ibn Khaṭīb al-Rayy [Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī]762

[11.19.1]

The learned authority Fakhr al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Rāzī,763 (also known as Ibn Khaṭīb al-Rayy, the son of the preacher of al-Rayy), was foremost among the later generations and a leading person among the sages of more recent times. His supremacy has become widely known, and his writings and disciples have spread throughout the world. Whenever he rode out, three hundred law students and others would walk in his retinue. Khwārazm Shāh764 would come to visit him. Ibn al-Khaṭīb had a very strong desire for all the religious and philosophical sciences. He possessed a good innate character, a sharp intellect and he expressed himself well. He was extremely skilful and had a keen insight regarding the art and study of medicine. He had an extensive knowledge of literature and composed poems in Persian and Arabic. His body was plump and of middling stature, and he wore a long beard. His voice was impressive. He delivered sermons in his native town of al-Rayy and in other towns. He spoke from the pulpit about various philosophical subjects, and the people came to him from all lands and regions irrespective of their scholarly pursuits and the versatility of their occupations, and each of them ultimately found what he desired.

The learned authority Fakhr al-Dīn studied philosophy in Marāghah under Majd al-Dīn al-Jīlī, who belonged to the most excellent men of his time. He composed many important works. The judge Shams al-Dīn al-Khuwayyī765 related to me the following saying by shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn: ‘By God, I very much regret that I have to refrain from studying during meals, for time is precious’.

[11.19.2]

Muḥyī l-Dīn, the judge of Marand, told me the following story: ‘In Marand, the shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn attended the college where my father was a teacher. He studied religious law under him and afterwards took up the philosophical sciences by himself. He so distinguished himself in that domain that none of his contemporaries was able to match him. I also met with him in Hamadān and Herat and studied under his guidance. His study-circle was imbued with a spirit of loftiness. He even behaved haughtily towards rulers. During teaching sessions, some of his older disciples, such as Zayn al-Dīn al-Kashshī, al-Quṭb al-Miṣrī and Shihāb al-Dīn al-Nīsābūrī, sat next to him, followed by the remainder of his pupils and the other people in order of their rank. When someone had spoken about a certain scientific subject, the older disciples would discuss that topic with him. If a problematic topic or an abstruse concept came up, the shaykh himself participated in the discussion on it and spoke about it in a manner that would defy any description’.

[11.19.3]

Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Wattār al-Mawṣilī told me: ‘I was in the town of Herat in the year six hundred and […], when shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn ibn al-Khaṭīb, coming from the town of Bamyan,766 entered the city with great pomp and a large retinue. On his arrival, the Sultan of Herat, Ḥusayn ibn Kharmīn,767 came to meet him and received him with great honour. The ruler would later erect a pulpit with a prayer rug for him in the front part of the dais of the mosque in Herat, so that he could sit in that place during celebrations and the masses could see him and listen to his words. On that particular day I was present with a group of other people, standing by the side of the poet Sharaf al-Dīn ibn ʿUnayn768 – may God have mercy upon him. There was a large crowd attending this meeting. The shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn was in the front part of the dais, flanked on each side by two rows of his Turkish Mamelukes leaning on their swords. The Sultan Ḥusayn ibn Kharmīn, the ruler of Herat, came to him and greeted him, and the shaykh invited him to sit at his side. Sultan Maḥmūd, the son of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Ghūrī’s sister and ruler of Fīrūzkūh,769 also approached and greeted the shaykh, and was invited to sit directly next to him on the other side. The shaykh then discoursed with much grandeur and eloquence on the soul. Just at that moment a dove appeared which circled around in the mosque, pursued by a hawk that was on the verge of capturing it. The dove flew from one side to another until it became exhausted, and then entered the dais where the shaykh was sitting. It flew in between the two rows of soldiers and then moved towards the direction of the shaykh, and so was lucky to be rescued’. Sharaf al-Dīn ibn ʿUnayn told me that he spontaneously wrote a poem about the significance of what had happened and then immediately asked the shaykh’s permission to present it, to which the shaykh agreed. It reads:770

She came to the Solomon771 of this age in her distress,
while death was looming from the wings of a raptor.
Who informed the grey dove that your place
is a sanctuary and a refuge for those who fear?

Shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn was delighted with the poem, called the poet over to him and asked him to sit next to him. After the meeting, he sent him a full robe of honour and a large sum of money. He remained his benefactor forever after. Shams al-Dīn al-Wattār told me: ‘He only recited these two verses to Ibn Khaṭīb al-Rayy, but afterwards he added further lines to the poem’. I have found these additional lines in his collected verse. They read as follows:

O son of noble people who distribute food in winter
in every famine or frozen snow,
Who give protection when souls are aflutter with distress
between cutting swords and spears dripping with blood!
Who informed the grey dove that your place
is a sanctuary and a refuge for those who fear?
She came to you when her death seemed near
but you gave her a new life.
And if she could have been given money she would have turned
from your hands with multiple boons.
She came to the Solomon of this age in her distress,
while death was looming from the wings of a raptor,
Craving for flesh, turned by food, so that even his shadow,
facing him, moves with pounding heart.

Sharaf al-Dīn ibn ʿUnayn has reported that he obtained approximately thirty thousand dinars from Fakhr al-Dīn ibn Khaṭīb al-Rayy and through the fame he acquired in Persia. Here follows another of his poems on Fakhr al-Dīn, sent to him from Nīsābūr to Herat. In it, he congratulates Fakhr al-Dīn on the occasion of the event that the Sultan Muḥammad Khwārazm Shāh put him in charge of matters concerned with endowments and colleges in all the Sultan’s lands, which contain many towns.772

North wind, perhaps you will carry
my respects773 to the eminent, excellent imam!
And halt in his sacred wadi and look
at the light of true guidance that shines without flagging
From a great Fakhri and ʿUmari tree,774
nicely planted with deep-rooted glory,
With Meccan lineages, with a thriving stem
its branches above Arcturus;775
5And ask for the rain of gifts from his hands, for often has he been
the substitute of rain in any barren year.
Blessings the clouds of which return as they first appeared;
the first and the second spring rain cannot be recognized in them.776
He is a sea who takes the place of honour in the sciences; and who has ever seen
a sea taking the place of honour in a gathering?
He tucks up his garments in God’s service, while trailing for the sake of piety
and religion the free-flowing cloak of decency.
Through him heresies of long standing have died,
the darkness of which was almost not to be cleared,
10And thus Islam, through him, has scaled the highest mountain
while other religions have sunk to the lowest abyss.
A man who compared him to Abū ʿAlī777 was in error:
how different they are! Abū ʿAlī fell short of his scope.
If Aristotle had heard one word of his speech
he would have been overcome by a shudder;778
And Ptolemy would have been perplexed, if he had met him,
about his logical proof of every complex figure.779
If they were gathered with him they would know for certain
that the ancients were not superior.
15In him wisdom has a safe refuge when
winds of folly shake the flanks of Yadhbul.780
He forgives a grave sin in his generosity
and is liberal when asked and if unasked.
He has pleased God with his excellence and his defence
of His religion, and he has gladdened the eye of God’s messenger.
O master, whose degrees
look at the sphere of the fixed stars from above:
There is no rank but your worth is above it,
for with your lofty glory what you take upon you is made felicitous.
20Thus when God wishes to raise an office
He bestows it on you and it acquires the noblest station.
May your abode never cease to be a halting place for visitors,
and your generosity a cave781 for everyone who has hopes!

[11.19.4]

Najm al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Sharaf al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Asfizārī told me the following:

The shaykh and learned authority Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn ʿUmar, the father of Fakhr al-Dīn, was a native of al-Rayy. He studied jurisprudence, specializing in the controversies of the different schools of Islamic law and in its theoretical foundations, until he became a distinguished authority, and was almost without rival. He taught in al-Rayy; there at fixed times he also delivered sermons which, because of their excellent content and his great eloquence, were attended by a large crowd. He thus became well-known to all the people in the region. He wrote a number of works on the theoretical foundations of Islamic law and on sermons. He left two sons behind; one of them is Fakhr al-Dīn and the other, the elder, is addressed as al-Rukn. The latter had a smattering of knowledge regarding the controversies between the different schools of Islamic law, jurisprudence and the theoretical foundations of Islamic law, but he was thoughtless and very much unbalanced. He would always follow his brother Fakhr al-Dīn and go with him wherever he went. He would defame not only him, but also those who took heed of his books and words. He would say:

Am I not older and more learned than he is and better acquainted with the polemics of the different law schools and the theoretical foundations of law? Why, then, does the crowd shout ‘Fakhr al-Dīn, Fakhr al-Dīn’, but I never hear them shout ‘Rukn al-Dīn?’.

Perhaps he has written something, as he claimed he did, presenting it with the words ‘This is better than anything by Fakhr al-Dīn’. He would slander his brother, so that the people became astonished at him and many of them would mark and mock him. Whenever word of something like this reached Fakhr al-Dīn, it distressed him greatly. He did not like his brother being in such a situation, with no one listening to what he had to say. He was always kind to him and repeatedly suggested that he perhaps should take up residence in al-Rayy or elsewhere, where he could visit him and spend time with him to the best of his ability. Yet whenever he posed such a question, his brother’s behaviour became worse and the situation would remain exactly the same. This state of affairs continued until Fakhr al-Dīn saw the Sultan Khwārazm Shāh. He informed him about the situation of his brother and what he had to suffer because of him, and asked the Sultan to have his brother confined somewhere where he would not be able to leave and where he would be provided with everything necessary for his comfort and welfare. Thereupon, the Sultan placed Rukn al-Dīn in one of his castles and assigned to him a fief yielding an amount of thousand dinars a year. He remained there until God decided upon his fate.

[11.19.5]

The learned authority Fakhr al-Dīn was the foremost scholar of his time in all the sciences. Crowds came from everywhere to visit him. He also delivered sermons at al-Rayy and maintained a large study-circle. When he spoke, he got the better of all the other orators. He was corpulent, of average height, but had a broad chest, a massive head and a thick beard. When he died at the height of his life, the hair of his beard had turned gray. He often spoke about death and longed for it, begging God to have mercy upon him. He would say: ‘I have achieved all that is humanly possible in the sciences, but I have got so far that now I only wish to meet God, exalted be He, and to glance at his noble countenance’.

Fakhr al-Dīn left two sons behind. The elder of the two had the honorific name Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn. He studied the sciences and acquired a certain insight in it, while the younger one, who is called Shams al-Dīn, possessed extraordinary natural talents and an extraordinary intellect. Fakhr al-Dīn often praised his intelligence, saying: ‘If this son of mine survives, he will become more learned than I’. His excellence already revealed itself in his youth. When the learned authority Fakhr al-Dīn died, his children remained in Herat. The younger son subsequently adopted the name of his father, Fakhr al-Dīn.

The vizier ʿAlāʾ al-Mulk al-ʿAlawī took over the vizierate under Sultan Khwārazm Shāh. ʿAlāʾ al-Mulk was a distinguished person, who was an expert in the sciences and in literature and he composed poetry in Arabic and Persian. He married the daughter of shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn. When Genghis Khan, the ruler of the Mongols, crushed and vanquished Khwārazm Shāh and killed the majority of his soldiers, and Khwārazm Shāh himself was missing, ʿAlāʾ al-Mulk went to see Genghis Khan and sought refuge with him. When he arrived there, Genghis Khan received him with honours and made him one of his courtiers. When the Mongols occupied Persia, and destroyed its castles and cities and slaughtered all the citizens, sparing no one’s life, ʿAlāʾ al-Mulk, perceiving that a part of the Mongol army was headed for Herat to destroy the city and kill all its inhabitants, approached Genghis Khan and asked him to ensure the protection of the children of shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn ibn Khaṭīb al-Rayy and to have them brought honourably into his presence. Genghis Khan granted him this request and promised safe conduct for them. When the soldiers were advancing to occupy Herat, they announced that the children of Fakhr al-Dīn ibn al-Khaṭīb, having been granted protection, should stay in a secluded place, where they would be safe. Shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn’s house in Herat had been presented to him by Sultan Khwārazm Shāh. It was one of the largest, most beautiful and most richly decorated houses, which always had been well attended by visitors. When the children of Fakhr al-Dīn heard of the announcement, they confidently remained in that house, but were joined there by an enormous crowd, which included inhabitants of the town, relatives, state officials, local notables, many lawyers and others, who thought they would be safe because of their relationship to the children of Fakhr al-Dīn and particularly by their presence in that house. The Mongols, after entering the town, killed everyone they encountered and when they ultimately got to the house, called upon Fakhr al-Dīn’s children to make themselves known. When they saw the children, they led them aside, and then massacred all the other people in the house. They brought the children of shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn from Herat to Samarkand because the ruler of the Mongols, Genghis Khan, was there at the time, and so was ʿAlāʾ al-Mulk. I say: ‘I do not know what happened to them thereafter’.

[11.19.6.1]

I – ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say: Shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn resided for most of his life in al-Rayy, but he also went to the region of Khwārazm, where he was taken ill. He subsequently died in Herat as the result of his illness. When his illness reached its climax, he dictated a declaration to his disciple Ibrāhīm ibn Abī Bakr ibn ʿAlī al-Iṣfahānī. This was on Sunday, the twenty-first day of the month Muḥarram of the year 606 [26 July 1209]. He was ill for a long time, but then died on the first day of the month Shawwāl of the year mentioned, and went to the presence of his Lord, May God, exalted be He, have mercy upon him.

Here is the text of his testament:

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate. Thus speaks the servant, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Rāzī, who, hoping for the mercy of his Lord and trusting in the gracious beneficence of his Master, is spending his last days in this world and is standing on the threshold of the hereafter, this being the time when every hard-hearted person will soften and every fugitive slave returns to his master. I laud God, exalted be He, with the praises uttered by his most sublime angels on the most elevated rungs of their ladders, and spoken by his greatest prophets in the most perfect moments of their visions. But I say that all of it is the result of what has already occurred and what may yet take place. Therefore, I laud Him with the praises that his divine nature and perfect gifts merit, whether I am conscious of them or not, because there is no conformity between dust and the majesty of the Lord of Lords. I pray for the angels close to Him, the prophets sent by Him and all the righteous servants of God. And I say further: Be it known to you, my brethren in faith and companions in the quest for truth, that people say: In general, when one dies one’s connections with the living are severed, except that (1) one’s good works live on in the world. These good works become a motive for prayer, which leaves a trace with God, and (2) there are the interests of one’s children, wives, the pursuit of unjust acts and the perpetration of crimes. With regard to the first aspect, be it known to you that I was a person, devoted to science, who has written about all kinds of things. No matter whatever quantity or quality I came across, whether true or false, fat or lean (i.e. weighty or trivial), I always saw in the writings I considered that this sensible world is under the direction of a Director who is transcendent above any resemblance to things that are limited in compass (mutaḥayyizāt) and accidentia, and whose attributes are perfect omnipotence, omniscience, and mercy.

I explored the paths of scholastic theology and the roads of philosophy, but I did not derive the same benefit from them that I have encountered in the glorious Qur’an, because the latter is capable of preserving the majesty and splendour of God, exalted be He, in their entirety, and prevents one from immersing oneself in efforts to identify contradictions and inconsistencies. It is only in science that human intellects become frustrated and fade away in these profoundly confined and hidden places. Therefore, I say: the person whom I would support most is he who sticks to outward signs such as His Necessary Existence, His Oneness, His design [of life], His effect [on people] and the fact that He stands above eternity and is not subject to time. May such a person receive divine inspiration from God, exalted be He. And if this matter leads to lack of clarity and obscurity, then the religious authorities should reach agreement on everything that is said in the Qur’an and the sound traditions and converge upon one meaning. So be it! And if such is not the case, I say: O Lord of all beings, I see mankind agreeing that You are the most generous and merciful one. You know what my pen cannot describe or what will come up in my mind. Therefore, I call upon Your knowledge and say: If You know from me that I have intended to state as true what is false, and to state as false what is true, then do with me as I deserve. But if You know from me that I merely strove to establish that in which I firmly believed and what I imagined to be just, then let Your mercy be with my intention and not with what I did in the end. There is nothing more that the wretched can do. You are much too noble to become annoyed at a weak person for committing an error, therefore save me, have mercy upon me, overlook my error, and efface my sin. You, whose sovereignty cannot be increased by the knowledge of those who know you, nor is diminished by the errors of evildoers. I say: my religion follows Muḥammad, the Lord of the Messengers, and my book is the glorious Qur’an. I depend on both of them to pursue my religion. O God, You who hear what people are saying, who answer prayers, who make offences undone, who have mercy for the things people are saying and who support new things and make them possible, I think well of You and have a great hope in Your mercy. You say: «I hold my servant’s opinion of me in esteem».782 And You say: «Who is it that answers the harassed when he calls unto Him».783 And You say: «and when My servants ask you about me, then I am near»784 even if I have not achieved anything. You are the Self-Sufficient one, the Generous one, and I am the destitute and blameworthy one. I know that there is no one besides You for me and that I shall not find a benefactor other than You. I acknowledge my errors and shortcomings, my imperfections and lassitude. Let my hope not be disappointed and my prayer not be in vain. Protect me from Your torment before death, in the hour of death and after death. Make the agony of death easy for me, and the descent of death lighter for me. And do not cause me distress by means of pains and sicknesses. For You are the most merciful one.

I have composed or elaborated upon scientific books and followed up on the claims that were made in them by my predecessors. Thus, if these claims are correct, let the person who looks at some parts of them mention me in his pious prayers by way of grace and favour. And if these claims are not correct, then let him delete the bad sections, for I only wanted to increase research and sharpen the intellect. In doing this, I relied upon God, exalted be He.

With regard to the second matter of importance, which deals with the improvement of the situation of children and wives, I rely upon God, exalted be He, and furthermore on the representative of God, Muḥammad. O God, make him the equal of the greater Muḥammad in religion and exaltedness.785 However, the great Sultan cannot offer his full attention to the improvement of the requirements of children. So I deemed it more proper (awlā) to entrust the tutorship of my sons to so-and-so. I commanded him with the fear of God, exalted be He, for «God is with those who fear and with those who are beneficent».786

And he gave the details of the testament, until the end. Then he said:

I charge him, I charge him, I charge him787 to do his utmost in the education of my son Abū Bakr, for the marks of intelligence and cleverness are manifest in him. Perhaps God, exalted be He, will let him attain goodness. Hereby I command him and all my disciples and all who are indebted to me that, at the hour of my death, they should go to the greatest lengths in the concealment of my death and do not let anyone know about it. Then, they should cover me in a shroud for the grave and bury me according to the stipulations of the religious law. Let them carry me to the mountain that is near to the village of Mazdākhān [or: Mazdāqān]788 and there lay me in my grave. And when they have placed me in my grave, they should read for me as many verses of the Qur’an as they are able. Then they should sprinkle the earth over me and after it is all concluded they should say: O Generous one, this wretched soul has come to You. Deal graciously with him!

This is the end of my last will and testament in this matter. And God, the Most High, will do as He pleases. He is omnipotent and is disposed to be beneficent.

[11.19.6.2]

Badīʿ al-Dīn al-Bundahī recited to me some of the poetry of Fakhr al-Dīn, the son of the preacher of al-Rayy, which he heard from the man himself.789

The utmost of the intellect’s (ʿuqūl) progress is a shackle (ʿiqāl)
and most of people’s efforts are error.
Our spirits are in the tether of our bodies
and the sum of our world is harm and evil.
We have not profited from our life-long search
except gathering ‘it-is-said’ and ‘they-say’.
We have seen so many men and dynasties:
they all perished quickly and ceased to be.
So many mountain heights were scaled
by men:790 they passed but the mountains are the same.

He also recited the following poem:791

If my soul were content with mere sufficiency, easily acquired,
it would not outstrip other men in noble deeds.
If this world were suited to it,
it would not despise its shortcomings or perfection.
I do not look at this world with a generous eye,
nor do I care to protect myself against its evil and imperfection.
And that is because I am aware that it will perish
and certain of its departure and dissolution.
I desire things for which Time is too little
and which all the celestial spheres find too great to attain.

He also recited the following verse:792

Our spirits do not know where they will go
when these corpses are hidden in the earth.
One sees a coming into being and a corruption that follows;
God knows best; there is no frivolity in His creation.

This is a reference to God’s words (mighty and glorious is He): «Deemed you then that we had created you frivolously, and that you would not be returned unto us793 One of the jurists recited the following verse to me by Fakhr al-Dīn, the son of the preacher of al-Rayy about his master ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī Khwārazm Shāh when the latter defeated al-Ghūrī.794

Religion’s pavilion has been extended and strengthened,
and Unbelief’s belt has been undone and scattered,795
Through the lofty deeds(?)796 of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn wa-l-Mulk (‘the Elevation of Religion and
Realm’),797 the least of whose qualities are loftiness and rulership;
A sun whose brow rends the veils of the sky
when night is pitch-dark and black.
Amid the army hosts, when the dust is raised by them, he is
a lion, but in social gatherings he is a lord.
5When he takes the lead in being generous he is
with what his hand holds a foaming sea.
When he girds himself for battle you see in him,
wrapped in his cuirass, a crouching(?)798 lion.
With his exertion he attained the glorious heights he desired:
he who does not exert himself does not attain loftiness.
The efforts of Atsiz ibn Muḥammad799 preserved normative customs
chosen by the prophet Muḥammad.
Should I number the precious boons bestowed on me?
Their multitude cannot be counted, so I shall not enumerate them.
10He let his winning steeds800 run according to their customs:
excellent horses, but he is yet more excellent.801
He took possession of the land with his diligence and effort
and all beings802 obeyed and he was made sovereign.
From the offspring of Shapur and Darius is his descent,803
proud kings, though to me he is prouder yet.
Khwārazm Shāh of the world,804 may you live long and may never
anyone in this time be seen to prove you wrong … (?)805
You have annihilated the enemies of God with your sword
of Indian make, whose edges cut the foes.
15Today you are the king of the age, all of it;
there is nothing like your loftiness, you are unique.
You resemble Ḍaḥḥāk806 of the region with a power
that is hoped for and feared. Your fortune and may you be happy!807

The shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn also composed many poems in Persian, as well as dūbayt poems.808

[11.19.7]

Fakhr al-Dīn composed the following books:

  1. The great commentary [on the Qur’an], entitled Keys to the Unknown (K. al-tafsīr al-kabīr al-musammā mafātīḥ al-ghayb),809 in twelve volumes, in his minute handwriting, not including the first sura, to which he devoted A Commentary on sura Fātiḥah, in one volume.

