14.1 Politianus (Balīṭīyān)2
Politianus (Balīṭīyān) was a famous physician in Egypt and a Christian scholar of the Melkite sect.
Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq says in the book The String of Jewels (Naẓm al-jawhar):3 Politianus (Balīṭīyān) was made Patriarch of Alexandria in the fourth year of the reign of the Abbasid caliph al-Manṣūr, remaining in that office for forty-six years until his death,4 and was also a physician.
Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq also says:5 During the days of Hārūn al-Rashīd, when al-Rashīd appointed ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Mahdī governor of Egypt, ʿUbayd Allāh sent a very beautiful slave-girl from the Copts of Lower Egypt6 to al-Rashīd, who grew to love her very much. One day, she became very ill. The physicians treated her but were unable to cure her. They said to al-Rashīd, ‘Have ʿUbayd Allāh, your governor in Egypt, send to you one of the physicians of Egypt, since they know more about how to treat an Egyptian slave girl than the physicians of Iraq.’ So al-Rashīd ordered ʿUbayd Allāh ibn al-Mahdī to choose someone from amongst the most skilled physicians of Egypt to treat the concubine. ʿUbayd Allāh called upon Politianus, the Patriarch of Alexandria, who was skilled in medicine, and told him of al-Rashīd’s love for the girl and her illness, and conducted Politianus to al-Rashīd. Politianus carried with him some of the coarse cake and small salted fish of Egypt, and when he arrived in Baghdad and attended to the slave girl, he gave her the cake and small salted fish to eat, whereupon she was cured of her illness.
From that time on, the coarse cake and small salted fish were imported from Egypt to the imperial storehouses in Baghdad. The caliph al-Rashīd rewarded Politianus with ample wealth and issued a decree ordering that every church that had been taken from the Melkites by the Jacobites should revert back into the possession of the Melkites. Politianus returned to Egypt and reclaimed many churches from the Jacobites.
Politianus died in the year 186/802.
14.2 Ibrāhīm ibn ʿĪsā7
Ibrāhīm ibn ʿĪsā was an outstanding physician, well-known and distinguished during his time. He was a companion of Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh8 in Baghdad and studied under him.
Ibrāhīm ibn ʿĪsā served the emir, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn,9 as his personal physician, accompanying the ruler around the Egyptian provinces. He remained in Ibn Ṭūlūn’s service, honoured and prosperous, for the rest of his life. Ibrāhim ibn ʿĪsā died in the city of Fustat (Old Cairo) around the year 260/874.
14.3 al-Ḥasan ibn Zīrak10
Al-Ḥasan ibn Zīrak was a physician in Egypt during the governorship of Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn and attended the emir while he resided in Egypt. If Ibn Ṭūlūn travelled, however, the physician Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl11 accompanied him. During the year 269/882 Ibn Ṭūlūn went to Damascus and from there to the fortifications along the frontier12 to restore order.13 On his way back he passed through Antioch, where he consumed a lot of water buffalo milk and became afflicted with vomiting and diarrhoea (hayḍah). The efforts of Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl to cure him were not successful, and Ibn Ṭūlūn returned to Egypt, ill and discontented with Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl.
Upon entering Fustat (Old Cairo), Ibn Ṭūlūn summoned the physician al-Ḥasan ibn Zīrak and complained to him about Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl’s treatment. Ibn Zīrak put his mind at rest about the illness and wished him a speedy recovery. Ibn Ṭūlūn’s ailment eased with rest, quiet, being reunited with his family, peace of mind, having a pleasant environment, and he bestowed favours on al-Ḥasan ibn Zīrak.
But Ibn Ṭūlūn maintained a discreet silence about his sexual intercourse with women, as a result of which his condition worsened. At this point he summoned the physicians and frightened and threatened them, while concealing from them his improper regimen, his sexual intercourse, and his craving for marinated fish,14 which one of his concubines had secretly brought to him, but no sooner had he eaten it than he developed severe diarrhoea. Sending for al-Ḥasan ibn Zīrak, he said to him: ‘I believe what you prescribed for me today was not correct’. To which al-Ḥasan ibn Zīrak replied: ‘Let the emir, may God help him, summon all the physicians of Fustat to his residence in the early morning each day, so that they can reach a consensus as to what the emir should take that morning. I have administered nothing to you except those things whose composition merits your confidence, and all of them stimulate the retentive faculty in your stomach and liver.’ ‘By God,’ answered Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, ‘if you do not succeed in the treatment of my illness, I will cut off your head. You are experimenting on a sick person and nothing truthful is to be gained by doing that.’
So, al-Ḥasan ibn Zīrak departed, trembling. He was an old man and his liver became inflamed through fear and anxiety, which prevented him from eating and sleeping, and he soon developed severe diarrhoea. He was overcome with worry and became delirious, talking irrationally about the illness of Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, until he died the following morning.
14.4 Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl15
[14.4.1]
Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl was a Christian physician, distinguished in the art of medicine. He was in the service of Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn as one of his special physicians, attending him both while travelling and while in his capital. Before his death, however, Ibn Ṭūlūn turned against him. The reason for this was as follows:16 As mentioned above,17 Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn had gone to Syria and had proceeded to the fortifications along the frontiers to restore order. Upon his return to Antioch, he developed vomiting and diarrhoea (hayḍah) from the water buffalo milk of which he had hastily drunk too much. He summoned his physician, Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl, only to learn that he had gone to a church in Antioch. Ibn Ṭūlūn became angry, and when Saʿīd appeared, the emir upbraided him for his lateness, but, in disdain, refrained from complaining to Saʿīd about what ailed him. Then the following night, the emir’s illness worsened and he sent for Saʿīd, who arrived slightly inebriated.18 Ibn Ṭūlūn said to him, ‘I have been ill for these past two days, and you are drinking wine!’ To which Saʿīd replied: ‘My lord, you called for me yesterday while I was in church, as is my usual custom, and when I appeared, you told me nothing!’ ‘Would it not have been appropriate to ask about my condition?’ said Ibn Ṭūlūn. ‘Your opinion of me is important, my lord,’ replied Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl, ‘and asking your household about your private affairs might be inappropriate.’ ‘What should I do now?’ Ibn Ṭūlūn then enquired. ‘Tonight and tomorrow do not touch any food,’ the physician replied, ‘even though you crave it’. ‘But I am hungry, by God!’, Ibn Ṭūlūn protested, ‘I will not be able to last that long!’ ‘This is a false hunger,’ Saʿīd said, ‘caused by a coldness of the stomach.’
When the middle of the night came, however, the emir called for something to eat. He was brought pullets,19 hot roasted meat,20 and bread stuffed with fowl and cold young goat’s meat.21 Once he had eaten them, his diarrhoea ceased. So the servant Nasīm went out, for Saʿīd was in the palace, and he said to Saʿīd: ‘The emir ate the lamb22 and roasted meat and his condition has been alleviated.’ ‘God is now the one to call on for help,’ Saʿīd replied, ‘for the expulsive force [causing the bowel movements] had been weakened by his abstention from food, but now the bowel movements will become dreadful.’ And by God, just before daybreak the emir had more than ten evacuations.23 Ibn Ṭūlūn left Antioch with his condition steadily worsening, although his strength was such that he managed to bear it. As he headed for Egypt riding became intolerable, so a cart pulled by men was made for him and on it he was more comfortable. But before arriving at al-Faramā24 Ibn Ṭūlūn complained of its discomfort and therefore continued to Fustat (Old Cairo) by boat. On the deck of the boat a domed tent was pitched for him to lie in.
When Ibn Ṭūlūn alighted in Egypt, it was evident he was displeased with the physician Saʿīd, and he complained about Saʿīd to Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm, his secretary and companion. Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm then spoke to Saʿīd reproachfully:
You are skilful in your profession, and you have no vice except that you are prideful, rather than humble, in serving the emir. Even though the emir speaks the language eloquently, he is foreign in disposition and does not know the basics of medicine so as to care for himself and he relies on your guidance. Your approach [in treating him] has alienated him from you. You should be kind to him, be of use to him, be devoted to him, and pay attention to his condition.
To this Saʿīd replied:
By God, my service to him would be like that of a mouse to a cat, or a lamb to a wolf. Indeed, I’d rather be killed than attend on him.
Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn eventually died of this very illness.
[14.4.2]
Nasīm, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn’s servant, related:
Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl, the physician, was in the service of the emir, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn. One day, Ibn Ṭūlūn summoned him but was informed that Saʿīd had gone away to inspect some property he intended to buy. Ibn Ṭūlūn refrained from reacting until Saʿīd returned, but then the emir said to him, ‘O Saʿīd, instead of the property you wish to buy and benefit from, think about your friendship with me and tend to its cultivation and do not neglect it. Know that you’d better die before me, for if I should die in my bed [while you are still living], I shall not be in a position to allow you to enjoy your life after I am gone.’25
Nasīm continued:
Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl despaired for his life because Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn declined his advice, and he was not allowed into Ibn Ṭūlūn’s presence without someone else being present whose opinions were preferred. Ibn Ṭūlūn was certain that Saʿīd had been negligent from the very start of the illness until it was too late.
[14.4.3]
In the History26 it says that at the beginning of Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl’s association with Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, the physician employed a youth of ugly appearance who used to harvest flax with his father. His name was Hāshim and he tended to Saʿīd’s mule and would look after it when Saʿīd was in attendance on Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn. Occasionally when they returned, Saʿīd employed Hāshim in pulverizing drugs at his house, and Hāshim would stoke the fires under the medicinal decoctions. Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl had a very handsome and intelligent son who was well-versed in medicine. One day, early in their association, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn instructed Saʿīd to find a physician for the women’s quarters, one who would be present during Saʿīd’s absence. Saʿīd told him: ‘I have a son whom I have taught and trained.’ Ibn Ṭūlūn said, ‘Let me see him.’ Saʿīd brought him to the ruler, and Ibn Ṭūlūn saw a handsome youth possessed of all admirable qualities. ‘But he is not suitable for service in the women’s quarters,’ Ibn Tulūn said to Saʿīd, ‘for someone of sound knowledge but ugly appearance is required for them.’ As a result Saʿīd was afraid that Ibn Ṭūlūn would bring in a stranger who would contradict and oppose him. So, Saʿīd took Hāshim and dressed him in a durrāʿah27 and a pair of leather boots, and [Ibn Ṭūlūn] appointed him [as physician] to the women’s quarters.
[14.4.4]
The physician Jurayj ibn al-Ṭabbākh28 related the following:
I met Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl who was accompanied by ʿUmar ibn Ṣakhr. ʿUmar said to him, ‘What position did you assign Hāshim?’ Saʿīd replied, ‘In the service of the women’s quarters, because the emir requested an ugly person.’ And ʿUmar said to him, ‘Among the sons of physicians there would have been one who is ugly, but whose education was good and whose lineage was sound and suitable for the position. But you have disgraced the profession. By God, Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl, if he becomes established, he may revert to the baseness of his rank and low-class origins.’ At these words, Saʿīd laughed heedlessly. In the event, Hāshim established himself securely in the women’s quarters by preparing beneficial potions for fatness, pregnancy, maintaining good complexions and growing luxuriant hair – so much so that the women preferred Hāshim to Saʿīd.
When the physicians assembled before Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn the next morning, as they had done every day since his illness had worsened, Miʾat Alf, the mother of Abū l-ʿAshāʾir,29 said: ‘The physicians have assembled, but Hāshim is not present, and, by God, my lord, none of them can compare to him.’ So, Ibn Ṭūlūn said to her, ‘Have him come to me secretly, so that I can speak to him and hear what he has to say.’ She brought Hāshim to him secretly and encouraged Hāshim to speak. When he came before the emir, Hāshim looked directly at him and said: ‘The emir has been neglected, resulting in his present condition. May God not reward the one who is responsible for this matter.’
Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn said to him, ‘What is the right course of action, O blessed one?’ ‘You should take a small dose, in which there is such and such,’ Hāshim replied, and he listed nearly one hundred items that have a binding effect at the time they are taken, but are harmful later because they deplete the body’s strength. So Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn took the medicine and abandoned what Saʿīd and the other physicians had made for him. When it caused constipation, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn was pleased and thought his recovery was complete. Then he said to Hāshim, ‘Saʿīd had prohibited me this past month from having even a morsel of porridge30 even though I craved it.’ Hāshim said, ‘My lord, Saʿīd was mistaken. Porridge is nourishing and has a good effect on you.’ So, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn ordered its preparation and it was brought in a large bowl, most of which he ate, and he was happy to have satisfied his cravings. Then he lay down to sleep. The porridge stuck fast [thus stopping the diarrhoea], so he imagined that his condition had improved.
All of this was concealed from Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl. When Saʿīd appeared, Ibn Ṭūlūn questioned him: ‘What have you to say about porridge?’ Saʿīd replied: ‘It weighs heavily on the organs and the emir’s organs need something that will lighten them.’ Aḥmad said to him, ‘Spare me this foolishness! I have already eaten it and it has proved beneficial to me, God be praised.’ Fruit having arrived from Syria, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn asked Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl’s view on quinces. Saʿīd answered, ‘Suck on them on an empty stomach and empty bowels, for then they will then be of benefit.’ When Saʿīd had left him, Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn ate some quinces, but the quinces encountered the porridge and pushed it and so caused another bout of diarrhoea. Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn summoned Saʿīd and said, ‘You son of a whore! You said that quinces would be beneficial to me but the loose bowel movements have returned.’ Saʿīd got up to examine the stools and returned to him, saying: ‘This porridge, which you praised and which you said I was wrong to prohibit, remained in your intestines, which, because of their weakness, were unable to alter or digest it until the quince pushed it through. I did not prescribe that you eat the quinces, rather I advised sucking on them.’ Then he asked how many quinces he had eaten, to which Ibn Ṭūlūn replied ‘two.’ Saʿīd said: ‘You ate the quinces to satisfy yourself and not as a course of treatment’. ‘You son of a whore!’ Ibn Ṭūlūn retorted, ‘you sit there making sport of me while you are perfectly healthy and I am seriously ill.’ Then he called for whips and gave Saʿīd two hundred lashes and had him led around on a camel, with a crier proclaiming ‘This is the reward of one who was trusted but was disloyal.’
The emir’s associates plundered Saʿīd’s house, and he died two days later.31 That was in the year 269/882 in Egypt, which is the year in which Ibn Ṭūlūn died in the month of Dhū l-Qaʿdah.32 But God knows best.
14.5 Khalaf al-Ṭūlūnī33
Abū ʿAlī Khalaf al-Ṭūlūnī was a client of the Commander of the Faithful.34 He was learned in the art of medicine and very knowledgeable about diseases of the eye and their treatments.
Khalaf al-Ṭūlūnī’s is the author of The Aim and Sufficiency [of knowledge] Concerning the Structure of the Eyes, and their Nature, Treatments and Remedies (K. al-nihājah wa-l-kifāyah fī tarkīb al-ʿaynayn wa-khilqatihimā wa-ʿilājihimā wa-adwiyatihimā).35 I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – transcribed from a note in his handwriting in this book of his – and the entire book was in his own hand – that the composition of this book was begun in the year 264/877 and completed in the year 302/914.
14.6 Nasṭās ibn Jurayj36
Nasṭās ibn Jurayj was a Christian who was knowledgeable in the art of medicine. He practised during the reign of al-Ikhshīd ibn Ṭughj.37
Nasṭās ibn Jurayj is the author of the following works:38
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A compendium (Kunnāsh).
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A letter addressed to Yazīd ibn Rūmān al-Naṣrānī al-Andalusī39 concerning urine (R. ilā Yazīd ibn Rūmān al-Naṣrānī al-Andalusī fī l-bawl).
14.7 Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Nasṭās40
Isḥāq, the grandson of Nasṭās ibn Jurayj,41 was Abū Yaʿqūb Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Nasṭās ibn Jurayj, a Christian distinguished in the art of medicine. He was in the service of al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh,42 who relied on him in medical matters. Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Nasṭās died in Cairo during the reign of al-Ḥākim. After Isḥāq’s death, the caliph sought medical advice from Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān,43 who continued in al-Ḥākim’s service and was eventually made chief of physicians.
14.8 al-Bālisī44
Al-Bālisī45 was an eminent physician who was distinguished in the knowledge of simple drugs and their uses. He is the author of The Complementary Account of Simple Drugs (K. al-Takmīl fī l-adwiyah al-mufradah), which he composed for Kāfūr al-Ikhshīdī.46
14.9 Mūsā ibn al-ʿĀzār al-Isrāʾīlī47
Mūsā ibn al-ʿĀzār the Israelite was famous for his pre-eminence and skill in the art of medicine. He was in the service of al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh,48 as was his son Isḥāq ibn Mūsā, also a physician. Isḥāq was held in high regard by al-Muʿizz, who put him in charge of his affairs during the lifetime of Isḥāq’s father, Mūsā. Isḥāq ibn Mūsā died on the twelfth night of the month of Ṣafar in the year 363 [10 November 973]. The caliph, al-Muʿizz was distressed at the death of Isḥāq, who had served his master so well. Al-Muʿizz granted Isḥāq’s position to Isḥāq’s brother, Ismāʿīl ibn Mūsā and, succeeding him, Isḥāq’s son Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq. All this happened during the lifetime of their father, Mūsā. There was another brother [of Isḥāq] who was a Muslim, named ʿAwn Allāh ibn Mūsā. He died one day before Isḥāq.
Mūsā ibn al-ʿĀzār’s wrote the following books:
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On cooked food (al-Kitāb al-Muʿizzī fī l-ṭabīkh), which he composed for the caliph al-Muʿizz.
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On coughing (M. fī l-suʿāl).
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A reply to a question (Jawāb masʾalah) put to him by one of those who investigate the truths of sciences and are desirous of gathering their fruits.
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A medical formulary (K. al-aqrābādhīn).
14.10 Yūsuf al-Naṣrānī49
Yūsuf al-Naṣrānī was a Christian physician who was knowledgeable in the art of medicine and distinguished in many fields of learning. Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā50 says in his book Supplement to History:51
It was in the fifth year of the caliphate of al-ʿAzīz52 [370/980] when Yūsuf, the physician, was appointed Patriarch of the Church in Jerusalem, remaining in that post for three years and eight months. He died in Egypt and was buried in the Church of Saint Theodorus53 alongside Abba Christodulos of Caesarea.54
14.11 Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq (Eutychius)55
Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, from Fustat in Egypt, was a famous Christian physician, knowledgeable in the theory and practice of the art of medicine, an outstanding authority in his day, and well-versed in the teachings of Christians and their doctrinal systems. He was born on Sunday, with three days remaining in the month of Dhū l-Ḥijjah, in the year 263 [10 Sept 877].
In the first year of the caliphate of al-Qāhir bi-Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Allāh,56 Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq became Patriarch of Alexandria and took the name Eutychius. That occurred on the eighth day of the month of Ṣafar in the year 321 [7 Feb 933], when he was close to sixty years of age. He remained in the patriarchal see and in authority for seven years and six months. But great dissension occurred during his incumbency, and there was continual strife between him and his community.57
While in Old Cairo, Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq became ill with diarrhoea (is’hāl). Distinguished as he was in the art of medicine, he suspected that the illness would cause his death. He therefore returned to his see in Alexandria, remaining ill there for a number of days and finally dying on a Monday, the last day of the month of Rajab of the year 328 [11 May 940].58
Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq composed the following books:59
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On medical theory and practice (K. fī l-ṭibb ʿilm wa-ʿamal), a compendium.
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Polemics between the dissenter and the Christian (K. al-jadal bayna al-mukhālif wa-l-naṣrānī).
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The string of jewels (K. naẓm al-jawhar),60 in three chapters, which he composed for his brother, ʿĪsā ibn al-Biṭrīq, the physician.61 It contains information on the fasting of Christians, their breaking of the fast, their calendrical calculations, and their feast days, as well as the chronologies of the caliphs and the ancient rulers. He also discussed the patriarchs and their circumstances, how long they lived, where they lived, and what happened to them during their tenure. A relative of Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq by the name of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā62 composed a supplement to the book, which he entitled Supplement to the History.63
14.12 ʿĪsā ibn al-Biṭrīq64
ʿĪsā ibn al-Biṭrīq was a Christian physician who was well-versed in the art of medicine, both theory and practice, and distinguished in the details of therapy and treatment, for which he was much praised. He was the brother of Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, previously mentioned.65 ʿĪsā ibn al-Biṭrīq resided in the city of Old Cairo (Fustat), where he continued to work as a physician until his death.
14.13 Aʿyan ibn Aʿyan66
Aʿyan ibn Aʿyan was a distinguished physician in Egypt who had an excellent reputation for his skill in treatment. He lived during the reign of al-ʿAzīz bi-Allāh67 and died in the month of Dhū l-Qaʿdah in the year of 385 [Nov/Dec 995].
Aʿyan ibn Aʿyan is the author of the following works:68
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A compendium (Kunnāsh).
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On diseases of the eye and their treatments (K. fī amrāḍ al-ʿayn wa-mudāwātihā).
14.14 al-Tamīmī69
[14.14.1]
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd al-Tamīmī spent his early years in Jerusalem and its vicinity. He had an excellent knowledge of plants, including their forms and what has been said about them. He was also distinguished in the practice of the art of medicine, with a thorough understanding of its finer points. Al-Tamīmī had extensive experience in the preparation of medicinal pastes70 and simple drugs. In addition, he investigated the great theriac called Fārūq and its composition, and he compounded many versions of it with a very sure hand. Later in life he moved to Egypt and resided there until his death, may God have mercy upon him.
[14.14.2]
While in Jerusalem, he had met the eminent scholar and monk known as Anbā Zakhariyyā ibn Thawābah,71 who was conversant with some aspects of the philosophical disciplines and medicine. He lived in Jerusalem in the fourth century of the Hijrah [900s] and studied the compounding of drugs. Al-Tamīmī took numerous useful lessons from him, ultimately acquiring almost all of the monk’s knowledge. In his book The Material of Survival (Māddat al-baqāʾ), al-Tamīmī records a recipe for a medicinal powder for tremors (rajafān) arising from burning black bile, and he mentions that he had transcribed this information from Anbā Zakhariyyā.
[14.14.3]
In his book entitled The Book of Information on Scholars and Stories of Learned Men, al-Ṣāḥib Jamāl al-Dīn ibn al-Qifṭī al-Qāḍī al-Akram says:72
Saʿīd, the grandfather of al-Tamīmī, was a physician and a friend of Aḥmad ibn Abī Yaʿqūb, a client of the Abbasids.73 Muḥammad al-Tamīmī was from Jerusalem, and he studied medicine there and in other cities to which he travelled. As a result, he became very learned, perfecting his knowledge to a very high standard. He was keenly interested in the preparation of remedies and the selection of appropriate ingredients. It was al-Tamīmī who perfected the theriac called al-Fārūq74 by adding certain simple drugs to it, for that was how – physicians unanimously agree – he did it. He is the author of a number of works on theriac ranging in size from large to small. He was also a private physician to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭughj, the ruler of the city of al-Ramlah75 and the areas adjoining it in the coastal region. Ibn Ṭughj was fond of him and appreciated the simple and compound remedies with which al-Tamīmī treated him. The physician had made a number of salves, medicinal perfumes and fragrant fumigatories for Ibn Ṭughj to protect him from pestilential disease (wabāʾ), and he recorded the recipes for them in his writings.
When the Fatimid dynasty76 conquered the Egyptian lands, al-Tamīmī entered the service of Yaʿqūb ibn Killis,77 the vizier of the Fatimid caliphs al-Muʿizz and al-ʿAzīz. For Ibn Killis, al-Tamīmī composed a large work in a number of volumes, entitled Material of Survival by Cleansing Corrupted Air and Precautions against the Harm Caused by Pestilence. This was during the reign of al-Muʿizz78 in Cairo. In Egypt, al-Tamīmī met physicians and held discussions with them, including both the private court physicians who had accompanied al-Muʿizz from the Maghrib and physicians native to Egypt.
[14.14.4]
He79 said that Muḥammad al-Tamīmī related the following story concerning his father:
My father, may God be pleased with him, told me that once he got excessively drunk and that this impaired his reasoning abilities to the point that he fell from a considerable height to the floor of an inn where he was staying. He was not conscious, and the innkeeper attended to him and carried him to his own living quarters. When my father awoke and rose, he felt pain and weakness in several parts of his body. He did not know what might have caused the pain, so he rode off, attending to matters until noontime. Then he returned to the inn and said to the innkeeper, ‘I have intense pain and weakness in my body and I do not know the reason for it.’ ‘You should thank God you are still alive’, said the innkeeper. ‘Why?’ my father asked. ‘Don’t you know what happened to you yesterday?’ said the innkeeper. When my father said he did not, the innkeeper said: ‘You fell from the highest place in the inn onto the floor while you were drunk.’ ‘From where?’, my father asked, and the innkeeper showed him the place. When he saw it, pain and throbbing began immediately, so much so that he could not endure it. He began to shout and groan until a physician was sent for, who opened a vein and bled him. The physician also bound up his bruised joints with bandages. It was many days before my father recovered and the pain had ceased.