  2. Commentary on sura ‘The Cow’, an intellectual and not a traditional approach, in one volume (Tafsīr sūrat al-baqarah ʿalā al-wajh al-ʿaqlī lā al-naqlī).

  3. Commentary on al-Ghazālī’s Summary (S. wajīz al-Ghazālī), which was not completed, comprising only the sections on religious observance and matrimony. It should have consisted of three volumes.810

  4. The Path, dedicated to ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn [Muḥammad Khwārazm Shāh] on the differences between the different schools of religious law, in four volumes (K. al-ṭarīqah al-ʿalāʾiyyah fī l-khilāf).

  5. The Book of Shining Proof, on the explanation of the names and attributes of God, exalted be He (K. lawāmiʿ al-bayyināt fī sharḥ asmāʾ Allāh taʿālā wa-l-ṣifāt).811

  6. The book that offers the results from the science regarding the principles of religious law (K. al-maḥṣūl fī ʿilm uṣūl al-fiqh).

  7. The book that demonstrates that the use of analogy is invalid [in religious law] (K. fī ibṭāl al-qiyās).

  8. Commentary on al-Zamakhsharī’s Well-Segmented Book on Grammar, not completed (S. kitāb al-mufaṣṣal lil-Zamakhsharī fī l-naḥw).

  9. Commentary on The Tinder Spark, incomplete (S. saqṭ al-zand).812

  10. Commentary on The Path of Eloquence, not completed (S. nahj al-balāghah).813

  11. On the virtues of the Prophet Muḥammad’s companions (K. al-faḍāʾil al-ṣaḥābah).

  12. On the outstanding traits of al-Shāfiʿī (K. manāqib al-Shāfīʿī).

  13. On the ultimate understanding of the knowledge of the principles [of religious law] (K. nihāyat al-ʿuqūl fī dirāyat al-uṣūl).814

  14. The Collection, in one volume (K. al-muḥaṣṣal).

  15. On higher issues, in three volumes, unfinished; the last one of his writings (K. al-maṭālib al-ʿāliyah).

  16. The forty problems on the principles of faith (K. al-arbaʿīn fī uṣūl al-dīn).815

  17. The road marks [of the principles of faith]; the last one of his minor works (K. al-maʿālim).816

  18. On the foundation of sanctity (K. taʾsīs al-taqdīs), in one volume, written for the Sultan al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb, who rewarded him with one thousand dinars.817

  19. On fate and predestination (K. al-qaḍāʾ wa l-qadar).

  20. Essay on contingency (R. fī l-ḥudūth).

  21. On the incapacity of the philosophers (K. taʿjīz al-falāsifah), in the Persian language.

  22. The book of proofs, dedicated to Bahāʾ al-Dīn, in Persian (K. al-barāhīn al-bahāʾiyyah).

  23. The book of witticisms for Ghiyāth al-Dīn (K. al-laṭāʾif al-ghiyāthiyyah).

  24. On the remedy of inability and the opposite(?) (K. shifāʾ al-ʿayīy wa l-khilāf).

  25. On creation and resurrection (K. al-khalq wa l-baʿth).

  26. Fifty problems on the principles of faith (K. al-khamsīn fī uṣūl al-dīn).

  27. The book called The Support for the Keen-eyed and the Ornament of Thoughts (K. ʿumdat al-nuẓẓār wa-zīnat al-afkār).

  28. On ethics (K. al-akhlāq).

  29. The Ṣāḥibī Epistle818 (R. al-Ṣāḥibiyyah).

  30. Epistle dedicated to Majd al-Dīn [al-Jīlī] (K. risālah al-majdiyyah).

  31. On the immunity of the prophets from major sins (K. ʿiṣmat al-anbiyāʾ).

  32. The abridged book (K. al-mulakhkhaṣ).

  33. On Eastern investigations (K. al-mabāḥith al-mashriqiyyah).819

  34. The book of clarification: a commentary on the ‘Pointers’ (K. al-inārāt fī sharḥ al-ishārāt).820

  35. The quintessence of the ‘Pointers’ (K. lubāb al-ishārāt).821

  36. A commentary on the Fountains of Wisdom (S. kitāb ʿuyūn al-ḥikmah).822

  37. The epistle for Kamāl al-Dīn on the divine truths (al-R. al-Kamāliyyah fī l-ḥaqāʾiq al-ilāhiyyah); he composed it in the Persian language for Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Mīkāʾīl. I have found that my master, the learned authority Tāj al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Urmawī, translated it into Arabic in the year 625/1228.

  38. The Unique Gem (K. al-jawhar al-fard).

  39. The book of observation (K. al-riʿāyah).

  40. On geomancy (K. fī l-raml).823

  41. The book of premises by Euclid (K. muṣādarāt Iqlīdis).

  42. On geometry (K. fī l-handasah).

  43. An epistle off my chest (R. nafthat al-maṣdūr).824

  44. A book in dispraise of the world (K. dhamm al-dunyā).

  45. Selected works for ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn [ʿAlī Khwārazm Shāh] (K. al-ikhtiyārāt al-ʿalāʾiyyah).

  46. Selected works on the celestial world (K. al-ikhtiyārāt al-samāwiyyah).

  47. The book of perfect knowledge of jurisprudence (K. iḥkām al-aḥkām).

  48. The book that is branded as a well-preserved secret (K. al-mawsūm fī sirr al-maktūm).

  49. The book of the pleasant gardens (K. al-riyāḍ al-mūniqah).

  50. On the soul (R. fī l-nafs).

  51. On prophecies (R. fī l-nubuwwāt).

  52. Religions and sects (K. al-milal wa-l-niḥal).

  53. Selected passages from the book of Tankalūshā [Teucros] (Muntakhab kitāb Dankalūshā).825

  54. The problem of existence (K. mabāḥith al-wujūd).

  55. A very concise book on the knowledge regarding the inimitability [of the Qur’an] (K. nihāyat fī al-ījāz fī dirāyat al-iʿjāz).

  56. Investigations on dialectics (K. mabāḥith al-jadal).

  57. Investigations on ḥudūd826 (K. mabāḥith al-ḥudūd).

  58. On the clear signs (K. al-āyāt al-bayyināt).

  59. An essay pointing out some of the secret meanings extant in some of the Qur’anic suras (R. fī tanbīh ʿalā baʿḍ al-asrār al-mūdaʿah fī baʿḍ suwar al-qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm).

  60. The Comprehensive Book, not completed. It became also known as The Great Book on Medicine (K. al-jāmiʿ al-kabīr).

  61. On the pulse, one volume (K. fī al-nabḍ).

  62. A commentary of the ‘Generalities’ in the Canon of Medicine [of Ibn Sīnā] (S. kulliyyāt al-qānūn), unfinished. He composed it for the physician Thiqat al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Sarakhsī.827

  63. On anatomy from the head to the throat, unfinished (K. al-tashrīḥ min al-raʾs ilā l-ḥalq).

  64. The book of syrups (K. al-ashribah).

  65. Problems of medicine (Masāʾil fī l-ṭibb).

  66. The ‘cream’ [of astronomy] (K. al-zubdah).828

  67. On physiognomy (K. al-firāsah).829

11.20 al-Quṭb al-Miṣrī830

The authority Quṭb al-Dīn Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Sulamī was originally from North Africa, but moved to Egypt, where he resided for a while. Afterwards, he travelled to Persia and gained fame there. He studied under the guidance of Fakhr al-Dīn, the son of the preacher of al-Rayy and became one of his most distinguished disciples. He wrote many books on medicine and philosophy, including a commentary on the whole of the ‘Generalities’ of Ibn Sīnā’s Canon of Medicine. In this book I have found that he gave preference to [Abū Sahl] al-Masīḥī831 and Ibn al-Khaṭīb over the shaykh Abū ʿAlī ibn Sīnā. These are his very words:

Al-Masīḥī knows more about the art of medicine than the shaykh Abū ʿAlī, for my teachers gave preponderance to him over many others who surpassed Abū ʿAlī in this field.

He also said:

Al-Masīḥī expressed himself more lucidly and much more clearly than the shaykh, who was inclined to use a rather restrained style in his books, to no purpose.

On the superiority of Ibn al-Khaṭīb over the shaykh al-raʾīs [Ibn Sīnā], he said:

This can be deduced from the utterances of these two important authorities: the latter surpassed the former with regard to theory, practice, principles of faith and doctrine.

Al-Quṭb al-Miṣrī was one of those who died in the city of Nīsābūr when the Mongols occupied Persia and killed its inhabitants.

Al-Quṭb al-Miṣrī is the author of a commentary on the ‘Generalities’ of the shaykh al-raʾīs Ibn Sīnā’s Canon of Medicine (S. al-kulliyyāt min kitāb al-qānūn lil-shaykh al-raʾīs Ibn Sīnā).

11.21 al-Samawʾal832

Al-Samawʾal ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbās al-Maghribī was an expert in the mathematical sciences and possessed knowledge of the art of medicine. He was originally from North Africa, but resided in Baghdad for a while and afterwards moved to Persia, where he remained for the rest of his life. His father, too, had a smattering of the philosophical sciences.

I have copied the following from a manuscript in the handwriting of the shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī:

This young man of Baghdad, al-Samawʾal, was a Jew who converted to Islam. He died, while still at a young age, in Marāghah. He attained a high degree in computation and surpassed all his contemporaries in it. He had an extremely keen mind and reached a peak of proficiency in the science of algebra. He lived in Diyarbakir and Azerbaijan. In his algebraic epistles he refuted Ibn al-Khashshāb, the grammarian, his contemporary, who shared his interest in arithmetic and had some insight in the subject of algebra.

Al-Ṣāḥib Jamāl al-Dīn ibn al-Qifṭī said:

This al-Samawʾal, on arriving in the East, set out for Azerbaijan and entered the service of the house of al-Bahlawān and their emirs.833 He lived in the city of Marāghah and there begot children, who like him followed the path of medicine. He then moved to Mosul and Diyarbakir, embraced Islam and became a true Muslim. He wrote a book, in which he demonstrated the shortcomings of the Jews, the untruth of their claims regarding the Pentateuch and the passages therein that furnish evidence of its abrogation. He assembled this material very skilfully.

He died in Marāghah around the year 570/1174.

Al-Samawʾal ibn Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbbās al-Maghribī composed the following works:

  1. The Instructive Book on Medicine: the middle book (K. al-mufīd al-awsaṭ fī l-ṭibb). He wrote it in Baghdad in the year 564/1168 for the vizier Muʾayyad al-Dīn Abū Ismāʿīl al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī.

  2. Epistle to Ibn Khudūd on arithmetic and algebraic problems (R. ilā Ibn Khudūd fī masāʾil ḥisābiyyah jabr wa-muqābalah).

  3. The incompetence of the geometricians (K. iʿjāz al-muhandisīn). He composed this work for Najm al-Dīn Abū l-Fatḥ Shāh Ghāzī Malik Shāh, the son of Tughril Beg; he completed its composition in the month of Ṣafar of the year 570/1174.

  4. The refutation of the Jews (K. al-radd ʿalā al-yahūd).

  5. The book dedicated to Qiwām on Indian arithmetic (K. al-qiwāmī fī l-ḥisāb al-hindī). He wrote it in the year 568/1172.834

  6. On the right-angled triangle (K. al-muthallath al-qāʾim al-zāwiyah), in which he included fine illustrations and figures. He wrote it for a man from Aleppo called al-Sharīf.

  7. The Pulpit: on the measurement of the masses of mixed substances, to compute the quantity of their unknown parts (K. al-minbar fī misāḥat ajsām al-jawāhir al-mukhtaliṭah li-istikhrāj miqdār majhūlihā).

  8. On sexual intercourse (K. fī l-bāh).

11.22 Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Bahrām ibn Muḥammad al-Qalānisī al-Samarqandī835

This scholar was excellent in the art of medicine and took an interest in the study of the treatment and cure of diseases. He wrote a book on composite medicaments comprising forty-nine chapters, in which he mentions all essential compound medicaments. Most of it is derived from books that were considered highly reliable, such as the Canon of Medicine, The Comprehensive [Book on Medicine], The Complete [Book of the Medical Art], The Book for al-Manṣūr, The Treasure [of Medicine], and The Sufficient [Book on Medicine]. The author mentions that he has also included scattered information from manuscripts of the learned authorities Qiwām al-Dīn Ṣāʿid al-Muhannā and Sharaf al-Zamān al-Mābarsāmī.836

11.23 Najīb al-Dīn Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Samarqandī837

This scholar was an outstanding and skilful physician who composed important books and works that have become widely known. He was killed with all the others who met their death in the city of Herat when the Mongols occupied that city. He was a contemporary of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, the son of the preacher.

Najīb al-Dīn al-Samarqandī composed the following works:

  1. On the nutrition of the sick (K. aghdhiyat al-marḍā), divided according to the type of nourishment necessary for each of the various diseases.838

  2. On causes and symptoms (K. al-asbāb wa l-ʿalāmāt), which he compiled for his private use, basing it on the Canon of Medicine of Abū ʿAlī ibn Sīnā, the Hippocratic treatments and the The Complete [Book of the Medical Art].839

  3. The larger medical formulary (K. al-aqrabādhīn al-kabīr).840

  4. The shorter medical formulary (K. al-aqrabādhīn al-ṣaghīr).841

11.24 al-Sharīf Sharaf al-Dīn Ismāʿīl842

The scholar was a physician of high standing, a man of broad knowledge and a prominent notable of the state. He was employed in the service of sultan ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad Khwārazm Shāh, who bestowed abundant favours upon him and placed him in a position of power. He had a monthly stipend from the sultan of a thousand dinars. Astonishing cures and excellent reports with regard to the art of medicine have been credited to his name. He died at an advanced age in the city of […] in the days of Khwārazm Shāh.

He is the author of the following works:

  1. The book of treasures, dedicated to Khwārazm Shāh, on medicine (K. al-dhakhīrah al-khwārazm shāhīyah fī l-ṭibb), in the Persian language, twelve volumes.

  2. The book of secrets, dedicated to ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn [Khwārazm Shāh], on medicine (K. al-khafī al-ʿalāʾī fī l-ṭibb), in Persian, two small volumes.

  3. On medical symptoms (K. al-aʿrāḍ fī l-ṭibb).

  4. The memorandum, dedicated to Khwārazm Shāh, on medicine (K. yād-kār fī l-ṭibb), in Persian, one volume.

1

In the biographies that follow, the translators/editors will be indicated by AW (Alasdair Watson) and NPJ (N. Peter Joosse) and GJvG (Geert Jan van Gelder).

2

Translation/annotation by AW. For Tayādūrus, see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 303. Although he does not mention it, the Fihrist is clearly IAU’s source here. This biography is present in all three versions of the work.

3

The Sāsānid King Shāpūr II (r. 309–379) was known to the Arabs as Sābūr Dhū l-Aktāf (Sābūr of the shoulder blades) as it is said that he used to pierce the shoulders of his Arab captives. He is said to have followed a policy of suppression and persecution of Christians, yet here he is seen to be building churches. See: Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Shapur II’ (Touraj Daryaee); EI2 art. ‘Shāpūr’ (C.E. Bosworth); EI2 art. ‘Sāsānids’ (M. Morony).

4

Tayādūrus probably lived in Gondeshapur as Shāpūr II’s court physician. See: Dihkhudā, Lughatnāmah, art. ‘Gundīshāpūr’. For the city itself, see: Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Gondēšāpur’ (A. Shapur Shahbazi & L. Richter-Bernburg).

5

Bahrām V (r. 420–438), the fifteenth Sāsānid King of Persia. See: Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Bahrām’ (O. Klíma); EI2 art. ‘Sāsānids’ (M. Morony).

6

Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 303; (Sayyid), 316, says that the Kunnāsh of Tayādūrus was translated into Arabic.

7

Translation/annotation by AW. This biography is present in all three versions of the work. Barzawayh (also, more properly, vowelled as Burzūyah) is the Arabic form of the Persian name Burzōē, whose autobiographical chapter appears as part of the introduction of the book of Kalīlah wa-Dimnah. See Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, Kalīlah wa-Dimnah, 78–95. See also Sezgin, GAS III 182–183; Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Borzūya’ (Djalal Khaleghi-Motlagh).

8

Khusraw I, Sāsānid king (r. 531–579).

9

That is, from Sanskrit into Middle Persian or Pahlavi. See EI2 art. ‘Kalīla Wa-Dimna’ (C. Brockelmann); Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Kalila wa Demna’ (Multiple Authors). For how Burzūyah brought the book to Iran, see de Blois, Burzōy’s voyage.

10

ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muqaffaʿ (d. ca. 139/756). His Persian name was Rōzbih son of Dādōē. See EI2 art. ‘Ibn al-Muḳaffaʿ’ (F. Gabrieli); Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ, Abū Moḥammad ʿAbd-Allāh Rōzbeh’ (J. Derek Latham).

11

Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ‘al-Manṣūr’, second Abbasid caliph (r. 136/754–158/775).

12

See Ch. 4.6.5.1.

13

See EI2 art. ‘Furfūriyūs’ (R. Walzer); EI2 art. ‘Īsāg̲h̲ūd̲j̲ī’ (Ed.); Dāneshpazhūh, Manṭiq.

14

Mentioned in Sezgin, GAS V, 207. The translations of the logical works are also attributed to the son Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, who was also a secretary to al-Manṣūr.

15

For a discussion of these works and whether they can be attributed to Ibn al-Muqaffaʿ, see Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Ebn al-Moqaffaʿ, Abū Moḥammad ʿAbd-Allāh Rōzbeh’ (J. Derek Latham).

16

Translation/annotation by AW. This biography is present in Versions 2 and 3, but is not in Version 1 of the work. For Rabbān al-Ṭabarī, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 187.

17

Region of northern Persia on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. See EI2 art. ‘Ṭabaristān’ (Ed.).

18

See Ch. 11.4 below.

19

Abbasid capital between the years 221/836 and 279/892; see EI2 art. ‘Sāmarrāʾ’ (A. Northedge); and Northedge, Historical Topography of Samarra.

20

In fact, Rabban al-Ṭabarī was a Syriac Christian scholar, and it was only due to a misunderstanding of the name Rabban that he was associated with Judaism. See Sezgin, GAS III, 236.

21

For him, see Ch. 10.1.5–6.

22

For the Almagest of Ptolemy, see EI2 art. ‘Baṭlamiyūs’ (M. Plessner); Sezgin, GAS V, 166–174.

23

The published edition of Ibn al-Qifṭī’s text ends here (Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 187) saying, ‘Ptolemy’s locus of rays does not occur in the ancient copies and was not known by the translators.’ It does not mention their names.

24

For Thābit ibn Qurrah, see Ch. 10.3.

25

For Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, see Ch. 8.29; 9.2.

26

For al-Kindī’s biography, see Ch. 10.1.

27

For the Nawbakht family, see EI2 art. ‘Nawbak̲h̲t’ (L. Massignon); EI2 art. ‘al-Nawbak̲h̲tī’ (J.L. Kraemer); Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 176–177.

28

Translation/annotation by AW. For Ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī, see Sezgin, GAS III, 236–240; Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 296; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 231. EI2 art. ‘al-Ṭabarī’ (D. Thomas); Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 46–95. This biography is present in all three versions of the work.

29

Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 296, has ‘ʿAlī ibn Zīl bi-l-lām’; Cf. Fihrist (Sayyid), ii:296–297.

30

Al-Māzyār ibn Qārin (d. 225/840), last of the Qārinid rulers of Tabaristan. See EI2 art. ‘Ḳarinids’ (M. Rekaya).

31

After converting to Islam apparently at the advanced age of 70, al-Ṭabarī composed two polemical works in favour of Islam named K. al-Radd ʿalā l-Naṣārā, and K. al-Dīn wa-l-dawlah. For editions and translations of these works published in 2016, see Ebied & Thomas, The polemical works of ʿAlī al-Ṭabarī.

32

Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd (r. 218–227/833–842), eighth Abbasid Caliph. EI2 art. ‘al-Muʿtaṣim Bi ’llāh’ (C.E. Bosworth).

33

Tenth Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 232–247/847–861). EI2 art. ‘al-Mutawakkil ʿAlā ’llāh’ (H. Kennedy).

34

See below Ch. 11.5.1.

35

Region of northern Persia on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. See EI2 art. ‘Ṭabaristān’ (Ed.).

36

For additional titles attributed to ʿAlī ibn Sahl ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī, see Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 53–54.

37

See Sezgin, GAS III, 239; Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 55–95 for analysis of treatise. Two editions have been published: ʿAlī ibn Sahl Rabban al-Ṭabarī, Firdaws al-ḥikmah (ed. al-Ṣiddīqī) and (ed. al-Jundī). An edition of the section of eye diseases was published by Qalʿāh′jī & al-Wafāʾī, Amrād al-ʿayn, 323–368. Two partial German translations are published: Siggel, Die Propādeutischen Kapitel and Thies, Die Lehren der arabischen Mediziner Tabari und Ibn Hubal. For manuscript copies, see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, 151–154.

38

Sezgin, GAS III, 240, lists this title as K. ʿIrfān al-ḥayāt. Not in Ibn Nadīm or Ibn al-Qifṭī. Siddiqi, (Medical Literature, 53) gives title as K. Irfāq’l-Ḥayāt.

39

See Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 52.

40

See Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 52, where title translated as ‘The Excellent Compendium’.

41

See Sezgin, GAS III, 240; Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 296; Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 52.

42

See Sezgin, GAS III, 239; Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 53.

43

See Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 53.

44

See Sezgin, GAS III, 239; Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 53.

45

See Siddiqi, Medical Literature, 53.

46

Translation/annotation by AW and poetry by GJvG. This biography is present in all three versions of the work. For Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, see Sezgin, GAS III, 274–294, IV, 275–282, V, 282, VI, 187–188; VII, 160, 271–272; Sezgin, ar-Rāzī: texts and studies; EI2 art. ‘al-Rāzī’ (L.E. Goodman); Ullmann, Medizin, 128–136; Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica, 45–60; Daiber, ‘Abū Bakr al-Rāzī’; Ragab, The Medieval Islamic Hospital, pp. 145–152.

47

Al-Rāzī became well-known in the Mediaeval Latin West under many variations of his name such as Rhazes, Razes, Rasis, and even Abubetrus Rhaza Maomethus. His great compendium al-Ḥāwī was translated into Latin as Liber Continens in the late 13th century and printed a number of times from 1488, as was his K. al-Manṣūrī which was translated by Gerard of Cremona as Liber medicinalis Almansoris in the late 12th century. See Fischer & Weisser, ‘Vorwort’; Jacquart, ‘Note’.

48

An important city and capital of the Jibāl region of west-central Iran. EI2 art. ‘al-Rayy’ (V. Minorsky [C.E. Bosworth]). For a more detailed, modern study, see Rante and Afround, Rayy: from its Origins to the Mongol Invasion. The nisbah Rāzī (of Rayy) is the irregularly formed relative adjective from Rayy.

49

For a discussion of al-Rāzī’s age when he began to study medicine, see Iskandar, Taḥqīq.

50

For al-Ṭabarī, see previous entry Ch. 11. 4.

51

Ch. 10. 54.

52

That is, what is now (in IAU’s time) known as the ʿAḍudī hospital, since it wasn’t until 981 or 982 that the hospital was renovated by ʿAḍud al-Dawlah. See IAU’s comment below 11.5.5, and EI2 art. ‘Bīmāristān’ (D.M. Dunlop); Ragab, The Medieval Islamic Hospital.

53

Sempervivum or ‘The Everlasting’ is also called Stone Crop or Orpine, a plant of the genus Sedum. See Lev and Amar, Materia Medica, 459.

54

Philon of Tarsus, a first-century (?) druggist noted for a pain-killer he devised and for being championed/adopted by Asclepius; see Der Neue Pauly, art. ‘Philon, Ph. von Tarsos, Pharmakologe’ (Alain Touwaide). The identical name occurs in Ch. 1 (pt 3) (Müller i. 12), where he is also called ‘a descendant of Asclepius’.

55

Ch. 2. 1.

56

Al-Rāzī was, of course, a Persian by birth [if not by lineage].

57

Abū Shujāʿ Fannā Khusraw, Buyid emir (d. 372/983).

58

This book named K. Ṣifāt al-bīmāristān is in the book-list below at 11.5.8 no. 218.

59

Ch. 8.6.

60

Ch. 10.43.

61

Cf. Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 235–236.

62

Ch. 10. 31. Abū l-Ḥasan ibn al-Kashkarāyā, a student of Sinān ibn Thābit (d. 331/943; Ch. 10.4), is not to be confused with Yaʿqūb al-Kashkarī (or al-Kaskarī), who worked in Baghdad hospitals in the 920s during the reign of al-Muqtadir and who is not mentioned by IAU; for the latter, see Pormann, ‘Islamic Hospitals’; Pormann, ‘Theory and Practice’; Pormann, ‘Al-Kaskarī’.

63

That is Sinān ibn Thābit, see Ch. 10.4.

64

Ch. 10.32.

65

Ch. 10.33.

66

That is, Jibrīl ibn ʿUbayd Allāh, see Ch. 8.5.

67

Capital of Fars province in Iran, where ʿAḍud al-Dawlah began his career as ruler. He came to Baghdad in 364/975.

68

Possibly Ibn al-Khammār, for whom see below Ch. 11.8.

69

Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī, Ṭabaqāt, 52, also mentions al-Rāzī’s early interest in music.

70

Ibn Juljul, Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ, 77–80.

71

Al-Qāḍī Ṣāʿid, that is, Abū l-Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Taghlibī al-Andalusī (d. 462/1070), judge and scholar of 5th/11th century Toledo. His Ṭabaqāt al-umam is his only surviving work and has been published several times. See PUA, entry 3951; EI2 art. ‘Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī’ (G. Martinez-Gros.), where a brief evaluation of the book is given. For an English translation of the book see: Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī, Science in the Medieval World. Two Spanish translations have also been published, see: Maíllo Salgado, Libro de las categorías de las naciones; and Llavero Ruiz, Historia de la filosofía y de las ciencias Cf. Vol. 1, p. 121.

72

Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī, Ṭabaqāt, 52–53; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 271–272: ‘… however, he delved deeply into theology but could not understand its higher purpose etc.’

73

Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī, Ṭabaqāt, 33, discusses al-Rāzī and criticizes his philosophy and some of his doctrines, particularly his view of Aristotle. For an assessment of al-Rāzī as heretic, see Stroumsa, Freethinkers of Medieval Islam, 87–120.

74

This and the following passages are found in Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 299; (Sayyid), 305–307.

75

In fact, the book was composed in 290/903 for Abū Ṣāliḥ Manṣūr ibn Isḥāq ibn Aḥmad ibn Asad al-Sāmānī (d. 302/915), who was Samanid Governor of Rayy from 290–296/902–908. See C.E. Bosworth, Encycl. Iranica, art. ‘Abū Ṣaleḥ Manṣūr,’ (C.E. Bosworth); Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), ii:901. For a discussion of the name Manṣūr ibn Ismāʿīl, see Ibn Juljul, Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ, 78, n. 8. See also the book-list below, 11.5.25 no. 90.

76

It is difficult to see why this would be attributed to the beans. Ibn Jazlah, Minhāj al-bayān, s.v. bāqillāʾ, mentions some harmful properties of broad beans saying that they ‘dull the senses (yuballid al-ḥawāss), cause bloating, and bring about bad dreams.’

77

For Abū Zayd Aḥmad ibn Sahl al-Balkhī (d. 322/934), adīb, philosopher, geographer, and theologian, see EI2 art. ‘al-Balk̲h̲ī, Aḥmad b. Sahl’ (D.M. Dunlop); EI Three art. ‘al-Balkhī, Abū Zayd’ (H.H. Biesterfeldt); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Abū Zayd al-Balkhī’ (S. Movahhed, F. Negahban).

78

Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 299; (Sayyid), 305–307; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xvi:197–198.

79

See Ch. 4.1.9.1–2.

80

See Ch. 5.1.37–39.

81

For further details of both books, see al-Rāzī’s book-list below.

82

Adīb, judge, and secretary (d. 384/994). See EI2 art. ‘al-Tanūk̲h̲ī’ (H. Fähndrich).

83

al-Tanūkhī, Faraj, iv:199–200.

84

MSS AB: Bīqām; R: Nīqām; Gc: Binqām. The name was not identifiable from any of the classical Arabic sources for geographical names. Al-Tanūkhī, Faraj, iv:223, here gives the name as Bistam (Bisṭām), a city which does indeed lie between Nishapur and Rayy.

85

Fulānah dāyatī. A dāyah is a nurse, midwife, or someone who looks after children.

86

Ar. maḍīrah. A special dish of meat cooked with sour milk (al-laban al-maḍīr) until the meat is well-done and the milk becomes thick. See Lane, Lexicon, 2720; EI2 art. ‘Maḍīra’ (Ed.). The dish is a legendary delicacy and features in al-Hamadhānī’s Maqāmāh Maḍīriyyah; see al-Ḥamadhānī, Maqāmāt (2006), 122. See also, al-Thaʿālibī, Laṭāʾif, 12; al-Masʿūdī, Prairies, viii:403–404; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ (1993), v:2302–2303; al-Zamakhsharī, Rabīʿ al-abrār (1992), iii:226–227. Mention of the properties of madira is made in al-Ghuzūlī, Maṭāliʿ, ii:54. It is sometimes mistaken for a similar dish made of mutton cooked with fresh milk (al-laban al-ḥalīb), the benefits of which are mentioned in Prophetic medicine. See Shubbar, Ṭibb al-aʾimmah, 169.

87

Ar. ghaḍārah. A large bowl (qaṣʿah). Al-Ghuzūlī, Maṭāliʿ, ii:54, says that madira ought to be served in blue dishes or similar, and it is certainly not polite to use white dishes; presumably for reason of contrast because the colour of the food is white. If the word ghaḍārah is indeed derived from Arabic and not Persian, then perhaps it carries connotations of a green dish.

88

al-Tanūkhī, Faraj, iv:223–226, and for a similar story, Faraj, iv:213–214.

89

This book of IAU is not extant.

90

See above 11.5.9, and also below in the list of al-Rāzī’s books.

91

That is, ʿAlī ibn Wāhsūdhān the Daylamite (d. after 304/917), who was Governor of Rayy rather than of Ṭabaristān. See Encycl. Iranica, art. ‘Jostanids’ (M. Pezeshk); EI2 art. ‘Daylam’ (V. Minorsky).

92

See book-list below.

93

Ch. 14.30.

94

See Chs, 8.30 and 9.2.

95

For an alleged cause of his blindness, see above Ch. 11.5.9, and also Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, v:160, where it is said that he was beaten on the head with his book titled al-Manṣūrī, at the orders of al-Manṣūr who did not like his attitude. Ibn Khallikān says he quotes Ibn Juljul, but it is not in the published Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ.

96

Known as Ibn al-Khammār. On him, see Ch. 11.8.

97

Ch. 14.30.

98

Ch. 8.6.

99

The Arabic name for the mountainous region known in ancient times as Media. ‘Persian’ Iraq. See EI2 art. ‘D̲j̲ibāl’ (L. Lockart); Kennedy, Early Abbasid Caliphate, 26.

100

Abū l-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad (d. 360/970). EI2 art. ‘Ibn al-ʿAmīd’ (Cl. Cahen); Encycl. Iranica, art. ‘Ebn al-ʿAmīd’ (Ihsan Abbas).

101

Abū l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn ʿAbbād (326–385/938–995), vizier and littérateur of the Būyid period. See: EI2 art. ‘Ibn ʿAbbād’ (Cl. Cahen and Ch. Pellat); Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Ebn ʿAbbād’ (M. Pomerantz).

102

Metre: ṭawīl. Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:46, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iii:77 (followed by al-Ṣafadī’s rejoinder, two verses with the same metre and rhyme); also in his Nakt al-himyān, 250. For a rhymed English translation, see A.J. Arberry, The Spiritual Physick of Rhazes, 7.

103

See: Sezgin, GAS III, 274–294, IV, 275–282, V, 282, VI, 187–188; VII, 160, 271–272; Sezgin, ar-Rāzī: texts and studies; EI2 art. ‘al-Rāzī’ (L.E. Goodman); Ullmann, Medizin, 128–136; Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica, 45–60; al-Bīrūnī, Risālah; Daiber, ‘Abū Bakr al-Rāzī’, 389–400 (philosophical works only); Iskandar, ‘Ar-Rāzī’s medical writings’; Iskandar, ‘Medical bibliography’. British Library MS. Or. 5479, fols. 108–113 contains a Fihrist kutub Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī al-mutaṭabbib wa-aghrāḍihā which differs from other versions.

104

See Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Ḥāwī, Al’ (L. Richter-Bernberg). A new Arabic edition of al-Ḥāwī was published in Egypt in 2012, see al-Rāzī, al-Ḥāwī (ed. Ḥarbī). For other editions and studies see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 43. Cf. below 11.5.25, no. 92, and Savage-Smith, ‘The Working Files of Rhazes’; Kahl, ‘The Pharmacological Tables of Rhazes.’

105

For a study of some of al-Rāzī’s sources, see Kahl, The Sanskrit, Syriac and Persian sources in the Comprehensive Book of Rhazes.

106

See above 11.5.22 for further details on the posthumous publication of al-Ḥāwī through Ibn al-ʿAmīd.

107

For an English version see: Arberry, Spiritual Physick.

108

The Arabic title is a translation of the title of Aristotle’s Φυσικὴ ἀκρόασις or Naturalis Auscultatio, that is the Physics.

109

Al-Rāzī also gave the name Isagoge to his book al-Mudkhal ilā l-ṭibb (see below book no. 202).

110

Ar. samūm, En. simoom. A hot, suffocating wind of the desert. See: EI2 art. ‘Samūm’ (A.J. Wensinck).

111

This Sīsin or Sisinnios the Manichaean or Dualist (al-Thanawī) cannot be St. Sisinnios (Mār Sīsin) the immediate successor (khalīfah) of Mani (d. 3rd century AD) if the book in question refers to an actual discussion between him and al-Rāzī. This book could be identical with the title Refutation of Sisinnios the Dualist (al-radd ʿalā Sīsin al-Thanawī) mentioned by al-Bīrūnī (Risālah, p. 18), which does not imply that the two actually met. Ibn Nadīm (Fihrist (Flügel), 334, 336), gives the form ‘Sīs’ for his name, and mentions a number of epistles written by him. See also: Mohaghegh, Fīlsūf-i Rayy, 112.

112

That is, relief from pain (Per. rāḥat az ranj). This book is not extant, but an important part of it is preserved in the Zād al-musāfirīn of Nāṣir Khusraw (pp. 230–253). See also: Arberry, Spiritual Physick, 38–49; and Mohaghegh, Fīlsūf-i Rayy, 237–256.

113

For Galen, see Ch. 5 above. For this work of al-Rāzī, see Mohaghegh, The Kitāb al-Shukūk ʿalā Jālīnūs of Muḥammad Ibn Zakariyyā Al-Rāzī; and an Arabic edition in al-Rāzī, al-Shukūk.

114

For Euclid, see EIThree art. ‘Euclid’ (S. Brentjes & G. De Young); Sezgin, GAS V, 83–120.

115

Abū l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mālik al-Anbārī, also known as Ibn Shirshīr, (d. 293/906). Poet and Muʿtazilite theologian. See: EI2 art. ‘al-Nās̲h̲iʾ al-Akbar’. (J. van Ess); al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Tajaddud), 217 (not in Flügel); Mohaghegh, Fīlsūf-i Rayy, 42–44.

116

For a similar treatise, see al-Rāzī, M. fī l-Niqris.

117

That is, the art of alchemy. See: EI2 art. ‘al-Kīmīyāʾ.’ (M. Ullmann); Anawati, ‘Arabic alchemy’. Al-Rāzī’s alchemical books are listed by al-Bīrūnī, Risālah, 19–20. Al-Rāzī as alchemist is treated by Anawati, ‘Arabic alchemy’, 867–869; and Heym, al-Rāzī and Alchemy.

118

For an Arabic edition and study in Persian, see al-Rāzī, al-Mudkhal al-taʿlīmī.

119

Al-Bīrūnī, Risālah, 19, gives this work an alternative title ʿIlal al-maʿādin.

120

Al-Bīrūnī, Risālah, 19, has Ithbāt al-ṣināʿah.

121

Al-Bīrūnī, Risālah, 19, has K. al-Tartīb, wa-huwa al-rāḥah.

122

Cf. the third of the ‘twelve books’ above.

123

The word al-khāṣṣah as a noun means ‘the elite’ or ‘the special property’; its meaning in the context of this incomplete title is unclear.

124

The text of MS A has The Lesser Book of the Stone (K. al-Ḥajar al-aṣghar), with ‘lesser’ corrected interlinearly to ‘yellow’. Because many of the earlier titles concern alchemy, in this context the ‘yellow stone’ might refer to sulphur, a yellow stone whose importance to alchemy is fundamental.

125

Among the appetizers known as nuql often eaten as an accompaniment to wine was the edible clay of Khorasan baked into lozenges. IAU Ch. 7.9 mentions that al-Ḥajjāj was once addicted to such clay. For nuql, see Ahsan, Social Life under the Abbasids, 112–113. See also Mohaghegh, ‘The title of a work of Rāzī with reference to al-ṭīn al-nīshābūrī’.

126

This text is preserved in at least two versions, with many alterations and omissions within each copy, suggesting that the treatise as preserved may not be entirely genuine. For details concerning the two versions, and modern edtions as well as a Lithographed printing (Lucknow, 1886), see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 140. No translations or comparative studies have been published.

127

See: al-Bīrūnī, Risālah, 13, no. 89.

128

That is, a classical branch diagram (tashjīr).

129

See above 11.5.14.

130

Cf. Tabatabaei et al., ‘Razi’s description and treatment of facial paralysis’.

131

A number of manuscripts are preserved today with an Aqrābādhīn ascribed to Rāzī, varying greatly in their arrangement and contents. The copy preserved in the Bodleian Library bears the title K. al-Aqrābādhīn al-mawsūm bi-l-dustūr; see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 189 and sources cited there.

132

Brockelmann, GAL S i:954 identifies this person as Ḥu. at-Tammār.

133

All the MSS corrupt this title and appear to read K. fī īḍāḥ al-ʿillah allatī bi-hā tudfaʿ al-hawāmm bi-taghadhdhī wa-marratan bi-l-tadbīr. Cf. al-Bīrūnī, Risālah, 10. This work and work no. 75 below have recently come to light and have been edited and translated together in Pormann & Selove, Two New Texts.

134

Cf. Kuhne Brabant, ‘Al-Rāzī on when and how to eat fruit’.

135

See his entry Ch. 10.2.

136

Abū Yaʿlā Muḥammad ibn Shaddād ibn ʿĪsā al-Mismaʿī al-Baṣrī (d. 278/891–892), Muʿtazilite Theologian named Zurqān. See al-Dhahabī, Siyar, xiii:148–149.

137

Jarīr the Physician has not been idenfied with certainty, but he is probably related to or identical with Abū Naṣr ibn Jarīr (see Ch. 10.40) or al-Faḍl ibn Jarīr (Ch. 10.39).

138

That is Aḥmad II of the Samanid dynasty, who ruled from 295–301 [907–914].

139

The black variety of mulberry was particularly associated with Syria; for their many medical uses, see Lev & Amar, Practical Materia Medica, 451–452.

140

For an edition and translation, see Pormann and Selove, Two New Texts.

141

Anebo is said to be the Egyptian prophet and priest to whom Porphyry sent questions about the divine natures. Porphyry’s letter and the reply (by the teacher Abammon) are found in Iamblichus, De Mysteriis.

142

ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Maḥmūd Abū l-Qāsim al-Balkhī (d. 319/931), Muʿtazilite theologian. See Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Abū al-Qāsim al-Balkhī’ (A. Zaryab, M. Rezaee, F. Negahban).

143

See Ch. 4.5.

144

See Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Abū al-Qāsim al-Balkhī’ (A. Zaryab, M. Rezaee, & F. Negahban).

145

Al-Bīrūnī, Risālah, 20, says that this is the same as his book called Makhārīq al-anbiyāʾ. Cf. al-Rāzī’s title 166 below.

146

For a study of this treatise, see Pormann, ‘Al-Rāzī on the benefits of sex’.

147

For manuscripts and editions of this treatise, see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 42. No complete translation has been published; the anatomical portion was translated into French, by Pieter de Koning, Trois traitès, 1–89.

148

See above Ch. 11.5.9.

149

For a discussion of the nature of this book and whether it may be identified with al-Ḥāwī, see Savage-Smith, ‘The Working Files of Rhazes’. For al-Ḥāwī, see above Ch. 11.5.25 no. 1.

150

Transcription of the Syriac Pushshāq-shmāhē (Explanation of Names); see Kahl, Sanskrit, Syriac and Persian Sources, 39.

151

See Ch. 5.1.37–39.

152

For Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, see Ch. 8.29 and Ch. 9.2.

153

See Ch. 5.1.37, no. 1. Also known as On my own books.

154

It is likely that this compendium was compiled after al-Rāzī’s death from various sources. See Richter-Bernberg, ‘Pseudo-Ṯābit, Pseudo-Rāzī, Yūḥannā b. Sarābiyūn’; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 47.

155

See above 11.5.25 no. 42.

156

Yūḥannā (or Yaḥyā) ibn Sarābiyūn (fl. 3rd/9th cent.); see Sezgin GAS III, 240–242.

157

See his entry Ch. 10.64.

158

Contemporary and favourite of Ibn al-ʿAmīd; see n. 55 above.

159

Abū Zayd Aḥmad ibn Saḥl al-Balkhī (d. 322/934). See above 11.5.9.

160

On ‘rose fever’, see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 143.

161

That is Proclus of Athens (d. 485). See EI2 art. ‘Buruḳlus’ (R. Walzer); Brill’s New Pauly Supp. I vol. 2 art. ‘Proclus’ (M. Landfester).

162

Plutarch of Chaeronea (ca. 45–120), Platonist philosopher. See Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosopy art. ‘Plutarch’; Brill’s New Pauly Supp. I vol. 2 art. ‘Plutarchus of Chaeronea’ (B. Kuhn-Chen).

163

See above 11.5.9.

164

Aḥmad ibn Zakariyyā al-Kayyāl (fl. 3rd/9th cent), Ismāʿīlī missionary, See EI2 art. ‘al-Kayyāl’ (W. Madelung); EI Three art. ‘al-Kayyāl’ (D. De Smet).

165

See Ch. 5.1.37, no. 20.

166

See Ch. 5.1.37, no. 16.

167

See Ch. 5.1.37, no. 14.

168

See Ch. 5.1.37, no. 15.

169

That is Abū l-Qāsim al-Balkhī, see above 11.5.25. nos. 79 and81.

170

See above 11.5.9

171

For an edition and French translation of this treatise on the symptoms and treatment of abdominal pain and colic, see al-Rāzī, al-Qūlanj.