[14.14.5]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that there is a similar story. A certain merchant, on one of his travels, was in a desert with his fellow-travellers, staying at a place on the way where they had stopped. He slept, while his companions were sitting around him. A snake emerged from somewhere and, happening upon the man’s foot unexpectedly, bit him and then slithered away. The merchant woke up in terror from the pain, clutched his foot and groaned. One of the others said to him, ‘Nothing has happened except that you extended your foot so quickly when you brushed against a thorn at the spot which is causing you pain’, and he pretended to remove the thorn, saying, ‘No injury remains.’ The pain subsided after that, and they all continued on their way. After some time, on their return journey, they came back and stopped to rest there. His companion said to him ‘Do you know what caused the pain which befell you in this place?’ The man replied that he did not. His companion said, ‘A snake bit your foot and we saw it but did not tell you.’ Immediately, an intense pain began in the man’s foot and penetrated into his body until it approached his heart and he lost consciousness. Then his condition steadily worsened until he died. The reason for that was that fears (awhām) and psychological events (al-aḥdāth al-nafsāniyyah) can have a strong effect on the body. When the man realized that his injury had been a snake bite, he was affected by that idea, and the remaining poison in his body at that spot spread through his body. When it reached his heart, it killed him.
[14.14.6]
Ṣāḥib Jamāl al-Dīn ibn al-Qifṭī continues:80
When al-Tamīmī was in his native city of Jerusalem he undertook the study of medicine and the principles of compounding medicines.81 He prepared a theriac which he called The Saviour of Souls.82 Concerning this, al-Tamīmī says, ‘This is a theriac that I prepared in Jerusalem from a limited number of ingredients. It is very effective antidote to the harm of poisons, whether swallowed or inserted into the body through the poisonous bite of vipers and serpents, various kinds of venomous snakes, yellow scorpions and such like, as well as centipedes.83 It has also proved an antidote to the bite of tarantulas and lizards and has no equal.’ He gives its ingredients and the manner of preparing it in his book called The Material of Survival.
[14.14.7]
When al-Tamīmī was in Egypt, he created a digestive that he named Key to Joy from All Sorrow,84 and also Pleasure for the Soul.85 He made it for one of his colleagues in Egypt and recorded the recipe and the names of its ingredients. Even though he had compounded it in Cairo, he named it ‘Fusṭāṭ’, the former name of the city given at the conquering of Egypt by ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ. This is mentioned in his book The Material of Survival. Al-Tamīmī was living in Cairo in the year 370/980.
[14.14.8]
Among al-Tamīmī’s writings there are:86
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A letter addressed to his son ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad on the preparation of the theriac called al-fārūq (R. ilā ibnihi ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad fī ṣanʿat al-tiryāq al-fārūq), with a warning against drugs used for it erroneously, a description of the correct plants, the times for collecting them, the method of kneading them, and an account of the antidote’s usefulness and its proven application (tajribah).
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Another book on theriac (K. ākhar fī l-tiryāq) in which the author presents, in detail, a complete list of its ingredients and an enumeration of its benefits.
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A short summary on theriac (K. mukhtaṣar fī l-tiryāq).
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The Material of Survival (K. māddat al-baqāʾ) by cleansing corrupted air and precautions against the harm caused by pestilence, which he composed for the vizier Abū l-Faraj Yaʿqūb ibn Killis in Egypt.87
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On the nature of ophthalmia, and its types, causes and treatment (M. fī māhiyyat al-ramad wa-anwāʿihi wa-asbābihi wa-ʿilājihi).
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On inquiry and information (K. al-faḥṣ wa-l-akhbār).
14.15 Sahlān88
Abū l-Ḥasan Sahlān ibn ʿUthmān ibn Kaysān was a Christian physician from the Egyptian Melkite community. He was in the service of the Egyptian caliphs, and his influence became great during the days of al-ʿAzīz.89 Sahlān continued to enjoy a good reputation and to be well positioned and rewarded with abundant wealth until he died in Egypt during the reign of al-ʿAzīz bi-Allāh. This was on a Saturday, with five days remaining, in Dhū l-Ḥijjah in the year 380 [ca. 14 March 991].90
On Sunday, after the midday prayer, his coffin was taken to a church in Old Cairo.91 His funeral procession went from his house via the Coppersmiths’ Quarter,92 the Old Mosque93 and the Square94 to the bathhouse of al-Faʾr,95 accompanied by fifty lit candles. On his coffin lay a heavy robe. The metropolitan (muṭrān), the brother of al-Sayyidah,96 and Abū l-Fatḥ Manṣūr ibn Muqashshir (Sahlān’s grandson),97 a court physician,98 walked behind his coffin while the other Christians followed them. Then after religious services that lasted for the rest of the night, the coffin was taken out from the church to the monastery of Dayr al-Quṣayr,99 where Sahlān was buried near the tomb of his brother Kaysān ibn ʿUthmān ibn Kaysān.100
The caliph al-ʿAzīz did not interfere with his inheritance, nor did he allow anyone to lay hands on it, substantial though it was.101
14.16 Abū l-Fatḥ Manṣūr ibn Sahlān ibn Muqashshir102
Abū l-Fatḥ Manṣūr ibn Sahlān ibn Muqashshir was a well-known Christian physician with knowledge and skill in the art of medicine. He was the physician of al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh103 and one of his entourage. The caliph al-ʿAzīz also consulted him in medical matters, sought his opinion, and held him in high regard, so that Ibn Muqashshir held a high position under the Fatimid dynasty. He died during the reign of al-Ḥākim. After his death, al-Ḥākim consulted in medical matters Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Nasṭās,104 but Isḥāq ibn Nasṭās also died later on during al-Ḥākim’s reign.
14.17 ʿAmmār ibn ʿAlī al-Mawṣilī105
ʿAmmār ibn ʿAlī al-Mawṣilī was a well-known oculist and practitioner, experienced in the treatment of ocular diseases and skilled with procedures using the knife. He travelled to Egypt and remained there during the reign of al-Ḥākim (996–1021).106 ʿAmmār ibn ʿAlī is the author of the Book of Choice for knowledge of the eye and its diseases and its therapies with drugs and with the knife (K. al-muntakhab fī ʿilm al-ʿayn wa-ʿilalihā wa-mudāwātihā bi-l-adwiyah wa-l-ḥadīd),107 which he composed for al-Ḥākim.
14.18 al-Ḥaqīr al-Nāfiʿ108
Al-Ḥaqīr al-Nāfiʿ was a Jewish physician from Egypt during the reign of al-Ḥākim. He was a wound specialist (jarāʾiḥī) and skilled in treatment. According to one anecdote,109 he used to make a living by treating wounds while he was relatively unknown. It so happened that al-Ḥākim had a very old wound on one of his legs that would not heal. Ibn Muqashshir,110 one of al-Ḥākim’s physicians who enjoyed particular favour with him, and other court physicians collaborated in treating him, but their efforts merely made his condition worse. One day this Jewish physician was brought to him. After examining al-Ḥākim, al-Ḥaqīr al-Nāfiʿ applied a dessicating powder (dawāʾ yābis) on the area which dried out the wound and cured it in three days. So al-Ḥākim bestowed on him one thousand dinars as well as a robe of honour, and gave him the honorific name al-Ḥaqīr al-Nāfiʿ (‘the humble one who is of great benefit’). Al-Ḥākim also appointed him one of his court physicians.
14.19 Abū Bishr, the Physician to Rulers (ṭabīb al-ʿaẓīmiyyah)111
Abū Bishr, ṭabīb al-ʿaẓīmiyyah,112 lived during the reign of al-Ḥākim. He was well-known throughout the country and was regarded as one of the most distinguished practitioners of the art of medicine.
14.20 Ibn Maʿshar al-ṭabīb113
Ibn Maʿshar al-ṭabīb (‘the physician’) was among the well-known physicians and notable scholars established in the realm. He enjoyed favour with al-Ḥākim, who depended on him in medical matters.
ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl says,114 ‘Ibn Maʿshar the physician was in the service of al-Ḥākim, at whose court he was highly placed. He also received many commendations and large gifts from the caliph.’
ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl continues, ‘When Ibn Maʿshar became ill, al-Ḥākim visited him personally. When he died, al-Ḥākim bestowed abundant wealth on his heirs.’
14.21 ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān115
ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān was a distinguished physician who was proficient in philosophy and the mathematical sciences, outstanding in the art of medicine and peerless in astrology (aḥkām al-nujūm). He lived during the reign of al-ʿAzīz and his son al-Ḥākim, surviving to see the days of al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz Dīn Allāh,116 son of al-Ḥākim.
ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān is the author of the following works:
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Abridgement of al-Kitāb al-ḥāwī fī l-ṭibb117 (Ikhtiṣār kitāb al-ḥāwī fī l-ṭibb).
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A book of examples, experiences, notices, anecdotes, and medical occult peculiarities (K. al-amthilah wa-l-tajārib wa-l-akhbār wa-l-nukat wa-l-khawāṣṣ al-ṭibbiyyah), taken from the writings of Hippocrates and Galen and others. The author intended it as an aide-mémoire and notebook. I found a manuscript of this work written in his own handwriting, comprising four volumes. In it he mentioned that he began its composition in Cairo in the year 391/1000.
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Philosophical annotations (K. al-taʿālīq al-falsafiyyah). I also found a copy of this book in the author’s handwriting in which he states that he began its composition in Aleppo in the year 411/1020.
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On the fact that the divisibility of a body is not finite and never reaches a point where the body cannot be further divided (M. fī anna qabūl al-jism al-tajazzuʾ lā yaqifu wa-lā yantahī ilā mā lā yatajazzaʾu).
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Enumeration of doubts necessitated by the treatise of Aristotle On Vision (Taʿdīd shukūk talzamu maqālat Arisṭūṭālīs fī l-abṣār).
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Enumeration of doubts concerning [the comet named] ‘the star of the tail’.118 (Taʿdīd shukūk fī kawākib al-dhanab).119
14.22 Ibn al-Haytham120
[14.22.1]
Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham121 was from Basra, but moved to Egypt, where he remained until the end of his life. He was of an excellent character, highly intelligent and expert in various branches of learning. None of his contemporaries was his equal in the mathematical sciences.122 He was constantly absorbed in study, prolific as an author, very ascetic, and dedicated to doing good. He summarized and commented upon many of the works of Aristotle. Similarly, he condensed many of Galen’s books on medicine and became an expert in the fundamentals of the art of medicine, as well as its rules and general principles. Even though he did not practise medicine and did not have training in medical treatment, his many works were very useful. He also had good penmanship and a sound knowledge of the Arabic language.
[14.22.2]
The following was related to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – by the shaykh ʿAlam al-Dīn Qayṣar ibn Abī l-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd al-Ghanī ibn Musāfir al-Ḥanafī, the geometer:123
Ibn al-Haytham’s first position was in the district of Basra, where he held the office of vizier. However, he was more interested in ethics and philosophy and the exploration of those domains. So much so, that he desired to rid himself of his duties, which distracted him from the pursuit of learning. Accordingly, he feigned mental confusion and a deterioration of his powers of thought. He maintained that pretence for a period of time until he succeeded in being discharged from service and removed from his duties. He then travelled to Egypt and took up residence in Cairo at al-Azhar Mosque.124 Each year he would make copies of Euclid and the Almagest and sell them in order to support himself. He continued to do that until he died, may God have mercy upon him.
[14.22.3.1]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have found that al-Ṣāḥib Jamāl al-Dīn Abū l-Ḥasan ibn al-Qifṭī also had the following to say about Ibn al-Haytham:125
News of Ibn al-Haytham and his mastery of knowledge reached al-Ḥākim, the Alid ruler of Egypt,126 who was himself inclined towards great learning. For that reason, al-Ḥākim desired to meet him personally. Subsequently, al-Ḥākim was informed that Ibn al-Haytham had said, ‘If I were in Egypt, I would conduct work on the Nile that would result in making it useful at all times, during both its rise and fall,127 for I have been informed that the Nile flows down from an elevated location that is at the border of Egypt.’ This made al-Ḥākim more eager than ever to meet Ibn al-Haytham, and he secretly sent him a sum of money and urged him to come to Egypt. Accordingly, Ibn al-Haytham travelled to Egypt, and when he arrived there, al-Ḥākim came out to receive him. They met in a village near Cairo known as al-Khandaq just outside the gates of al-Mu ʿizz’s city,128 and al-Ḥākim had lodgings prepared for him and ordered that he should be shown hospitality and respect. Ibn al-Haytham stayed there until he had rested, at which point al-Ḥākim asked him to proceed with his promised works on the Nile.
Consequently Ibn al-Haytham set out, accompanied by a group of skilled workers specializing in construction who would help him with the engineering works he had in mind. When, however, he had travelled the length of the country129 and seen the remains of monuments from antiquity when it had been inhabited by a past civilization – and these were of the utmost perfection of construction and engineering and included celestial designs, geometric patterns and marvellous paintings – he realized that what he had intended to do was impossible. For those who had preceded him in ancient times had not lacked the knowledge that he himself possessed, and if the project had been feasible, they would have carried it out. Ibn al-Haytham’s scheme was in ruins and his enthusiasm failed. He went to the place known as ‘the cataracts’ (al-Janādil), south of the city of Aswān.130 It is an elevated place from which the waters of the Nile flow down, and here he observed the Nile, studied it, and scouted both banks. As a result, he learned first-hand that his plan could not be executed in a suitable way as he had intended, and he realized the error and the problems associated with what he had promised. Ashamed and prevented from doing what he had intended, Ibn al-Haytham returned and apologized to al-Ḥākim, who appeared to accept this.
Subsequently, al-Ḥākim appointed him a government official. Ibn al-Haytham, however, held his post only out of fear and not out of desire, for he realized he had made an error in accepting office since al-Ḥākim was extremely capricious, spilling blood without cause or for the slightest reason due to some imagined pretext. Ibn al-Haytham pondered the matter, but could not think of a way to get out of his predicament except by displaying madness and disturbance of mind.131 So he undertook to do just that, and word of it spread abroad. As a result, al-Ḥākim and his deputies confiscated his property. Al-Ḥākim assigned a guardian to attend to him and look after his affairs, and Ibn al-Haytham was clapped in irons (quyyida) and put under house arrest. This arrangement continued until Ibn al-Haytham learned of the caliph’s death, after which he quickly demonstrated his sanity and returned to his former condition. He moved from his home and took up residence in a pavilion132 near the entrance of al-Azhar Mosque, one of the mosques of Cairo. There he stayed, living the life of an ascetic, content and satisfied. The property that had been confiscated under al-Ḥākim was returned to him, and he occupied himself with composing, copying and teaching. Ibn al-Haytham had a particularly precise style of handwriting that he turned to account by transcribing a large number of treatises on mathematics.
[14.22.3.2]
Ibn al-Qifṭī also says that the scholar Yūsuf al-Fāsī al-Isrāʾīlī133 told him in Aleppo:
I have heard that Ibn al-Haytham would copy three books a year in his particular field of interest: Euclid,134 the Intermediate Books135 and the Almagest. It would take him one year to copy them.136 When he had begun137 the work of transcribing them, someone would come to him and pay him one hundred and fifty Egyptian dinars for them. This became a set price over which he would not bargain or negotiate, and it was his means of subsistence for the year. He continued to do this until he died in Cairo at the end of the year 430 [September 1039]138 or shortly thereafter. But God knows best.
[14.22.4.1]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have transcribed the following from a treatise in Ibn al-Haytham’s own handwriting on the knowledge of the Ancients, one that he was composing and working on at the end of the year 417 [January 1027], when he was sixty-three lunar years of age.139
Since my childhood, he says, I have continually reflected on the varying beliefs of people, each group of people holding fast to what they believed. But I was doubtful about all of it and was certain that there was only one truth and that the differences are in the approaches towards the truth. When I had completed my acquisition of intellectual matters, I devoted myself to seeking the origin of truth, and I directed my conjectures and my concentration toward the attainment of that by which the falsities (tamwīhāt) of dubious opinions can be disclosed and the errors (al-ghayāyāt) of complicated, deluded ideas dispelled.140 I directed my resolve toward the attainment of the belief nearest to God, His praise be extolled, leading to God’s approval and obedience to Him and piety. I was in the same position as Galen who in the seventh book of his treatise On the Method of Healing, addresses his pupil: ‘I don’t know how it came about – whether I may say it was by wondrous coincidence, or by inspiration from God, or by sheer madness, or through some other means – that I since my youth have despised ordinary people and had little regard for them and ignored them, preferring truth and the acquisition of knowledge. I am certain in my own mind that people cannot acquire anything better in this world, nothing that would bring one closer to God, than these these two matters’.141
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham continues:
I thoroughly investigated a variety of opinions and beliefs, and the several religious sciences, but I found no profit in that, nor did I perceive in it a clear path to the truth nor a sure road to indisputable belief. Rather, I came to realize that I would reach the truth only through doctrines whose constituent elements were perceptible and whose forms were rational. These I found only in Aristotle’s classification of logic, physics, and metaphysics, which constitute the essence and nature of philosophy, where Aristotle begins142 by classifying things as general, particular, universal, and intrinsic. He then follows this with the establishment of a vocabulary of logic and its division into principal types.143 He next144 discusses propositions that are formed of compound expressions and thus give rise to comprehensible and intelligible speech. He then concentrates on the types of propositions that are the basis and material of the syllogism, designating distinctions between them and discussing the genera and species that make them distinctive, and links this with a discussion of their truth or falsehood, thereafter presenting their agreement, disagreement, opposition, and contradiction.
Next145 he discusses the syllogism and the division of its premises, designates its various figures, and classifies those figures. Amongst the classifications, he distinguishes those that are not linked continuously and systematically and sets them apart from those that are so linked. Then he discusses the results that follow from them along with associated fundamental conditions – that is, the necessary, the possible, and the impossible. He explains the approaches to securing premises of syllogisms that are necessary (al-ḍarūriyyah) and plausible (al-iqnāʿiyyah), as well as what is more fitting (al-awlā), what is more likely (al-ashbah), and what is more frequent (al-akthar) and those associated with customary usage and technical terms, and the remaining issues of syllogisms. He discusses the figures of the syllogism, variety by variety and type by type.
Aristotle concludes with a discussion of the nature of proof,146 commenting upon its components and clearly explaining its forms, and also explaining what appears to be erroneous in it and revealing what had been concealed and hidden in it. He follows this with a discussion of the four arts: dialectic (jadaliyyah), disputation (mirāʾiyyah), rhetoric (khuṭbiyyah), and poetics (shiʿriyyah),147 and from that he goes on to explain what constitutes a distinctive basis for the art of demonstration [drawn] from these four arts, discussing them type by type according to their category.
Aristotle then undertook a commentary on matters of nature beginning with his book on understanding nature,148 in which he indicates matters that are well-known by nature and require no further proof, but rather are found through examination,149 classification and analysis. He demonstrates the groundlessness of counter-arguments about them and discloses the errors of those who have doubts about them. The basis of his discourse comprises six fundamental universal and natural principles: space, void, the infinite, time, motion and the Prime Mover. He followed that with his book on generation and corruption,150 in which he makes clear the earthly world’s acceptance of generation and corruption.
This was followed by his book on meteorology151 – that is, on those things that occur in the atmosphere such as clouds, fog or mist, wind, rain, thunder, lightning, thunderbolts and other things of a similar sort. At the end of the book he mentions minerals and the reasons for their existence. His next work was one on plants and animals,152 in which he discusses the types of plants and animals and their natures, varieties, species, intrinsic qualities, and accidental qualities. That was followed by his work on the heavens and the world,153 in which he explains the nature of the universe and its essences and its connection with metaphysics.
Aristotle next composed his work on the soul.154 In that work, he expresses his interpretation of the soul and refutes the views of everyone who has expressed an idea that differs from his and who holds firm beliefs about its essence other than his own belief. He subdivides the soul into the nutritive, the sensory and the cognitive, and he discusses the conditions of the nutritive, comments upon sensory matters, and explains the reasons for cognition. In this way he discusses every obscure aspect that he has disclosed, explaining every hidden detail.
Finally, crowning his oeuvre, Aristotle composed his work on what comes after the physics – that is, metaphysics.155 In it he explains that God is one, that He is wise not ignorant, powerful not weak, and generous not stingy. Thus, Aristotle has judiciously set out the guidelines along which one may travel toward the truth, and so attain to its nature and substance, and find its essence and nature.
When I – Ibn al-Haytham – realized that, I devoted all my efforts to studying the philosophical disciplines, which comprise three branches of learning: mathematics, physics, and metaphysics. I therefore concentrated on the fundamentals and principles which govern these three fields and their consequences, and I arrived at a good understanding of them in all their depths and heights. Then I considered the nature of mankind – its association with decay and its susceptibility to destruction and depletion, and how in the vigour of youth a person is able to master the required concepts underlying these basic principles more readily, but when that person reaches old age and the time of senility, his constitution becomes inadequate, his strength weakens, his reasoning power fails and there is deterioration in his ability to do what he had routinely done before.
From these three fundamental subjects (mathematics, physics, metaphysics) I explained in detail, summarized and condensed in an orderly way what I was able to understand and discern. I have drawn upon their assorted contents to compose works that clarify and reveal the obscurities of these three fundamental domains right up to the present time, which is the month of Dhū l-Ḥijjah in the year 417 [January/February1027] of the migration (Hijra) of the Prophet, God bless him and keep him. As long as I live, I will devote all my energy and all my strength to such endeavours with three aims in mind: first, to benefit the person seeking truth and influence him during my lifetime and after my death; second, as an exercise for myself in these matters to confirm what my reflection on these disciplines has formulated and organized; and, third, to create for myself a treasure-house and provision for the time of old age and period of senility. In doing this I have followed what Galen says in the seventh book of his treatise On the Method of Healing: ‘In all my writings, it has been and remains my intention to do one of two things: either to benefit someone through something useful and profitable, or to benefit myself through mental exercise, by which I enjoy myself at the time of my writing it and [at the same time] make a store-house for the time of old age’.156
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham continues:
I will explain what I have written concerning these three fundamental subjects so that people will realize my position with regard to the pursuit of truth and what I said with regard to truth will be known, in order to disassociate myself from the likes of the foolish, common people, elevating myself to resemble or emulate the pious and the best of mankind.
[14.22.4.2]
The following twenty-five treatises are what I – Ibn al-Haytham – have composed in the domain of the mathematical sciences:157
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Commentary on and summary of Euclid’s Elements of Geometry and Numbers (Sharḥ Uṣūl Uqlīdis fī l-handasah wa-l-ʿadad wa-talkhīṣihi).
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A book in which I combined geometrical and arithmetical fundamentals from the works of Euclid and Apollonius and enumerated them, dividing them, and providing proofs through which I then classified them as mathematical (al-taʿlīmiyyah), physical (al-ḥissiyyah) and logical (al-manṭiqiyyah), together with a critique of the sequence [of arguments] in Euclid and Apollonius.
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Commentary on and summary of the Almagest (Sharḥ al-Majisṭī wa-talkhīṣihi) supported by demonstrations, in which only a few computations have been worked out. If God extends my life and gives me time, I shall resume this task and produce a more comprehensive commentary that will take me further into numerical and computational matters.
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The comprehensive book on fundamentals of computation (K. al-jāmiʾ fī uṣūl al-ḥisāb). It is a book in which I worked out the fundamentals for all types of calculation from the procedures of Euclid in the Elements of Geometry and Number. I worked out the problems of computation using geometrical analysis and numerical valuation, avoiding the procedures and formulations of the algebraists (awḍāʿ al-jabriyyīn wa-alfāẓuhum).
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A book in which I summarized the science of optics based on the two books of Euclid and Ptolemy. I completed it with a reconstruction of the lost first chapter of Ptolemy’s treatise.
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Analysis of geometrical problems (K. fī taḥlīl al-masāʾil al-handasiyyah).
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On the solving of numerical problems by reduction and balancing (i.e., algebra), demonstrated (K. fī taḥlīl al-masāʾil al-ʿadadiyyah bi-jihat al-jabr wa-l-muqābalah mubarhanan).
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A book in which I combined a discussion of the analysis of geometrical problems with that of numerical problems. However, the discussion of the numerical problems is not demonstrated by proofs, but rather is based on the fundamentals of algebra (al-jabr wa-l-muqābalah).
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On surveying using basic principles (K. fī l-misāḥah ʿalā jihat al-uṣūl).
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On applied mathematics [i.e., commercial accounting] (K. fī ḥisāb al-muʿāmalāt).158
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On the surfaces [?] of concavities and convexities (M. fī ijārāt al-ḥufūr wa-l-abniyah), in which I compared the concavities and convexities against all the geometrical figures until I arrived at the three conic sections: the parabola, the hyperbola and the ellipse.
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Paraphrase of the writings of Apollonius on conic sections (Talkhīṣ maqālāt Abūlūniyūs fī quṭūʿ al-makhrūṭāt).159
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On Indian computations (M. fī l-ḥisāb al-Hindī).
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On the determination of the direction of the Qiblah (M. fī istikhrāj samt al-qiblah) for all the inhabited regions, using tables that I constructed without providing proofs.
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On those geometrical matters that are required in legal affairs (M. fī mā tadʿū ilayhi ḥājat al-umūr al-sharʿiyyah min al-umūr al-handasiyyah) and which are sufficient.
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A letter to some prominent people on the urgency of pursuing astronomical observation (R. ilā baʿḍ al-ruʾasāʾ fī l-ḥathth ʿalā ʿamal al-raṣd al-nujūmī).
-
Introduction to geometrical topics (K. fī l-mudkhal ilā al-umūr al-handasiyyah).
-
On the drawing-out of the proof that the hyperbola and the two lines that never touch it [the asymptotes] are always drawing nearer but will never meet (M. fī intizāʿ al-burhān ʿalā anna al-qaṭʿ al-zāʾid wa-l-khaṭṭān alladhān lā yalqayānihi yaqrubān abadan wa-lā yaltaqiyān).
-
Replies to seven mathematical questions (Ajwibat sabʿ masāʾil taʿlīmiyyah) put to me while I was in Baghdad and that I answered.
-
On geometrical analysis and synthesis using examples for students (K. fī l-taḥlīl wa-l-tarkīb al-handasiyyayn ʿalā jihat al-tamthīl li-l-mutaʿallimīn). It is a collection of geometrical and numerical problems that I have solved by analysis and synthesis.
-
On the shadow instrument (K. fī ālat al-ẓill), which I abridged and condensed from the book by Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān160 on the subject.
-
On the determination of the distance between two places that are remote from each other using geometrical methods (M. fī istikhrāj mā bayna baladayn fī l-buʿd bi-jihat al-umūr al-handasiyyah).
-
On the fundamentals of problems concerned with irrational numbers and their analysis (M. fī uṣūl al-masāʾil al-ʿadadiyyah al-ṣumm161 wa-taḥlīlihā).
-
Resolution of a doubt concerning Euclid, in the fifth book of his treatise on mathematical principles (M. fī ḥall shakk ʿalā Uqlīdis fī l-maqālah al-khāmisah min kitābihi fī l-uṣūl al-riyāḍiyyah).
-
Proof of the method162 that Archimedes presented for dividing an angle into three parts but which he did not prove (R. fī burhān al-shakl alladhī qaddamahu Arshimīdis fī qismat al-zāwiyah bi-thalāthat aqsām wa-lam yubarhin ʿalayhi).
[14.22.4.3]
In the natural sciences and metaphysics, I – Ibn al-Haytham – have composed forty-four books.163
-
Paraphrase of the Introduction (Isagoge) of Porphyry and four books of Aristotle on logic (Talkhīṣ Mudkhal Furfūriyūs wa-kutub Arisṭūṭālīs al-arbaʿah al-manṭiqiyyah).164
-
Condensed version of the paraphrase of the Introduction (Isagoge) of Porphyry and of Aristotle’s seven books on logic (Ikhtiṣār talkhīṣ mudkhal Furfūriyūs wa-kutub Arisṭūṭālīs al-sabʿah al-manṭiqiyyah).
-
On the art of poetry (R. fī ṣināʿat al-shiʿr), combining both Greek and Arabic.
-
Paraphrase of Aristotle’s book On the Soul [De Anima] (Talkhīṣ Kitāb al-nafs li-Arisṭūṭālīs). And if God extends my life and if time permits me the leisure to devote myself to scientific matters, I will summarize his two books on Physics and On the Heavens and the World (Fī l-samāʿ al-ṭabīʿī wa-l-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam).
-
On the correspondence between the world of particulars (M. fī mushākalat al-ʿālam al-juzʾī), which is mankind, and the universal world [i.e., the correspondences of the microcosm to the macrocosm].
-
Two treatises on the syllogism and its congeners (Maqālatān fī l-qiyās wa-shibhihi).
-
On proof (M. fī l-burhān).
-
On the world, with regard to its beginning, its nature and its perfection (M. fī l-ʿālam min jihat mabdaʾihi wa-ṭabīʿatihi wa-kamālihi).
-
On principles and existents (M. fī l-mabādiʾ wa-l-mawjūdāt).
-
On the configuration of the universe (M. fī hayʾat al-ʿālam).165
-
On the refutation of John the Grammarian (Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī) and his objections to the statements of Aristotle and others regarding the heavens and world (K. fī al-radd ʿalā Yaḥyā al-Naḥwī wa-mā naqaḍahu ʿalā Arisṭūṭālīs wa-ghayrihi min aqwālihim fī al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam).166
-
A letter addressed to someone who studied this refutation but had doubts about its meanings (R. ilā baʿḍ man naẓara fī hādhā l-naqḍ fa-shakka fī maʿānin minhu), allowing resolution of his doubts and knowledge gained from an understanding of it.
-
On the rebuttal of the refutation given by Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Fasānjas,167 may God have mercy upon him, of astrologers’ opinions (K. fī l-radd ʿalā Abī l-Ḥasan ʿĀlī ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Fasānjas naqḍahu ārāʾ al-munajjimīn).
-
Rejoinder to Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Fasānjas’ reply to the rebuttal of his discourse against the astrologers (Jawāb mā ajāba Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Fasānjas naqḍa man ʿāraḍahu fī kalāmihi ʿalā al-munajjimīn).
-
On virtue and the virtuous individual (M. fī l-faḍl wa-l-fāḍil).
-
On making humans yearn for death, according to what the Ancients said (M. fī tashwīq al-insān ilā al-mawt bi-ḥasab kalām al-awāʾil).
-
Another discourse on this topic, according to what recent scholars say (R. ukhrā fī hādhā l-maʿnā bi-ḥasab kalām al-muḥaddathīn).
-
On the falsehood of theologians’ belief that God remained inactive and then acted (R. fī buṭlān mā yarāhu al-mutakallimūn min anna Allāh lam yazal ghayr fāʿil thumma faʿala).
-
On the fact that what is beyond the heavens is neither empty nor filled (M. fī [anna] khārij al-samāʾ lā farāgh wa-lā malaʾ).
-
On the refutation of Abū Hāshim,168 leader of the Muʿtazilah, regarding what he said about the summary (jawāmiʿ) of Aristotle’s book On the Heavens and World (M. fī l-radd ʿalā Abī Hāshim raʾīs al-muʿtazilah fī-mā takallama bihi ʿalā jawāmiʿ Kitāb al-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam li-Arisṭūṭālīs).
-
Discourse on the difference between the doctrines of the algebraists169 and the astrologers (Qawl fī tabāyun madhabay al-jabriyyīn wa-munajjimīn).
-
Paraphrase of Aristotle’s Problems on Physics (Talkhīṣ al-Masāʾil al-ṭabīʿiyyah li-Arisṭūṭālīs).170
-
On the merits of al-Ahwāz171 over Baghdad with respect to natural conditions (R. fī tafḍīl al-Ahwāz ʿalā Baghdād min jihat al-umūr al-ṭabīʿiyyah).
-
A letter addressed to all people of learning concerning the intentions of a troublemaker who pestered the author (R. ilā kāffat ahl al-ʿilm fī maʿnā mushāghib shāghabahu).
-
On the fact that there is only one way to attain truths (M. fī anna jihat idrāk al-ḥaqāʾiq jihah wāḥidah).
-
On the fact that proof has one meaning, but is used [in two ways]: practically (ṣināʿiyyan) in geometrical matters, and theoretically (kalāmiyyan) in the natural sciences and metaphysics (M. fī anna al-burhān maʿnā wāḥid wa-innamā yustaʿmalu ṣināʿiyyan fī l-umūr al-handasiyyah wa-kalāmiyyan fī l-umūr al-ṭabīʿiyyah wa-l-ilāhiyyah).
-
On the two natural conditions of pain and pleasure (M. fī ṭabīʿatay al-alam wa-l-ladhdhah).
-
On the natures of three pleasures: the sensory, the rational and a balance between the two (M. fī ṭabāʾiʿ al-ladhdhāt al-thalāth al-ḥissiyyah wa-l-nuṭqiyyah wa-l-muʿādalah).
-
On the agreement of rational beings on what is correct, despite their diversity in terms of goals and aims (M. fī ittifāq al-ḥayawān al-nāṭiq ʿalā al-ṣawāb maʿa ikhtilāfihim fī l-maqāṣid wa-l-aghrāḍ).
-
On the fact that proof of contradiction becomes a proof of correctness [?], by single steps [?]172 (R. fī anna burhān al-khulf yaṣīru burhān istiqāmah bi-ḥudūd wāḥidah).
-
On the corroboration of astrology using proof (K. fī tathbīt aḥkām al-nujūm min jihat al-burhān).
-
On life and universal appointed times of death [?] (R. fī al-aʿmār wa-l-ājāl al-kawniyyah).
-
On the nature of the intellect (R. fī ṭabīʿat al-ʿaql).
-
On the refutation of one who thinks that evidences are equivalent [to one another] (K. fī al-naqḍ ʿalā man raʾā anna al-adillah mutakāfiʾah).
-
Discourse on the establishment of the principle of impossibility [?] (Qawl fī ithbāt ʿunṣur al-imtināʿ).
-
Refutation of a response to a question addressed to one of the Muʿtazilah in Basra (Naqḍ jawāb masʾalah suʾila ʿanhā baʿḍ al-muʿtazilah bi-l-Baṣrah).
-
On the art of epistolography according to procedures of the Ancients and their rules (K. fī ṣināʿat al-kitābah ʿalā awḍāʿ al-awāʾil wa-uṣūlihim).
-
Admonition to the secretaries (ʿAhd ilā al-kuttāb).
-
That the Maker of this world can be known only through what He makes (M. fī anna fāʿil hādhā al-ʿālam innamā yuʿlamu dhātuhu min jihat fiʿlihi).
-
Response to a logician regarding meanings in which he contradicted some of the rules of nature (Jawāb qawl li-baʿḍ al-manṭiqiyyīn fī maʿānin khālafa fīhā min al-umūr al-ṭabīʿiyyah).
-
On the paraphrase of the essential nature of the universal soul (R. fī talkhīṣ jawhar al-nafs al-kulliyyah).
-
On the verification of the view of Aristotle that the governing faculty in the human body is located in the heart (Fī taḥqīq raʾy Arisṭūṭālīs anna al-quwwah al-mudabbirah hiya min badan al-insān fī l-qalb minhu).
-
A letter in response to a question asked of the logician Ibn al-Samḥ al-Baghdādī173 (R. fī jawāb masʾalah suʾila ʿanhā Ibn al-Samḥ al-Baghdādī al-manṭiqī), to which he did not provide a convincing reply.
-
On the organization of the art of medicine (K. fī taqwīm al-ṣināʿah al-ṭibbiyyah). I based it on summaries (jumal) and epitomes (jawāmiʿ) of the works of Galen that I had examined, and these are 30 in number:174
-
On Demonstration (K. fī l-burhān; De demonstratione).
-
On Medical Sects (K. fī firaq al-ṭibb; De sectis medicorum).
-
The Small Book on the Art of Medicine (K. fī l-ṣināʿah al-ṣaghīrah; Ars medica).
-
On Anatomy (K. fī l-tashrīḥ; De anatomicis administrationibus).175
-
On the Natural Faculties (K. fī l-quwā al-ṭabīʿiyyah; De facultatibus naturalibus).
-
On the Uses of the Parts of the Body (K. fī manāfiʿ al-aʿḍāʾ; De usu partium).
-
On the Opinions of Hippocrates and Plato (K. fī ārāʾ Abuqrāṭ wa-Aflāṭun; De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis).
-
On Semen (K. fī l-minā; De semine).
-
On the Voice (K. fī al-ṣawt; De voce).
-
On Diseases and Symptoms (K. fī l-ʿilal wa-l-aʿrāḍ; De differentiis morborum).
-
On Types of Fevers (K. fī aṣnāf al-ḥummayāt; De differentiis febrium).
-
On Crises [of an illness] (K. fī l-buḥrān; De crisibus libri III).
-
The Large Book of the Pulse (K. fī l-nabḍ al-kabīr).176
-
On the Elements According to the Views of Hippocrates (K. fī l-usṭuqussāt ʿalā raʾy Abuqrāṭ; De elementis secundum Hippocratem libri II).
-
On Mixtures (K. fī l-mizāj; De temperamentis libri III).
-
On the Effectiveness of Simple Drugs (K. fī quwā al-adwiyah al-mufradah; De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis et facultatibus).
-
On the Properties of Compound Drugs (K. fī quwā al-adwiyah al-murakkabah; De compositione medicamentorum per genera and De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos).
-
On the Locations of the Affected Parts (K. fī mawāḍiʿ al-aʿḍāʾ al-ālimah; De locis affectis).
-
On the Method of Healing (K. fī ḥīlat al-burʾ; Methodi medendi).
-
On the Preservation of Health (K. fī ḥifẓ al-ṣiḥḥah; De sanitate tuenda).
-
On Good and Bad Juices (K. fī jūdat al-kaymūs wa-radāʾatihi; De bonis malisque sucis).
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On Ailments of the Eye (K. fī amrāḍ al-ʿayn).177
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That the Properties of the Soul Follow the Mixture of the Body (K. fī anna quwā l-nafs tābiʿah li-mizāj al-badan; Quod animi mores corporis temperamenta sequantur).
-
On Uneven Bad Mixture (K. fī sūʾ al-mizāj al-mukhtalif; De inaequali intemperie).
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On Critical Days (K. fī ayyām al-buḥrān; De creticis diebus).
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On Plethora (K. fī l-kathrah; De plenitudine).178
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On the Use of Bloodletting for the Treatment of Diseases (K. fī istiʿmāl al-faṣd li-shifāʾ al-amrāḍ; De curandi ratione per venae sectionem).
-
On the Wasting Disease (K. fī al-dhubūl; De marasmo).
-
On the Best Constitution for the Body (K. fī afḍal hayʾāt al-badan; De optima corporis nostri constitutione).
-
A compilation by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq of the statements of Galen and Hippocrates on foodstuffs (Jamʿ Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq min kalām Jālīnūs wa-kalām Abuqrāṭ fī l-aghdhiyah).
-
[14.22.4.4]
[continues the autobiography]
Then I – Ibn al-Haytham – attached [a list] of everything I had composed regarding the knowledge of the Ancients to an essay in which I made clear that all worldly as well as religious matters are consequences of the philosophical sciences. This essay was the final one in my numbered discourses on these disciplines, being the seventieth. That total excludes a number of letters and compositions that have passed from me into the hands of certain people in Basra and al-Ahwāz, for which the originals have been lost, and which I have been prevented from copying by preoccupation with worldly affairs and the disruption of travel, as frequently happens to scholars. A similar misfortune befell Galen, and he even mentions this in one of his books, where he says: ‘I had composed many books whose originals I had handed over to a group of my colleagues, but work and travel prevented me from copying them until they had become dispersed.’179
Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham continues:
If God prolongs my life and gives me time, I will compose, comment upon, and summarize from these disciplines many [more] ideas that repeatedly occur to me and prompt me to disclose them. But God will do what He wills, and He will decide what He wants, and in His hands is the ultimate power over all things, for He is the initiator and the restorer.
What it is essential [to know] is that what I composed and abstracted from the learning of the Ancients was done with the intention of addressing the most learned wise men and the exemplary intellectuals. It is like the one who says:
Many a dead one has become alive by dint of his knowledgeand many a survivor has already died by dint of his ignorance and error.Therefore acquire knowledge so that you may live foreverand count survival in ignorance as nothing.These are two verses by Abū l-Qāsim, son of the vizier Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā,180 may God be pleased with them both, and it was a philosopher who said them and directed that these two verses be inscribed on his tomb.
It was not my intention to address all of the people but rather only the eminent among them, and in that I spoke as Galen did in his large work on the pulse: ‘My discourse in this work is not for all people, but rather for the individual among them who is the equivalent of a thousand men, or rather tens of thousands of men’,181 since the truth is not something that most people can grasp but is something to which only the learned among them can attain.
In this way they will know my position concerning knowledge and they will realize my position for the preference of the truth in order to get closer to God through the attainment of learning and self-knowledge. They will realize my achievement from the appreciation of worldly matters that I have acquired from these disciplines, which have taught me to value the good and to abhor the evil in those matters, for the fruits of this learning are knowledge of truth and action with justice in all worldly matters. The one who performs justice – i.e., pure goodness – will attain the earthly world with the comfort of a heavenly hereafter and will receive compensation for the difficulties that he will encounter during his finite life in this world with the permanence of a life of ease in the other world. To God, exalted is He, I prayed for my success in whatever I accomplished, and drew near His presence.
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that the date of Ibn al-Haytham’s writing of this epistle was in the month of Dhū l-Ḥijjah in the year 417 [February 1027].
[14.22.5.1]
Subsequently, Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham also wrote in his own hand the following list of what he composed after that time [February 1027] and up to the end of Jumādā II in the year 419 [26 July 1028]:182
-
Paraphrase of Aristotle’s Physics (Talkhīṣ al-samāʿ al-ṭabīʿī l-Arisṭūṭālīs)
-
Treatise by Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan [Ibn al-Haytham] on place and time according to what he found to be Aristotle’s view of them.
-
Letter addressed to Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib,183 the Baghdad logician, concerning a number of points relating to physics and metaphysics (R. ilā Abī l-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Baghdādī al-manṭiqī fī ʿiddat maʿānin min al-ʿulūm al-ṭabīʿiyyah wa-l-ilāhiyyah).
-
Refutation of Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, the physician, and his opinion on metaphysics and prophecies (Naqḍ ʿalā Abī Bakr al-Rāzī al-mutaṭabbib raʾyahu fī l-ilāhiyyāt wa-l-nubuwwāt).
-
Refutation of those who claim that that a body [lit., magnitude] is composed of parts each of which has no parts [i.e., is composed of indivisible atoms; a refutation of atomism] (M. fī ibṭāl raʾy man yarā anna al-ʿiẓām murakkabah min ajzāʾ kull juzʾ minhā lā juzʾ lahu).
-
On making observations using a horizon ring at a location of known latitude (M. fī ʿamal al-raṣd min dāʾirat ufuq balad maʿlūm al-ʿarḍ).
-
On the affirmation of prophecy and the clarification of the error of those who deny it, and a discussion of the difference between the Prophet and someone claiming to be a prophet (K. fī ithbāt al-nubuwwāt wa-īḍāḥ fasād raʾy alladhīna yaʿtaqidūn buṭlānahā wa-dhikr al-farq bayna al-nabī wa-l-mutanabbī).
-
Treatise by Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan [Ibn al-Haytham] explaining the shortcomings in the refutation by Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī184 of some of the writings of Ibn al-Rāwandī185 (Fī īḍāḥ taqṣīr Abī ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī fī naqḍihi baʿḍ kutub Ibn al-Rāwandī), and the compelling nature of Ibn al-Rāwandī’s argument against him [al-Jubbāʾī] regarding his doctrines, along with a clarification of the opinion to which Ibn al-Rāwandī’s objections do not apply.186
-
On the effects of musical melodies on animate souls (R. fī taʾthīrāt al-luḥūn al-mūsīqiyyah fī l-nufūs al-ḥayawāniyyah).
-
On the fact that the evidence used by theologians for the temporality of the world is unsound evidence, and that proving the temporality of the world should be by compelling proof and true analogical deduction (M. fī anna al-dalīl alladhī yastadillu bihi al-mutakallimūn ʿalā ḥudūth al-ʿālam dalīl fāsid wa-l-istidlāl ʿalā ḥudūth al-ʿālam bi-l-burhān al-iḍṭirārī wa-l-qiyās al-ḥaqīqī).
-
Treatise in which he opposes the belief of the Muʿtazilah concerning the temporality of the attributes of God, blessed and exalted is He (M. yaruddu fīhā ʿalā al-muʿtazilah raʾyahum fī ḥudūth ṣifāt Allāh).
-
On the refutation of the Muʿtazilah and their views on eternal hellfire (Fī l-radd ʿalā al-Muʿtazilah raʾyahum fī l-waʿīd).187
-
Reply to a geometrical question addressed to him in Baghdad during the months of the year 418 [February 1027 to January 1028] (Jawāb ʿan masʾalah handasiyyah suʾila ʿanhā bi-Baghdād fī shuhūr sanat 418).
-
Second treatise by Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan [Ibn al-Haytham] on the clarification of the error of one who decreed that God remained inactive and then acted (M. thāniyah li-Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan fī ibānat al-ghalaṭ mimman qaḍā anna Allāh lam yazal ghayr fāʿil min [= thumma] faʿala)188
-
On the distances between the celestial bodies and the extent of their size (M. fī abʿād al-ajrām al-samāwiyyah wa-aqdār aʿẓāmihā).
-
Summary of Aristotle’s book On Meteorology (Talkhīṣ Kitāb al-āthār al-ʿulwiyyah li-Arisṭūṭālīs).
-
Summary of Aristotle’s Book of Animals (Talkhīṣ Kitāb Arisṭūṭālīs fī l-ḥayawān).
-
On burning mirrors (M. fī l-marāyā al-muḥriqah), which is separate from what I have stated on this subject in the summary of the two books of Euclid and Ptolemy on optics.
-
On extracting solutions from the practical part of the Almagest (K. fī istikhrāj al-juzʾ al-ʿamalī min Kitāb al-Majisṭī)
-
On the nature of [the organ of] sight and how vision comes about through it (M. fī jawhar al-baṣar wa-kayfiyyat wuqūʿ al-ibṣār bihi).
-
On the refutation of Abū al-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib, whose opinion regarding the natural faculties in the human body differed from the opinion of Galen. (M. fī l-radd ʿalā Abī l-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib raʾyahu al-mukhālif bihi li-raʾy Jālīnūs fī l-quwā al-ṭabīʿiyyah fī badan al-insān).
This is the end of what I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – found in the autograph of Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham, may God have mercy upon him.189
[14.22.5.2]
There is also a catalogue (fihrist), which I found, of the books of Ibn al-Haytham [that he wrote] up to the end of the year 429 [October 1038]. This includes:190
-
On the configuration of the world (M. fī hayʾat al-ʿālam).191
-
Commentary on the premises of Euclid’s Elements (M. fī sharḥ muṣādarāt Kitāb Uqlīdis).192
-
On Optics, in seven parts (K. fī l-manāẓir sabʿ maqālāt).193
-
On the method of [astronomical] observations (M. fī kayfiyyat al-arṣād).
-
On meteors occurring in the atmosphere (M. fī l-kawākib al-ḥādithah fī l-jaww).
-
On the light of the Moon (M. fī ḍawʾ al-qamar).194
-
On the direction of the Qiblah by calculation (M. fī samt al-qiblah bi-l-ḥisāb).195
-
On the rainbow and the halo (M. fī qaws quzaḥ wa-l-hālah).196
-
On the difference that occurs in the altitudes of stars (M. fī-mā yaʿriḍu min al-ikhtilāf fī irtifāʿāt al-kawākib).197
-
On applied computations (M. fī ḥisāb al-muʿāmalāt).198
-
On the horizontal sundial (M. fī l-rukhāmah al-ufuqiyyah).199
-
On the appearance of the stars (M. fī ruʾyat al-kawākib).200
-
On the drawing compass (birkār) for [the drawing of] conic sections, in two parts (K. fī birkār al-quṭūʿ maqālatān).
-
On the centres of gravity (M. fī marākiz al-athqāl).