172

See Ch. 5.1.37, no. 88.

173

Manṣūr ibn Ṭalḥah ibn Ṭāhir ibn al-Ḥusayn, the ‘Philosopher of the Ṭāhirids’, and governor of Merv, Āmul, and Khwārazm. See Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 117.

174

See his entry Ch. 14.25.

175

For a discussion of this book, see Stroumsa, Freethinkers in Medieval Islam, 93–106.

176

For Jābir ibn Ḥayyān, see Sezgin GAS III, 211–223; EI2 art. ‘D̲j̲ābir b. Hayyān’ (P. Kraus, M. Plessner); Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 354–358, (Sayyid), 450–458.

177

For a similar title of Jābir’s, see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 355, and Fihrist (Sayyid), 453.

178

See Iskandar, ‘Bibliographical Studies’.

179

See title no. 52 above.

180

Possibly Abū Dulaf’s son ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, who was governor of Rayy from 252–260 (866–874). See EI2 art. ‘Dulafids’ (E. Marin).

181

Thus all the MSS. No contemporary of al-Rāzī of this name has been identified. It is possible that ʿAlī ibn Wāhsūdhān the Daylamite (d. after 304/917), governor of Rayy is meant here.

182

One of the Sājid dynasty, possibly Muḥammad ibn Abī l-Sāj (d. 288/901), governor of Azerbaijan from 279/892, who also made raids into the Jibāl region, the capital of which was Rayy. See EI2 art. ‘Sād̲j̲ids’ (C.E. Bosworth).

183

That is, al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Ashraf ibn ʿAlī Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn (d. 304/917), Zaydi Imam and governor of Tabaristan. See EI2 art. ‘Ḥasan al-Uṭrūs̲h̲’ (R. Strothmann); Stern, ‘Early Ismāʿīlī Missionaries’.

184

This may possibly be the same of the general medical treatise titled Sirr ṣināʿat al-ṭibb that was influential through translations in the West, though the attribution of the latter treatise to al-Rāzī is questionable; see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 45.

185

That is Aḥmad II of the Samanid dynasty, who ruled from 295–301 [907–914].

186

For two recently edited texts by al-Rāzī on whey (Māʾ al-jubn), which may have formed part of this work on dairy products, see Das & Koetschet, ‘Two Pharmacological Texts on Whey’.

187

That is, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Masʿūdī (d. 345/956), the composer of celebrated works including Meadows of Gold (Murūj al-dhahab). See EI2 art. ‘al-Masʿūdī’ (Ch. Pellat).

188

Also known as Isagoge (Cf. no. 6 above). For an Arabic edition with glossary in Castillian, see al-Rāzī, al-Mudkhal. Cf. Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 46.

189

A manuscript on bookmaking techniques entitled K. Zīnat al-katabah and ascribed to al-Rāzī was discovered in 2011 in the National Library in Cairo. See Zaki, Early Arabic Bookmaking Techniques.

190

This short essay is preserved today in a large number of copies, suggesting that it was very popular. It concerns ailments that al-Rāzī claims can by cured within an hour’s time, including headaches, toothache, earaches, and colic. Persian and Turkish versions are also preserved. For a Frnech translation see Guigues, ‘La guérison’; for editions, see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 120.

191

Cf. al-Rāzī’s book no. 38 above.

192

The ‘Good Vizier’ (d. 334/946). See EI2 art. ‘ʿAlī b. Īsā’ (H. Bowen); EIThree art. ‘ʿAlī b. Īsā b. Dāʾūd b. al-Jarrāḥ’ (M.L.M. van Berkel).

193

A student of al-Rāzī.

194

This appears to be the short tract by al-Rāzī on the management of catarrh that is produced when roses are blooming, also called ‘rose fever’, which he composed by Abū Zayd Aḥmad ibn Sahl al-Balkhī (d. 322/934), a sufferer from the complaint. For a German translation, see Hau, ‘Razis Gutachten über Rosenschnupfen’; for editions and manuscripts, see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 143.

195

Cf. Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 151. See above 11.5.5.

196

Literally, ‘with the knife’ (bi-l-ḥadīd). Such procedures included couching for cataracts, but also using a knife to remove pterygium and other surgical procedures.

197

Translation/annotation by AW. For Abū l-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ṭabarī, see Sezgin, GAS III, 307–308.

198

Region of northern Iran on the southern shore of the Caspian Sea. See EI2 art. ‘Ṭabaristan’ (Ed.).

199

Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Būyah, known as Rukn al-Dawlah or ‘Pillar of the Realm’ (d. 366/976). Buyid Emir of the Jibal region including Rayy and Isfahan from 320/932 until his death; see EI2 art. ‘Rukn al-Dawla’ (H. Bowen, and C.E. Bosworth).

200

Sezgin, GAS III, 308 (where two additional works not in IAU are mentioned).

201

For Hippocrates, see Ch. 4.1. For a facsimile of the Tehran MS Malik Millī Library 4474 copy of this work, see al-Ṭabarī, Muʿālajāt. For a comparison of the Muʿālajāt al-Buqrāṭiyyah and al-Ṭabarī’s Firdaws al-ḥikmah see Elvira Wakelnig, ‘Al-Ṭabarī and al-Ṭabarī: Compendia between Medicine and Philosophy’, in Adamson & Pormann, Philosophy and Medicine, 218–254. See also Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 48.

202

It consists of ten discourses (maqālahs) containing a total of 473 chapters (bābs) between them. An edition of the fourth maqālah on diseases of the eye was published in 1998. For further details, see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, 183–189. A copy not used in the edition (apparently dated 761/1359) formerly belonging to the 17th-century scholar John Selden, with notes by Henry Wild and containing 53 of the 54 chapters of the same maqālah 4 is also held in the collections of the Royal College of Physicians in London. See Tritton, Catalogue RCP, 185, no. 23; Pormann, Mirror of Health, 76, no. 29.

203

Translation/annotation by AW and GJvG. For al-Sijistānī, see EI2 art. ‘Abū Sulaymān Muḥammad b. Ṭāhir b. Bahrām al-Sid̲j̲istānī al-Manṭiḳī’ (S.M. Stern); Sezgin, GAS IV, 219, 220; VI, 61; VII, 168; VIII, 230, 236–237; Endress & Ferrari, ‘The Baghdad Aristotelians’. For a fuller study, see Kraemer, Philosophy.

204

See Ch. 10.22.

205

Metre: kāmil. Attributed to Abū Sulaymān al-Sijistānī by Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah and, following him, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:47 and al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iii:165, but more reliably to al-Badīhī in al-Tawḥīdī, Muqābasāt, 267, idem, Baṣāʾir, i:146. On Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Badīhī see e.g. Kraemer, Humanism, 136–139, al-Thaʿālibī, Yatīmah, iii:339–341.

206

Metre: kāmil. Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:47, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iii:165.

207

wasāwis, ‘whisperings; delusions, anxieties’, supposed to be caused by an excess of black bile, ‘melancholy’.

208

Metre: khafīf. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iii:166 (lines 1–4), Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:47 (lines 4–5, 7). Lines 5–7 lacking in R.

209

See EI2 art. ‘Abū Sulaymān Muḥammad b. Ṭāhir b. Bahrām al-Sid̲j̲istānī al-Manṭiḳī’ (S.M. Stern); Sezgin, GAS IV, 219, 220; VI, 61; VII, 168; VIII, 230, 236–237; Endress and Ferrari, ‘The Baghdad Aristotelians’. For a fuller study, see Kraemer, Philosophy.

210

For a discussion of whether this title corresponds with the Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah, see Dunlop, Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah, xiv. See also Kraemer, Philosophy, 91.

211

Or ‘quintessence’.

212

Arabic edition in al-Sijistānī, Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah wa-thalāth rasāʾil.

213

Translation/annotation by AW. For Ibn al-Khammār, see Sezgin, GAS III, 67, 165, 322–323, 334; VII, 284; Ullmann, Medizin, 85, 95, 227; EI Three art. ‘Ibn al-Khammār’ (O.L. Lizzini); Endress & Ferrari, The Baghdad Aristotelians, 480–499; Christian-Muslim Relations 600–1500 art. ‘Ibn al-Khammār’ (H.G.B. Teule); Encycl. Iranica arts. ‘Abu’l-Ḵayr b. Al-Ḵammar’ (W. Madelung), ‘Ebn Ḵammār, Abu’l-Ḵayr Ḥasan’ (W. Montgomery-Watt); Sezgin, The School of Baghdad (4th–5th/10–11th cent.) and its achievements. See also Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist, ed. Sayyid, ii:205, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:41–42, (where his father’s name is wrongly given as Sawwār).

214

Al-Bayhaqī, Tatimmah, 13, says the name ‘Khammār’ is an error and explains that Maḥmūd of Ghaznah gave him an estate in Ghaznah named Khumār [?] by which Abū l-Khayr became known.

215

Al-Bayhaqī, Tatimmah, 12, relates that Ibn al-Khammār, apparently at over 100 years of age, became a Muslim after seeing the Prophet Muḥammad in a dream.

216

See Ch. 10.22.

217

Cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 265, where birth date given as Rabīʿ I 331 [= November-December 942]. Al-Bayhaqī, Tatimmah, 12, says Ibn al-Khammār was born in Baghdad.

218

See Ch. 10.60.

219

See information about birth date above. It appears that these two dates have been transposed and that Ibn al-Khammār was born in 331/942 and was still alive in 380/991. However, it is more likely that he was born in 331/942 and was still alive in 1039 [possibly confirmed by MS R]. This would fit in better with the dates of his pupil Ibn Hindū (d. 423/1032), and with the fact that he served Maḥmūd [of Ghaznah] (r. 388/998–421/1030). Maḥmūd took control of Khwārazm in 408/1018 and Ibn al-Khammār was then taken to Ghaznah at a very advanced age, perhaps even 100 years.

220

For this title of Ibn Riḍwān, see Ch. 14.25.9 title 51.

221

For this title by Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, see Ch. 11.5.25 title 17; For Galen, see Ch. 5.1.

222

That is Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktigin, Sultan of Ghaznah (r. 388–421/998–1030). See EI2 art. ‘Maḥmūd b. Sebüktigin’ (C.E. Bosworth). According to [Ẓahīr al-Dīn] al-Bayhaqī, Tatimmat, 13, the full story of Ibn al-Khammār and Maḥmūd was related in Abū l-Faḍl al-Bayhaqī’s Tārīkh. Sadly, the relevant portion of this work has yet to come to light.

223

See Ch. 4.1

224

See Ch. 5.1

225

See Ch. 11.9. Ibn Hindū was one of Ibn al-Khammār’s students.

226

For an English translation, see Ibn Hindū, Miftāḥ (Tibi).

227

This phenomenon, known also in Arabic as tark al-tadāwī, often arises from the idea that seeking medical treatment in some way interferes with God’s will or negates reliance upon God (tawakkul). Al-Ghazzalī (d. 505/1111) treats of this question in some detail in his Iḥyāʾ ʿulūm al-dīn. Bürgel, Ärtzliches Leben, 20–24, discusses this and calls it ‘Das tawakkul-Problem’. See also Ghaly, Islam and Disability, 115–119. The sect (firqah) mentioned here is likely a reference to a group of Mutakallimūn who denied causality, and which was seen by others as tantamount to a denial of nature; see Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, 559 ff.; Daiber, ‘God versus Causality’.

228

For another English translation of this passage, see Ibn Hindū, Mifṭāḥ (Tibi), xv, 11.

229

Sezgin, GAS III, 67, 165, 322–323, 334; VII, 284; Ullmann, Medizin, 85, 95, 227; Christian-Muslim Relations 600–1500 art. ‘Ibn al-Khammār’ (H.G.B. Teule).

230

Christian-Muslim Relations 600–1500 art. ‘Kitāb al-tawfīq bayna ārāʾ al-falāsifa wa-l-Naṣārā’ (H.G.B. Teule).

231

For a study, edition, and English translation of this treatise, see Lettinck, Aristotle’s Meteorology and its reception in the Arab world.

232

That is, Abū l-ʿAbbās Maʾmūn ibn Muḥammad, formerly governor of Gurganj and then ruler of all Khwārazm until his death in 387/997.

233

See Chs. 8.29 and 9.2.

234

See Ch. 5.1.37–39.

235

That is, Rufus of Ephesus (fl. 100 AD). See Ch. 4.1.10.2; EI2 art. ‘Rūfus al-Afsīsī’ (M. Ullmann).

236

See Ch. 10.22.

237

See Ch. 10.42.

238

See Ch. 11.7.

239

That is, commentaries on the two well-known works by Porphyry and Aristotle respectively. For a discussion of the identity of Alīnūs, see Gyekye, Arabic Logic, 15, 221 (n. 43), where he is equated with [Pseudo-] Elias the Neoplatonist (fl. 6th cent.), for whom see The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy art. ‘Elias’ (C. Wildberg).

240

Translation/annotation by NPJ and GJvG. This entry is missing from Version 1, but is extant in Versions 2 and Version 3. For biographical sources on Abū l-Faraj ibn Hindū, see amongst others: Encycl. Iranica, art. ‘Ebn Hendū’ (L. Richter-Bernburg); The brief entry on Ibn Hindū in EI2, is marred by a confusion of two individuals: Abū l-Faraj ibn Hindū and Abū Muḥammad ibn Hindū, and for that reason not completely reliable as background information; cf. also Khalīfāt, Ibn Hindū; Sezgin, GAS III, 334–335.

241

See Ch. 11. 8 on Ibn al-Khammār. See also Teule, ‘Ibn al-Khammār’; Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Abū’l-Ḵayr b. al-Ḵammār’ (W. Madelung).

242

For al-Thaʿālibī, see art. EI2 ‘al-T̲h̲aʿālibī’ (E. Rowson); see also Orfali, ‘Works’.

243

MS A has the correct reading Tatimmat al-yatīmah, whereas the majority of the manuscripts present us with the reading Yatīmat al-dahr. The Tatimmah is, in fact, the sequel of the Yatīmat al-dahr fī maḥāsin ahl al-ʿaṣr. See al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmat al-Yatīmah, v:155; this edition bears the title Yatīmat al-dahr, but the last volume (no. 5) corresponds to the continuation written by al-Thaʿālibī with the Tatimmat al-yatīmah, as IAU states.

244

Q al-Ṭūr 52:15.

245

Metre: rajaz. Al-Thaʿālibī, Yatīmah, iii:395; idem, Khāṣṣ al-khāṣṣ, 229; idem, Tatimmah, 114 (lines 3–4); Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:16; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:18.

246

The major ablution (ghusl) is required by Islamic law after sexual intercourse.

247

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Thaʿālibī, Yatīmah, iii:395; idem, Tatimmah, 114; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:16; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:49, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:18.

248

Metre: basīṭ. Attributed to Ibn Hindū in Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:49; to Shukr (ibn Abī l-Futūḥ) al-ʿAlawī al-Ḥasanī, amīr of Mecca in Ibn al-Athīr, Kāmil (yr 453/1061–1062), and to al-amīr Abū Naṣr ʿAlī ibn Hibat Allāh Ibn Mākūlā (d. 485/1092) in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xv:106 and Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, iii:306.

249

Mandal is a kind of wood from India, used as incense.

250

Metre: munsariḥ. Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:50 (lines 2–3); attributed to ‘al-qāḍī ʿAbd al-Wahhāb’ (not identified) in al-ʿĀmilī, Kashkūl, 260–261.

251

A muwaswis is someone who suffers from wasāwis, ‘whisperings’ (see above, Ch. 11.7).

252

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 163.

253

Tatimmah has nafʿah ‘benefit’.

254

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 156, idem, Khāṣṣ, 214.

255

Metre: kāmil. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 164; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:50; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:14.

256

The stars of the Little Dipper, or Ursa minor, are called Banāt al-naʿsh, ‘Daughters of the Bier’, in Arabic; their ‘father’, the Pole Star, does not seem to move.

257

Metre: mutaqārib. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 164.

258

Metre: basīṭ. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 157–158; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xiii:142–143; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:16; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:17; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:50.

259

Metre: munsariḥ. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 156; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:18; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:50.

260

Metre: sarīʿ. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 158; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:16; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:17.

261

Metre: ṭawīl. Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:50 (lines 1, 3). Quoted anonymously in al-Tawḥīdī, Baṣāʾir, vi:115 (lines 1–2), Alf laylah wa-laylah (ed. Maktabat Muḥammad ʿAlī Ṣubayḥ), i:80 and iv:120. For other English translations, see Haddawy, The Arabian Nights, 195 (rhymed) and Lyons, The Arabian Nights, i:162 and (differently) iii:413.

262

Metre: mukhallaʿ al-basīṭ. Al-Thaʿālibī, Yatīmah, iii:394–395; idem, Kitāb man ghāba ʿanhu l-muṭrib, 159; idem, Taḥsīn al-qabīḥ, 63–64; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:14; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:14; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:50.

263

Dark cheek-down is often compared to musk, which is black and derived from the musk deer.

264

Metre: kāmil. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 159; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:16; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:17; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:51.

265

Metre: kāmil. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 159.

266

Metre: kāmil. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 162.

267

Metre: munsariḥ. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 159; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:15; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:17.

268

Ḥasan, meaning ‘beautiful’ or ‘good’.

269

Metre: munsariḥ. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 159; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:15; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:16.

270

Metre; ṭawīl. Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xiii:144; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:14; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:14.

271

Metre: kāmil muraffal. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:18.

272

Or possibly ‘the jurist al-ʿAskarī’ (after ʿAskar Mukram, a place near al-Ahwāz).

273

Metre: sarīʿ. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 159.

274

Metre: hazaj. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 159.

275

The original meaning of ʿūd, which lies behind both words, is ‘(piece of) wood’.

276

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 159, where the instrument in question is said to be a ṭunbūr, a long-necked stringed, plucked instrument; the name survived in Europe as pandora, bandora, or bandore, as well as tambour(ine), which is a wholly different kind of instrument.

277

Metre: ramal. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 162, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:51.

278

Metre: kāmil. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 163.

279

Metre: sariʿ. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 163; idem, Khāṣṣ, 213; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xiii:139; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt, iii:14; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:16.

280

The Arabic has ‘like the letter R in (the speech defect called) luthghah’. Aida Tibi, who translates this epigram in her introduction to Ibn Hindū, The Key to Medicine, xiv, has ‘In Rayy I was lost, as the letter “r” is lost by those who lisp’. Luthghah can refer to lisping (S becoming Th) but in Ibn Hindū’s line it means ‘burring’ the R. It is possible, therefore, that he puns on ‘al-Rayy’ becoming ‘al-Ghayy’, ‘the Error’.

281

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 160; idem, Khāṣṣ, 214.

282

Compare al-Ghazālī, Iḥyāʾ, i:58 (in prose): ‘A shadow comes from a stick (…) but how can the shadow be straight when the stick is crooked?’

283

Metre: mutaqārib. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 161; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:17; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:51. For an alternative rhymed version of this poem, see IAU, Anecdotes & Antidotes.

284

Arabic qūlanj, qawlanj, qūlinj, or qūlanj, from Greek κωλικός, ‘characterized by colic pain’.

285

Thus MS A and Tatimmah, while Wāfī has bi-l-zayti ‘with olive oil’, i.e., a real purge, which is in fact likely to be an expurgated version.

286

Metre: wāfir. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 161.

287

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 162.

288

MS A vowels it as ānafa man khannā (‘as the most scorning of those who produce obscene language’), which is syntactically unlikely and metrically impossible.

289

Al-Aʿshā (‘the Night-Blind’) is the nickname of several early poets, notably Maymūn ibn Qays (pre-Islamic); the other may be Abū Quḥāfah ʿĀmir ibn al-Ḥārith (Aʿshā Bāhilah, ‘of the tribe Bāhilah’, pre-Islamic) or ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh (Aʿshā Hamdān, ‘of the tribe Hamdān’, d. 83/702). There is only one famous poet called al-Akhṭal (d. ca. 92/710); there are at least four others, all obscure (see al-Āmidī, al-Muʾtalif wa-l-mukhtalif, 21–22). Perhaps Abū l-Asad al-Thaʿlabī, nicknamed al-Akhṭal al-Ṣaghīr (‘little Akhṭal’ or ‘the younger Akhṭal’) is intended (Ibn al-Muʿtazz, Ṭabaqāt, 330–331) or al-Ukhayṭil (‘little Akhṭal’) Barqūqā (ibid., 411–412), both from the early Abbasid period. The dual may also be a joke on the part of Ibn Hindū.

290

That is Miftāḥ al-ṭibb wa-minhāj al-ṭullāb (The Key to Medicine and a Guide for Students), eds. Mohaghegh and Daneshpajuh (Tehran 1989) and Manṣūrī (Beirut 2002). For an English translation, see Ibn Hindū, Miftāḥ (Tibi).

291

Translation/annotation by NPJ. This entry is missing in Versions 1 and 2, but is extant in Version 3. It appears in MS A on the interleaf between fols. 175/176.

292

The town of Fasā is located in Fars Province, Persia. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, iv:260–261.

293

See Bosworth, Dynasties, 154–157: Abū Naṣr Bahāʾ al-Dawlah Fīrūz ibn Fanā Khusraw ʿAḍud al-Dawlah (r. 388–403/998–1012).

294

The town of Tustar is located in Khuzestan Province, Persia. It is also known under the names Shūshtar, Shūstar and Tushtar. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, ii:29–31.

295

Translation/annotation by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book. For this author (d. shortly after 390/999), who is said to have been a teacher of Ibn Sīnā (d. 426/1037) and to have practised medicine in Bukhara, see GAL, i:239, S i:424; Sezgin, GAS, III, 319; Ullmann, Medizin, 147; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, 206–208 entry no. 51; Bürgel, Ārtzlichen Leben, 477. The form of the nisbah in the modern studies just cited is consistently given as al-Qumrī. However, in al-Ṣafadī’s Wāfī (xii:282), which quotes IAU, the editor (Ramaḍān ʿAbd al-Tawwāb) vowels it as al-Qamarī, and Ghada Karmi, in her studies of his treatises prefers the vocalization al-Qamarī, though al-Qumrī is used as well (Karmi, ‘The Arabic medical kunnāsh in the 10th century’; Karmi, ‘Study based on Ghiná wa Muná’); reviewers of Karmi’s edition of K. al-Tanwīr have differed in their vocalization of the name (see International Journal of Middle East Studies 26 (1994), 701–702, and Journal of Semitic Studies 37 (1992), 340–341).