-
On the principles of surveying (M. fī uṣūl al-misāḥah).201
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On the measurement of the sphere (M. fī misāḥat al-kurah).202
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On the measurement of the parabolic solid (M. fī misāḥat al-mujassam al-mukāfiʾ).203
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On spherical burning mirrors (M. fī l-marāyā al-muḥriqah bi-l-dawāʾir).204
-
On parabolic burning mirrors (M. fī l-marāyā al-muḥriqah bi-l-quṭūʿ).205
-
Short treatise on lunar figures (M. mukhtaṣarah fī l-ashkāl al-hilāliyyah).206
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Comprehensive treatise on lunar figures (M. mustaqṣāh fī l-ashkāl al-hilāliyyah).207
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Short treatise on the drawing compass for large circles (M. mukhtaṣarah fī birkār al-dawāʾir al-ʿiẓām).208
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Expanded treatise on the drawing compass for large circles (M. mashrūḥah fī birkār al-dawāʾir al-ʿiẓām).209
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On the azimuth (M. fī l-samt).
-
On indicating errors in the method of [astronomical] observation (M. fī l-tanbīh ʿalā mawāḍiʿ al-ghalaṭ fī kayfiyyat al-raṣd).
-
On the fact that the sphere is the largest of the solid figures having the same perimeter, and that the circle is the largest of the plane figures with the same perimeter (M. fī anna l-kurah awsaʿ al-ashkāl al-mujassamah allatī iḥāṭatuhā mutasāwiyah wa-anna al-dāʾirah awsaʿ al-ashkāl al-musaṭṭaḥah allatī iḥāṭatuhā mutasāwiyah).210
-
On optics according to the method of Ptolemy (M. fī l-manāẓir ʿalā ṭarīqat Baṭlamyūs).
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On the correction of astrological procedures, in two parts (K. fī taṣḥīḥ al-aʿmāl al-nujūmiyyah maqālatān).
-
On the solution of four lines between two lines [?] (M. fī istikhrāj arbaʿat khuṭūṭ bayna khaṭṭayn).
-
On the quadrature of the circle (M. fī tarbīʿ al-dāʾirah).211
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On the determination of the solar meridian with the utmost precision (M. fī istikhrāj khaṭṭ niṣf al-nahār ʿalā ghāyat al-taḥqīq).212
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Discourse on the aggregation of atoms (Qawl fī jamʿ al-ajzāʾ).
-
On the special properties of the parabolic section (M. fī khawāṣṣ al-qaṭʿ al-mukāfiʾ).
-
On the special properties of the hyperbola (M. fī khawāṣṣ al-qaṭʿ al-zāʾid).
-
On the relationship of temporal rainbows to their altitude (M. fī nasab al-qusiyy al-zamāniyyah ilā irtifāʿihā).
-
On the nature of shadows (M. fī kayfiyyat al-aẓlāl).
-
On the fact that what one sees of the sky is greater than half of it (M. fī anna mā yurā min al-samāʾ huwa akthar min niṣfihā).
-
On the resolution of doubts which a certain scholar has raised concerning the first book of the Almagest (M. fī ḥall shukūk fī l-maqālah al-ūlā min Kitāb al-Majisṭī yushakkiku fīhā baʿḍ ahl al-ʿilm).213
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On the resolution of a doubt concerning solid figures in Euclid’s book (M. fī ḥall shakk fī mujassamāt Kitāb Uqlīdis).
-
Discourse on the division of two unequal magnitudes mentioned in the first proposition of the tenth book of Euclid’s treatise (Qawl fī qismat al-miqdārayn al-mukhtalifayn al-madhkūrayn fī l-shakl al-awwal min al-maqālah al-ʿāshirah min Kitāb Uqlīdis).214
-
Question relating to [lunar] parallax (Masʾalah fī ikhtilāf al-naẓar).
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Discourse on the determination of the lemma [used by Archimedes] for [constructing] the side of the heptagon (Qawl fī istikhrāj muqaddamat ḍilʿ al-musabbaʿ).215
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Discourse on the division of the line used by Archimedes in his book The sphere and cylinder (Qawl fī qismat al-khaṭṭ alladhī istaʿmalahu Arshimīdis fī Kitāb al-kurah wa-l-usṭuwānah).
-
On the determination of the solar meridian by means of a single shadow (Qawl fī istikhrāj khaṭṭ niṣf al-nahār bi-ẓill wāḥid).
-
On the construction of a pentagon inside a square (M. fī ʿamal mukhammas fī murabbaʿ).
-
On the Milky Way (M. fī l-majarrah).216
-
On the determination of a side of a cube (M. fī istikhrāj ḍilʿ al-mukaʿʿab).
-
On the lights of the stars (M. fī aḍwāʾ al-kawākib).217
-
On the marks that are [seen] on the [face of the] Moon (M. fī l-athar alladhī fī l-qamar).218
-
Discourse on an arithmetical problem (Qawl fī masʾalah ʿadadiyyah).
-
On magic squares (M. fī aʿdād al-wafq).
-
On the sphere moving along a plane (M. fī l-kurah al-mutaḥarrikah ʿalā l-saṭḥ).
-
On analysis and synthesis (M. fī l-taḥlīl wa-l-tarkīb).219
-
On things known (M. fī l-maʿlūmāt).220
-
Discourse on the resolution of a doubt about Book XII of Euclid’s treatise (Qawl fī ḥall shakk fī l-maqālah al-thāniyah ʿashrah min Kitāb Uqlīdis).
-
On the resolution of doubts about Book I of Euclid’s treatise (M. fī ḥall shukūk al-maqālah al-ūlā min Kitāb Uqlīdis).
-
On the calculation of two errors (M. fī ḥisāb al-khaṭaʾayn).221
-
Discourse in reply to a question on surveying (Qawl fī jawāb masʾalah fī l-misāḥah).
-
Short treatise on the direction of the Qiblah (M. mukhtaṣarah fī samt al-qiblah).
-
On light (M. fī l-ḍawʾ).222
-
On the movement of iltifāf (M. fī ḥarakat al-iltifāf).223
-
On the refutation of whoever disagrees with the author concerning the nature of the Milky Way (M. fī l-radd ʿalā man khālafahu fī māʾiyyat al-majarrah).
-
On the resolution of doubts concerning the movement of iltifāf (M. fī ḥall shukūk ḥarakat al-iltifāf).
-
On doubts about Ptolemy (M. fī l-shukūk ʿalā Baṭlamyūs).224
-
On the particle that is not divisible (Maqālah fī l-juzʾ alladhī lā yatajazzaʾu).
-
On hour-lines [sundials] (M. fī khuṭūṭ al-sāʿāt).225
-
On the steelyard balance (M. fī l-qarasṭūn).
-
On space (M. fī l-makān).226
-
Discourse on the determination of the altitudes of mountains (Qawl fī istikhrāj aʿmidat al-jibāl).227
-
On the deficiencies of Indian arithmetic (M. fī ʿilal al-ḥisāb al-hindī).
-
On the altitudes of triangles (M. fī aʿmidat al-muthallathāt).
-
On the special properties of circles (M. fī khawāṣṣ al-dawāʾir).
-
On the method of the Banū Mūsā (M. fī shakl Banī Mūsā).228
-
On the construction of a heptagon in a circle (M. fī ʿamal al-musabbaʿ fi l-dawāʾir).229
-
On the determination of the altitude of the pole with the greatest precision (M. fī istikhrāj irtifāʿ al-quṭb ʿalā ghāyat al-taḥqīq).230
-
On the operation of the water-clock (M. fī ʿamal al-binkām).
-
On the burning sphere (M. fī l-kurah al-muḥriqah).231
-
Discourse on an arithmetical problem in solid geometry (Qawl fī masʾalah ʿadadiyyah mujassamah).
-
Discourse on a geometrical problem (Qawl fī masʾalah handasiyyah).232
-
On the shape of the eclipse (M. fī ṣūrat al-kusūf).233
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On the greatest of the lines [chords?] which occur in the sector of a circle (M. fī aʿẓam al-khuṭūṭ allatī taqaʿu fī qiṭʿat al-dāʾirah).
-
On the motion of the Moon (M. fī ḥarakat al-qamar).
-
On problems of linear equations (M. fī masāʾil al-talāqī).234
-
On arithmetical exposition, in the form of notes (M. fī sharḥ al-arithmāṭīqī ʿalā ṭarīq al-taʿlīq).235
-
On the exposition of the canon, in the form of notes (M. fī sharḥ al-qānūn ʿalā ṭarīq al-taʿlīq).236
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A commentary on harmonics, in the form of notes (M. fī sharḥ al-rumūnīqī ʿalā ṭarīq al-taʿlīq).237
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Discourse on the division of the greatest obliquity (Qawl fī qismat al-munḥarif al-kullī).238
-
On ethics (M. fī l-akhlāq).
-
On the proper conduct of secretaries (M. fī ādāb al-kuttāb).
-
On governance, in five chapters (K. fī l-siyāsah khams maqālāt).
-
Notes recorded by the physician Isḥāq ibn Yūnūs239 in Egypt from Ibn al-Haytham concerning Diophantus’ book On Problems of Algebra (Taʿlīq ʿallaqahu Isḥāq ibn Yunūs al-mutaṭabbib fi Miṣr ʿan Ibn al-Haytham fī kitāb Dayūfanṭus fī masāʾil al-jabr).
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Discourse on the solution of an arithmetical problem (Qawl fī istikhrāj masʾalah ʿadadiyyah).
14.23 al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik240
[14.23.1]
The emir Maḥmūd al-Dawlah Abū l-Wafāʾ al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik al-Āmirī was a notable emir of Egypt and accounted one of its most eminent scholars.241 He was constantly engrossed in study and was devoted to the pursuit of virtue, to meeting with the people of Egypt, debating with them, and putting to use what he learned from them. Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham242 was one of those with whom he associated and from whom he learned a great deal about mathematical astronomy (ʿulūm al-hayʾah) and the mathematical sciences. Ibn Fātik was acquainted with al-shaykh Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Maʿrūf, known as Ibn al-Āmidī,243 and learned many of the philosophical disciplines from him. Ibn Fātik was also devoted to the art of medicine, keeping frequent company with the physician Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān.244 The significant works of al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik on logic and other branches of learning are renowned among scholars. He was a prolific writer and I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have found many books in his handwriting concerned with the writings of the Ancients. Ibn Fātik acquired a very large number of books, most of which still exist, although their pages have become discoloured due to immersion in water.
[14.23.2]
The shaykh Sadīd al-Dīn,245 the logician, related the following account to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – while in Egypt:
The emir, Ibn Fātik, desired to attain knowledge and had a large library. He was constantly occupied only with study and writing, and most of the time, even when engaged in travel, he could not bear to forsake his books, for he believed that they were more important than anything else that he possessed. He had a wife of high status who was also from the ruling class. When al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik died, may God have mercy upon him, his wife, accompanied by her slave girls, betook herself to his library. She was resentful of the books because of the time he spent with them, all the while neglecting her. While lamenting him, she and the servant girls threw the books into a big pool of water in the courtyard. The books were subsequently retrieved from the water, but by then most of them had become waterlogged. And so that is the reason why most of the books of al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik are in their present condition.
[14.23.3]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that Abū l-Khayr Salāmah ibn Mubārak ibn Raḥmūn246 was among the pupils of al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik.
[14.23.4]
Al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik is the author of the following works:247
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Precepts, examples and an epitome of wise sayings (K. al-waṣāyā wa-l-amthāl wa-l-mūjiz min muḥkam al-aqwāl).
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Choicest maxims and best sayings (K. mukhtār al-ḥikam wa-maḥāsin al-kalim).248
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An introduction to logic (K. al-bidāyah fī l-manṭiq).
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On medicine (K. fī l-ṭibb).
14.24 Isḥāq ibn Yūnus249
Isḥāq ibn Yūnus was a physician who was well-versed in the medical arts, learned in the philosophical disciplines, highly knowledgeable and skilled in therapeutics. He studied under Ibn al-Samḥ250 and resided in Cairo.
14.25 ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān251
[14.25.1]
Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān ʿAlī ibn Jaʿfar was born and raised in Egypt where he studied medicine. In his autobiography, ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān himself gives a detailed account of his medical studies and the circumstances in which he came to undertake them. He says in that connection:
It is appropriate for every person to take up the profession most suitable for him. The art of medicine is closest to philosophy with regard to obedience to God, the Mighty and Glorious. The astrological signs at my birth indicated that medicine should be my profession. Moreover, a life of merit is more pleasing to me than any other. I undertook the study of medicine when I was a boy of fifteen years, but it will be best to relate to you the entire story:
I was born in Old Cairo at a locality situated at 30° latitude and 55° longitude.252 The ascendant was, according to the table of Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr,253 Aries at 5°36′, and the [mid-point] of the tenth house was Capricorn at 5°28′. The positions of the planets were the following: the Sun was in the sign of Aquarius at 5°32′, the Moon in Scorpio at 8°15′, with a latitude of south 8°17′. Saturn was in Sagittarius at 29°, Jupiter in Capricorn at 5°28′, Mars in Aquarius at 21°48′, Venus in Sagittarius at 24°20′, and Mercury in Aquarius at 19°. The Lot of Fortune254 was in Capricorn at 4°5′ and its opposite in Cancer at 22°10′. The Dragon’s Head255 was in Sagittarius at 17°11′, the Dragon’s Tail in Gemini at 17°41′. Vega256 was in Capricorn at 1°22′ and Sirius in Cancer at 5°12′.257
Figure 14.1
A modern diagram illustrating the birth horoscope of Ibn Riḍwān, born on 22 Ramadan 377 [15 January 988] constructed with the data given in his ‘autobiography’. The Lot of Fortune in the sign of Capricorn and its ‘opposite’ in the sign of Cancer are not indicated on this reconstruction.
At the age of six, I began to devote myself to study, and when I was ten, I moved to the capital [Cairo] and concentrated even more on learning. When I reached the age of fourteen, I undertook the study of medicine and philosophy but since I had no money to support myself, studying was difficult and troublesome for me. Sometimes I made a living by practising the art of astrology,258 at other times that of medicine, and at yet others by teaching. I continued in that way, exerting all my efforts in learning, until I was thirty-two, at which time I was well-known as a physician. What I then earned from practising medicine was not only sufficient but left me a surplus that has lasted even until the present day, when I am at the end of my fifty-ninth year. With the revenues left after my expenses, I have acquired properties in this city [Cairo] which – if God decrees that they remain secure and allows me to attain old age – will yield enough to enable me to subsist.
Since the age of thirty-two until the present day, I have been keeping an aide-mémoire259 for myself, amending it every year up to this present account as I approach my sixtieth year. My daily exertion in my profession is sufficient exercise for me to maintain the health of my body. After that exertion, I rest, and then eat food selected for the preservation of my health. In my conduct, I do my best to be modest, considerate to others, helpful to the dejected, alert to the anxieties of the unfortunate, and of help to the poor. I make it my purpose in all this to enjoy the satisfaction that comes from good deeds and thoughtful sentiments. But it is essential as well that this brings monetary profit from which I can earn a living. I spend money on the health of my body and the maintenance of my household, neither squandering money nor being stingy. Rather, I keep to the path of moderation, as is prudent at any time. I inspect the furnishings of my household and whatever is in need of repair, I repair, and whatever is in need of replacement, I replace. In addition, I am responsible for what is required in terms of food, honey, olive oil and firewood, as well as clothing. Whatever remains after my expenses, I spend on various good purposes such as donations to family, associates, neighbours, and maintenance of the household. Accumulated revenue from my properties I set aside for their maintenance and further investment in them, and for times of need. When contemplating a new enterprise in commerce, building or something else, I assign the matter great importance and, if the project seems likely to be successful, I promptly allocate the appropriate amount, but if it seems unlikely to be successful, I reject it. I inform myself as much as I can regarding worthy enterprises and make the necessary arrangements.
I make certain my clothes are decorated with marks of distinction and are clean. I also use a pleasant perfume. I am quiet and hold my tongue regarding people’s failings. I try not to speak except when appropriate and take care to avoid swearing and criticizing others’ opinions. I avoid pridefulness and love of superiority. I reject worries of greed and dejection.260 If adversity befalls me, I rely on God, exalted be He, and face it reasonably, without cowardice or rashness. When I transact business with anyone, I settle the account without giving or raising credit unless compelled to do so. If someone requests a loan from me, I give it to him, but I do not refuse it if he repays it. My leisure time after having finished my work, I spend in the worship of God, may He be glorified, by focussing upon the contemplation of «the government of the Heavens and the Earth»261 and praising Him who wisely rules. I have studied Aristotle’s treatise On Estate Management262 and I aspire to adhere to its prescriptions from morning to night. During times of solitude I review my actions and sentiments during the day, and I am pleased with what was good or proper or beneficial but distressed by anything that was bad, shameful or harmful, and I promise myself not to repeat it.
[14.25.2]
He continues:
As for my personal amusements, I make my main recreation reflecting upon God, mighty and glorious is He, and praising Him by contemplating «the government of the Heavens and the Earth».263 Men of learning and the Ancients have written a great number of works concerning those things. From among them, I prefer to concentrate on the following: five books of belles-lettres (adab), ten books on Sharia, the books of Hippocrates and Galen on the art of medicine and related topics, such as Dioscorides’ The Book of Herbs,264 the books of Rufus,265 Oribasius,266 Paul267 and al-Rāzī’s The Comprehensive Book.268 Of books on agriculture and pharmacology there are four; of technical books (kutub al-taʿālīm), the Almagest and its introduction and whatever else is useful, as well as ‘The Four Books’ of Ptolemy.269 Of books by sages (kutub al-ʿārifīn), there are books by Plato, Aristotle, Alexander,270 Themistius,271 and Muḥammad al-Fārābī,272 and whatever else may be of use. Other books I either sell at any price I can get or I store in cases; however, selling them is better than storing them.
[14.25.3]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that this [the above] is the whole of what he relates in his autobiography.
Ibn Riḍwān’s birthplace was Giza273 in Egypt, but he grew up in Cairo, where his father was a baker. Ibn Riḍwān worked continuously, studying various branches of learning until he acquired a good reputation and widespread fame. He served the caliph al-Ḥākim,274 who made him chief of physicians. Ibn Riḍwān’s house was in the Qaṣr al-Shamʿ quarter of Fustat,275 and the house is known to this day [that is, in Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah’s time ca. 650s/1250s] by his name, even though the house itself is nearly gone, with only a small remnant of it left. During Ibn Riḍwān’s lifetime Egypt was stricken with a great shortage of commodities (al-ghalāʾ), most of the inhabitants perished, and many of the survivors fled the country.276
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have transcribed from a manuscript in the writing of al-Mukhtār ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Buṭlān277 that this shortage of supplies in Egypt occurred in the year 445/1053. He says: ‘In the following year, the level of the Nile fell and the shortage of food increased, followed by a great pestilence (wabāʾ) that reached its peak by the year 447/1055. It was reported that the ruler278 supplied 80,000 shrouds [for the dead] from his own purse and that he lost 800 military commanders. The ruler, however, acquired considerable revenue from the estates [of those who died without heirs].’
[14.25.4]
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad of Malaga [in al-Andalus], the copyist, has related to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – that the mind of Ibn Riḍwān became deranged toward the end of his life. The reason for this change occurred during the period of the famine when he adopted an orphan-girl whom he raised in his house. One day he left her by herself in the house where he had accumulated valuables and gold worth about 20,000 dinars. She took all of it and fled. She was never heard from again, and Ibn Riḍwān was not successful in finding out where she had gone. From then on, his mental faculties deteriorated.
[14.25.5]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that Ibn Riḍwān was often inclined to polemics against his contemporaries, both physicians and others, and many of his predecessors as well. He was insolent in his discussion and slandered those who wanted to dispute him. Much of this is evident in his refutations of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq,279 Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib,280 and also Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī.281
Ibn Riḍwān did not have a teacher in the medical arts whom he followed.282 On this issue he composed a book in which he argues that learning medicine from books is more satisfactory than learning it from teachers. Ibn Buṭlān refutes this and other opinions of Ibn Riḍwān’s in a monograph. In one chapter of this book Ibn Buṭlān lays out the reasons why learning from personal instruction is preferable to instruction through the written word, assuming that both possess the same learning ability. Ibn Buṭlān presents a number of reasons:283
-
The first reason runs as follows: The transmission of an idea from like to like it is different from its transmission from unlike to like. An animate, speaking284 ‘like’ – that is to say, the teacher – is better understood by the student through speech, while the ‘dissimilar’ – that is, the book – is inanimate. The distance of the inanimate from the animate lengthens the path of understanding, while the closeness of the speaking person to another speaker makes the path to understanding shorter. Therefore, learning from something similar – that is, the teacher – is shorter and easier than from something dissimilar – that is, the book.
-
The second reason is as follows: a learned individual is learned in actual fact,285 and the foremost paths towards actual fact286 are called instruction. Teaching and the acquisition of knowledge are mutually related.287 Whatever is related to something else by nature288 is more especially linked to it than something which is not endowed with that nature. The learner is learned in potentiality.289 The reception of knowledge in the learner’s soul is called ‘learning something’, and the two correlated things – [teaching and learning] – go together naturally.290 So instruction from a teacher is more specifically linked with the student than [instruction] from a book.
-
The third reason takes this form: when the student finds unintelligible what the teacher is trying to make him understand, the teacher can recast his explanation in different words, whereas a book cannot rephrase a statement. It follows that comprehension from a teacher is more successful for a student than comprehension from a book, and whenever it is conducted in this manner, the transmission of knowledge is more successful for the student.291
-
The fourth reason: the basis of learning is verbal expression, and verbal expression is of three types: (1) That which is closely associated with the intellect – which is to say, that which is formed by the mind as a model for the meaning that is in it. (2) The intermediate – which is verbal expression vocalized – is a model for what is formed by the mind. (3) The distant – which is set down in books – is a model for what is produced through verbal expression. A book is therefore a model of a model of a model of the meaning that was in the mind. The first model cannot take the place of that which was modelled, because of the inadequacy of the comparison – so what are we to think of a model twice removed? The first model, belonging to the mind, is closer in terms of understanding than the model of the model [once removed]. The first model is verbal expression, the second is the book. This being the case, understanding based on the verbal expression of the teacher is easier and more immediate than the verbal expression of a book.
-
The fifth: the transmission of verbal expression signifying meaning to the mind may occur by way of a sense perception that is alien to verbal expression – that is, vision. Something transmitted through what is ‘similar’ or ‘like’ – in this case, verbal expression – is more immediate than its transmission through what is alien – that is, writing. Accordingly, understanding from a teacher by means of verbal expression is easier and more accessible than understanding gained from the written words of a book.
-
The sixth is this: Things may be found in a book which impede knowledge and were not in what the teacher taught – that is, mistakes occurring through misreadings due to the ambiguities of letters when not pronounced,292 or a mistake due to eye-skip, or insufficient knowledge of syntactical inflection,293 or omission of the correct placement [of diacritics and vowel signs] or their corruption [when they are indicated], or the convention of scribes of writing what is not read aloud and reading aloud what is not written.294 Add to this, the style of the teaching, the manner of expression, the method of the author of the book, the corruption of copies, the defectiveness of its transmission, the reader’s ignoring text breaks, the mixing of pedagogical principles, the use of terms which are technical for that particular discipline, as well as Greek terms which the translator has left untranslated, such as thawrūs.295
All of this is a hindrance to the acquisition of knowledge, but the student will be spared this difficulty if he studies with a teacher. This being so, studying under scholars is preferable and more useful than studying by oneself. This is what we wished to explain.
He [Ibn Buṭlān] also says:
The death of ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān, may God have mercy upon him, was in the year 453/1061 in Egypt during the caliphate of al-Mustanṣir bi-Allāh Abū Tamīm Maʿadd ibn al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz al-Dīn al-Ḥākim.302
[14.25.6]
Among the sayings of ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān is the following: If a person during part of his day has an occupation (ṣināʿah) through which his body is kept in good health and for which people praise him and with which he earns a sufficient amount, it is best for him to spend the remainder of each day devoted to submission to God. And the best form of submission is the contemplation of the kingdom of God (malakūt [Allāh]) and praising its Ruler, may He be glorified. Whoever has been provided for in that way, will be blessed in this world and the next, and will have happiness and enjoy his reward in the hereafter.
[14.25.7]
Among the sayings of ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān that I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have transcribed from a manuscript in his own handwriting is the following:
The physician, according to the opinion of Hippocrates, should be one who encompasses seven qualities:
He should have an excellent moral character, a healthy body, a keen intelligence, and a pleasing appearance, while also being prudent, possessing an excellent memory and having a good disposition.