In al-Samʿānī’s Ansāb (iv:540–541) both nisbahs are discussed; al-Qumrī is said to relate to a place said to be in Egypt (but our physician is in the chapter on Persians), and al-Qamarī is the nisbah of someone from Marw/Merv, not clearly related to a place but perhaps a laqab, after the moon. Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, mentions that al-Qumrī refers to Qumr, in Egypt, or to an island in the Indian Ocean (apparently the Comoro Islands, an unlikely background for someone at the Samanid court). Al-Qumrī is also the term for a collared turtle-dove (Lane, Lexicon, q-m-r), though that seems an unlikely nisbah. Of the manuscript copies of IAU employed in this edition, MSS BGcR are not vocalized; MS A is only partly vocalized and seems to read al-Qamarī rather than al-Qumrī. Given the available evidence, al-Qamarī seems a more likely nisbah for someone working in Bukhara than al-Qumrī.

296

He has an entry in Ch. 15.21.

297

For an edition of another treatise by him, Kitāb al-Tanwīr fī al-iṣṭilāḥāt al-ṭibbiyyah (Book of Illumination Regarding Medical Technical Terminology), see al-Qamarī, K. al-Tanwīr (ed. Karmi). See Bürgel, Ārtzlichen Leben, 477, for an unpublished general treatise on medicine.

298

The treatise was also known as al-Shamsiyyah al-Manṣūriyyah (The Manṣurian Sunshade) because it was dedicated to the Samanid prince al-Manṣūr (r. 387–389/997–999). For studies of this treatise and the difficulties of translating its title, see Karmi, ‘Study based on Ghiná wa Muná’; and Karmi, ‘The Arabic medical kunnāsh in the 10th century’.

299

Translation/annotation by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book. For Abū Sahl al-Masīḥī (d. 401/1010), also said to have been a teacher of Ibn Sīnā (d. 426/1037), see Sezgin, GAS III, 326–327; Ullmann, Medizin, 151; EI2 art. ‘al-Masīḥī’ (A. Dietrich); Savage-Smith, ‘Frankish study of Arabic medical texts’.

300

See Ch. 15.50.

301

See Ch. 8.6.

302

For a study of this treatise, see Karmi, ‘Compendium’. For an edition by Floréal Sanagustin, see al-Masīḥī, K. al-miʾah fī l-ṭibb.

303

See Ch. 10.64.

304

That is, Ptolemy’s Almagest.

305

This is, Maʾmūn II ibn Maʾmūn I, Abū l-ʿAbbās (r. 399–407/1009–1017). See Bosworth, Dynasties, 178.

306

Known, of course, in the Latin West as Avicenna, Ibn Sīnā’s honorific title ‘al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs’ can be translated as ‘The Principal Master’ or ‘The Foremost Teacher.’ The title was also partly carried over into Latin as can be seen from references to Avicenna, for example, as ‘princeps medicorum arabum’ or the Foremost of the Arab Physicians. The translation of al-Raʾīs as princeps also gave rise to the erroneous idea of Avicenna as a regal figure.; see Hasse, King Avicenna. The significance of the title ‘al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs’ becomes somewhat clearer when compared with the title ‘al-Muʿallim al-Awwal’ or ‘The First Teacher’, used by Islamic philosophers (especially Avicenna) when referring to Aristotle (See: Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, p. 325), and with the title ‘al-Muʿallim al-Thānī’ given to al-Fārābī, a pivotal figure whose book facilitated Avicenna’s understanding of Aristotle’s Metaphysics. Avicenna’s title could be seen as an indication of the idea that he surpassed Aristotle and became the greatest professor and interpreter of Aristotelian thought.

307

Translated and annotated by AW and GJvG. This biography is present in all three versions of the work. There is a vast literature on Ibn Sīnā. For introductions, see EI2 art. ‘Ibn Sīnā (A.-M. Goichon); Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Avicenna’ (multiple authors); Sezgin, GAS VI, 276–280, VII, 292–302; Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica, 74–100; Mahdavī, Muṣannafāt-i Ibn Sīnā; Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina; Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition. For background and collected essays, see Alwishah & Hayes, Aristotle and the Arabic Tradition; Taylor & López-Farjeat, The Routledge Companion to Islamic philosophy; El-Rouayheb & Schmidke, The Oxford Handbook of Islamic philosophy; Adamson & Pormann, Philosophy and Medicine.

For primary and secondary works published between 1970 and 2009, see Janssens, An annotated bibliography on Ibn Sīnā (plus First and Second Supplements). The present work aims, in general, to refer the reader to work already done in the field of Avicennan studies, or to provide bibliographic notices of relevant works published since the last major bio-bibliographical studies.

308

For a discussion of the name ‘Sīnā’ and a possible Central Asian Buddhist ancestry, see Lüling, Ein Anderer Avicenna.

309

Encycl. Iranica art. ‘ʿAbd-Al-Vāḥed Jūzjānī’ (David Pingree); Sezgin, GAS VI, 281–282; Al-Rahim, The Creation of Philosophical Tradition, 38–48.

310

Cf. English translations by Arberry, Avicenna on Theology, 1–24; Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina; Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 10–19 (autobiographical part only). For a translation of Ibn Khallikān’s notice, see Ibn Khallikān, Biographical Dictionary, I, 440–446. For an overview of translations into Latin some of which were printed in Italy from the early 1500s, see Hasse, Success and Suppression, 28–69; The Arabo-Islamic bio-bibliographical tradition is analyzed in Al-Rahim, The Creation of Philosophical Tradition; For an Arabic paraphrase with additions, see al-Bayhaqī, Tatimmah, 38–61. Cf. also Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 413–426; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, ii:157–162; al-Ṣafadī, al-Wāfī, xii:391-‮‭412‬‬‎; al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-islām, xxix:218–230.

311

Important medieval city and region in Greater Khorasan (now northern Afghanistan). See EI2 art. ‘Balk̲h̲’ (R.N. Frye); EI Three art. ‘Balkh’ (J. Paul); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Balkh’ (Multiple authors); Encycl. Iranica. art. ‘Balk̲h̲’ (multiple authors).

312

Important city in Transoxiana (modern-day Uzbekistan) and seat of the Samanids. See EI2 art. ‘Bukhārā’ (W. Barthold & R.N. Frye); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Bukhārā’ (Multiple authors).

313

Samanid emir of Transoxiana and Khorasan (r. 366–387/977–997). See EI2 art. ‘Nūḥ’ (C.E. Bosworth).

314

See entry in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), ii:427–428.

315

Brief entry in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), i:330.

316

Al-Bayhaqī, Tatimmah, 39, gives Sitārah (Per. Star) as his mother’s name.

317

Al-Bayhaqī, Tatimmah, 39, gives his brother’s name as Maḥmūd, born five years after Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn. IAU says his brother’s name was ʿAlī. See below Ch. 11.13.3.15, and 11.13.8 no. 16.

318

For an overview of the basic education of the time, see EI Three art. ‘Education, general (up to 1500)’ (S. Günther).

319

For this term, see EI2 art. ‘Dāʿī’ (M.G.S. Hodgson); EI Three art. ‘Dāʿī (in Ismāʿīlī Islam)’ (P.E. Walker); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Dāʿī’ (F. Daftary); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Daʿwa (The Ismaili Daʿwa)’ (F. Daftary). The Ismailis had a base in Bukhara for their mission and had had a measure of success at the Samanid court during the latter part of the reign of Naṣr ibn Aḥmad who converted to the cause along with several other high-ranking officials. After Naṣr’s death in 332/943, however, there was a purge and many Ismailis were massacred. In Ibn Sīnā’s time it would have been dangerous to have been associated with the cause. See Stern, ‘Early Ismāʿīlī Missionaries’, 77–81; Stern, Studies in early Ismāʿīlism.

320

The Fatimids, an Ismaili (Shiite) dynasty, established their rule in Egypt from 358/969 until 567/1171. See EI2 art. ‘Fāṭimids’ (M. Canard); EI Three art. ‘Fāṭimids’ (H. Halm); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Fāṭimids’ (P.E. Walker).

321

The standard work is Daftary, The Ismāʿīlīs: Their History and Doctrines. See also Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Bāṭiniyya’ (A. Daadbeh & R. Gholami); Halm, Shīʿism; Halm, Empire of the Mahdi.

322

See EI2 art. ‘Falsafa’ (R. Arnaldez).

323

See EI2 art. ‘ʿIlm al-Handasa’ (M. Souissi); Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, On arithmetic and geometry.

324

See EI2 art. ‘ʿIlm al-Ḥisāb’ (A.I. Sabra); EI Three art. ‘Arithmetic’ (S. Brentjes); Saidan, The Arithmetic of al-Uqlīdisī; Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, On arithmetic and geometry.

325

Al-Nātilī has an entry in al-Bayhaqī, Tatimmah, 22–23. See also Sezgin, GAS III, 315, where this al-Nātilī is equated with the second reviser (after Ḥunayn) of the Arabic translation of Dioscorides’ Materia Medica. Leiden MS Or. 289 (apparently copied in 475/1083, from a copy in the hand of Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Nātilī dated 380/990) gives his name as al-Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Khurshīd al-Ṭabarī al-Nātilī.

326

That is, Ḥanafī scholar of Bukhara Abū Muḥammad Ismāʿīl ibn al-Ḥusayn (d. 402/1012). See Gutas, ‘Maḏhab’.

327

MSS ABGcR all have the reading min ajwad al-sālikīn as does Müller II, 2, with a marginal note in A giving the alternative reading min zumrat al-sāʾilīn, among the group of questioners. Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina, 20, has kuntu min afrah al-sāʾilīn, ‘I was one of the most ingenious questioners’, which is the better reading given what follows.

328

That is, Porphyry’s introduction to Aristotle’s Categories on the five universals or predicables: genus, species, (specific) difference, property, and accident. See EI2 art. ‘Furfūriyūs’ (R. Walzer); EI2 art. ‘Īsāg̲h̲ūd̲j̲ī’ (Ed.). For a modern English translation from Greek and commentary, see Barnes, Introduction.

329

Cf. Barnes, Introduction, 4. For an English translation of a brief discussion of genus by Ibn Sīnā, where he is dismissive of Porphyry, see Ibn Sīnā, Deliverance: Logic, 10–11.

330

That is Euclid’s Elements. For Euclid in general, see Sezgin, GAS V, 83–120; EI2 art. ‘Uḳlīdis’ (S. Brentjes); EI Three art. ‘Euclid’ (S. Brentjes & G. De Young).

331

That is, Ptolemy’s Almagest. See EI2 art. ‘Baṭlamiyūs’ (M. Plessner).

332

qāma bi [sth.], in this sense means to be well-versed in something. See: Dozy, Supplément, ii:422B.

333

The form in the MSS is Kurkānj (as entry in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, iv:360–361), that is Gurgānj, Ar. al-Jurjāniyyah. Main city of the region known as Khwārazm until its destruction in 618/1221. See EI2 art. ‘Gurgand̲j̲’ (B. Spuler).

334

MSS AGcB: fuṣūṣ; R: nuṣūṣ. For a thorough discussion of the significance of this term, see: Bertolacci, From Al-Kindi to Al-Farabi. See also: Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 16.

335

That is, the ‘shared’ term which the two premises of a syllogism have in common. For example, in the basic categorical syllogism every human is an animal; every animal is a substance; therefore, every human is a substance, the middle term is animal.

336

For details of the Masjid-i Jāmiʿ in Bukhara, see Narshakhī, Tārīkh-i Bukhārā, 57–61.

337

That is of Aristotle, for whom see Ch. 4.6.13.1 no. 55.

338

For al-Fārābī, see Ch. 15.1.

339

For this book, which is extant, see Ch. 15.1.5 no. 97.

340

Samanid emir of Transoxiana and Khorasan (r. 366/977–387/997). See EI2 art. ‘Nūḥ (II) b. Manṣūr’ (C.E. Bosworth).

341

See below Ch. 11.13.3.2 no. 1.

342

For a discussion on the identity of al-Barqī, see Gutas, ‘Maḏhab’.

343

See below Ch. 11.13.3.2 no. 2.

344

See below Ch. 11.13.3.2 no. 4.

345

MSS AGcRB: wa-taṣarraftu fī l-aḥwāl. Read with Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina, 40: wa-taṣarrafat bī al-aḥwāl.

346

Abū l-Ḥasan (or al-Ḥusayn) al-Sahlī (al-Suhaylī), vizier to the Maʾmūnids at Gurganj until ca. 404/1013. See Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Abū Sahl al-Masīḥī’ (Y. Karamati).

347

Second of the Maʾmūnid Khwārazm-Shāhs (r. ca. 387/997–399/1009). See EI2 art. ‘K̲h̲wārazm-S̲h̲āhs’ (C.E. Bosworth), where Ibn Sīnā is mentioned in the context of Maʾmūn II’s rule.

348

For ṭaylasān, see: Ahsan, Social Life under the Abbasids, 42–43.

349

Town in Khorasan. See EI2 art. ‘Nasā’ (V. Minorsky & C.E. Bosworth).

350

Town in Khorasan also known as Abīward, one day’s journey from Nasā. See EI2 art. ‘Abīward’ (V. Minorsky).

351

Town and district in Khorasan. EI2 art. ‘Ṭūs’ (V. Minorsky & C.E. Bosworth).

352

A town close to Jājarm. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, iii:145.

353

Town in western Khorasan. EI2 art. ‘D̲j̲ād̲j̲arm’ (C.E. Bosworth).

354

That is Gurgān, town in the region of the same name at the south-east corner of the Caspian Sea. EI2 art. ‘Gurgān’ (R. Hartmann & J.A. Boyle).

355

Fourth Ziyārid emir of Ṭabaristān and Gurgān Shams al-Maʿālī Qābūs ibn Wushmagīr ibn Ziyār (d. 403/1012–1013). See EI2 art. ‘Ḳābūs b. Wus̲h̲magīr b. Ziyār’ (C.E. Bosworth).

356

Region and town four days’ journey north of Jurjān. See EI2 art. ‘Dihistān (2)’ (B. Spuler).

357

Metre: kāmil. Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 417, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:395.

358

The Arabic name for the mountainous region known in ancient times as Media. Persian Iraq (ʿIrāq ʿAjamī). See EI2 art. ‘D̲j̲ibāl’ (L. Lockart).

359

See Sezgin, GAS VI, 276–280, VII, 292–302; Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica, 74–100; For an inventory of Avicenna’s works with bibliographical notices, see Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 411–528. For primary and secondary works published between 1970 and 2009, see Janssens, An annotated bibliography on Ibn Sīnā. The present work aims, in general, to refer the reader to work already done in the field of Avicennan studies, or to provide bibliographic notices of significant works published since the last major bio-bibliographical studies.

360

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 86–93, and 417. Compiled for Abū l-Ḥusayn al-ʿArūḍī, hence this title is also known as al-Ḥikmah al-ʿArūḍiyyah. For an English translation of the section on Rhetoric from this book, see Ezzaher, Three Arabic treatises on Aristotle’s Rhetoric, 50–71.

361

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 426.

362

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 426.

363

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 498.

364

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 420–422. For a full study published in 2018, see Nusseibeh, Avicenna’s al-Shifāʾ. For English translations see Ibn Sīnā, The Physics of the Healing (trans. J. McGinnis); The Metaphysics of the Healing (trans. M.E. Marmura). See also Lammer, The Elements of Avicenna’s Physics.

365

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 512–513; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 54. For a new translation of Book I of the Canon in plain English, see Abu-Asab, Amri, & Micozzi, Avicenna’s Medicine.

366

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 432.

367

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 422–424. More fully, Salvation from Drowning in the Sea of Errors (al-Najāh min al-gharaq fī baḥr al-ḍalālāt), a phrase which appears in Avicenna’s introduction to the book, and which was used as the main title for Muḥammad Taqī Dānishpazhūh’s 1985 edition. For an English translation of the section on logic, see Ibn Sīnā, Deliverance: Logic (trans. A.Q. Ahmed).

368

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 419–420.

369

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 425.

370

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 433.

371

ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Dushmanziyār (d. 433/1041–1042), Kākūyid ruler of the Jibāl region. See EI2 art. ‘Kākūyids’ (C.E. Bosworth).

372

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 118–119, 424–425. The Dānish-nāmah was written by Ibn Sīnā in new Persian. It has been shown that Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazzālī based his Maqāṣid al-falāsifah on the Dānish-nāmah. See Janssens, ‘Le Dānesh-Nāmeh d’ Ibn Sīnā’.

373

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 515.

374

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 443–444.

375

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 514–515.

376

Probably one of Ibn Sīnā’s four short books on logic. See Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 434–435.

377

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 119–144, 425.

378

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 438.

379

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 472–479.

380

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 471–472.

381

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 428. Title added from Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 418; Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina, 48; IAU omits this title.

382

Alternative translation: On Fate and Providence. See Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 479–480; De Cillis, Free will and Predestination; Inati, Ibn Sīnā’s Theodicy.

383

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 467.

384

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 437–438. For Aristotle, see above Ch. 6.

385

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 436, where Urjūzah fī ʿilm al-manṭiq.

386

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 442–443. A work on phonetics?

387

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 440. A critique of the Theologians’ use of analogy, published as Fī taʿaqqub al-mawḍiʿ al-jadalī … ‘alladhī yuḥāwalu fīhi al-ḥukm ʿalā farʿ bi-mithli mā yuḥkamu bihi ʿalā aṣl bi-ʿillah baynahumā jāmiʿah wa-huwa alladhī yusammīhi ahl al-ʿaṣr min al-mutakallimīn qiyāsan.’

388

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 460–461. For Euclid, see EI Three art. ‘Euclid’ (S. Brentjes & G. De Young); Sezgin, GAS V, 83–120.

389

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 515–516.

390

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 436–437. English translation and commentary in Kennedy-Day, Books of Definition in Islamic Philosophy, 85–159.

391

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 447.

392

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 436.

393

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 416.

394

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 445–446.

395

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 499.

396

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 482–423.

397

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 445.

398

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 506–511.

399

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 515.

400

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 438.

401

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 440.

402

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 504–505.

403

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 504.

404

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 514. Titles 44, 45, and 46 do not appear in any of MSS AGcRB.

405

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 417–419.

406

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 483–484. For a previously unrecorded copy dated 703/1303 and titled Risālah marmūzah li-l-Shaykh al-Raʾīs Abī ʿAlī ibn Sīnā al-Bukhārī fī waṣf tawaṣṣulihi ilā l-ʿilm al-ḥaqq, see Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Pococke 263, fols. 67a–69a.

407

An important city and capital of the Jibāl region of west-central Iran. EI2 art. ‘al-Rayy’ (V. Minorsky [C.E. Bosworth]). For a more detailed, modern study, see Rante and Afround, Rayy: from its Origins to the Mongol Invasion.

408

For the Sayyidah (d. 419/1028), and her son Majd al-Dawlah Rustam, Būyid emir of Rayy and the Jibāl (r. 387–420/997–1029), see EI2 art. ‘Mad̲j̲d al-Dawla’ (C.E. Bosworth); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Būyids’ (S. Sajjadi).

409

Shams al-Dawlah, Būyid emir of Hamadān (r. 387–412/997–1021), brother of Majd al-Dawlah. See EI2 art. ‘S̲h̲ams al-Dawla’ (K.V. Zetterstéen).

410

Hilāl ibn Badr was killed in 405/1015. For the family of Ḥasanwayh, see EI2 art. ‘Ḥasanwayh’ (Cl. Cahen).

411

Province and city in north-west Iran. See EI2 art. ‘Ḳazwīn’ (A.K.S. Lambton & R. Hillenbrand).

412

Hamadhān, the ancient Ecbatana, city and province in west-central Iran. See EI2 art. ‘Hamad̲h̲ān’ (R.N. Frye).

413

Per. Lady of the House.

414

MSS AGcRB: qūmīn/qawmayn (vowelling uncertain). Read Qarmīsīn, that is, according to Yāqūt, the Arabized from of Kirmānshāh[-ān], a city in western Iran 30 parasangs from Hamadan on the road from Baghdad. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, iv:69–70; EI2 art. ‘Kirmāns̲h̲āh’ (A.K.S. Lambton).

415

MSS AGcRB: ʿAnān. Read ʿAnnāz. He is, in fact, Abū l-Shawk Fāris ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAnnāz (r. 401–437/1010–1045), who held territory in western Iran from his base in Ḥulwān. The battle with Shams al-Dawlah at Kirmānshāh (Qarmīsīn) took place in 406/1015. See EI2 art. ‘ʿAnnāzids’ (V. Minorsky).

416

For Aristotle, see above Ch. 4.6.

417

District of Daylam in north-western Iran. See EI2 art. ‘Ṭārum’ (V. Minorsky & C.E. Bosworth).

418

All MSS and some other sources have the name al-amīr Bahāʾ al-Dawlah here in error for al-amīr bihā. Bahāʾ al-Dawlah had died some time previously to this in 403/1012.

419

Shams al-Dawlah died in about 412/1021–1022.

420

That is Samāʾ al-Dawlah Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Shams al-Dawlah.

421

ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah, Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Dushmanziyār (d. 433/1041–1042), Kākūyid ruler of the Jibāl region, who took Hamadan from Samāʾ al-Dawlah in 414/1023–1024. See EI2 art. ‘Kākūyids’ (C.E. Bosworth).

422

Tāj al-Mulk al-Qūhī (thus Ibn al-Athīr). General of the troops at Hamadan for Samāʾ al-Dawlah.

423

A well-known castle near Hamadan also known as Barāhān (Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), iii:870).

424

Metre: wāfir. Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 421; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:59; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:397; Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 21.

425

Possibly the vizier Abū Ṭālib al-ʿAlawī mentioned below in the Shaykh’s poetry.

426

For the Almagest of Ptolemy, see EI2 art. ‘Baṭlamiyūs’ (M. Plessner).

427

For Euclid’s Elements, see EI Three art. ‘Euclid’ (S. Brentjes & G. De Young); Sezgin, GAS V, 83–120.

428

Probably around 417/1026. See: Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil year 417.

429

According to Yāqūt (Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), iii:4–5), Sābūr Khwāst is a provincial town which lies between Khūzistān and Isfahan. See also EI2 art. ‘Luristan’ (V. Minorsky).

430

This took place in 414/1023–1024. See Ibn al-Athīr, Kāmil year 414; EI2 art. ‘Kākūyids’ (C.E. Bosworth).

431

Sezgin, GAS VIII, 228–229.

432

Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Azharī (d. 370/980), lexicographer. See EI Three art. ‘al-Azharī, Abū Manṣūr’ (T. Seidensticker).

433

The vizier and man of letters Abū l-Faḍl Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad (d. 360/970). See EI2 art. ‘Ibn al-ʿAmīd’ (Cl. Cahen); Encycl. Iranica, art. ‘Ebn al-ʿAmīd’ (Ihsan Abbas).

434

Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Hilāl al-Ṣābiʾ (d. 384/994), head of the chancery in Baghdad during the Būyid period. See EI1 ‘al-Ṣābiʾ’ (F. Krenkow).

435

Abū l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn ʿAbbād ibn al-ʿAbbāṣ ibn ʿAbbād (326–385/938–995), vizier and/ littérateur of the Būyid period. See: EI2 art. ‘Ibn ʿAbbād’ (Cl. Cahen and Ch. Pellat); Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Ebn ʿAbbād’ (M. Pomerantz). See also Pomerantz, Licit Magic: The Life and Letters of al-Ṣāḥib b. ʿAbbād.

436

Julanjabīn was a conserve made with rose petals and either honey (Julanjabīn ʿasalī), or sugar (Julanjabīn sukkarī). For a recipe, see Ibn Sīnā, Qānūn Book V, Jumlah 1, Maqālah 7 = (Būlāq), iii:278.

437

See Glossary of Weights & Measures.

438

MSS RB: … which is the one he subsequently placed at the beginning of The Salvation (K. al-Najāh).

439

Possibly the same Kirmānī as the author of a book on the principles of astrological judgements (K. fī uṣūl al-aḥkām). See Sezgin GAS VII, 193–194; Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Abu’l-Qāsem Kermānī’ (D. Pingree). See also van Ess, Der Eine und das Andere, 665–666; Reisman, The Making of the Avicennian Tradition, 175–180.

440

Ar. Firʿawnī, a kind of paper mentioned by Ibn Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 21. See also Gacek, Vademecum, 191–192.

441

MS A contains a gloss taken from a copy in the hand of IAU stating: ‘This brother of the Shaykh is Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Sīnā.’

442

For Ptolemy, see EI2 art. ‘Baṭlamiyūs’ (M. Plessner).

443

That is, Abū Saʿīd Masʿūd ibn Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegin of Ghaznah (r. 421/1030–432/1040). See EI2 art. ‘Masʿūd b. Maḥmūd’ (C.E. Bosworth).

444

Masʿūd captured Isfahan from ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah in 420/1029, and after several attempts, ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah recovered the city in 427/1035–1036.

445

In fact, some portions are still extant. For details, see Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 426.

446

Tash Farrāsh was the Turkish commander in chief of the Ghaznavid troops whom Masʿūd sent against ʿAlāʾ al-Dawlah.

447

That is Karaj [of Abū Dulaf], an ancient town of the Jibāl between Hamadan and Isfahan. See EI2 art. ‘(al-) Karad̲j̲’ (Ed.)

448

Also known as Māl-i Amīr, a provincial city situated between Khuzistan and Isfahan. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), i:416–417; EI2 art. ‘Īd̲h̲ad̲j̲’ (C.E. Bosworth).

449

See Glossary of Weights & Measures.

450

Mithrūdīṭūs, was the name of a celebrated theriac, or all-purpose electury, allegedly composed by Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (r. 120–63 BC); rue was a major component. See Maimonides, On Poisons, 301 nos. 11–12; Watson, Theriac & Mithridatum.

451

For a discussion of the evidence regarding Ibn Sīnā’s birth date, see Gutas, ‘Maḏhab’, 334–336.

452

Ibn Khallikān (Wafayāt, ii:162) associates these lines with Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus (for whom see Ch. 10.83), not a contemporary of Ibn Sīnā as he died in 639/1242.

453

Metre: mutaqārib. Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, ii:162; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:407; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:63. For an alternative rhymed version of this poem, see IAU, Anecdotes & Antidotes.

454

Ḥabs normaly means ‘detention, imprisonment’, which is also suggested by the variant bi-l-sijn ‘in prison’, found in Wafayāt. However, Ibn Sīnā was not imprisoned when he died; and compare Dozy, Supplément: iḥtibās ‘constipation’.

455

Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī l-Khayr (357–440/967–1049), Persian saint and mystic. It is doubtful whether he ever met with Ibn Sīnā. See EI2 art. ‘Abū Saʿīd Faḍl Allāh b. Abī ’l-K̲h̲ayr’ (H. Ritter); EI Three, art. ‘Abū Saʿīd b. Abī l-Khayr’ (O. Safi); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Abū Saʿīd b. Abī l-Khayr’ (N.M. Heravi).

456

Metre: mutaqārib. Abū l-ʿAtāhiyah, Dīwān, 104, al-Iṣfahānī, Aghānī, iv:35.

457

This is a quotation of part of a verse from the Qur’an. Q. Fāṭir 35:10.

458

Reading uncertain.

459

Cf. Q al-Baqarah 2:257; and Q Āl ʿImrān 3:173. This waṣiyyah is also quoted in al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-islām, xxix:229–230. MS R copies in margin a prayer on wine attributed to Ibn Sīnā, see AII.8.2.

460

Metre: kāmil. Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, ii:160–161; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:407–408; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:64–65; al-ʿĀmilī, Kashkūl, 415–416; Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 19–20; and other sources, with several variants and different order of lines. The present translation and annotation of this poem have been taken, with minor changes, from van Gelder, Anthology, 73–74, 368. See also Carra de Vaux, ‘La Ḳaçîda’; Browne, A Literary History of Persia, ii:110–111; Arberry, Avicenna on Theology, 77–78; Alavi, ‘Some Aspects’, 65–72; Ibn al-Walīd, Madelung & Mayer, Avicenna’s Allegory. It is possible that the poem is spurious, falsely ascribed to Ibn Sīnā, as an early scholar, al-Sharīshī (d. 619/1222) believed, on the grounds that Ibn Sīnā did not believe in the existence of the individual soul before birth (quoted in Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, Rawḍat al-muḥibbīn, ‮‭215‬‬‎).

461

The word ʿārif ‘one who knows’ often refers to mystics; Ibn Sīnā, though not really a mystic himself, was certainly closer to mysticism than many other philosophers.

462

The letters in the original of lines 6–7 are H (hubūṭ), M (markaz), and Th (thaqīl), respectively. One wonders if there is more to it: like many of his contemporaries, Ibn Sīnā practised esoteric letter symbolism. Is it relevant that H and M are associated with fire and Th (of thaqīl, ‘heavy’) with earth? The commentators are silent on this point. Browne sees a ‘downward curve, or arc of descent’ in the letter H and a ‘hollow point’ in the M and he detects a pun in the name of the letter Th (thāʾ ‘defect’), but I cannot follow him here. Arberry’s very free translation simply omits the difficult phrases. Dhāt al-Ajraʿ sounds like a typical desert toponym (‘The Sandy Tract’) but is not mentioned as a real place by the lexicographers; the commentary used by Carra de Vaux believes that it refers to the physical world (hence his negative rendering ‘sur une terre desséchée’). Syntactically, however, it is perhaps better connected with ‘her Station’, in which case it should have a positive connotation (a very similar place-name, al-Jarʿāʾ, has such a connotation in a mystical poem by Ibn al-Fāriḍ).

463

The version given by Carra de Vaux (followed in van Gelder, Anthology) has hajaʿat (‘she slumbered’), which nicely anticipates the rhyme-word. However, all other texts, including A and all IAU editions, have sajaʿat, which is perhaps to be preferred; R has hajaʿat as a correction (or variant?) in the right margin.

464

This hemistich and the first of the following line are missing from R.

465

The syntax and consequently the interpretation and translation of this and the two preceding lines are by no means clear. Alavi (‘Literary and Poetical Activities’, 71) asserts that the particle in in line 16 (in kāna …) is not the conditional particle but a ‘lightened’ (mukhaffafah) form of inna, meaning ‘really’ (as e.g. in Q al-Ṣāffāt 37:167). It is difficult to accept this; according to Wright, Grammar, ii:81, it should be followed by la-, which is missing here.

466

Metre: wāfir. Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:65, Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 13–14. Lines 1–2 with translation in Khan, ‘Some Aspects’, 38.

467

Here, “night” refers not only metaphorically to the ignorance of youth but also to black hair, as clarified in the next line.

468

The same rhyme word, taṣābī, has been used in the preceding line, which would normally be considered a blemish, unless they have different meanings. This is probably the case here, for the word can refer to merely behaving like a child (ṣabī) or to having youthful passions (ṣabwah).

469

The ‘rebellious devil’ is from Q al-Nisāʾ 4:117 and al-Ḥajj 22:3; also Qur’anic is the motif of devils being pelted with meteors or shooting stars (Q al-Ḥijr 15:18, al-Ṣāffāt 37:10, al-Mulk 67:5). Shihāb, ‘shooting star’, also means ‘blaze’ and is cognate with the word ashhab ‘grey’ in the next line.

470

The pronoun -hum (‘of theirs’) presumably refers to the inhabitants of the abode.

471

Rabāb (more usually al-Rabāb) is a woman’s name, often used in Bedouin love poetry. Alternatively, one could read maghnā ribābī, ‘dwelling-place of allies’.

472

Khan, ‘Some Aspects’, 39 translates, oddly, ‘And so by oversight you bring order in a world bound to be disorganized, and build it to be laid in waste.’

473

It seems that he is addressing his soul. In the preceding there are other shifts, as when he first addresses himself (lines 1–3) and then uses the 1st person (4–6) only to revert to the 2nd (7–8) and back to the 1st.

474

Reading of ‮وسٮل‬‎ (to be scanned SLL or SLSS) unclear, here for lack of an alternative read as wa-suyyila, which is strange. Masālik has wa-sublin (‘many paths’), which does not make syntactical sense.

475

Or, if one assumes a pun, siwā l-ṣuʾābī, ‘other than nits’, but this seems unlikely.

476

Paronomasia: yulaṭṭikhuhū khilāṭun. The root KhLṬ (‘to mix’) is also used in lines 13 (khilāṭu qawmin, ‘motly crowd’) and 14 (ukhāliṭuhum, ‘I mix with them’).

477

Metre: basīṭ. Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 14–16; al-Baghdādī, Khizānah, xi:160 (line 15), 163–165 (lines 1–3, 5–8, 11–13, 18, 17, 14–16, 20, 23, 26–34); line 15 also in Raḍī al-Dīn al-Astarābādī, Sharḥ al-Kāfiyah li-Ibn al-Ḥājib, ed. Yaḥyā Bashīr Miṣrī, n. pl.: Jāmiʿat al-Imām Muḥammad ibn Suʿūd al-Islāmiyyah, 1996, ii:1345. A translation of a few lines in Khan, ‘Some Aspects’, 39, 41. This and the following two poems, with their archaizing diction and style, could well be the poems he composed to fool the grammarian Abū Manṣūr al-Jabbān in the story related above (Ch. 11.13.3.13) [NB in Müller and Riḍā this grammarian is called Abū Manṣūr al-Jubbāʾī; but A has the correct form. His full name is Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿUmar al-Jabbān al-Rāzī; see Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xviii:260–262, Ibn al-Qifṭī, Inbāh, iii:194, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iv:180.]

478

The poem opens with the diction of the ancient Bedouin nasīb, the elegiac introductory love poetry that opens countless Arabic poems. The words rabʿ (‘vernal encampment’), nuʾy (‘trench’, line 2), uthfiyy (‘hearthstones’, line 3), and ṭulūl (‘remains, ruins’, line 7) are four of the ‘seven words of the nasīb’ in J. Stetkevych’s study ‘Toward an Arabic Elegiac Lexicon’. He could have added athar (‘vestige’, line 1) and rasm (‘trace’, line 2).

479

The words aḥdāth and qidam allude to the antithesis ḥadīth (‘new’) and qadīm (‘old’).

480

The word ʿayn has innumerable different meanings; Nizār Riḍā’s gloss (ahl al-dār) appears correct.

481

All editions and A have hadim, but Khizānah has harim (‘decrepit’), which may be better since the form hadim does not seem to be found in the dictionaries.

482

It is not clear why saḥāb is treated as feminine here (tajud’hā, jūduhā, all editions and MS A); Khizānah has the expected masculine forms (lā yajūdu, jūduhū).

483

The common Arabic expression is bi-lisān al-ḥāl (‘with the tongue of the situation’), used for ‘telling’ circumstances.

484

Reading yūʿadu, as in MS A; but one could also read yūʿidu (‘threatens’), cf. Khan, ‘Some Aspects’, 39: ‘The old age is threatening’.

485

The word faḍl is used twice, with its two meanings of ‘excellence’ and ‘superfluity’.

486

Instead of al-irzāʾ (A) Khizānah has al-adhrāʾ, editorially glossed as ‘shelters’, which would make sense.

487

This line was discussed by grammarians (see above) because the Arabic has ‘if people have been pious and if they have been debauched’, which, though logically correct, is syntactically unusual.

488

The context suggests the reading jadda jadduhumū and fa-l-jaddu (with Khizānah), mentioned by Lane as less common than the expression jadda jidduhum, ‘their labour became/was great’. MS A has jadda jidduhumū and fa-l-jiddu.

489

Translation uncertain. A play on words has been assumed: ajam ‘den, thicket’ and ujum ‘fortress, stronghold’ and raʾayta is taken as a question, although A vowels the words as ajam twice and raʾaytu, ‘I have seen’. The reading of AB (min khaysihī, ‘from his den’) must be rejected in favour of min jinsihī (‘from his own species’, as in Khizānah, Müller, Nizār Riḍā, and al-Najjār), required by the context.

490

ʿUnjuhah is ‘a large hedgehog’ (Lisān al-ʿArab); perhaps a porcupine is meant.

491

Sense unclear. Mithlu shaghbari ḥushshin could mean ‘something like a jackal of the fruit garden’ (ḥushsh is also a common euphemism for ‘privy’). Nizār Riḍā’s note explains ḥ.shsh as a stillborn young, still in the womb and bleeding, but the dictionaries only give the verb ḥashsha/ḥushsha in this sense and not the noun that is metrically required here. I have read ʿ.rduhū as ʿarḍuhū, ‘his moveable goods’. It is not clear what the animals stand for; the ‘explanation’ in the next line does not help much.

492

Again a problematical verse. The words jūdu(n) m.sāʿi l-m.lki are incomprehensible; A and R have mushāʿ. Reading jawru mushāʿi l-mulki gives a somewhat better sense; for the phrase jawr mushāʿ see the epigram by ʿAbdān al-Iṣbahānī al-Khūzī in al-Thaʿālibī, Yatīmah, iii:297.

493

Khizānah vowels wa-l-dammu, with an editorial note explaining that the doubling of the m is occasionally found; the normal fa-l-damu, is metrically unusual but possible here.

494

Instead of al-ḥaqq (‘Truth’) Khizānah and Najjār have al-jaww (‘the sky, or air’); instead of al-ifk (‘Falsehood’) Khizānah has al-ufq (‘the horizon’). It is possible that these readings are better.

495

Instead of qadīman, Khizānah has qawīman, ‘(speaking) correctly’.

496

The line contains six words derived from the root ʿLM, ‘to know’.

497

Cf. Strohmaier, Avicenna, 88: ‘Die Lanze [qanātu] wahrer Wissenschaft lag müßig da, bis daß das Banner meines Kommentars sie hell aufblitzen ließ’ (‘The lance of true science lay idle, until the banner of my commentary let it flash brightly’, tr. GJvG). But the text of all editions and of MS A appears to be corrupt and the reading of Khizānah is to be preferred, for the following ʿāṭilah (‘unadorned’, a common epithet of beautiful women) and jalāhā (‘unveiled her’) make it clear that qanātu (‘the channel’ or ‘the lance’), found in all other sources, is a misreading of fatātu (‘young woman, maiden’), and al-fahmu wa-l-qalamu also reads better than al-bandu wa-l-ʿalamu (‘the banner and the flag’). The bellicose context (lines 26–31, 35) makes the misreading understandable and it almost seems as if Ibn Sīnā was making an intricate play on words.

498

One wonders if this line belongs rather to the preceding martial passage.

499

Taking hiyam to be a poetic licence for hīm. The interpretation is somewhat unclear, as is the function of bī lahā.

500

Translation uncertain.

501

It is not clear where (or if) the apodosis of the conditionals is to be found.

502

Meaning wholly unclear. Instead of tabāghala (‘behave like mules’?) perhaps one should read tanāʿala (‘have put on horse-shoes’?), in view of ẓilfan (‘hoof’), whatever it means here.

503

Taḥjīl is the whiteness of a horse’s fetlocks, often used metaphorically for something distinguished.

504

Metre: mutaqārib. Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 12–13.

505

Ghīlah can mean ‘assassination’ as well as ‘deceit’. One would have expected warāʾa ‘behind’ instead of dūna, literally ‘this side of it’. The connection with the following comparison is not wholly clear.

506

Translation and interpretation uncertain.

507

Or ‘blame’ (reading, with Müller, Riḍā, Najjār, ʿadhl instead of ʿadl); this may be the better reading.

508

Interpretation unclear.

509

A thorny plant.

510

Metre: wāfir. Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 16–17. Lines 1–4 with translation in Khan, ‘Some Aspects’, 38.

511

i.e., absent loved ones or friends. Instead of buʿdahum, Khan, ‘Some Aspects’ reads baʿdahum (‘after them’), but the verb qāsā normally requires a direct object.

512

‘Flowing hands’ probably refers to being generous.

513

Suʿdā is one of the traditional names of the beloved in Arabic poetry.

514

The words ‘furrow’ and ‘due’ (i.e., what is legally due) convey the two meanings of farḍ, intended simultaneously; the latter sense is further suggested by kafīl, ‘surety’.

515

Reading ghadrī (MSS AR), which gives a better sense than ʿudhrī (‘my excuse’, MS B).

516

i.e., the course of time has replaced my hair, once night-black, with grey hair that will not disappear.

517

The verb ankara has a range of meanings: ‘to ignore, reject, find odd’, all of which may be present here.

518

Reading and identification unknown. Al-Khufaysh could be a diminutive of al-Akhfash, which is a nickname (‘the night-blind’) of several philologists all living well before Ibn Sīnā. One could also read Khafīsh and Wajīm; MS A has al-Kh.fys.

519

The pronoun refers perhaps to ‘my purpose’.

520

Translation of fa-jul conjectural (jāla is not normally a transitive verb).

521

The line is obscure.

522

The meaning of lā tafraq (tafruq?) qabīlā is not clear to me.

523

Metre: basīṭ. Attributed by al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah, 264, to Abū Bakr ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥasan al-Quhistānī (fl. 435/1043, see al-Bākharzī, Dumyah, ii:211–223, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xx:539–544), also in Ibn Saʿīd, Murqiṣāt, 61, attr. to ʿAlī ibn Ḥasan al-Balkhī.

524

The original version may be the one in Tatimmah and Murqiṣāt: aqamta lī qīmatan (‘you have valued me’).

525

All editions and AR have Kāfī l-kufāti (approximately, ‘the protector of protectors’), which was the honorific name of the famous Būyid vizier al-Ṣāḥib ibn ʿAbbād (d. 385/995). This is obviously an error and the version found in Tatimmah and Murqiṣāt, Shamsu l-kufāti, has been adopted, which also explains the feminine form talḥaẓunī (shams being feminine in Arabic) and fits the second explanatory line. Shams al-Kufāh was the honorific name of Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥasan al-Maymandī (d. 242/1032), vizier to the first two Ghaznavid sultans. See EI2 art. ‘Maymandī, Abu ‘l-Ḳāsim Aḥmad b. Ḥasan’ (M. Nāẓīm & C.E. Bosworth).

526

Instead of mujmili l-naẓarī (all editions and MS A) or tujmilu l-naẓarī (R, ungrammatical), Tatimmah and Murqiṣāt have muḥsini l-naẓarī (‘someone who has a good look’).

527

All editions and MSS AR have fī l-qamarī, ‘on the moon’, which makes no sense; the version of Tatimmah and Murqiṣāt has been adopted. On the sun’s assumed influence on the formation of stones, see e.g. al-Qazwīnī, ʿAjāʾib (ed. Wüstenfeld), 208.

528

Metre: basīṭ. Abū Ṭālib al-ʿAlawī has not been identified (cf. al-ʿAlawī mentioned above Ch. 11.13.3.8). As the third line implies, ‘al-ʿAlawī’ means that he was a descendant in the male line of the Prophet Muḥammad.

529

The reading of kh.t.m.t is unclear; a verbal form (khatamtu) would give strange syntax. Reading it as khatmatu (and assuming the t is an error for tāʾ marbūṭah), ‘the completion of’, is also odd because this word is normally restricted to the completion of reciting the Qur’an.

530

Metre: kāmil. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:409; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:65; Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 11.