He should be well-dressed, pleasant-smelling, and clean in his body and attire.
He should respect the confidences of patients and not divulge anything about their illnesses.
His desire to cure those who are ill should be greater than his desire for any payment he might request. His desire to treat the poor should be greater than his desire to treat the rich.
He should be eager to teach and do his utmost to benefit the people.
He should be sound of heart,303 modest in appearance and truthful in speech, while paying no attention to anything regarding the women or the wealth that he sees in the houses of the upper classes, let alone meddling with any of them.
He should be trustworthy with regard to people’s lives and property, neither prescribing any lethal medicine nor giving instructions regarding one, nor any drug causing abortion, and he should provide treatment for his enemy in no less correct a manner as he would treat his friend.
[14.25.8]
ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān [also] said:
-
The teacher (muʿallim) of the art of medicine is one in whom the requisite qualities come together [only] after he has first perfected his understanding of the medical art. The student (mutaʿallim) of the art of medicine is one who appears upon examination to possesses a good disposition as well as an intelligent mind, to be clever and intent upon acquiring knowledge, and to remember what he has learned.
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A body free from defects is a healthy body in which each of its parts maintains its inherent efficacy (faḍīlah), by which I mean it performs its special function as it should.
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To recognise a patient’s defects, you should first observe the condition (hayʾah) of the parts of the body: the appearance (saḥnah), the temperament, and the feel of the skin. Then investigate the functioning of the internal and external parts by, for example, calling to the patient from afar so as to learn from his reaction the state of his hearing. Or, evaluate his vision by having him look at distant objects and ones that are close by. Similarly, evaluate his tongue by his articulation and his strength (quwwah) by having him lift weights, grasp and hold [something], and walk. Similarly, to take another example, by observing a patient’s manner of walking from the front and from the back and ordering him to lie down on his back with his arms extended and then having him raise his legs with them held together, you can evaluate the general condition of his intestines (aḥshāʾ). You can also determine the condition of the temperament (mizāj) of his heart by means of the pulse and the disposition of his character (al-akhlāq), while the temperament of his liver can be known through the urine and the state of the humours (akhlāṭ). You can evaluate his mind (ʿaql) by asking him questions about things, and his comprehension (fahm) and his responsiveness (ṭāʿah) by ordering him to do several things. His traits of character (akhlāq) and inclinations can be evaluated by what stimulates and calms each of them. Follow this pattern for every condition in the inspection each part of the body and trait of character.
As regards those [defects] that are visible and can be perceived with the senses, don’t be satisfied until you have confirmed them personally with your senses. As regards those that are knowable through deduction, be guided by the distinctive symptoms (al-ʿalāmāt al-khāṣṣiyyah). And as regards those that can be known through information provided by the patient, search for them by questioning the patient until you have evaluated every defect to the point of having determined whether it is a recent defect (ʿayb ḥāḍir), a pre-existing one, or one that is anticipated (mutawaqqaʿ), or a condition (ḥāl) that is healthy and sound.
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In one of his sayings, Ibn Riḍwān also says: When you are summoned to a patient, give the patient something that will not harm him until you have determined his illness. [Only] at that point should you treat it. Identifying the disease means you must first determine from which humour it has arisen and then, after that, the part of the body in which it is located. At that point, you may treat it.
[14.25.9]
The works composed by ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān are the following:304
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Commentary on Galen’s Sects (Sharḥ Kitāb al-firaq li-Jālīnūs),305 which he completed on Thursday, with two nights remaining of Dhū l-Ḥijjah in the year 432 [27 August 1041].
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Commentary on Galen’s Small Book of the Art (Sharḥ Kitāb al-ṣināʿah al-ṣaghīrah li-Jālīnūs).306
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Commentary on Galen’s Small Book of the Pulse (Sharḥ Kitāb al-nabḍ al-ṣaghīr li-Jālīnūs).307
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Commentary on Galen’s treatise To Glaucon on the Method of Healing Diseases (Sharḥ Kitāb Jālīnūs ilā Ighlawqun fī l-taʾattī li-shifāʾ al-amrāḍ).308
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Commentary on the first book (Sharḥ al-maqālah al-ūlā), consisting of five parts.309
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Commentary on the second book (Sharḥ al-maqālah al-thāniyah), in two parts.
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Commentary on Galen’s The Elements (Sharḥ Kitāb al-usṭuqussāt li-Jālīnūs).310
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Commentary on a portion of Galen’s Mixtures (Sharḥ baʿḍ Kitāb al-mizāj li-Jālīnūs).311 Of Galen’s sixteen books Ibn Riḍwān did not comment on any except the aforementioned ones.
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On the principles of medicine (K. al-uṣūl fī l-ṭibb), in four parts.
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Compendium (Kunnāsh).312
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On the treatment of leprosy (R. fī ʿilāj al-judhām).
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Analysis of the Questions of Ḥunayn (K. tatabbuʿ Masāʾil Ḥunayn),313 in two parts.
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The useful book on the method of medical learning (al-K. al-nāfiʿ fī kayfiyyat taʿlīm ṣināʿat al-ṭibb), in three parts.314
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On the fact that Galen did not make a mistake in his statements regarding milk (laban), as some people thought.
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On the prevention of bodily ills in Egypt (M. fī dafʿ al-maḍārr ʿan al-abdān bi-Miṣr).315
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On his autobiography (M. fī sīratihi).316
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On barley and what is made from it (M. fī l-shaʿīr wa-mā yuʿmalu minhu), which the author composed for the physician Abū Zakariyyā ibn Saʿādah.317
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Ibn Riḍwān’s reply to questions from Yahūdhā ibn Saʿādah concerning milk of a she-ass (Jawābuhu li-masāʾil fī laban al-utun saʾalahu iyyāhā Yahūdhā ibn Saʿādah).
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Glosses on medicine (Taʿālīq ṭibbiyyah).
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Notes on the production of drugs for medicine (Taʿālīq fī ṣaydalat al-ṭibb).318
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On the method of Hippocrates for teaching medicine (M. fī madhhab Abuqrāṭ fī taʿlīm al-ṭibb).
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On the fact that the best attribute of ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib319 is his sophistry (K. fī anna afḍal aḥwāl ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib al-ḥāl al-sūfisṭāʾiyyah), in five parts.
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On the fact that individuals of every type are descended from one ancestor from whom the individuals are descended, according to the doctrine of philosophy (K. fī anna li-ashkhāṣ kull wāḥid min al-anwāʿ al-mutanāsilah ab awwal minhu tanāsalat al-ashkhāṣ ʿalā madhhab al-falsafah).
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Exegesis of the treatise of Pythagoras, the sage, on virtue (Tafsīr maqālat al-ḥakīm Fīthāghūras fī l-faḍīlah).
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On the refutation of Ifrāʾīm320 and Ibn Zurʿah321 on the differences between religions (M. fī l-radd ʿalā Ifrāʾīm wa-Ibn Zurʿah fī l-ikhtilāf fī l-milal).
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Extracts from Galen’s commentaries on the works of Hippocrates (Intizāʿāt shurūʿ Jālīnūs li-kutub Abuqrāṭ).322
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In defence of Aristotle (K. al-intiṣār li-Arisṭūṭālīs). This is a book that mediates between the author and his adversaries who disagreed with him regarding [Aristotle’s] Physics ([Kitāb] al-samāʿ al-ṭabīʿī) and consists of thirty-nine treatises.
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Exegesis on The Law of Medicine of Hippocrates (Tafsīr Nāmūs al-ṭibb li-Abuqrāṭ).323
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Exegesis on The Testament of Hippocrates, known as The Etiquette of Medicine (Tafsīr Waṣiyyat Abuqrāṭ al-maʿrūfah bi-tartīb al-ṭibb).324
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Discourse on laxatives (Kalām fī l-adwiyah al-mus′hilah).
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On the making of drinks and medicinal pastes (K. fī ʿamal al-ashribah wa-l-maʿājīn).
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Note from the work of al-Tamīmī on foodstuffs and medicines (Taʿlīq min kitāb al-Tamīmī fī l-aghdhiyah wa-l-adwiyah).325
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Note on the work of Posidonius326 on drinks agreeable to the healthy (Taʿlīq min kitāb Fūsīdūniyūs fī ashribah ladhīdhah li-l-aṣiḥḥāʾ).
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Useful lessons noted down by the author from the book of Philagrius327 on beneficial drinks that are agreeable during illnesses (Fawāʾid ʿallaqahā min kitāb Fīlaghriyūs fī l-ashribah al-nāfiʿah al-ladhīdhah fī awqāt al-amrāḍ).
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On sexual intercourse (M. fī l-bāh).
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On the fact that every organ is nourished by the humour that is homogeneous with it (M. fī anna kull wāḥid min al-aʿḍāʾ yaghtadhī min al-khilṭ al-mushākil lahu).
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On the way to determine the number of fevers (M. fī l-tarīq ilā iḥṣaʾ ʿadad al-ḥummayāt).
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A chapter from the author’s discourse on the natural faculties (Faṣl min kalāmihi fī l-quwā l-ṭabīʿiyyah).
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The reply to questions concerning the pulse that came to the author from Syria (Jawāb masāʾil fī l-nabḍ waṣala ilayhi al-suʾāl ʿanhā min al-Shām).
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Letter providing answers to questions concerning tumours that were put to the author by the shaykh Abū l-Ṭayyib Azhar ibn al-Nuʿmān328 (R. fī ajwibat masāʾil saʾala ʿanhā al-shaykh Abū l-Ṭayyib Azhar ibn al-Nuʿmān fī l-awrām).
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Letter concerning the treatment of a boy who had the disease known as elephantiasis and leprosy (R. fī ʿilāj ṣabī aṣābahu al-maraḍ al-musammā bi-dāʾ al-fīl wa-dāʾ al-asad).
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Copy of the procedures (dustūr) that had been sent to the author by Abū l-ʿAskar al-Ḥusayn ibn Maʿdān, ruler of Makrān329 concerning the partial paralysis (fālij) of his left side, and Ibn Riḍwān’s reply to him (Nuskhat al-dustūr alladhī anfadhahu Abū l-ʿAskar al-Ḥusayn ibn Maʿdān malik Makrān fī ḥāl ʿillat al-fālij fī shaqqihi l-aysar wa-jawāb Ibn Riḍwān lahu).
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Useful notes made by the author on Galen’s book Method of Healing (Fawāʾid ʿallaqahā min Kitāb ḥīlat al-burʾ li-Jālīnūs).330
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Useful notes by the author on Galen’s Regimen of Health (Fawāʾid ʿallaqahā min Kitāb tadbīr al-ṣiḥḥah li-Jālīnūs).331
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Useful notes by the author on Galen’s On Plethora (Fawāʾid ʿallaqahā min Kitāb al-kathrah li-Jālīnūs).332
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Useful notes by the author on Galen’s On Phlebotomy (Fawāʾid ʿallaqahā min Kitāb al-faṣd li-Jālīnūs).333
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Useful notes by the author on Galen’s On Simple Drugs (Fawāʾid ʿallaqahā min Kitāb al-adwiyah al-mufradah li-Jālīnūs).334
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Useful notes by the author on Galen’s book al-Mayāmir (Fawāʾid ʿallaqahā min Kitāb al-mayāmir li-Jālīnūs).335
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Useful notes by the author on Galen’s book Qāṭājānis (Fawāʾid ʿallaqahā min Kitāb qāṭājānas li-Jālīnūs).336
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Useful notes by the author concerning the humours, drawn from a number of books by Hippocrates and Galen (Fawāʾid ʿallaqahā fī l-akhlāṭ min kutub ʿiddah li-Abuqrāṭ wa-Jālīnūs).
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On the resolution of the doubts of al-Rāzī regarding the works of Galen (K. fī ḥall shukūk al-Rāzī ʿalā kutub Jālīnūs), in seven parts.337
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On the preservation of health (M. fī ḥifẓ al-ṣiḥḥah).
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On the periodic changes of fevers (M. fī adwār al-ḥummayāt).
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On difficult breathing (dyspnea) – that is, shortness of breath (M. fī l-tanaffus al-shadīd wa-huwa ḍīq al-nafas).
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Letter in which the author wrote to Abū Zakariyyā Yahūdhā ibn Saʿādah338 on the method Galen employed in his work called The Small Book on the Art of Medicine339 when analysing the term.340 (R. kataba bihā ilā Abī Zakariyyā Yahūdhā ibn Saʿādah fī l-niẓām alladhī istaʿmalahu Jālīnūs fī taḥlīl al-ḥadd fī kitābihi al-musammā l-ṣināʿah al-ṣaghīrah).
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On the refutation of the treatise by Ibn Buṭlān on the hen and the pullet (M. fī naqḍ maqālat Ibn Buṭlān fī l-farkh wa-l-farrūj).341
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On the mouse (M. fī l-faʾr).
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On the confusions put forward by Ibn Buṭlān (M. fī-mā awradahu Ibn Buṭlān min al-taḥyīrāt).
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On the fact that what Ibn Buṭlān is ignorant of is certainty and wisdom and that which he is informed about is error and sophistry (M. fī anna mā jahilahu yaqīn wa-ḥikmah wa-mā ʿalimahu Ibn Buṭlān ghalaṭ wa-safsaṭah).342
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On the fact that Ibn Buṭlān does not understand what he himself says, much less what others say (M. fī anna Ibn Buṭlān lā yaʿlamu kalām nafsihi faḍlan ʿan kalām ghayrihi).
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Epistle to the physicians of Egypt and Cairo containing a report on Ibn Buṭlān (R. ilā aṭibbāʾ Miṣr wa-l-Qāhirah fī khabar Ibn Buṭlān).343
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Discourse summarizing the author’s refutation of Ibn Buṭlān (Qawl lahu fī jumlat al-radd ʿalayhi).
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On issues that arose between the author and Ibn al-Haytham concerning the Milky Way and place (K. fī masāʾil jarat baynahu wa-bayna Ibn al-Haytham fī l-majarrah wa-l-makān).344
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Extract with annotations by the author from the Complete Book of the Medical Art, of which only some of the first part is preserved (Ikhrājuhu li-ḥawāshī Kāmil al-ṣināʿah al-ṭibbiyyah al-mawjūd minhu baʿḍ al-ūlā).345
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On the durations of illnesses (R. fī azminat al-amrāḍ).
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On the progress to true happiness through medicine (M. fī l-taṭarruq bi-l-ṭibb ilā l-saʿādah).346
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On the causes for the intervals of humoral fevers and their coming together (M. fī asbāb mudad ḥummayāt al-akhlāṭ wa-qirānihimā).
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The author’s response to what was described to him regarding the condition of a patient suffering from partial paralysis on his left side (Jawābuhu ʿammā shuriḥa lahu min ḥāl ʿalīl bihi ʿillat al-fālij fī shiqqihi al-aysar).347
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On tumors (M. fī l-awrām).
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On simple drugs (K. fī l-adwiyah al-mufradah) arranged in alphabetical order, a work in twelve parts of which some six are preserved.
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On the excellence of medicine (M. fī sharaf al-ṭibb).348
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On generation and corruption (R. fī l-kawn wa-l-fasād).
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On the paths to happiness (M. fī subul al-saʿādah), which is the way of life he chose for himself.
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On the survival of the soul after death (R. fī baqāʾ al-nafs baʿd al-mawt).
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On the merit of philosophy (M. fī faḍīlat al-falsafah).
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On the immortality of the soul according to the opinion of Plato and Aristotle (M. fī baqāʾ al-nafs ʿalā raʾy Aflāṭun wa-Arisṭūṭālīs).
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The author’s answers to logical problems in the Book of Syllogism (Ajwibatuhu li-masāʾil manṭiqiyyah min Kitāb al-qiyās).349
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On the resolution of doubts raised by Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī, known as ‘al-mḥrsāt’ (M. fī ḥall shukūk Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī al-musammāh bi-l-mḥrsāt).350
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On heat (M. fī l-ḥarr).
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On the prophethood of Muḥammad, God bless him and keep him, according to the Torah and philosophy (M. fī baʿth nubuwwat Muḥammad … min al-Tawrāh wa-l-falsafah).
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On the fact that points and lines exist naturally (M. fī anna fī l-wujūd nuqaṭ wa-khuṭūṭ ṭabīʿiyyah).
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On the creation of the world (M. fī ḥadath al-ʿālam).
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On remarks concerning the methods of those asserting the art of judgement by means of the stars, and the high status of those who practise it (M. fī l-tanbīh ʿalā ḥiyal man yantaḥilu ṣināʿat al-qaḍāyā bi-l-nujūm wa-tasharruf ahlihā).
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On the mixture of the necessary and existential (M. fī khilṭ al-ḍarūrī wa-l-wujūdī).
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On the acquisition of lawful property (M. fī iktisāb al-ḥalāl min al-māl).
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On the difference between the virtuous person, the one of proper conduct, and the one governing351 (M. fī l-farq bayna al-fāḍil min al-nās wa-l-sadīd wa-l-quṭb)
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On the whole of [the book on] governance (M. fī kull al-siyāsah).
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On happiness (R. fī l-saʿādah).
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On the author’s apology for opposing the moderns (M. fī iʿtidhārihi ʿammā nāqada bihi l-muḥdathīn).
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On the monotheism and piety of the philosophers (M. fī tawḥīd al-falāsifah wa-ʿibādatihim).
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On the refutation of al-Rāzī with regard to metaphysics and the authentication of the prophets (K. fī l-radd ʿalā al-Rāzī fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī wa-ithbāt al-rusul).
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On the application of logic in the theoretical and practical fields of learning (K. al-mustaʿmal min al-manṭiq fī l-ʿulūm wa-l-ṣanāʾiʿ), consisting of three parts.
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A small essay on primary matter (R. ṣughrā fī l-hayūlā), which the author composed for Abū Sulaymān ibn Bābashādh.352
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The author’s two memoranda called The Complete Perfection and The Utmost Happiness (Tadhkiratāh al-musammayatān bi-l-kamāl al-kāmil wa-l-saʿādah al-quṣwā), which are unfinished.
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The author’s annotations of the useful commentaries on the books of Plato that engage polemically with the essence of human nature (Taʿālīquhu li-fawāʾid kutub Aflāṭun al-mushājirah al-huwiyyah ṭabīʿat al-insān).353
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Notes on useful remarks in the Introduction (Isagoge) of Porphyry (Taʿālīq fawāʾid Mudkhal Furfūriyūs).354
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Revision of the book of [?]355 on architectural proportions, only part of which is preserved (Tahdhīb kitāb al-X-a-x-s356 fī riʾāsat al-bināʾ al-mawjūd minhu baʿḍ lā kull).357
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Notes on the fact that the equator by nature is darker at night, and that its essential nature, because of its latitude, is to be darker at night (Taʿālīq fī anna khaṭṭ al-istiwāʾ bi-l-ṭabʿ aẓlam laylan wa-anna jawharuhu bi-l-ʿarḍ aẓlam laylan).358
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On what the physician should have in his office (K. fīmā yanbaghī an yakūna fī ḥānūt al-ṭabīb), in four parts.
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On the climate of Egypt (M. fī hawāʾ Miṣr).
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On the temperament of drunkenness (M. fī mizāj al-sukr).
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On drawing attention to the senseless jabber in the statements of Ibn Buṭlān (M. fī l-tanbīh ʿalā mā fī kalām Ibn Buṭlān min al-hadhayān).
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On the prevention of harm from sweets to feverish persons (R. fī dafʿ maḍārr al-ḥalwā bi-l-maḥrūr)
14.26 Ifrāʾīm ibn al-Zaffān359
[14.26.1]
Abū Kathīr Ifrāʾīm ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Yaʿqūb, commonly known as Ifrāʾīm (Ephraim) ibn al-Zaffān, was a Jewish360 physician who won great renown in Egypt, serving the [Fatimid] rulers of the day and enjoying many favours and substantial wealth at their hands. He was one of the most distinguished pupils of Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān,361 under whom he had studied the art of medicine. Ifrāʾīm ibn al-Zaffān was keenly interested in acquiring books and having books copied, so much so that eventually he came to possess a large collection of books on medicine and other topics. He always had copyists in his employ, whom he paid well. One of these was Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn Hishām al-Ḥajarī, known as Ibn Mulsāqah. I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have found a number of books in the latter’s handwriting that he had transcribed for Ifrāʾīm, with some of Ifrāʾīm’s own handwriting on them as well.
[14.26.2]
My father362 related to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – that a man from Iraq once came to Egypt in order to buy books to take back to Iraq. He met with Ifrāʾīm and they agreed that Ifrāʾīm would sell him 10,000 volumes from the books in his possession. This was in the days of the governorship of al-Afḍal ibn Amīr al-Juyūsh.363 When al-Afḍal heard of this [transaction] he determined that those books should remain in Egypt and not removed elsewhere [and taken out of the country]. So he sent to Ifrāʾīm out of his own resources the entire price that had been agreed between Ifrāʾīm and the Iraqi, and the books were transferred to al-Afḍal’s library, and his honorific titles were inscribed in them. This is why I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have come across a great number of medical books, as well as volumes on other topics, bearing the name of Ifrāʾīm as well as the honorific titles of al-Afḍal.
[14.26.3]
Ifrāʾīm left behind more than 20,000 volumes and a great deal of wealth and many benefactions (niʿam).
Among Ifrāʾm ibn al-Zaffān’s books there are:
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Notes and case histories which he assembled in the form of a compendium (Taʿālīq wa-mujarrabāt jaʿalahā ʿalā jihat al-kunnāsh). I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have found this work in his own handwriting, and in it he has an extensive discussion of diseases and their treatments. He writes at the beginning of the compendium what the purpose of it is: ‘I say that I, Ifrāʾīm, have composed this book to be a memorandum book in the form of a collection of items rather than a formal composition, as a warning against negligence for anyone who is treating diseases’.
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A medical aide-mémoire on what is beneficial for bodily conditions (K. al-tadhkirah al-ṭibbiyyah fī maṣlaḥat al-aḥwāl al-badaniyyah), which he composed for Naṣīr al-Dawlah Abū ʿAlī l-Ḥusayn ibn Abī ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn Ḥamdān364 for when he wished to leave Cairo and go to the port of Alexandria or to Buḥayrah365 near Alexandria and similar areas.
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On establishing by deduction that the production of phlegm increases in summer, while [the production of] blood and yellow bile [increases] in winter (M. fī l-taqrīr al-qiyāsī ʿalā anna al-balgham yakthuru tawalluduhu fī l-ṣayf wa-l-dam wa-l-marār al-aṣfar fī l-shitāʾ).
14.27 Salāmah ibn Raḥmūn366
[14.27.1]
Abū l-Khayr Salāmah ibn Mubārak ibn Raḥmūn ibn Mūsā was a Jewish physician who was one of the distinguished citizens of Egypt. He was known not only for his excellent achievements in the art of medicine, but also for his knowledge of the writings of Galen and his investigation of their obscure passages. He had studied the art of medicine under Ifrāʾīm [ibn al-Zaffān]367 and practised for some time under his guidance. Ibn Raḥmūn was also an outstanding scholar in the domains of logic and the philosophical disciplines, and composed a number of works in those fields. The teacher under whom he studied was the emir Abū l-Wafāʾ Maḥmūd al-Dawlah al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik.368 When Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī l-Ṣalt al-Andalusī369 travelled from the Maghrib to Egypt, he met with Salāmah ibn Raḥmūn and engaged in discussion and disputation with him.
[14.27.2]
Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah ibn Abī l-Ṣalt mentions Salāmah ibn Raḥmūn in his ‘Egyptian Epistle’. Speaking of the physicians whom he met in Egypt, he says:370
The most characteristic371 of those whom I saw and would count amongst the physicians was a Jew by the name of Abū l-Khayr Salāmah ibn Raḥmūn. He was acquainted with Abū l-Wafāʾ al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik and learned from him something of the art of logic, in which he became particularly distinguished. He was also associated with Abū Kathīr ibn al-Zaffān,372 a pupil of Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Riḍwān,373 and studied some of Galen’s books under him. Subsequently, he endeavoured to teach all the works on logic, natural philosophy and metaphysics, but he explained them as he saw fit, interpreting and summarizing them with no evidence of having studied, grasped or investigated the finer points of knowledge. Rather, he talked excessively and so committed errors; his answers were hurried and frequently erroneous. Upon my first encounter with him, I asked him about issues that had arisen in the course of his discussion – things that could be understood even by one who did not have any great breadth of knowledge in the field. He answered in a way that exposed his shortcomings, articulated his incompetence, and made clear his lack of imagination and understanding. In his great pretensions and his incompetence at even the easiest of his undertakings, he can be compared to the man described by the poet:374
He tucks up his robe to wade into deep watersbut the waves engulf him on the shore.Or as another has said:375
You wished for two hundred horsemenbut you were driven back by one horseman.
[14.27.3]
Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah continues:
There was in Cairo a physician from Antioch called Jirjis, who was nicknamed ‘The Philosopher’ in the way you might call a raven Abū l-Bayḍāʾ (‘whitey’),376 or address one who has been stung by a scorpion as Salīm (‘unhurt’). Jirjis went out of his way to make fun of Ibn Raḥmūn and mock him. He used to compose fake medical and philosophical essays,377 written in the style of language of the common people, which were meaningless, worthless, and of no use whatsoever. Then he would see to it that they were placed in the hands of someone who would ask him about their meaning and request an explanation of their purposes, whereupon he would discourse at length about them and explain them just anyhow, without caution or care, but rather with abandon, haste, indifference to content, and intrigue. Some amusing compositions by him are extant.
The following lines by this Jirjis have been recited to me (Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah). This is one of the best lampoons on an ill-starred physician that I have ever heard, and I imagine the lines are indeed by him:378
In Abū l-Khayr’s scales, with his ignorance,a virtuous man weighs but lightly.His poor patient, through his evil omen,is in a sea of perdition without shore.Three things enter at the same time:his face, a bier, and the man who washes the corpse.And another runs as follows:379
In his therapy Abū l-Khayr has a handthat does not fall short.Everyone who seeks his medical skillis buried after a couple of days;And those you are not aware ofbut whom we have witnessed are yet more numerous.The following verses also refer to him:380
Abū l-Khayr’s madness is madness personified,while to him every madness is the acme of reason.Take him, fetter him, tighten his chains,for no rational person will underrate a disturbed one.He used to harm people with words only,but now he is harming people with words and deeds.
[14.27.4]
Salāmah ibn Raḥmūn is the author of the following works:
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On the structure of existing things (K. niẓām al-mawjūdāt).
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On the reason for the scarcity of rain in Egypt (M. fī l-sabab al-mūjib li-qillat al-maṭar bi-Miṣr).
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On metaphysics (M. fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī).
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On the reason why women in Egypt grow fat when past their youth (M. fī khiṣb abdān al-nisāʾ bi-Miṣr ʿinda tanāhī al-shabāb).
14.28 Mubārak ibn Salāmah ibn Raḥmūn381
Mubārak ibn Abī l-Khayr Salāmah ibn Mubārak ibn Raḥmūn was born and brought up in Egypt. He, too, was an eminent physician.
Mubārak ibn Salāmah ibn Raḥmūn is the author of a short treatise on the carbuncle (jamrah) entitled The Potsherds and the Pieces of Pottery, Condensed (M. fī l-jamrah al-musammāh bi-l-shaqafah wa-l-khazafah mukhtaṣaratan).382
14.29 Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī383
[14.29.1]
The shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Naṣr ʿAdnān ibn Manṣūr [known as Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī] was a native of ʿAyn Zarbah.384 For a time he lived in Baghdad, where he studied the art of medicine and the philosophical disciplines, especially astrology, in which he became particularly proficient. He subsequently moved from Baghdad to Egypt where he married and continued to live for the rest of his life. He served the Egyptian caliphs,385 enjoying their favour and attaining high rank. He was among the most outstanding and most knowledgeable of teachers386 in the domain of the medical art, possessing as he did excellent discernment (firāsah ḥasanah) and correct prognosis (indhār ṣāʾibah) in his treatments. In Egypt, he composed many works on medicine, logic and other sciences. He had a number of pupils, each of whom came to excel in the art of medicine.
[14.29.2]
At the beginning of his career, however, Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī had earned his living exclusively from astrology. I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – had the following account from my father:
A grandson of the shaykh Abū Naṣr ʿAdnān ibn al-ʿAynzarbī informed me that the fame of his grandfather in Egypt and his connection with the caliphs was due to the arrival there of an envoy [to the court] from Baghdad who had known Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī previously and was familiar with his reputation for excellence and proficiency in many fields of learning. While walking along one of the streets of Cairo, he suddenly came upon Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī sitting there earning his living as an astrologer, and he recognized him and greeted him. The envoy was astonished that, despite his great learning and pre-eminent status in the art of medicine, Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī should be in such a lowly condition. This [encounter] remained in his mind, so that when he met with the vizier and was engaged in conversation with him, he mentioned Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī and his reputation for learning and for superiority and pre-eminence in medicine as well as other fields. The envoy remarked on this, adding that people did not know his value and that he should not be neglected. This made the vizier eager to see Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī and to meet him first hand, so he sent for him and, upon listening to him, was greatly impressed by what he had said. The vizier became convinced of Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī’s excellence and his eminent position in the world of learning. Consequently, he informed the caliph of his situation, whereupon the caliph dispatched to Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī a present befitting someone of his stature. From that time onward, favours and gifts flowed to him in a steady stream.
[14.29.3]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say: Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī was well-versed and knowledgeable in Arabic and had excellent penmanship. I have seen a number of books on medicine and other subjects in his handwriting, which is of the utmost beauty and high quality and adheres to the proportional method.387 He also used to compose poetry and some fine verses are attributed to him. He died – may God have mercy upon him – in the year 548/1153 in Cairo during the reign of al-Ẓāfir bi-Amr Allāh.388
[14.29.4]
Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī is the author of the following works:
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The Sufficient (Book): on medicine (K. al-kāfī fī l-ṭibb),389 which the author began in the year 510/1116 in Egypt and finished on the twenty-sixth of Dhū l-Qaʿdah of the year 547 [22 February 1153].
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A commentary on Galen’s The Art of Medicine390 (Sharḥ Kitab al-Ṣināʿah al-ṣaghīrah li-Jālīnūs).
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The persuasive treatise on logic (al-Risālah al-muqniʿah fī l-manṭiq), which the author based on the statements of Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī and Ibn Sīnā.
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On medical experiences, in the form of a compendium (Mujarrabāt fī l-ṭibb ʿalā jihat al-kunnāsh) that Ẓāfir ibn Tamīm391 compiled in Egypt and arranged after the death of Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī.
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On governance (R. fī l-siyāsah).
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On the difficulty of finding an excellent physician and the ready market for ignorant ones (R. fī taʿadhdhur wujūd al-ṭabīb al-fāḍil wa-nafāq al-jāhil)
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On kidney and bladder stones and their treatment (M. fī l-ḥaṣā wa-ʿilājihi).
14.30 Bulmuẓaffar ibn Muʿarrif392
Bulmuẓaffar Naṣr ibn Maḥmūd ibn al-Muʿarrif was intelligent, clever, and very diligent and meticulous in his devotion to the philosophical disciplines. He also studied the art of medicine and belles-lettres (adab), and in addition he composed poetry. He had been a pupil of Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī393 for a time, studying under him many of the philosophical and other disciplines. I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have seen a note in his handwriting at the end of a copy of the commentary of Alexander394 on Aristotle’s Generation and Corruption, in which Bulmuẓaffar says that he studied under Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī and mastered the subject. This note is dated the month of Shaʿbān of the year 534 [March 1140].
Bulmuẓaffar had good penmanship and an excellent turn of phrase. He was especially interested in the art of alchemy, studying it and meeting with its adherents. With his own hand, he copied a very large number of books on that subject as well as numerous medical and philosophical works. He was keenly interested in acquiring books and reading them. The shaykh Sadīd al-Dīn ‘the logician’395 has related to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – that in Bulmuẓaffar’s house there was a large sitting room with shelves that were laden with books, and that Bulmuẓaffar spent most of his time in that room occupied with writing, reading and copying.
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that one marvellous detail concerning him is that, while he owned many thousands of books of all kinds, there was not one that did not have inscribed on its cover some witticisms and anecdotes relating to whatever topic formed the subject of the book. I myself have seen a great many books on medicine and other subjects that were among the philosophical books formerly belonging to Bulmuẓaffar,396 and on every one of them, without exception, he had written his name and some relevant notes and miscellaneous useful comments relating to the book.
Some samples of the poetry of Bulmuẓaffar ibn Muʿarrif:397
They say: Nature (al-ṭabīʿah) is the principle of Being.I wish I knew what Nature is:Is it capable and has it imprinted (ṭabaʿat) itselfto be that, or does it not have power?398
And he also said:399
They say: Nature is something we know,and we can clarify what is its limit.400But they do not know now what was before,so how can they wish for what will be after it?
Bulmuẓaffar ibn Muʿarrif is the author of the following works:
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Notes on alchemy (Taʿālīq fī l-kīmiyāʾ).
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On astronomy (K. fī ʿilm al-nujūm).
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Selections on medicine (Mukhtārāt fī l-ṭibb).
14.31 al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Raʾīs al-Ṭibb401
[14.31.1]
Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Raʾīs al-Ṭibb (‘The Well-Guided Shaykh, the Master of Medicine’) was al-Qāḍī al-Ajall al-Sadīd Abū l-Manṣūr ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Abī l-Ḥasan ʿAlī. His honorific name was Sharaf al-Dīn, but the nickname of his father, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī, came to be applied to him, so that he was known as al-Shaykh al-Sadīd (‘The Well-Guided Shaykh’). Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Abū l-Manṣūr ʿAbd Allāh was knowledgeable in the art of medicine and experienced in its fundamentals as well as its details. He excelled in therapeutics, had a great deal of practical experience and was skilful in surgical procedures (al-aʿmāl bi-l-yad). Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd served the Egyptian caliphs402 and enjoyed favour during their reign, receiving considerable wealth and substantial favours from them that exceeded what was given to other physicians during his time; his high station and rank with the caliphs were unequalled. He had a long life during which he was considered to be amongst the medical elite (baytūtah). Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd’s father, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī, was also a physician in the service of the Egyptian caliphs, acquiring fame during their reign.
[14.31.2]
Al-Qāḍī Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr,403 who had trained with al-Shaykh al-Sadīd and studied medicine under him, related to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – that al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Raʾīs al-Ṭibb had told him:
The first caliph to whom I presented myself, and who bestowed favours on me, was al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh.404 That was because my father was a physician in his service and had influence over him, holding a prominent position during his reign. I was a youth at that time and my father used to give me a few dirhams each day to sit at the door of our house and perform bloodletting on chance clients until I became experienced and acquired great skill in that operation. I also learned something of the medical art, so that one day my father mentioned me to the caliph al-Āmir and told him about me, explaining that I knew the art of bloodletting and was very skilful at it. The caliph then sent for me, and I went to him, dressed in splendid clothes and riding a spirited mount adorned with a gold collar and similar trappings. When I entered the palace, accompanied by my father, and came before the caliph, I kissed the ground and paid homage to him. He then said to me, ‘Bleed this gentleman (al-ustādh)’,405 indicating a person standing in front of him. I replied, ‘I hear and obey.’ Then a silver basin was brought and I tied the man’s upper arm. He had veins that stood out clearly, and so I bled him and bandaged the place of the incision. The caliph said to me, ‘You did well,’ and ordered a well-filled purse and splendid robes of honour to be presented to me. From that time on, I went repeatedly to the palace in attendance on the caliph, who bestowed on me payment that was quite sufficient and more than I could have wished for, as well as frequent gratuities and numerous presents.
[14.31.3]
Asʿad al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī l-Ḥasan406 told me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – that al-Shaykh al-Sadīd had once earned 30,000 dinars in one day for treating one of the caliphs.
[14.31.4]
Al-Qāḍī Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr informed me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – that when al-Shaykh al-Sadīd circumcised the two sons of al-Ḥāfiẓ li-Dīn Allāh407 he received 50,000 dinars or more on the spot, together with whatever gold and silver vessels were in the reception room, for they were given to him as gifts.
[14.31.5]
Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd was high-minded and beneficent to all. The shaykh Raḍī al-Dīn al-Raḥbī408 related to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – the following:
When Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ibn al-Naqqāsh,409 arrived in Syria from Baghdad, he was already proficient in the art of medicine. He settled in Damascus for a time, but was unable to earn a sufficient living. Ibn al-Naqqāsh [then] heard about Egypt and the favours of the caliphs there and their generosity and kindness to those who approached them, especially those endowed with learning and refinement. Accordingly, he decided he must travel there. Upon reaching Egypt, having heard of al-Shaykh al-Sadīd, the physician of the caliphs, and his merits, the extent of his wealth, his good character, and his notable virtuousness (al-murūʾah al-ʿazīzah), he determined to call on him. After waiting for a few days, Ibn al-Naqqāsh went to al-Shaykh al-Sadīd’s house, where he greeted the physician, informed him of his occupation and explained that he had come with the purpose of seeking him out and entrusting all his affairs to him and absorbing some of his sea of knowledge. Ibn al-Naqqāsh acknowledged that whatever he might receive from the caliphs would be due to al-Shaykh al-Sadīd’s kindness and that he would credit him with that all the rest of this life. Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd received him in an appropriate manner and honoured him greatly.
Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd then said to him, ‘What would you consider sufficient pay for you if you were to stay in Cairo?’ ‘My lord,’ Ibn al-Naqqāsh replied, ‘whatever you think and whatever you command would be sufficient for me.’ ‘State a specific figure,’ said al-Shaykh al-Sadīd, to which Ibn al-Naqqāsh replied, ‘By God, if I were granted a monthly stipend of ten Egyptian dinars, I would consider that a generous amount.’ ‘No,’ replied al-Shaykh al-Sadīd, ‘that would not be adequate for your upkeep. I will instruct my agent to arrange for you to have fifteen Egyptian dinars every month, an apartment near me – with all its furnishings and carpets (ṭuraḥ) – in which you will live, and a beautiful slave girl will be yours.’ Then al-Shaykh al-Sadīd had a splendid robe of honour brought out and placed on Ibn al-Naqqāsh and ordered the servant to bring him a mule from amongst the best of his riding mounts, which he presented to Ibn al-Naqqāsh. Then al-Shaykh al-Sadīd said:
This money will come to you every month, as well as all the books and other things that you need, for these will be supplied to you according to your wishes. In return, I require only that we continue to meet and be sociable, but that you do not seek anything else from the caliphs and that you do not frequent any of the officials of the state.
Ibn al-Naqqāsh accepted these conditions, and he continued living in Cairo under these terms. Finally, however, he returned to Syria, where he remained until his death in Damascus.
[14.31.6]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that al-Shaykh al-Sadīd had studied medicine and practised under the guidance of Abū Naṣr ʿAdnān ibn al-ʿAynzarbī.410 Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd never ceased to enjoy the respect of the caliphs. His influence and esteem amongst them increased steadily from the time of al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh to the last days of al-ʿĀḍid bi-Allāh.411 As a youth, al-Shaykh al-Sadīd was, with his father, in the service of al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh – that is, Abū ʿAlī al-Manṣūr ibn Abī l-Qāsim Aḥmad al-Mustaʿlī bi-Allāh ibn al-Mustanṣir – until al-Āmir was martyred412 on Tuesday the fourth of Dhū l-Qaʿdah in the year 524 [9 October 1130] at al-Jazīrah.413 The period of his caliphate was twenty-eight years, nine months and a few days. Then al-Sadīd continued in the service of al-Ḥāfiẓ li-Dīn Allāh – whose full name was Abū l-Maymūn ʿAbd al-Majīd ibn al-Amīr Abī l-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn al-Imām al-Mustanṣir bi-Allāh. Al-Ḥāfiẓ took the bayʿah414 on the day of the martyrdom of al-Āmir, and al-Shaykh al-Sadīd remained in his service until al-Ḥāfiẓ passed away on the fifth day of Jumādā II in the year 544 [10 October 1149]. Then after him, al-Shaykh al-Sadīd served al-Ẓāfir bi-Amr Allāh415 – whose full name is Abū Manṣūr Ismāʿīl ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dīn Allāh. Al-Ẓāfir took the bayʿah in the early hours of the morning of the fifth of Jumādā II in the year 544 [10 October 1149] upon the passing away of his father, and al-Shaykh al-Sadīd continued in his service until al-Ẓāfir bi-Amr Allāh was martyred, and that was on the twenty-ninth of Muḥarram in the year 549 [15 April 1154]. He subsequently served al-Fāʾiz bi-Naṣr Allāh,416 whose full name was Abū l-Qāsim ʿĪsā ibn al-Ẓāfir bi-Amr Allāh and who took the bayʿah on the thirtieth of Muḥarram in the year 549 [16 April 1154]. Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd remained in his service until al-Fāʾiz bi-Naṣr Allāh passed away in the year 555/1160.417 After that, al-Shaykh al-Sadīd served al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh – that is, Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mawlā Abī l-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf ibn al-Imām al-Ḥāfiẓ li-Dīn Allāh – and he continued in the service of al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh until the ruler’s passing on the ninth of Muḥarram in the year 567 [12 September 1171]. He was the last of the Egyptian caliphs.
Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd thus served five Fatimid caliphs – al-Āmir, al-Ḥāfiẓ, al-Ẓāfir, al-Fāʾiz and al-ʿĀḍid – during whose reign he acquired valuable gifts and innumerable favours. Then, when al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb [that is, Saladin]418 seized power in Cairo and made himself ruler of the country, al-Shaykh al-Sadīd lost the numerous favours, stream of gifts and generous pay for the remainder of his time in Cairo. But then he went to Syria, where Saladin consulted him on medical matters and followed his prescriptions and advice more frequently than those of other physicians. Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd continued as chief of the physicians up to the time of his death.
In Cairo, al-Shaykh al-Sadid resided near Biʾr Zuwaylah419 in a house which he had kept in good repair and beautified. Toward the end of his life a catastrophe befell him: that house of his was consumed by fire, and his furniture, household implements, belongings and many other things in the house were lost. When part of the house collapsed from the fire, a number of large clay vessels and jars filled with Egyptian gold coins fell and broke open. Between the fire and the general destruction of the house, the gold was scattered in all directions. Bystanders witnessed some of the gold pieces melting from the fire, with the loss of many thousands of them.
[14.31.7]
Al-Qāḍī Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr told me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – that al-Shaykh al-Sadīd had seen in a dream a short time before [the incident] that his house in which he was residing had burned down. He was secretly worried by that dream, and so he decided to move from there and began to build a house near the old one, urging the builders to finish as soon as possible. When it was complete, save but one room, and he could move into it, his [old] house in which he had been living caught fire. That was on the twenty-sixth of Jumādā II in the year 579 [16 October 1183]. After his death, the [new] house that he had had built nearby passed into the possession of al-Ṣāḥib Ṣafī al-Dīn ibn Shukr,420 the vizier of al-Malik al-ʿĀḍil Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb,421 and it is now known by his name.
[14.31.8]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have copied from a manuscript in the handwriting of Fakhr al-Kuttāb Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī Ibrāhīm al-Juwaynī al-kātib422 a poem composed for al-Shaykh al-Sadīd, who was his friend, consoling him about the burning of his house and the loss of his valuables. There was familiarity and great friendship between them:423
O you, whose blessing is an old dutyfor those of us who are either subordinate or superior:How many petitioners (ʿāfin) have you restored to a healthy state (ʿawāfī)!And how many of us did you strip of the cloth of misery!You, whose soul (nafs) is in a higher placethan valuable (manfūs) and precious (nafīs) things lost:You have swallowed a bitter draught that tasted more sweetly,to someone like you, than a vintage red wine.So view what afflicted you in the light of the pietyof your character traits, which are like suns.Being struck with what became a rewardwill make you see good tidings at the day of frowning.424God’s gift, on the Day of Presentation (ʿarḍ),425 will surpass,as compensation, lowly impermanent gain (ʿaraḍ).The worries of people in this world are a drinkthat goes round for them, as cups do.You desire repose (rawḥ) in this world with a mindthat sees souls (arwāḥ) in it in prisons.426All events in this world are insignificantwhen the relics of souls remain.
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have also transcribed from a manuscript in his hand a poem about the glorious deeds of al-Qāḍī al-Sadīd, built on two lines that were composed about him; these are:427
For every health that has been wiped out there is a time;but if you visit a sick person you are one of its times.Stay well, so that those whose pains you alleviate may be well,for through you the world has been healthy, in any case.
Then he [Fakhr al-Kuttāb al-Juwaynī al-kātib] composed these lines:
Through you my soul has been made aware of the pleasure of being alive:Praised be He who revived it as soon as it had died!It had already reached the water-basins of Death,428 but you rescued it,with God’s will, after its decease,And you restored what had slipped from it, by the power of a Powerful One,who retrieves things after they have slipped away.Therefore you are to be thanked, after thanking its God,at all times of its diverse sustenance.429What a good soul you have! How perfect is its light!Is it for its knowledge we430 should aim, or its blessings?A piety that makes the spirit dwell where it belongs,and an intellect that protects the souls from its ills.So many lives like mine have you snatched from perdition:you held them back when they were in the pangs of death.You flooded them (ghamartahā) with care and cure (birran wa-burʾan), aftermaladies had thrown them into mortal throes (ghamarātihā).You wrested them from the wrestle with death while it was resisting,to a breeze of repose for the soul, away from their throats(?).431How often have you, with God’s permission, visited someone who was takingleave of his soul, and restored it to its normal ways!You whose words, like432 reciting the Qur’an,give cure by their effusions;O well-guided433 qadi, who has becomeone of the virtues of the Noble Religion;You, who possess supports science with an innate talent,that imagines things in their mirror:How excellent, your thinking, which perceives whateveris lurking in one’s limbs, from all their aspects!It protects the path of the spirit from makers of mischief on it,434thus it is as if he is a governor in charge of its roads.Truly, there are subtle things in mankindhidden unto them: you are one of their signs.“For every health that has been wiped out there is a time;but if you visit a sick person you are one of its times.Stay well, so that those whose pains you alleviate may be well,for through you the world has been healthy, in any case.”
And I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have also copied from a manuscript in his handwriting some lines that he had composed about his treatment for a very grave disease, addressed to al-Shaykh al-Sadīd:435
I keep thanking, not being diverted from it.an envoy between me and my God,Who restored, with God’s permission, my spirit, thoughI had almost not returned to existence, nor had it:He is the Master, al-Qāḍī al-Sadīd, of whomI boast to those in high places, and pride myself.Were it not that creatures are finite, I would say there is nofinitude to his utmost extents in noble deeds.A keen insight illuminates problems for him,which makes him see hidden, invisible things as they are.The reins of healthy states and sicknesses are in his hand,he commands and forbids among both parties.How excellent you are, O servant of God!436 So often has the worldbeen proud of your splendour, while you are not proud.You are exalted above pure water; watercannot be compared with refreshing air.
Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd died, may God have mercy upon him, in Cairo in 592/1195.437
14.32 Ibn Jumayʿ438
[14.32.1]
Al-shaykh al-Muwaffaq Shams al-Riyāsah Abū l-ʿAshāʾir Hibat Allāh ibn Zayn ibn Ḥasan ibn Ifrāʾīm ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Jumayʿ al-Isrāʾīlī was not only a famous physician and well-known scholar, but also a personage of distinction. Ibn Jumayʿ was versatile, being learned in many disciplines. He worked hard at the art of medicine, becoming skilled at treatment and composing works on the subject. He studied for a time under the tutelage of al-shaykh al-Muwaffaq Abū Naṣr ʿAdnān ibn al-ʿAynzarbī.439 Ibn Jumayʿ was born and raised in Fustat (Old Cairo). He served al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Saladin), enjoying the ruler’s favour and holding an influential position of the highest level during his reign. It was for Saladin, who consulted him in medical matters, that Ibn Jumayʿ compounded the great theriac known as Fārūq. Ibn Jumayʿ used to hold discussion sessions for those who studied the art of medicine under him. He was a man of high aspirations.
Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd ibn Abī l-Bayān440 has related to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – that he had studied medicine under Ibn Jumayʿ and recalled that his teacher possessed a great mastery of medicine and was an authority in its theory and outstanding in its practice.
[14.32.2]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that this is confirmed by what we find in Ibn Jumayʿ’s books. They are well-written, with many useful notes and excellent recommendations for therapies.
Ibn Jumayʿ paid particular attention to Arabic language usage and accuracy of expression. He would never give a lecture without having al-Jawharī’s Arabic dictionary, al-Ṣiḥāḥ,441 near to hand, and whenever he came across a word which he was not sure he understood, he would look it up, relying on what al-Jawharī said concerning it.