531

Or ‘their essences’.

532

It is not clear to what the masculine suffix in simātuhū and the feminine suffix in ka-simātihā refer. The word nafs (‘soul’) is feminine in Arabic (as would be the plural); the words nabāt (‘vegetation’) and ḥiss (‘sense perception’) are both masculine. The ‘vegetable soul’ is usually linked with the ‘animal soul’ and the ‘rational soul’; Ibn Sīnā also speaks of ‘human soul’; sense perception is not a separate soul but a faculty of the soul. Perhaps nafsu ḥissin should therefore be emended to nafsu ḥayyin, as a variant of nafs al-ḥayawān (‘the animal soul’). In that case the sense of the line may be that human characteristics are like that of plants and beasts, if bereft of the rational soul.

533

The poem does not make clear what this loss – perhaps the rational soul – could be.

534

Metre: khafīf. Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 20; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, ii:161; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:409 (lines 1–2); Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:65–66 (lines 1–2). See transl. Khan, ‘Some Aspects’, 42.

535

Meaning unclear. Instead of wa-dhari (‘and leave!’), Wafayāt has fa-tarā, ‘then you will see’ or ‘then it (viz. the soul) will see’; Wāfī and a few later sources have wa-tarā. These readings give a much better sense.

536

This echoes a famous Qur’anic verse (Q al-Nūr 24:35): «God is the light of the heavens and the earth. His light is like a niche in which there is a lamp – the lamp in a glass, and the glass like a brilliant star – lit from a blessed tree, and olive-tree, nether from the East nor from the West, whose oil almost glows» (tr. Alan Jones).

537

Metre: ramal. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:410, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:66; anonymously in al-Ibshīhī, Mustaṭraf, ii:214, and attributed to a certain Faḍl al-Dawlah in al-Nawājī, Ḥalbat al-kumayt, 110. See transl. A.M. Khan, ‘Some Aspects’, 40.

538

Metre: kāmil. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:409–410, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:66. See transl. A.M. Khan, ‘Some Aspects’, 40–41.

539

The version of Wāfī has hāti sqinī kaʾsa l-ṭilā (‘Come on, pour me a cup of “grape juice” ’), with paronomasia with the following l-ṭulā. The word ṭilā was used as a euphemism for wine.

540

Translation of al-malā bayna l-malā uncertain.

541

Here meaning the Jews. On Amram or, in the Islamic tradition, ʿImrān, father of Moses/ Mūsā, see Ex. 6:20. The Qur’anic ʿImrān is the father of Maryam/Mary, see EI2 ‘ʿImrān’ (J.W. Fück).

542

See Q al-Aʿrāf 7:172, where the question is asked by God, calling upon all ‘children of Adam’ to testify.

543

Metre: ramal. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:409, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:66.

544

‘Houses’ translated abrāj, sing. burj, the word used for the constellations of the zodiacal signs. The word yūḥ (with the variant yūḥā) is a rare name of the sun (see e.g. al-Zabīdī, Tāj al-ʿarūs, YWḤ).

545

The following makes clear that ‘wine’ is meant.

546

Ibn Sīnā could have found the Christian image using wine and water in al-Bāqillānī’s Tamhīd, see EI2 art. ‘Lāhūt and Nāsūt’ (R. Arnaldez).

547

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:409, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:66. See transl. Khan, ‘Some Aspects’, 41.

548

The ‘First Cause’ of the philosophers is outside the categories of time and space.

549

Metre: kāmil. Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:66 (lines 1–3). MS Gc adds: wa-qīla innahā li-l-Ṭughrāʾī (‘It is said that they are by al-Ṭughrāʾī’); MS A adds in the right margin: hādhihi li-l-Ṭughrāʾī (‘these are by al-Ṭughrāʾī’). The lines are in al-Ṭughrāʾī, Dīwān, 62.

550

The manuscript seems to have ʿuyyābī; a possible reading ghuyyābī (‘those who slanderer me’) is adopted by Müller, Nizār Riḍā, and al-Najjār. Al-Ṭughrāʾī, Dīwān, has ʿuyyābin (or ʿayyābin).

551

Metre: wāfir. Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 18.

552

Metre: wāfir. Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 18.

553

An allusion to the pre-Islamic game of maysir, based on chance rather than skill or knowledge.

554

Metre: kāmil. Dīwān Ibn Sīnā, 18 (in reversed order); Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:66 (line 1).

555

The word ṣarf is ambiguous; in the plural (ṣurūf) it usually refers to the misfortunes brought by Time, but as a verbal noun it could also mean ‘spending (time)’.

556

Metre: ṭawīl.

557

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:410, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:66–67. It is not certain that the lines are in fact by Ibn Sīnā himself (al-Ṣafadī: yunsabu ilayh). The planet Mercury is associated with science and the intellect in general.

558

The repetitious passage may be garbled.

559

The words in the parenthesis are omitted in MS A.

560

Arabic sources frequently speak of al-Tatar or al-Tatār where the Mongols are meant; the Tatars were a tribal grouping of the Mongols (whose armies consisted for a large part of non-Mongolic Turkic troops).

561

The poem (line 50) has in fact ‘will be obliterated’.

562

See e.g. EI2 art. ‘D̲j̲afr’ (T. Fahd). On jafr and similar predictions, including poems, see e.g. Ibn Khaldūn, Muqaddimah, 929–950, and tr. Rosenthal, ii:200–231; Ibn Khaldūn says that ‘forgeries of poems of this type were numerous and widely practiced’ (tr. Rosenthal, ii:227).

563

Metre: kāmil. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:410–412 (lines 1–8, 13–15, 19–21, 24–28, 35, 37–38, 40–41, 43, 46–47, 49–52). Al-Ṣafadī speaks derogatively of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah’s amazement at the accuracy of the ‘predictions’ and says that it is unthinkable that the poet of the poem on the soul (the ʿAyniyyah) could have produced this very inferior stuff (hādhihi l-qaṣīdah al-sāqiṭah al-rakīkah al-samjat al-tarkīb). It must have been composed, he thinks, by someone of the lower classes after the destruction of Baghdad. He adds that Ibn Sīnā, with his knowledge of astrology, might have made some general predictions but not such details as are given in the poem. Al-Ṣafadī might also have observed that it is odd that the poet warns his ‘dear son’ in the introduction against events that would not take place for centuries.

564

All editions seem to have ‘and stand up’ (wa-qum), but possibly wa-aqim (‘and stay’) has lost its first syllable, becoming wa-qim (one notes that MS A has vowelled it thus).

565

Khorasan (Khurāsān), a large and important region, comprising areas now in Iran, Afghanistan, and Turmenistan. It was overrun by the Mongols in 617–618/1220–1221.

566

In Persian pronounced Khārazm, in Arabic often, with a spelling pronunciation, Khuwārizm (although Yāqūt says that the ā is in fact to be pronounced short); a region along the lower Oxus river, south of the Aral Sea; it fell to the Mongols in 618/1221.

567

Balkh, ancient Bactria, once a town in Khorasan, now a ruin in northern Afghanistan, having been destroyed by the Mongols in 617/1220.

568

More usually called Daylam, the mountainous region south-west of the Caspian Sea; conquered by the Mongols in 654/1256.

569

Edessa (al-Ruhā in Arabic), taken by the Mongols in 658/1260.

570

Usually called Nīsābūr or Naysābūr in Arabic but here appearing as Nashāwar; important town in Khorasan, sacked by the Mongols in 618/1221.

571

The ruins of al-Rayy, ancient Raghā, are south of Tehran; it was taken by the Mongols in 617/1220.

572

‘The family of Aḥmad’ probably refers to descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad, who is sometimes called Aḥmad. The line may refer to the disturbances before the Mongol conquest, during which Sunnites massacred Shi’ites (see Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, iii:117).

573

A passive form makes more sense syntactically, but A and al-Ṣafadī both have the active yaksiru, for which there is support in history. ‘The Chorasmian’ is apparently the last ruler of the dynasty of the Khwārazm-Shāhs, Jalāl al-Dīn; he had defeated the Mongols in the Spring of 618/1221 at Parwān but was himself defeated in Shawwāl/November of that year at the Indus river; he survived (pace the poet in the following line) by plunging into the river. The third and fourth months of the Islamic calendar are both called Rabīʿ.

574

It is not clear what li-l-dhuʾābati (all sources) could mean. It has been emended to bi-l-dhuʾābati and taken to refer to a comet’s tail.

575

Āmid, ancient Amida, a town in the region of Diyār Bakr in northern Mesopotamia, now in eastern Turkey and itself called Diyarbakır. Jalāl al-Dīn Khwārazm-Shāh, having fled from Khilāṭ (see line 27) to Āmid, was attacked by the Mongols in 628/1231 and fled again, but he was murdered in a Kurdish village.

576

Badw (‘Bedouins’) usually refers to Arabs but here apparently the Mongol and Turkmen troops are meant. There is some pronominal uncertainty (‘his’ seems to refer to the Mongol conqueror, but in the next line it must be Jalāl al-Dīn).

577

Such a repetition in the rhyme (see line 21) is condemned by the critics.

578

Diyār Rabīʿah is a region in Mesopotamia, Mosul being part of it. Al-Jāzir is identified by Nizār Riḍā as a wadi between al-Kufah and Fayd, which cannot be correct as it is remote from Diyār Bakr. Yāqūt mentions Jāzir (without article) as being a village not far from Baghdad, which is ruled out for the same reason. Perhaps it should be read as Khāzir or Khāzar (without article), said to be a river between Mosul and Irbil (Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān, ii:337).

579

Diyār Bābil: the ruins of Babylon are some 54 miles south of Baghdad; some authors, including apparently the poet, extend the ‘lands of Babel’ to a large area; see EI2 art. ‘Bābil’ (G. Awad). Shahrazūr was a district in western Kurdistan, in northern Iraq, now known as Ḥalabja. With ‘al-Sāmir’ (thus A, Gc, Müller, Riḍā, Najjār) Samarra must be meant, although the usual forms are Sāmarrāʾ or Surra Man Raʾā; the present form is apparently a back formation from the nisbah ‘Sāmirī’, derived from the town (R and Wāfī have in fact al-Sāmirī, with yāʾ). The extensive remains of Samarra lie on the Tigris, some 75 miles north of Baghdad.

580

Khilāṭ, also called Akhlāṭ: a town near Lake Van, now in eastern Turkey, captured by the Mongols in 642/1244.

581

MS A, Müller, Riḍā: tadāwasa, an otherwise not attested form of the verb dāsa, ‘to trample’; Wāfī has the more normal tudāsu ʿalā khtilāfi; MSS R and Gc have the unmetrical tudāsu bi-khtilāfi.

582

Irbil (also spelled Arbil or Erbil), some 50 miles east of Mosul, was partly pillaged in 633/1235; the citadel was taken only in 656/1258. See EI2 art. ‘Irbil’ (D. Sourdel).

583

The ruins of Nineveh (here Nīnawah, whereas the standard from in Arabic is Nīnawā) lie on the Tigris near Mosul.

584

Reading, with MS A, wa-yaṭawna (or possibly wa-yaṭūna), a sub-standard form of wa-yaṭaʾūna. The reading of Müller, Riḍā, Najjār, wa-buṭūnu (‘the inner parts of’?) does not give a sense and is syntacticly defective.

585

It is very unusual to find a word of this prosodical form (dawābb, with overlong syllable) in poetry.

586

Badr al-Dīn Luʾluʾ, ruler of Mosul, submitted to the Mongol leader Hülegü in 642/1244–1245 and became his ally.

587

Balad (as A explains in a marginal note) is a town (also called Balaṭ) not far from Mosul.

588

A large wadi in the desert in northern Mesopotamia between the Euphrates and the Tigris.

589

Unclear; the feminine pronoun of zahratihā cannot refer to al-Tharthār, and allatī taʾtīhimū is also obscure.

590

Several persons, some of them famous, were called Ṣaʿṣaʿah in pre-Islamic and early Islamic times. It is not clear to whom the line refers.

591

Aleppo was taken by the Mongols in Ṣafar 658/January 1260. It is not clear why a sea would turn dark with dust, and why an army would walk into it in the first place. Wāfī has ka-l-ʿajāj, ‘like dust’.

592

On Jilliq, the name used here, see above, Ch. 10.69.3.9.

593

See the introduction to the poem. Al-Malik al-Muẓaffar Quṭuz, Mamluk sultan (655–657/1259–1260), defeated the Mongols at ʿAyn Jālūt with an army from Egypt in Ramadan 658/September 1260.

594

The legendary pre-Islamic Arabian people or tribe of Thamūd, often mentioned in the Qur’an, were destroyed for disobeying God and His prophet Ṣāliḥ.

595

Identity unclear.

596

Identity unclear. Several rulers have honorific names such as al-Nāṣir or Nāṣir al-Dīn. Possibly he is the ruler of Aleppo and Damascus, al-Malik al-Nāṣir Yūsuf (648–658/1250–1260), but he was captured by the Mongols and, after the battle of ʿAyn Jālūt, killed by them. It is also possible that God is meant, among whose ‘beautiful names’ al-Nāṣir, ‘the Victorious’ is (rarely) listed.

597

God.

598

The expression arḍ Kanʿān is not normally used in Islamic Arabic except in the context of the history of the patriarchs and the Israelites.

599

Unclear. Reading muḥalliqatin, ‘soaring in the air’, would be appropriate for birds and perhaps severed heads but not corpses; muḥallaqatin, ‘shaved’, does not make much sense. One could think of emending it to mukhallafatin, ‘left behind’.

600

The last Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, who was killed by the Mongols, was al-Mustaʿṣim (640–656/1242–1258); his proper name was not Jaʿfar but ʿAbd Allāh. The Jaʿfar mentioned here was perhaps the ʿAlid proposed as caliph by al-Mustaʿṣim’s vizier Ibn al-ʿAlqamī, a Shīʿite; but the Mongols rejected him (see Ibn al-ʿImād, Shadharāt, vii:470, al-Suyūṭī, Tārīkh al-khulafāʾ, 539).

601

Form IV of the verb hadda is not attested elsewhere.

602

For additional marginal poems in Ms R, see AII.8.1.

603

Metre: ṭawīl. The first line is from a poem by Abū Ṭāhir Sulaymān al-Jannābī al-Qarmaṭī (d. 332/943–944), in al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām (Ḥawādith wa-wafayāt 301–310), 385.

604

Al-Dhahabī has wa-qāranahū kaywānu (‘and Saturn is in conjunction with it’). The attribution to Ibn Sīnā is obviously spurious.

605

See above Ch. 11.13.3.2.

606

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 160–164, 427.

607

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 420–422. For a full study published in 2018, see Nusseibeh, Avicenna’s al-Shifāʾ. See also Kalbarczyk, Predication and Ontology; Lammer, The Elements of Avicenna’s Physics; Benevich, Essentialität und Notvendigkeit. For English translations of parts thereof, see Ibn Sīnā, Al-Maqūlāt (trans. A. Bäck); The Physics of the Healing (trans. J. McGinnis); The Metaphysics of the Healing (trans. M.E. Marmura).

608

See above Ch. 11.13.2.10.

609

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 426.

610

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 498.

611

See Ch. 4.6.13.1–3.

612

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 426.

613

See above Ch. 11.13.3.17.

614

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 86–93, and 417. Compiled for Abū l-Ḥusayn al-ʿArūḍī, hence this title is also known as al-Ḥikmah al-ʿArūḍiyyah.

615

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 512–513. For a new translation of Book I of the Canon in plain English, see Abu-Asab, Amri, & Micozzi, Avicenna’s Medicine.

616

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 433.

617

See above Ch. 11.13.3.1.

618

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 471–472.

619

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 423.

620

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 471–472.

621

See above Ch. 11.13.3.3.

622

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 443–444.

623

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 118–119, 424–425.

624

See above Ch. 11.13.3.2 no. 12.

625

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 422–424. More fully, Salvation from Drowning in the Sea of Errors (al-Najāh min al-gharaq fī baḥr al-ḍalālāt), a phrase which appears in Avicenna’s introduction to the book, and which was used as the main title for Muḥammad Taqī Dānishpazhūh’s 1985 edition (see Ibn Sīnā, al-Najah). For an English translation of the section on logic, see Ibn Sīnā, Deliverance: Logic.

626

Probably around 417/1026. See: Ibn al-Athīr, al-Kāmil year 417.

627

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 425. Further to Shams C. Inati’s translations of parts 1 and 4, on logic and mysticism, translations of parts 2 and 3, on physics and metaphysics have been published. See Inati, Physics and Metaphysics. For a study and edition of a commentary on the Ishārāt, see Shihadeh, Doubts on Avicenna.

628

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 419–420.

629

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 515.

630

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 482–423.

631

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 514–515; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 208.

632

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 515–516.

633

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 442–443.

634

Cf. Above 11.13.3.13.

635

For his entry, see above Ch. 11.12.

636

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 461.

637

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 517.

638

For his entry see above Ch. 10.34.

639

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 483–484.

640

For a thorough discussion of definition literature and an English translation with commentary of Avicenna’s work on this subject, see: Kennedy-Day, Books of Definition in Islamic Philosophy.

641

That is Galen. For this work, see Ch. 5.1.37 no. 13.

642

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 517–518, where [Abū l-Faraj] Ibn al-Ṭayyib (see Ch. 10.37) instead of ‘al-Ṭabīb’.

643

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 417–419.

644

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 438.

645

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 506–511.

646

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 434–435.

647

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 436.

648

Probably Aḥmad is meant here rather than Sahl.

649

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 481–482. Or the Ten Proofs (al-Ḥujaj al-ʿashr).

650

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 479–480. Alternative translation: On Fate and Providence.

651

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 515.

652

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 436.

653

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 416.

654

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 516.

655

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 445–446.

656

See al-Rahim, The Creation of Philosophical Tradition, 55–57.

657

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 517.

658

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 467.

659

IAU omits this title. Title added from Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 418; Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina, 48. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 428.

660

See Al-Rahim, The Creation of Philosophical Tradition, 49–54.

661

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 449–451. For al-Bīrūnī, see below Ch. 11.15.

662

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 449–451.

663

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 447.

664

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 119–144, 425.

665

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 440. A critique of the Theologians’ use of analogy.

666

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 468–469. For a comprehensive study of Ibn Sīnā’s works on music, see El-Tawil, Music of Avicenna.

667

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 447.

668

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 516; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry no. 159.

669

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 466–467.

670

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 498–499.

671

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 458–459.

672

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 467.

673

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 437–438. For Aristotle, see above Ch. 6. Cf. Ibn Sīnā, Al-Maqūlāt (trans. A. Bäck); Kalbarczyk, Predication and Ontology.

674

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 472–477.

675

Cf. Gohlman, The Life of Ibn Sina, 140 n. 13.

676

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 444.

677

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 445.

678

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 484–485.

679

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 499.

680

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 440.

681

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 518.

682

Unidentified. Clearly not the traditionist of the same name who died in 349/960–961.

683

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 457.

684

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 508–509.

685

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 503–504.

686

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 460–461. For Euclid, see EI Three art. ‘Euclid’ (S. Brentjes & G. De Young); Sezgin, GAS V, 83–120.

687

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 467–468.

688

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 511.

689

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 504–511.

690

For Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, see above Ch. 8.29.22 no. 1.

691

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 516–517.

692

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 518.

693

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 520.

694

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 440. On logic (?).

695

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 432.

696

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 430–431.

697

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 503.

698

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 503.

699

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 430–431.

700

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 442–443.

701

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 453.

702

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 457.

703

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 457–458.

704

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 444.

705

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 496.

706

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 457.

707

Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī l-Khayr (357–440/967–1049), Persian saint and mystic. See EI2 art. ‘Abū Saʿīd Faḍl Allāh b. Abī ’l-K̲h̲ayr’ (H. Ritter); EI Three, art. ‘Abū Saʿīd b. Abī l-Khayr’ (O. Safi); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Abū Saʿīd b. Abī l-Khayr’ (N.M. Heravi).

708

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 527. Cf. above Ch. 11.13.6

709

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 438.

710

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 504.

711

Probably Abū l-Faraj ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Yamāmī, for whom see above Ch. 10.35.

712

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 517.

713

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 461.

714

That is philosopher Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-ʿĀmirī (d. 381/992). See EI2 art. ‘al-ʿĀmirī’ (E.K. Rowson); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Abū l-Ḥasan al-ʿĀmirī’ (Tabatabai et al.).

715

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 434–435.

716

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 447.

717

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 441.

718

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 526.

719

For his entry, see above Ch. 10.37.

720

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 517–518.

721

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 480–481.

722

That is, a student of the Shaykh’s known as al-Maʿṣūmī. See al-Rahim, The Creation of Philosophical Tradition, 58–59.

723

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 523.

724

Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 501.

725

Cf. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition, 458–459, where ‘fī amr mastūr’.

726

Translated/annotated by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book. There is disagreement amongst scholars as to when precisely al-Īlāqī lived. His name suggests that he or his family were from Īlāq, a town near Nishapur. Most often it has been said that he flourished ca. 450/1068, since IAU expressly states that he was pupil of Ibn Sīnā. Others, however, have argued that he was killed in 536/1141 in the battle on the Qaṭwān steppe in which the Seljuq Sanjar ibn Malikshāh (r. 511–552/1118–1157) suffered a severe defeat at the hands of Buddhist invaders from northern China, usually known as the Qarā Khiṭāy (though to the Chinese it was ‘Western Liao’). For those arguing for the later date, see GAL i:485 (638) and GAL S i:887; Richter-Bernburg, ‘Iran’s Contribution to Medicine’, 156–157; and Gutas, ‘Notes & Texts for Cairo Manuscripts’, 15 n. 13. For those giving the earlier date, see Iskandar, Wellcome, 51–52; Hamarneh, ‘National Library of Medicine’, 91; Iskandar, Descriptive List, 42; and Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entries 56, 127B, 164. For the Qarā Khiṭāy, see EI2 art. ‘Ḳarā K̲h̲iṭāy’ (C.E. Bosworth).