One day (this was when al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb442 was the ruler of Egypt and Syria), I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – was at the house of al-Ṣāḥib Jamāl al-Dīn Yaḥyā ibn Maṭrūḥ443 in Damascus. At that time, al-Ṣāḥib Jamāl al-Dīn was vizier for the entire realm and Master of the Sword and Pen,444 with two hundred knights in his service. In the course of our conversation, Ibn Maṭrūḥ said to me graciously, ‘No one before you has ever composed the like of your book on the classes of physicians.’ Then he asked, ‘Did you include our fellow Egyptian physicians?’ ‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘I am of the impression,’ he said, ‘that you stated that none of the earlier Egyptian physicians surpassed Ibn Riḍwān, and that of the later physicians, there was none who surpassed Ibn Jumayʿ.’ ‘That is correct, my lord,’ I replied.
[14.32.3]
A man from Egypt related the following account to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah:
One day, while Ibn Jumayʿ was sitting in his shop445 near the candlestick market in Fustat,446 a funeral procession passed by him. When he saw the procession, he called out to the mourners, telling them that their beloved was not dead and that if they interred him, they would be burying him alive. They stood looking at him in surprise at his words, unable to believe what he had said. Then one of them said to another, ‘What harm will it do us to test what he says. If it is true, it is what we want. If it is not true, it makes no difference to us.’ They summoned him over and said, ‘Prove what you just said to us.’ Ibn Jumayʿ instructed them to return home and remove the shroud from the deceased. There he said to them, ‘Carry him to the bath house.’ He then poured hot water on the body to warm it up, bathed it with warm compresses and immersed it in water until a small amount of sensation was perceptible and the man moved slightly. ‘Rejoice at his return to life!’ cried Ibn Jumayʿ. He then continued treating the person until he regained consciousness and felt well. This was the beginning of Ibn Jumayʿ’s fame for excellence and knowledge in the medical art, for it seemed that he had performed a miracle. Afterward, he was asked how he had known that the body being carried covered in shrouds was still alive. ‘I looked at his feet,’ he replied, ‘and saw that they were upright. The feet of those who have died are splayed out. So I surmised that he was alive, and my guess was correct.’447
[14.32.4]
I – Ibn Abī Usaybiʿah – say448 that there was in Egypt, a man called Ibn al-Munajjim al-Miṣrī,449 a famous poet who had a malicious tongue. He composed many satirical poems about Ibn Jumayʿ. The following is one of those poems that have been recited to me:450
Ibn Jumayʿ is stupid, with all his medical knowledge;the medical skill of the Messiah is reviled because of him!He cannot determine the urine of a sick manin the glass, even when he rolls it on the tongue.And the strangest of all is that he takesa fee for killing his patient, from the next of kin.
He also said regarding Ibn Jumayʿ:451
Leave Ibn Jumayʿ and his lies alone,and his pretensions about medicine and geometry!He is merely an impudent fellow who has come to stay;if he stays in a town he brings bad luck.He has made drinking his business,but he drinks as does a narcissus.452
He also said about him:453
You lied, misspelling, when you claimedyour father was Jumayʿ the Jew.Jumayʿ the Jew (Jumayʿ al-Yahūdī) is not your father,but your father is ‘all the Jews’ (jamīʿ al-yahūdī).454
I have copied a poem from a manuscript in the handwriting of Yūsuf ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Muslim455 in which he eulogizes al-shaykh al-Muwaffaq ibn Jumayʿ and this is it:456
O my eye, let flow the tears you contain!And if your tears are depleted, then blood!It is right that they should be shed for the loss of a Masterin whom we have lost the best of nobility and generosity,The best of the people of his period in knowledge and leadership,the best of them when words are difficult, obscure,The best to find the right opinion when the matter is obscure,who knew best what was hidden, with true understanding,5 The most magnanimous in heart, hand, and house,and in face, like the dawn, when he smiled,Most ready, of all those I approached, to help in an emergency,most ready, of all those I hoped for, to help when suffering.If he could be ransomed from death I would ransom himwith a soul that would be eager(?)457 whenever it approaches death,And with the strength of lions (usūd), like black snakes (asāwid) that plunge,with the shaking of an Indian sword and the might of a sharp blade.But God’s decree about His creatures is carried out;no one can repel Him who commands and rules.10 Hippocrates was not saved from death by his medical skill,though he was in the first rank of its luminaries;Galen could not avoid a natural deathbut surrendered what had defeated him to Him who receives.He broke Chosroes (kasara Kisrā) (?),458 followed it up with (tābaʿa) Tubbaʿ,came back (ʿāda) for ʿĀd and dragged away (jarra) Jurhum.459Therefore say openly to those who rejoice at what has befallen him today:Leave your ignorance; ignorance from you is at a funeral.Foolish winds will pass as gales,but have the plants of Yalamlam ever been shaken in their weakness?46015 Cattle whose movements are weak have not been sent to pasture freelyin a land where the lion is crouching.461Has this not been the course462 of all souls?Every latecomer follows someone who preceded.There is no joy that is not followed by sorrow,there is no end to any building but destruction.A curse on Fate that made us, having lost him,bewildered, without a guide, as if orphaned!Is it not amazing that death snatched him, shooting,whereas he was the best to shoot misfortunes with arrows?20 The surest guide to a hidden illness with his knowledge,when it had spread between flesh, bones, and blood;The loftiest of his kind in his noble qualities,as the full moon appears among the stars.O master al-Muwaffaq,463 where have gonethose well-strung pearls of speech we have seen?What has snatched away that speech, that most eloquent tonguethat threw light on doubt in the gloom of a dark night?What has extinguished that brightly blazing perceptionthat used to guide every traveller who reaches his goal?25 Upon my life, the heart of someone grieving is not like another;one whose inside is burning is not like one who suffers hardship.Nor is everyone who let tears flow bereaved;How can Jamīl’s grief be compared to that of Mutammim!464So do not reproach me if I cry, sorrowing,for the measure of great grief is in proportion to who causes it to be great.465By God, I have not fully given him his due,even if my body were every eye … (?)466Truly, I will spend my lifetime being distraught,my days are over though they have not yet elapsed.30 Woe to the Fates! They do not know the truth of a misfortune:they struck467 a master through whom every benefactor lived.He rests between the stones of the earth, and through himthe congregation has become redolent with sweet fragrance.He had an open face, pure and joyful, smiling,not gruff of character or like a sullen person.I used to eulogize him, honouring him,and now I elegize him, as much as a deprived one can.O luminous grave of his! Your earth does not knowthe generosity and lasting glory it contains.35 May every cloud water you with spring-rain (wasmī),letting the eye wander over it,468 as a promising sign (tawassum)!And may a sweet odour never cease to waft its fragrance from you,and may the east wind’s breaths convey it with someone who greets you.469
[14.32.5]
Ibn Jumayʿ is the author of the following works:470
-
Guidance for the welfare of souls and bodies (al-Irshād li-maṣāliḥ al-anfus wa-l-ajsād), in four parts.471
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Making Explicit what is Concealed: On examining the Qānūn (K. al-taṣrīḥ bi-l-maknūn fī tanqīḥ al-Qānūn).472
-
On the nature of Alexandria, the condition of its airs and waters and the like, and the circumstances of its inhabitants (R. fī ṭabʿ al-Iskandariyyah wa-ḥāl hawāʾihā wa-miyāhihā wa-naḥwa dhalika min aḥwālihā wa-aḥwāl ahlihā).
-
A letter addressed to al-Qāḍī al-Makīn Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn473 concerning what to do if no physician is available (R. ilā al-Qāḍī al-Makīn Abī l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn fī-mā yaʿtamiduhu ḥaythu lā yajidu ṭabīban).
-
On the lemon/lime and its syrups and beneficial uses (M. fī al-laymūn wa-sharābihi wa-manāfiʿihi).474
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On rhubarb and its medicinal uses (M. fī al-rāwand wa-manāfiʿihi).
-
On the curvature of the spine [hunchbacks] (M. fī al-ḥudbah).
-
On the treatment of colic, entitled ‘Epistle to Sayf al-Dīn [al-Malik al-ʿĀdil]475 on Royal Remedies’ (M. fī ʿilāj al-qawlanj wa-sammāhā al-Risālah al-Sayfiyyah fī al-adwiyah al-mulūkiyyah).
14.33 Abū l-Bayān ibn al-Mudawwar
[14.33.1]
Abū l-Bayān ibn al-Mudawwar’s honorific name was al-Sadīd (the Well-Guided).476 He was a Karaite Jew,477 knowledgeable in the art of medicine and skilled in its practice, with great experience and praiseworthy achievements to his credit. He served the Egyptian caliphs in the final years of their reign, and subsequently he served al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (that is, Saladin), who used to consult him, depended on him for treatment and had a good opinion of him. Abū l-Bayān received from Saladin a generous salary and great consideration.
[14.33.2]
The shaykh Abū l-Bayān ibn al-Mudawwar was long-lived. Toward the end of his life he became inactive due to old age and weak from [years of] great activity and frequent service. Accordingly, al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn, may God have mercy upon him, granted him a stipend of twenty-four Egyptian dinars a month so that he could stay home and not be troubled with the burden of service. Abū l-Bayān lived in that fashion, drawing his pension, for about twenty years. But during that period of withdrawal to his house, he did not forego his occupation with medicine, nor was his residence empty of students or persons practising under his direction or coming to consult him. During that period, he did not leave [the house] to treat anyone except those who were very dear to him.
[14.33.3]
Regarding this, I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have heard that when the emir Ibn Munqidh478 arrived from Yemen, he was stricken with dropsy (istisqāʾ) and sent for Abū l-Bayān ibn al-Mudawwar to come to him quickly and treat him. But Abū l-Bayān excused himself, saying that, even though his residence was nearby, he would not go to him unless [Saladin’s secretary] al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil479 instructed him to do so. Al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil then sent his agent, Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk,480 who gave him the necessary order. Abū l-Bayān thereupon went to the emir and prescribed for him the treatment that was usual in such cases.
[14.33.4]
Abū l-Bayān ibn al-Mudawwar lived to the age of eighty-three and died in Cairo in the year 580/1184. His pupils included Zayn al-Ḥassāb.481
[14.33.5]
Abū l-Bayān ibn al-Mudawwar is the author of a book on his experiences in medicine (Mujarrabātuhu fī l-ṭibb).
14.34 Abū l-Faḍāʾil ibn al-Nāqid482
[14.34.1]
Abū l-Faḍāʾil ibn al-Nāqid, known by the honorific al-Muhadhdhab,483 was a famous physician and a celebrated scholar with remarkable knowledge, excellent practical experience, and outstanding methods of treatment. He was Jewish and well-known in both medicine and the preparation of eye medicaments (al-kuḥl), but the latter was his specialty, and it brought him an ample income. Abū l-Faḍāʾil was a master horseman,484 so much so that his students and apprentices regularly did their lessons with him while he was riding on his way somewhere or visiting patients. He died in Cairo in the year 584/1188. His son, Abū l-Faraj, who embraced Islam, was also a physician and an oculist.
[14.34.2]
My father has related to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – that a Jewish friend of Abū l-Faḍāʾil ibn al-Nāqid once came to him in dire straits and asked Abū l-Faḍāʾil to help him. Abū l-Faḍāʾil had him sit in his house, and said to him, ‘My earnings today will be yours as your good fortune and blessing from God.’ Then he rode off and went to visit the ill and those whom he was treating for eye diseases. When he returned, he took out his oculist’s bag (ʿuddat al-kuḥl) in which there were many folded-up pieces of paper, and these he began to open one by one. Some contained one or more dinars, in some there were nāṣirī dirhams485 and in others sawād dirhams. Combined together, the value amounted to about 300 sawād dirhams, which he then gave to the man saying: ‘By God, in regard to all these papers, I don’t know who gave me the gold or the dirhams, or how much or how little, but everything that was given to me I put into my oculist’s bag.’
This account [continues Ibn Abi Usaybiʿah] suggests a very large income and great approval [from his patients].
[14.34.3]
Abū l-Faḍāʾil ibn al-Nāqid is the author of a book on his experiences in medicine (Mujarrabātuhu fī l-ṭibb).
14.35 al-Raʾīs Hibat Allāh486
Al-Raʾīs Hibat Allāh was an Israelite physician, well-known and distinguished in the domain of medicine, skilled in its practice and excellent at methods of treatment. He lived during the final years of the dynasty of Egyptian caliphs,487 whom he served with his knowledge of the art of medicine. From them he had a generous income and numerous benefits. After the fall of the Fatimid dynasty, he continued to live on the bounty that they had bestowed upon him until his death in the 580s [1184–1193].
14.36 al-Muwaffaq ibn Shūʿah488
[14.36.1]
Al-Muwaffaq ibn Shūʿah was an Israelite who was a notable scholar and a very eminent physician. He was famous for his mastery of the art and breadth of knowledge in medicine (ʿilm al-ṭibb), ophthalmaolgy (ʿilm al-kuḥl) and wound healing (ʿilm al-jirāḥ). He was good-natured, light-hearted, and given to joking, and he used to compose poetry and play the musical string instrument called a qīthārah.489 Ibn Shūʿah served al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin) with medical advice when the latter was in Egypt, and the ruler held him in high esteem.
[14.36.2]
There was a Sufi jurist in Damascus – a friend of Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā490 – who lived at Khānqāh al-Sumaysāṭī491 and was known as al-Khabūshānī,492 with the nickname al-Najm (‘the Star’). He was acquainted with Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb493 and his brother Asad al-Dīn.494 Al-Khabūshānī was sombre in nature, abstemious in his mode of life, and rigid with regard to religion, following the letter of the law.495
When Asad al-Dīn travelled to Egypt, al-Khabūshānī followed him and took up quarters in a mosque, known today as the Mosque of al-Khabūshānī, which was near the residence of the vizierate (dār al-wizārah). Al-Khabūshānī was sharp-tongued and would slander the inhabitants of the palace, for his way of glorifying God was to insult them. Whenever he saw a dhimmī496 riding a horse or mule, he sought to kill him, and for that reason they used to avoid him. One day al-Khabūshānī saw Ibn Shūʿah riding and threw a stone at him, which hit his eye and knocked it out. Ibn Shūʿah died in Cairo in the year 579/1183.
[14.36.3]
The poetry of al-Muwaffaq ibn Shūʿah includes the following selection, which al-Qāḍī Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr497 repeated to me (Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah), saying that Al-Muwaffaq ibn Shūʿah recited to him the following lines composed by himself, after al-Najm al-Khabūshānī had knocked out his eye:498
Be not amazed that the eyes are dimmed bythe sun’s rays: that is a well-known thing.Rather, be amazed that my eye was blinded because I lookedat al-Najm (‘the Star’), whereas he is a slight, obscure person
He (Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr) also recited to me the following, saying ‘The aforementioned – that is, Ibn Shūʿah – recited to me the following lampoon composed by himself on Ibn Jumayʿ,499 the Jew’:500
You, who claim to know medicine and geometry,you have clearly demonstrated, Ibn Jumayʿ, your falsehood.If you have any knowledge of medicine, why are your powersunable to cure the illness hidden in yourself?You need for this a physician who will treat youwith a sharpened scalpel two spans long;Though you will not be cured by it. – Now speak and answerthat question, with discrimination and thought!O geometer who has a shape he raves about,though only a prism would desire the like,A cylindrical body on spherescomposed of a cone and a circle.… except half an angle… like a rope in a well.501
And he also said:502
A garden, liberally watered by spring’s downpour,so that it liberally has granted us a brocade by no hand woven:The blooming yellow and white in it are likegold and silver, assayed in hand of the wind;And the scent of its lavender divulges what it has hidden,and its turtle doves lament, plaintively, in their passion.
14.37 Abū l-Barakāt ibn al-Quḍāʿī503
Abū l-Barakāt ibn al-Quḍāʿī, known by the honorific al-Muwaffaq,504 was one of a group of physicians who were experienced and distinguished in the art of medicine. He was celebrated for his learning in that domain and famous for his breadth of knowledge regarding its practice, but he devoted himself particularly to ophthalmology (ṣināʿat al-kuḥl) and wound healing (al-jirāḥ), and in those arts he was counted among the experts. He served al-Malik al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Mālik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn505 in Egypt with medical advice. Abū l-Barakāt ibn al-Quḍāʿī died in Cairo in the year 598/1201.
14.38 Abū l-Maʿālī ibn Tammām506
[14.38.1]
Abū l-Maʿālī Tammām ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Tammām, a Jew, was a person of abundant learning and great insight. He was well-known under the ruling dynasty, being described as excellent and much praised for his methods of treatment. He lived in Old Cairo (Fustat). Some of his children converted to Islam. He served al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Saladin) with medical advice and enjoyed favour during his reign. Thereafter, he served Saladin’s brother al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb.507
[14.38.2]
Abū l-Maʿālī ibn Tammām is the author of a book on notes and experiences in medicine (Taʿālīq wa-mujarrabāt fī l-ṭibb).
14.39 al-Raʾīs Mūsā [Maimonides]508
[14.39.1]
Al-Raʾīs Mūsā (Master Mūsā/Moses) was Abū ʿImrān Mūsā ibn Maymūn al-Qurṭubī,509 a Jew, learned in the customs of the Jewish people and numbered amongst their religious authorities510 and most distinguished scholars. In Egypt, he was the head (al-raʾīs) of their community,511 for he was peerless in his time in the art of medicine and its practice, and also was versatile in many disciplines and well-versed in philosophy. Sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin) became aware of him and sought his medical advice, as did Saladin’s son, al-Malik al-Afḍal ʿAlī.512
[14.39.2]
It has been said that al-Raʾīs Mūsā had converted to Islam while in the Maghrib, memorized the Qur’an and studied Islamic jurisprudence. Then, when he went to Egypt and took up residence in Old Cairo,513 he reverted to his former faith.514
[14.39.3]
Al-Qāḍī al-Saʿīd ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk515 composed the following verses in praise of al-Raʾīs Mūsā:516
I see that Galen’s medicine is for the body only,but Abū ʿImrān’s medicine is for mind and body.If he were to treat Time with his medical knowledgehe would cure it of ignorance with knowledge.And if the full moon were to seek his medical advicethe fullness it claims would be fulfilled,And he would treat, on the day of its fullness, its spotsand cure it, on the day of its invisibility, of its sickness.
[14.39.4]
Al-Raʾīs Mūsā is the author of the following works:517
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An abridgment of the sixteen books of Galen (Ikhtiṣār al-kutub al-sittah ʿashara li-Jālīnūs).518
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On haemorrhoids and their treatment (M. fī l-bawāsīr wa-ʿilājihā).519
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On the regimen of health (M. fī tadbīr al-ṣiḥḥah), which he composed for al-Malik al-Afḍal ʿAlī, the son of al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb.520
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On poisons and protection against lethal drugs (M. fī l-sumūm wa-l-taḥarruz min al-adwiyah al-qattālah).521
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Commentary on [the names of] drugs (K. sharḥ al-ʿuqqār).522
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A large book on the religion of the Jewish people (K. kabīr ʿalā madhhab al-Yahūd).523
14.40 Ibrāhīm ibn al-Raʾīs Mūsā524
[14.40.1]
Ibrāhīm ibn al-Raʾīs Mūsā (Abraham, the son of Master Moses) – that is, Abū l-Munā Ibrāhīm ibn Mūsā ibn Maymūn – was born and raised in Old Cairo (Fustat). He was a well-known physician, learned in the art of medicine and skilled in its practice. He was in the service of al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb,525 but also frequently left the palace to visit the hospital in Cairo,526 where he treated the ill.
[14.40.2]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – met him in Cairo in the year 631/1233 or 632/1234 while I was practising in the hospital there. I found him to be a tall elderly man, slim of build, charming in company, witty in conversation, and distinguished in medicine. Ibrāhīm ibn al-Raʾīs Mūsā died in Egypt in the 630s [1232–1241].527
14.41 Abū l-Barakāt ibn Shaʿyā528
Abū l-Barakāt ibn Shaʿyā, known by the honorific title of al-Muwaffaq,529 was an elderly man famous for his great experience (kathīr al-tajārib) and praised for his practice of the medical art. He was a Karaite Jew who died in Cairo at the age of eighty-six. He left a son called Saʿīd al-Dawlah Abū l-Fakhr who was also a physician and resident of Cairo.
14.42 al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī530
[14.42.1]
Al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī – that is, Asʿad al-Dīn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq – was a Jew from al-Maḥallah,531 a provincial town in Egypt. He was a distinguished scholar, devoted to philosophy (ḥikmah) and the study of its smallest subtleties. He was renowned in the art of medicine and an expert in drug remedies (al-mudāwāh) and medical treatment (ʿilāj). Al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī lived in Cairo, but early in the year 598 [autumn 1201] he travelled to Damascus, where he remained for a while. After having been drawn into numerous disputes with a prominent physician there, however, he suffered misfortunes and eventually returned to Egypt. He died in Cairo.
[14.42.2]
The following anecdote illustrates his skill in treatment:532
A certain female member of our family became afflicted with an ailment, a change in her temperament (taghayyur mizāj), which persisted with no treatment bringing any benefit. When al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī examined her, he said to my [that is, Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah’s] paternal uncle,533 who was his friend, ‘I have pastilles (aqrāṣ) which I have prepared specifically for this illness. She will recover, God willing. She should take one with syrup of oxymel534 every day in the morning.’ He gave him the pastilles and after she had taken them, she recovered.
[14.42.3]
Al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī is the author of the following works:535
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On medical principles (M. fī qawānīn ṭibbiyyah), in six chapters.536
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The Diversions537 (K. al-nuzah), on the analysis of the likeness that vision perceives to occur in mirrors.
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On the temperament of Damascus and its location, the differences between it and Cairo, and which is healthier and more balanced (K. fī mizāj Dimashq wa-waḍʿihā wa-tafāwutihā min Miṣr wa-ayyuhumā aṣaḥḥ wa-aʿdal), as well as other medical questions and answers, in three chapters.538
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Medical questions and answers (Masāʾil ṭibbiyyah wa-ajwibatuhā), asked [by al-Asʿad and answered] by a certain physician of Damascus, Ṣadaqah ibn Manjā ibn Ṣadaqah al-Sāmirī.539
14.43 al-Shaykh al-Sadīd ibn Abī l-Bayān540
[14.43.1]
Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd ibn Abī-l-Bayān – that is, Sadīd al-Dīn Abū l-Faḍl Dāwūd ibn Abī l-Bayān Sulaymān ibn Abī l-Faraj Isrāʾīl ibn Abī l-Ṭayyib Sulaymān ibn Mubārak – was a Karaite Israelite born in Cairo in the year 556/1160. He was a recognized master of the medical art, in which he was proficient, having been distinguished in both theory and practice and experienced with simple and compound remedies. Whenever we treated the patients at the Nāṣirī hospital in Cairo, I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – witnessed the excellence of his achievements with regard to the knowledge and identification of diseases, the recollection of appropriate therapies, and his acquaintance with what Galen had said concerning them – all of which defies description.
Among the physicians of his time, Ibn Abī l-Bayān was the most capable in compounding drugs and knowing the appropriate quantities and weights. So much so that when patients with various illnesses, even rare ones, came to consult him, he would dictate on the spot, in accordance with just what that patient required, medical prescriptions for compound drugs such as pastilles (al-aqrāṣ), medicinal powders (al-safūfāt), syrups (al-ashribah) and so forth. These prescriptions were of the utmost quality and very well designed.
[14.43.2]
His teacher in the art of medicine was al-Raʾīs Hibat Allāh ibn Jumayʿ al-Yahūdī,541 but he also studied under Abū l-Faḍāʾil ibn al-Naqīd.542 Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd ibn Abī l-Bayān was in the service of al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb.543
I have found the following lines of poetry referring to him:544
If an illness is complicated, internally,Ibn al-Bayān will come with a clear exposition (bayān) of it.So if you are desirous of good health,then take from him immunity against your disease.
Ibn Abī l-Bayān lived over eighty years, but towards the end of his life his eyesight became weak.
[14.43.3]
Al-Shaykh al-Sadīd ibn Abī l-Bayān is the author of the following works:
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A medical formulary (K. al-aqrābādhīn), in twelve chapters. He made a good collection [of material] and went to great lengths in its composition, limiting himself to the compound drugs generally used in the hospitals and pharmacies of Egypt, Syria and Iraq. I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – read it under his guidance and corrected my copy with his help.545
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Notes on Galen’s book, On Causes and Symptoms (Taʿālīq ʿalā Kitāb al-ʿilal wa-l-aʿrāḍ li-Jālīnūs).546
14.44 Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir547
[14.44.1]
Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir – that is, al-Shaykh al-Imām al-ʿĀlim Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAqīl al-Qaysī, also known as Ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir – was the best of physicians and master of scholars, unique in his time and unrivalled in his day. He mastered the medical art, distinguishing himself in its two areas of theory and practice. In addition, he was much occupied with belles-lettres (ʿilm al-adab), in which he took a keen interest, and he composed a great deal of poetry that was well-constructed with original motifs.