727

Al-Īlāqī’s greatly abbreviated version of the first book of the Canon was very popular, and many copies have survived. No edition or translation has been published.

728

Translated/annotated by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book. For Abū Rayḥān al-Bīrūnī, see Sezgin, GAS VI, 261–276 and GAS VII, 188–192 and 288–292; EI2, art. ‘al-Bīrūnī’ (E. Wiedemann); EI Three art. ‘al-Bīrūnī’ (M. Yano); Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Bīrūnī, Abū Rayḥān’ (G.C. Anawati) and ‘Bīrūnī, Abū Rayḥān ii. Bibliography’ (D. Pingree); DSB art. ‘al-Bīrūnī’ (E.S. Kennedy); Saliba, ‘Al-Bīrūnī and the sciences of his time’; Stowasser, The Day Begins at Sunset, 57–138.

729

Sind or Sindh is a historical region of southern Pakistan along the lower Indus River. Inhabited since prehistoric times, it was held by Muslim dynasties from the 11th century until 1843, when it was annexed to British India. Sindh became part of Pakistan in 1947. Al-Bīrūnī was, however, born far from Sind, namely in Kath (nowadays: Beruniy) in Khwārazm, near the Aral Sea in present-day Uzbekistan. Historically, modern-day Beruniy was known as Kath and served as the capital of Khwārazm during the Afrighid dynasty. In 1957, it was renamed ‘Beruniy’ in honour of the medieval scholar and polymath al-Bīrūnī. Beruniy received city status in 1962.

730

For the preserved correspondence between al-Bīrūnī and Ibn Sīnā, see al-Bīrūnī, al-Asʾilah wa-l-ajwibah; Saliba, ‘Al-Bīrūnī and the sciences of his time’, 409–410. There are eighteen questions set by al-Bīrūni on Aristotelian cosmology and natural philosophy, with responses to all of them by Ibn Sīna, with an additional fifteen questions sent by al-Birūnī when he was dissatisfied with Ibn Sīnā’s replies; the second group of questions was answered by a student of Ibn Sīnā’s, al-Maʿṣūmī.

731

For further guides to his writings, see al-Bīrūnī, Risālah; Boilot, ‘l’ Œuvre d’ al-Beruni’; Khan, Bibliography of al-Bīrūnī; and the works cited in n. 1 above.

732

See Anawati, Kitāb al-jamāhir; al-Bīrūnī, Kitāb al-jamāhir (Hyderabad), (Cairo ed), and (trns. Said).

733

For an edition, see al-Bīrūnī, al-Āthār al-bāqiyah; for a translation, al-Bīrūnī, The Chronology of Ancient Nations. See also Sezgin, GAS VI, 270–271 and GAS VII, 292 under entry 8.

734

See Ullmann, Medizin, 272–273; for an edition and translation, see al-Bīrūnī, al-ṣaydalah. See also Meyerhof, ‘Vorwort zur Drogenkunde des Bērūnī’.

735

See Sezgin, GAS VI, 266–267. For an edition and French translation, see al-Bīrūnī, Maqālīd ʿilm al-hayʾah.

736

See Sezgin, GAS VI, 272.

737

See Sezgin, GAS VI, 269.

738

See Sezgin, GAS VI, 265–266; Saliba, ‘Al-Bīrūnī and the sciences of his time’, 418. For editions and a Russian translation, see al-Bīrūnī, al-Qānūn al-Masʿūdī (Hyderabad), (al-Jundī), and (trns. Bulgakov & Rozhanskaya).

739

See Sezgin, GAS VII, 189–190. For the text and translation (made from a Persian manuscript), see al-Bīrūnī, K. al-tafhīm li-awāʾil ṣināʿat al-tanjīm (Ramsey Wright); Saliba, ‘Al-Bīrūnī and the sciences of his time’, 413–416.

740

See Sezgin, GAS VI, 275.

741

See Sezgin, GAS VI, 274.

742

See Sezgin, GAS VI, 275.

743

See Hogendijk, ‘Bankipore’, 145. See also al-Bīrūnī, Ifrād al-maqāl fī amr al-ẓilāl (Kennedy); Saliba, ‘Al-Bīrūnī and the sciences of his time’, 412–413.

744

Translated/annotated by NPJ and GJvG. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book. See Sezgin, GAS, III: 328–329; Ullmann, Medizin, 146; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 438.

745

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, vii:55.

746

Metre: wāfir. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, vii:55 (in entry on his son Aḥmad); on ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. ca. 395/1005) see ibid. xvii:282–283 and Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:263.

747

See Sezgin, GAS III, 328–329 for eighteen of the following treatises that are preserved today, none of which have been published or translated.

748

Ibn Khaldūn mentions a daughter of Wathāy (no article!) who was the mother of Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegin.

749

Khanadīqūn is possibly a corruption of ḥandaqūq, ‘melilot or yellow sweet clover’. On the other hand, Dāwūd al-Anṭākī states that khandīqūn is the Persian form of khandīdīqūn and is a ‘healing potion’ the best form of which is made from wine and other ingredients (Dāwūd al-Anṭākī, Tadhkirah, jūz 1, bāb 3, entry khandīdīqūn). On fuqqāʿ, see amongst others Lewicka, Food of Medieval Cairenes, 473–478, passim.

750

The nisbah Burjī is listed in al-Samʿānī’s Ansāb, as derived from Burj near Iṣfahan, which would fit.

751

Translated/annotated by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book. On Ibn Abī Ṣādiq (d. after 460/1068), see, Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Ebn Abī Ṣādeq’ (L. Richter-Bernburg); Ullmann, Medizin, 160.

752

The direct association with Ibn Sīnā has been questioned by recent historians, and it has been proposed that the association with Ibn Sīnā was due to his dependence upon him rather than personal discipleship; see Richter-Bernburg, ‘Iran’s Contribution to Medicine’, 156–157.

753

This lengthy and popular commentary on Ḥunayn’s Questions on Medicine for Beginners is preserved in many copies; see Sezgin, GAS III, 150–151; Ullmann, Medizin, 160; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry 38. No edition or translation has been published.

754

This summary of his own commentary is preserved today in a single copy now at Yale University (Nemoy, Yale, 159).

755

See Pormann & Joosse, ‘Aphorisms’, 221–225; Karimullah, ‘Prolegomena’ (especially section II); Sezgin, GAS III, 30; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1 entry no. 3; Karimullah, ‘Transformation of Galen’s Textual Legacy’; see also Carpentieri & Mimura, ‘Phrenitis’, 185–190.

756

This commentary appears to be lost.

757

Preserved today in only one known manuscript (Paris, BnF, MS 2854, copied in 885/1480).

758

Translated/annotated by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book.

759

The nisbah in the manuscripts is written as al-Sajarī or, undotted, as al-Saḥarī, with one manuscript (R) writing it as al-Sijzī. The physician in question is Abū l-Ḥasan (or Ḥusayn) Ṭāhir ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Ṭāhir al-Sinjārī (or al-Sinjarī or al-Sanjarī), who has generally been dated to the early sixth/twelfth century. See Pormann & Joosse, ‘Aphorisms’, 225–226; Sezgin, GAS, III:32; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, 13–15 (entry no. 4). Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xvi:390 has an entry on him, as Abū l-Ḥusayn al-ṭabīb Ṭāhir ibn Ibrāhīm al-Sijzī, but the nisbah al-Sijzī is an error. To add to the confusion, one notes that Brockelmann (GAL i:486, S i:888) lists him as ‘aš-Šaǧarī’. This confusion over the names Sizjī and Sinjarī appears not to be a recent one; it originates probably from medieval times. It could very well be that because of this confusion IAU placed the entry in the wrong volume. This is a chapter about bilād al-ʿajam, and Sinjar/Sinjār does not belong to it; Sijistān does. Sinjar is a town in present-day Nineveh Province, Iraq near Mount Sinjar.

Dietrich (Medicinalia Arabica, 65–69) has referred to a certain Abū Sahl Bishr ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-mutaṭabbib al-Sijzī who is mainly known as the author of a work called al-Rasāʾil al-Ṭibbiyyah (‘The Medical Epistles’). This particular author, however, is not a 6th/12th century physician, but a medical doctor who flourished during the second part of the 4th/10th century, which becomes clear from the fact that he dedicated his main work to the Ṣaffārid emir Khalaf ibn Aḥmad Abū Aḥmad Walī al-Dawlah (r. 352–393/963–1003; d. 399/1009), the local ruler of Sistan and adjacent regions, who was apparently a scholar in his own right (see Bosworth, Dynasties, 172–173). For further references to Abū Sahl al-Sijzī, see GAL i:277 and Sii:1029; Sezgin, GAS III, 325–326 and GAS V, 415.

760

Or Ibn Ḥammūyah.

761

See Pormann and Joosse, ‘Aphorisms’, 225–228; see also Carpentieri & Mimura, ‘Phrenitis’, 190–192.

762

Translated/annotated by NPJ and GJvG. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book.

763

See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Din al-Razi’ (G.C. Anawati); Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī a.k.a. Ibn Khaṭīb al-Rayy ‘The Son of the Preacher of al-Rayy’ is one of the most influential exponents of Islamic philosophy and theology in the era after al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (al-Rayy, South Khorasan ca. 544/1150–Herat 606/1209) rearranged the structure of the philosophical summa in the Islamic East and thus also the curriculum of philosophical studies. His work completes the process of integrating the discourse of Aristotelian philosophy (falsafah) into Muslim rationalist theology (kalām), a process that started shortly before al-Ghazālī. Original in his own thinking, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī was influenced by the systematic philosophy of Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā, d. 428/1037). His works were widely studied, particularly during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. His commentaries on Avicenna’s works, in which he often keeps a critical distance to falsafah, became the subject of super-commentaries that are among the most influential texts in Arabic philosophy and Islamic theology. Most influential, however, was his monumental Qur’anic commentary ‘Keys to the Unknown’ (Mafātīḥ al-ghayb) in which, through a well-structured rationalist analysis, he aims at resolving most questions that are brought up in the text of revelation. See also Griffel, art. ‘Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’; idem, ‘Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Life’.

764

Muḥammad ibn Tekish ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn (r. 596–617/1200–1220). IAU refers to him either as ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī Khwārazm Shāh or Muḥammad Khwārazm Shāh. See Bosworth, Dynasties, 179.

765

On him, see Ch. 15.19.

766

Bamyan (Bāmyān) is a town in modern-day Afghanistan situated on the ancient silk route. The town was at the crossroads between the East and West when all trade between China and the Middle East passed through it.

767

Kharmīn is a variant of, or more likely an error for, Kharmīl (final lām can sometimes be taken for final nūn). He is ʿIzz al-Dīn Ḥusayn ibn Kharmīl al-Ghūrī, commonly known after his father as Ibn Kharmil. He was an Iranian military leader of the Ghūrid dynasty, and later the semi-independent ruler of Herat and its surrounding regions. See Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Ibn Karmīl’ (C. Edmund Bosworth).

768

Sharaf al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Naṣr (or Naṣr Allāh) ibn al-Ḥasan Ibn ʿUnayn (d. 630/1233); see EI2, ‘Ibn ʿUnayn’ (Ed.); EAL, ‘Ibn ʿUnayn’ (G.J.H. van Gelder).

769

Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad Ghiyāth al-Dīn, Ghiyāth al-Dīn al-Ghūrī (r. 602–609/1206–1212), the ruler of Fīrūzkūh and Sultan of the Ghūrid empire from 602/1206 to 609/1212. Shihāb al-Dīn al-Ghūrī is Muḥammad ibn Sām I, Shihāb al-Dīn, Muʿizz al-Dīn al-Ghūrī, Sultan of the Ghūrid empire along with his brother Ghiyāth al-Dīn Muḥammad from 569/1173 to 599/1203 and as the sole ruler from 599/1203 to 602/1206, see amongst others Bosworth, Dynasties, 298. Fīrūzkūh is a fortified city in the medieval Islamic province of Ghūr in Central Afghanistan, which was the capital of the senior branch of the Ghūrid sultans.

770

Metre: kāmil. Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xix:83; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, iv:251; Ibn al-Shaʿʿār, Qalāʾid, v:141–142; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iv:252–253; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:74–75; Ibn ʿUnayn, Dīwān, 95.

771

Sulaymān/Solomon is famous not only for his wisdom but also because he had power over birds and beasts.

772

Metre: kāmil. Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, xix:88–90; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, iv:251 (lines 9–14); al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iv: 253–254 (lines 3–4, 7–14); Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:75–76 (lines 1–7, 9–21); Ibn ʿUnayn, Dīwān, 53–55.

773

Instead of khidamī Yāqūt has shawqī, ‘my yearning’.

774

Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s father was called ʿUmar.

775

A bright star in the northern sky, a common image for loftiness.

776

Perhaps meaning that the ‘rain’ is continuous rather than intermittent.

777

Ibn Sīnā.

778

Or possibly, ‘he would have shuddered like a woodpecker’ (see the dictionaries, FKL).

779

The word shakl (‘figure’) is used for forms of syllogism by logicians, but in connection with Ptolemy it may rather refer to geometrical or astronomical problems.

780

A mountain in Arabia, mentioned notably in the famous pre-Islamic Muʿallaqah by Imruʾ al-Qays.

781

All sources have kahf (‘cave’, in the sense of ‘refuge’) except Yāqūt, where kaff is glossed by the editor as either kāfin (‘sufficient’) or milʾ kaff (‘a handful’), neither of which sounds convincing.

782

Not Qur’anic but found in the Hadith as ḥadīth qudsī, see Wensinck et al., Concordance, iv: 87a.

783

Q al-Naml 27:62.

784

Q al-Baqarah 2:186.

785

The latter is apparently the Prophet; so who is the former Muḥammad, called God’s representative? The following mention of the ‘great Sultan’ makes it clear that it is Sultan Muḥammad Khwārazm Shāh.

786

Q al-Naḥl 16:128.

787

Such threefold repetition is occasionally found for emphasis.

788

The village of al-Mazdaqān is in the neighbourhood of al-Rayy, see Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldan, v:121.

789

Metre: ṭawīl. Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, iv:250; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iv:257–258; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:80.

790

Wāfī: ‘by mountain-goats’ (wiʿāl).

791

Metre: ṭawīl. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iv:257, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:80.

792

Metre: basīṭ. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, iv:257, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:80.

793

Q al-Muʾminūn 23:115.

794

Metre: kāmil. The Khwārazm Shāh who reigned 596–617/1200–1220, who put an end to the Ghūrid dynasty and who was Fakhr al-Dīn’s patron, was called ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Tekish, not ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī, which is perhaps an error, possibly though a misreading of the word ʿulā in one version of line 2.

795

The meanings of riwāq include ‘portico, pavilion, living quarters’; niṭāq is ‘belt’ but also ‘zone, domain’.

796

See note to Arabic text.

797

The presence of the conjunction wa- argues against reading wa-l-maliki, ‘and the king’, because if the same person is meant there should be no conjunction. The chosen reading is a not uncommon extension of an honorific name. MS A’s reading wa-l-malaki is of course impossible.

798

Mulbid means ‘with matted dung attached to the posterior’, which can hardly be meant here; it could also be ‘cleaving to the ground’. Alternatively, it can be connected with libdah, ‘(lion’s) mane’.

799

Atsiz ibn Muḥammad ibn Anūshtigīn (r. 521–551/1127–1172) was the great-grandfather of ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Muḥammad and ‘the real founder of the dynasty’s splendour’ (EI2 art. ‘K̲h̲wārazm-Shāhs’ [C.E. Bosworth]).

800

Sawābiq also means ‘precedents’.

801

A play on two meanings of ajwad: ‘better’ (from jayyid) and ‘more generous’ (from jūd).

802

Al-thaqalān, ‘the two weights’ (Q al-Raḥmān 55:31) is usually interpreted as humans and jinnees.

803

Claiming the Khwārazm Shāh to be descended from the pre-Islamic dynasties of the Sasanids and Achaemenids.

804

These and the following words in italics (lines 15–16) are in Persian (as is, of course, the title Shāh, ‘King’).

805

It is not clear what is meant by ʿalā l-jiyād (‘on noble steeds’). A has ʿalā l-jihād (‘for jihad’).

806

Ḍaḥḥāk, an Arabicized corruption of the Persian Dahhāk, Zahhāk, or Zuhāk, is a king from Persian mythology, oddly chosen here, for he was a cruel tyrant.

807

jarkh-i tū (i.e., charkh-i tū) is Persian. The syntax and sense of jarkh-i tū wa-t.s.ʿʿ.d are unclear.

808

The hybrid Persian-Arabic word dūbayt (‘two-liner’) is the usual Arabic term for what in Persian is called, paradoxically with an Arabic term, rubāʿiyyah, ‘quatrain’ (four hemistichs, rhyming aaba or aaaa, with a distinct metre), familiar in the west through Fitzgerald’s translation of Omar Khayyam’s Persian quatrains.

809

See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 7.

810

This is al-Ghazālī’s K. al-wajīz fī fiqh madhhab al-Imām al-Shāfiʿī (The succinct book on Shafiʿite Substantial Law).

811

This is Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Lawāmiʿ al-bayyināt fī al-asmāʾ wa-l-ṣifāt. See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 2.

812

A verse collection by Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī.

813

A collection of sayings attributed to the caliph ʿAlī.

814

See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 5.

815

See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 12.

816

See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 6.

817

See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 1.

818

It was probably dedicated to someone with the title al-Ṣāḥib.

819

See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 10.

820

This is, Abū ʿAlī ibn Sīnā’s K. al-ishārāt wa-l-tanbīhāt (The book of pointers and reminders). See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 3.

821

See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 4.

822

By Abū ʿAlī ibn Sīnā.

823

Two Arabic manuscripts have preserved treatises on geomancy attributed to Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, one of them a didactic poem (urjūzah). There is also a section on geomancy in the Persian encyclopaedia of Muslim science, Jāmiʿ al-ʿulūm, that he composed in 574/1178. For details, see Savage-Smith & Smith, ‘Islamic Geomancy’, 216–217.

824

It sounds like a medical text entitled On the expectoration of one affected with a pectoral ailment, but it is almost certainly something else; it is a surprisingly pedestrian idiom for something one has to get off one’s chest and spit out figuratively. For another example, see the long poem in Ch. 15.23, vs. 25.

825

That is, the book on the mysteries of planets and the firmament attributed to Teucros (i.e. Tankalūshā).

826

This may be about ‘definitions’ or ‘fixed penalties in Islamic law.’

827

The commentary as preserved today does not extend over the entire Book I of the Canon, but covers more than half. It is preserved in several copies, the earliest made only six years after the author’s death; see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1 entry 56; it is currently being edited by Ayman Shihadeh. Al-Sarakhsī had received Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī with honour and engaged him in medical discussions at Sarakhs, where Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī had stopped in 580/1184 on his way to Bukhara; see also ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī’s super-commentary on this work, cf. Ch. 15.40.9 no. 85.

828

The word zubdah ‘cream,’ (Lat. ‘butyrum’) in book titles is always a metaphor (see more than 60 titles in GAL). This is the Zubdat al-idrāk fī hayʾat al-aflāk, on astronomy.

829

See EI2 art. ‘Fak̲h̲r al-Dīn al-Rāzī’ (G.C. Anawati) under no. 11. Also Mourad, La Physiognomonie arabe et le Kitāb al-firāsā de Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī; Hoyland, ‘Islamic Background to Polemon’s Treatise’; and Ghersetti, ‘Physiognomy and Medicine in Islamic Culture’.

830

Translated/annotated by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book.

831

See above Ch. 15.12 for his biography.

832

Translated/annotated by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book. Cf. also Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ 209 (where he is called al-Samawʾal ibn Yahūdā) and Ullmann, Medizin, 195; GAL, i:643 [488].

833

See Bosworth, Dynasties, 199 and also EI2 art. ‘Ildeñizids or Eldigüzids’ (C.E. Bosworth) on the Ildegizids or Eldigüzids, rulers of Azerbaijan, including Nuṣrat al-Dīn ibn Jahān Pahlawān ibn Shams al-Dīn Eldigüz (d. 582/1186); but cf. al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, x:309: Shams al-Dīn Bahlawān ibn Ildekiz, ruler of Azerbaijan, d. 581/1185–1186.

834

Qiwām could be the vizier Qiwām al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Ṣadaqah ibn ʿAlī ibn Ṣadaqah (e.g. Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, vi:231). Or it could be someone called Qiwām al-Dawlah, but this name is considerably less common. It is, however, most likely that he is Qiwām al-Dīn Ṣāʿid al-Muhannā as mentioned below in Ch. 11.22. See on him also Ullmann, Medizin, 308.

835

Translated/annotated by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book.

836

Both these scholars are found in Ullmann, Medizin, 308. On al-Qalānisi’s book and its sources, see Ullmann, Medizin, 307–308.

837

Translated/annotated by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book. On this author, see GAL, i: 646–647 [491]; S I: 895–896; Elgood, Medical History of Persia, 304, 336; Ullmann, Medizin, 170, 201–202; Iskandar, ‘A Study’, 451–479.

838

Cf. Iskandar, ‘A Study’, 458; also Müller, Nahrungsmittel.

839

Cf. Iskandar, ‘A Study’, 464–467.

840

Cf. Levey & al-Khaledy, Medical Formulary of Al-Samarqandi; cf. also Iskandar, ‘A Study’, 463, who states there that Levey & al-Khaledy’s Medical Formulary of Al-Samarqandi is in fact the Uṣūl tarkīb al-adwiyah and that the latter work and the Aqrabādhīn ʿalā tartīb al-ʿilal could actually be the same as his Aqrabādhīn al-ṣaghīr or Aqrabādhīn al-kabīr.

841

Cf. Iskandar, ‘A Study’, 463.

842

Translated/annotated by NPJ. This entry occurs in all three versions of the book.

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