[14.44.2]
Ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir – may God have mercy upon him – was a man of great virtue, well-versed in classical Arabic, recognized for his achievements and characterized by a good disposition. In his beneficence, he gave generously to the elite and the common people alike and bestowed many favors upon them. Born and raised in Damascus, he studied the art of medicine under the Imām Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ibn al-Naqqāsh548 and the shaykh Raḍī l-Dīn al-Raḥbī.549 Ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir served al-Malik al-ʿAzīz ʿUthmān ibn al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn550 with medical advice, and while in Egypt he stayed with al-Malik al-ʿAzīz, who appointed him as chief physician (riyāsat al-ṭibb). He remained in the service of al-Malik al-ʿAzīz and enjoyed numerous favours and gifts from him until the ruler died – may God have mercy upon him – in Cairo on the night of Sunday, the twentieth of Muḥarram in the year 595 [22 November 1198]. Ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir continued to reside in Egypt and subsequently entered the service of al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb,551 whom he served for several years. Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir died in Cairo – may God have mercy upon him.
[14.44.3]
One of his friends related the following account to me – Ibn Abī Usaybiʿah:
One day, when Ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir was out riding in a neighbourhood of Cairo, he saw a vendor of boiled chickpeas sitting on a stone bench while a Jewish oculist was standing in front of him. In the oculist’s hand was a container of eye medicines (mukḥulah) and a probe552 which he was using to apply a collyrium to the eyes of the vendor. When Ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir saw the oculist in that position, he steered his mule toward him and hit him on the head with his switch, cursing him when he was alongside him, saying, ‘Even though you are lowly yourself, the Art553 has its honour. You should have sat down by his side while treating his eyes, and not remained standing before a common chickpea vendor.’ Then, the oculist was contrite and swore not to do it again and went on his way.
[14.44.4]
I – Ibn Abī Usaybiʿah – say that a group [of pupils] studied under the shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir, and they were distinguished in the medical art. The most distinguished and the most exalted of his students, and the one who was most knowledgeable, was my paternal uncle, the learned Rashīd al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Khalīfah554 – may God have mercy upon him.
14.45 Fatḥ al-Dīn ibn Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir555
Fatḥ al-Dīn ibn Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir was similar to his father, Jamāl al-Dīn,556 with regard to learning, merit, illustriousness and generosity. He was pure of soul (nazīh al-nafs), sound in his conjectures, and the most learned of men in terms of the knowledge of diseases and the identification of causes and symptoms, as well as being skilled at treatment and drug therapies. He was also courteous in conduct and interactions with others,557 and possessed high standards, great virtue and eloquence of speech, and was very charitable.
Faṭḥ al-Dīn served al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb558 with medical advice, and subsequently also served his son al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb ibn al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad.559 Fatḥ al-Dīn ibn Jamāl ibn Abī Ḥawāfir died, may God have mercy upon him, in Cairo during the reign of al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ.
14.46 Shihāb al-Dīn ibn Fatḥ al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir560
Shihāb al-Dīn ibn Fatḥ al-Dīn was the leading scholar, the chief of physicians (raʾīs al-aṭibbāʾ), and the foremost sage of the age; he was without peer in his time. He encompassed all excellent qualities, towering above the ancients and moderns alike, and was a master of the medical art, both in theory and practice, with a perfect understanding of its specific and general aspects, for Shihāb al-Dīn ibn Fatḥ al-Dīn was the most knowledgeable man of his day in matters relating to the preservation and maintenance of health and the treatment and cure of diseases. He followed the example of his forefathers,561 but surpassed his contemporaries in respect of his aspirations and pride.
He inherited noble qualities from his father and grandfather,like a cane spear: from node to node.562
He resided in Egypt and served al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Malikī al-Ṣāliḥī,563 the ruler of Egypt and Syria, with medical advice.
14.47 al-Qāḍī Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr564
[14.47.1]
Al-Qāḍī Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr – that is, al-Qāḍī l-Ḥakīm Nafīs al-Dīn Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn Ṣadaqah ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Kūlamī (al-Kūlam being a town in India)565 – was related on his mother’s side to the celebrated poet Ibn al-Zubayr,566 who lived in Egypt and is the author of the following verse:567
O abode, where do you think my loved ones have betaken themselves:have they gone to Najd or to Tihāmah?568
[14.47.2]
Al-Qāḍī Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr was born in the year 555/1160 or 556/1161 and studied medicine under Ibn Shūʿah569 first, and later under al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Raʾis al-Ṭibb (The Well-Guided Shaykh, the Master of Medicine).570 He was distinguished in the art and practice of medicine and also mastered the art of ophthalmology (ṣināʿat al-kuḥl) and the treatment of wounds (ʿilm al-jirāḥ). He became particularly famous for his skill in the art of treating eye ailments, and al-Malik al-Kāmil ibn al-Malik al-ʿĀdil571 appointed him chief physician (riʾāsat al-ṭibb) in Egypt, and there he treated eye disorders in the Nāṣirī Hospital, which had formerly been part of the palace complex of the Egyptian caliphs.572 Al-Qāḍī Nafīs al-Dīn ibn Zubayr died in Cairo, may God have mercy upon him, in the 630s [1232–1242].573 His sons are living in Cairo, and they are renowned for their skill in the art of ophthalmology (ṣināʿat al-kuḥl) and are distinguished in its theory and practice.
14.48 Afḍal al-Dīn al-Khūnajī574
[14.48.1]
Afḍal al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Nāmāwar al-Khūnajī, al-Imām al-ʿĀlim, was the perfect leader, master of scholars and sages, unique in his time and the authority of his age. He was distinguished in the philosophical disciplines and mastered matters of religious law, for he was completely dedicated to acquiring extensive knowledge [about these fields].
[14.48.2]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – met him in Cairo in the year 632/1234 and found him to be extremely learned in all disciplines. Under his guidance, I studied the first portion, on ‘generalities’, of the Kitāb al-Qānūn by al-Raʾīs Ibn Sīnā. Sometimes he became confused because of the enormous concentration of his mind on the discipline and the expansion of his thinking on the subject. At the end of his career Afḍal al-Dīn al-Khūnajī held the position of judge in Egypt and became Chief Judge (qāḍī l-quḍāh) for all its provinces. His death – may God have mercy upon him – occurred in Cairo on Wednesday, the fifth of the month of Ramadan in the year 646 [22 December 1248]. He was buried in the al-Qarāfah Cemetery.575
[14.48.3]
Shaykh ʿIzz al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan al-Ghanawī al-Ḍarīr al-Irbilī576 eulogized him in the following verses:577
The most excellent man on earth578 has passed away: no excellent man remainsand with the death of al-Khūnajī excellent qualities have died.O learned scholar, who came lately,and who solved for us what the ancients did not solve,Who extracted hidden knowledge with his thoughtby which problems became clear for the seekers,Who thereby opened the door of difficulties for us,to which, but for him, no one would have presumed to rise;5 A scholar (ḥabr) such that if the seas were compared with his knowledgehis knowledge would be a sea (baḥr) and the seas mere brooks.Would that the arrows of the Fates had missed himand that the lethal spots of someone else had been hit!Does he who carries his bier know with whom he is going,on the morning they buried him, and who he is carrying?He died as someone unique in his time and of its people,a sea of learning that never knew a shore.
[14.48.4]
The following works were written by Afḍal al-Dīn al-Khūnajī:579
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A commentary on what al-Raʿīs Ibn Sīnā said concerning the pulse (Sharḥ ma qālahu al-Raʾīs ibn Sīnā fī l-nabḍ).580
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On limits and regulations (M. fī l-ḥudūd wa-l-rusūm).581
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The handbook on logic (Kitāb al-Jumal fī ʿilm al-manṭiq).
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The revelation of secrets in logic (K. kashf al-asrār fī ʿilm al-manṭiq).
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A compendium on logic (K. mūjaz fī l-manṭiq).
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On the stages of fevers (K. fī adwār al-ḥummayāt).
14.49 Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd ibn Abī l-Munā ibn Abī Fānah582
[14.49.1]
Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd ibn Abī l-Munā ibn Abī Fānah was a Christian physician in Egypt in the days of the caliphs, who held him in high regard.583 He excelled in the medical art, being experienced in both its theory and practice, and was distinguished in other disciplines as well. Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd was a native of Jerusalem, but subsequently moved to Egypt where he acquired an extensive knowledge of astrology (aḥkām al-nujūm).
[14.49.2]
The ḥakīm Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah ibn al-Fāris584 – al-Fāris being the son of the aforementioned Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd – related to me (Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah) the following story about his grandfather, Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd, which he said he had heard from the emir Majd al-Dīn,585 the brother of the jurist (al-faqīh) ʿĪsā, when Majd al-Dīn was talking to the sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil586 in Shirimsāḥ587 while visiting him following the death of al-Malik al-ʿĀdil588 and after the assault of the Franks on the fortress of Damietta.589 This is what he said, verbatim:
The ḥakīm Abū Sulaymān lived during the time of the caliphs and had five sons. When King Mārī (Amalric)590 arrived in Egypt, he was very impressed with Abū Sulaymān’s medical skill and asked the caliph to allow Abū Sulaymān to remain with him. So the caliph sent Abū Sulaymān and his five sons to Jerusalem. King Amalric had a leprous (mujadhdham) son and Abū Sulaymān, in Jerusalem, prepared the theriac known as al-Fārūq for him. Later, Abū Sulaymān became a monk, leaving his eldest son, the ḥakīm al-Muhadhdhab Abū Saʿīd,591 in charge of his house and guardian to his brothers.
One day, it happened that the aforementioned King of the Franks had ʿĪsā, the jurist,592 arrested in Jerusalem, and he became ill while in custody. So, King Amalric sent him [Abū Saʿīd, who had been left in charge after Abū Sulaymān left] to treat him. When he arrived, he found his patient in a pit fettered with irons. Abū Saʿīd returned to the King and said to him, ‘This man was accustomed to a life of ease. Now, even if you gave him the elixir of life, it would not benefit him in his present condition.’ ‘What shall I do with him?’ asked the King. Abū Saʿīd replied, ‘The King should release him from the pit, have his fetters removed and be magnanimous, for he needs no other therapy than that’. To this, King Amalric answered, ‘We are afraid that he will flee, for he owes a large amount of tax.’ ‘Release him into my custody,’ said Abū Saʿīd to the King, ‘and he shall be my responsibility.’ ‘Take him,’ answered the King, ‘and when his tax debt is paid, you shall have one thousand dinars out of it.’
Abū Saʿīd left and took ʿĪsā out of the pit, removed his fetters, and made a place for him in his own house, where he remained for six months, and during that time Abū Saʿīd took complete care of him. When the taxes had been paid, the King requested the presence of the ḥakīm Abū Saʿīd along with the aforementioned jurist, ʿĪsā, so they went together. They found the money in bags in front of the King, and he gave him [Abū Sāʿīd] one of the bags, as he had promised. Abū Saʿīd took it and said to the King, ‘My lord, these one thousand dinars which have come to me, may I have the right to dispose of them as owners do with their own property?’ King Amalric agreed, and so Abū Saʿīd, there in the King’s presence, gave the money to the jurist ʿĪsā, saying to him: ‘I know that the payment of these taxes has left you with nothing, and perhaps you may even have had to take a loan to pay it. So, accept these thousand dinars from me as help for your travel expenses.’ ʿĪsā accepted the dinars from him and then set off to rejoin Saladin.593
[14.49.3]
It so happened that the aforementioned ḥakīm Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd learned through astrological readings that Saladin would conquer Jerusalem on a certain day of a certain month in a certain year and that he would enter the city through the Raḥmah Gate.594 Accordingly, Abū Sulaymān spoke with one of his five sons – specifically, Abū l-Khayr ibn Abī Sulaymān Dāwūd, who was known as al-Fāris (the knight), for as a child he had been brought up alongside the King of Jerusalem’s leprous son [Prince Baldwin] and had taught him horsemanship, so that when he [Baldwin] was crowned king, he made Abū l-Khayr a knight.595 Unlike his four brothers, who were physicians, Abū l-Khayr had become a soldier, and Abū Sulaymān told him to go as his messenger to Saladin and to report the good news to him [that he would be] King of Jerusalem at the designated time. Obedient to his father’s order, Abū l-Khayr set out on his way to Saladin’s court, arriving there on the first day596 of the year 580 [14 April 1184], and the people were busy celebrating the new year. So Abū l-Khayr went directly to the aforementioned jurist, ʿĪsā, who was very pleased to see him. They went together to call on Saladin, and Abū l-Khayr delivered the message from his father. The sultan was very pleased indeed and bestowed upon him a splendid reward. Then he gave Abū l’Khayr a yellow banner and an arrow of the same colour. ‘When God enables me to do what you have said, place this yellow banner and arrow above your house,’ he said, ‘and the quarter in which you live will be completely safe because of the protection given your house.’
In the fullness of time, everything that the ḥakīm Abū Sulaymān had predicted came true, for the jurist ʿĪsā entered the house in which al-Fāris Abū l-Khayr was living in order to protect it. No one in Jerusalem was spared from imprisonment, death or taxation, except the house of the ḥakīm Abū Sulaymān. Saladin doubled the amount that Abū Sulaymān’s sons had been receiving from the Franks. Then he wrote a decree valid throughout the entire realm, both land and sea, exempting them [Abū Sulaymān’s family] from all the obligations imposed upon Christians, and they have been free from them to this day.
The ḥakīm Abū Sulaymān died shortly after the following occurrence: Saladin summoned him, rose, stood before him, and said: ‘You are a blessed shaykh. Your good tidings reached us, and everything you predicted has happened. So you may ask me for something [as a reward].’ ‘I ask that you protect my sons,’ said Abū Sulaymān. So, Saladin looked after his sons and took care of them. Subsequently he entrusted them to his own son [and successor] al-Malik al-ʿĀdil, instructing him to be generous to them and to make them part of his retinue and that of his sons. And so it was done.
[14.49.4]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that sultan al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Saladin) conquered Jerusalem on the twenty-seventh of Rajab in the year 583 [2 October 1187].
14.50 Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī Sulaymān597
The ḥakīm Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī Sulaymān ibn Abī al-Munā ibn Abī Fānah was outstanding in the medical art, having been not only well-read in it but also distinguished in its practice, in addition to which he held a position of high standing in the state. Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī Sulaymān studied medicine under his father598 and others. The sultan al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb appointed him to the service of his son al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam,599 and showed him the highest honour by ordering that, despite his being of sound body, Abū Saʿīd should not enter any of his fortresses on foot, but rather on a mount. Thus it was in that manner that Abū Saʿīd would enter the sultan’s four fortresses: namely al-Karak,600 Jaʿbar,601 al-Ruhā,602 and Damascus.603
Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī Sulaymān served as physician to al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin) and also al-Malik al-ʿĀdil, and then he moved to Egypt, remaining there until his death. He died around the year 613/1216604 and was buried in the monastery of al-Khandaq605 near Cairo.
14.51 Abū Shākir ibn Abī Sulaymān606
[14.51.1]
The ḥakīm Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Shākir ibn Abī Sulaymān Dāwūd mastered the art of medicine, having been outstanding in both its theory and practice and skilled in therapeutics, and he stood high in the esteem of the ruling dynasty. Abū Shākir studied medicine under his brother, Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī Sulaymān,607 subsequently becoming distinguished as his renown became widespread.608
[14.51.2]
The sultan al-Malik al-ʿĀdil appointed Abū Shākir physician to his son al-Malik al-Kāmil609 whom he served with medical advice, enjoying great favour and having considerable influence with the prince, as well as acquiring great wealth during his reign. In addition to properties and country estates given as payments, Abū Shākir continued to receive generous gifts and a steady stream of benefits from al-Malik al-Kāmil. Al-Malik al-ʿĀdil also used to rely upon him for medical treatment, praising him for his excellent therapeutic skills.
Abū Shākir ibn Abī Sulaymān also used to enter all of al-Malik al-ʿĀdil’s fortresses, namely al-Karak, Jaʿbar, al-Ruhā, Damascus, and Cairo, on a mount rather than on foot, despite his being of sound body.610 He was held in such high esteem that when al-Malik al-Kāmil had taken up residence in the palace in Cairo, may God protect it,611 he lodged Abū Shākir near him there while al-Malik al-ʿĀdil was living in the mansion of the vizierate. One day al-Malik al-Kāmil rode out on one of his Nubian mules and entered Bayn al-Qaṣrayn.612 There, he mounted a horse and sent the mule he had been riding to the quarters of Abū Shākir at the palace, ordering him to mount it and ride out of the palace. The sultan waited at Bayn al-Qaṣrayn until Abū Shākir joined him, and then al-Malik al-Kāmil took the physician by the hand and set out with him to the house of the vizierate, talking with him all the way while the other emirs walked in front of al-Malik al-Kāmil.
[14.51.3]
Al-ʿAḍud ibn Munqidh613 composed the following lines about Abū Shākir:614
This sage, Abū Shākir.has many who love him and thank him (shākir):The successor of Hippocrates in our agesecond only to him in his dazzling knowledge.
[14.51.4]
The ḥakīm Abū Shākir ibn Abī Sulaymān died in the year 613/1216 and was buried in the monastery of al-Khandaq615 near Cairo.
14.52 Abū Naṣr ibn Abī Sulaymān616
Abū Naṣr ibn Abī Sulaymān was a physician who was well-versed in the art of medicine, excellent at methods of treatment and skilled in therapeutics. He died in al-Karak.
14.53 Abū l-Faḍl ibn Abī Sulaymān617
Abū l-Faḍl ibn Abī Sulaymān was a physician who was much praised for his expertise in the medical art and distinguished in methods of treatment and medical therapies. He was the youngest of his brothers, and lived longer than any of them,618 for he was born in the year 560/1164 and died in the year 644/1246 at the age of eighty-four. Not one of his brothers reached such an age. Abū l-Faḍl ibn Abī Sulaymān was a personal physician to al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam while he resided at al-Karak and then served al-Malik al-Kāmil in Egypt, where he died.
14.54 Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah619
[14.54.1]
Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah is the very illustrious, learned, ḥakīm Rashīd al-Dīn Abū l-Waḥsh ibn al-Fāris Abī l-Khayr ibn Abī Sulaymān Dāwūd ibn Abī l-Manā ibn Abī Fānah. He is known as Abū Ḥulayqah (‘the one with the ring’) and is peerless in his time in the medical art and the philosophical disciplines, besides being versatile in various other fields and in belles-lettres.620 He possesses an excellent knowledge of methods of treatment, is careful in administering drug remedies, and is also compassionate with the sick. In addition, he is desirous of doing good deeds and diligent in matters of the faith to which he adheres.621
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I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have met him many times and observed his excellence in methods of treatment, the pleasant nature of his company and the perfection of his character, which are beyond description. He studied the art of medicine first under his uncle Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd622 in Damascus, and later continued to study in Egypt. Abū Ḥulayqah also studied under our teacher Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿAlī (also known as al-Dakhwār),623 may God have mercy upon him, and he has continuously pursued his studies.
[14.54.3]
Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah was born in the fortress of Jaʿbar in the year 591/1195 but was subsequently taken to al-Ruhā,624 where he was raised for seven or eight years. His father used to dress him in military clothes, like himself. In al-Ruhā, he lived in a house called ‘The House of Ibn al-Zaʿfarānī’625 near the Shāʿ gate and adjacent to the residence of the sultan. Once, it happened that when al-Malik al-Kāmil had entered the bath, Abū Ḥulayqah’s father, al-Fāris,626 gave the boy some fruit and rosewater and ordered him to take them to the sultan. He took them, and when al-Malik al-Kāmil came out from the bath, he presented the gifts to him. Al-Malik al-Kāmil accepted them and went into the storerooms, where he emptied the plates of fruit, filled them with bolts of lustrous fabric, and sent his servant with the tray to Abū Ḥulayqah’s father. Al-Malik al-Kāmil then took Abū Ḥulayqah (who was at that time about eight years old) by the hand and escorted him to al-Malik al-ʿĀdil.627 When al-Malik al-ʿĀdil saw the boy, whom he had never seen before, he said to al-Malik al-Kāmil, ‘Muḥammad [al-Malik al-Kāmil], is this the son of al-Fāris?’, for he had noticed the resemblance. ‘Yes’, was the reply. ‘Bring him here,’ said al-ʿĀdil, and al-Malik al-Kāmil did so, placing Abū Ḥulayqah in front of al-ʿĀdil, who clasped him by the hand and spoke with him for a long time. Then al-Malik al-ʿĀdil turned to the boy’s father, al-Fāris, who was standing there waiting along with the other attendants, and said to him:
This son of yours is an intelligent boy. Do not teach him the military craft for I have many soldiers. Yours is a family blessed by God, and I have benefited from your medicine. Send him to the physician Abū Saʿīd628 in Damascus to study medicine.
Abū Ḥulayqah’s father obeyed al-Malik al-ʿĀdil’s order, supplied his son with what was necessary and sent him to Damascus, where he remained for an entire year during which time he memorized Hippocrates’ treatises on aphorisms629 and on prognostics.630 Then in the year 599/1202–1203 he went to Cairo and resided there, serving al-Malik al-Kāmil as his personal physician. Abū Ḥulayqah was given great honours and held in high esteem by the sultan, with numerous favours and endless gifts bestowed upon him, including a fief631 in Egypt that had been granted in the name of Abū Ḥulayqah’s paternal uncle Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Shākir.632 When the latter died, al-Malik al-Kāmil transferred it to the name of Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah. The fief consisted of half the locality known as al-ʿAzīziyyah633 as well as al-Kharibah634 in one of the eastern provinces.
Abū Ḥulayqah continued in the service of al-Malik al-Kāmil until the latter died,635 may God have mercy upon him, after which he served al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb,636 until al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ died, may God have mercy upon him. Thereafter he served the son of al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ, al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam Tūrānshāh.637 When Tūrānshāh was killed, may God have mercy upon him, on Monday the twenty-seventh of Muḥarram in the year 648 [1 May 1250], and the Turkish dynasty638 rose to power, seizing territory and conquering kingdoms, Abū Ḥulayqah entered their service, receiving the same benefits as before. Subsequently, of the Mamluk rulers, he served al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Malikī al-Ṣāliḥī639 and remained in his service with his privileges unbroken and his status maintained, for the sultan held him in great respect and bestowed many generous gifts and favours upon him.
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There are many anecdotes about the ḥakīm Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah concerning his practice of the art of medicine and many stories in which he stands out from other physicians. One of these accounts involves a woman from the royal household in al-ʿAbbāsah640 who fell ill. It was the sultan’s regular practice not to allow any other physician to work with Abū Ḥulayqah when he was treating him or any of the cherished women and children of the royal household. In this instance, Abū Ḥulayqah had been treating the aforementioned ailing woman for a few days when some urgent business called him away from the patient and he went to Cairo where he remained for eighteen days. When he returned to al-ʿAbbāsiyyah, he found that the other court physicians were treating the sick woman. When he appeared and talked with them, they said to him, ‘This woman is going to die, and it is imperative that we inform the sultan of this, so that her death does not come as a surprise to him.’ But Abū Ḥulayqah said to them, ‘In my opinion, this woman does not have a fatal illness but rather will recover, God willing.’ One of the physicians, who was the most senior of them in age, said to the young Abū Ḥulayqah, ‘Indeed I am older than you are, and I have treated more patients than you have, so you should agree with me on the writing of this message [to the sultan]’. But Abū Ḥulayqah did not agree to it. When the entire group of the physicians told him that they absolutely had to send the message, Abū Ḥulayqah said to them, ‘If you must send this message, it will be with your names but without mine.’
So, the physicians wrote to the sultan about the woman’s impending death. The sultan dispatched a messenger, accompanied by a carpenter who was to make a coffin for her. When the messenger arrived with the carpenter at the gate and the physicians were sitting nearby, Abū Ḥulayqah asked the messenger, ‘What is this carpenter doing here?’ ‘He is going to make a coffin for your patient,’ the messenger replied. ‘You would put her into it while she is still alive?’ said Abū Ḥulayqah. ‘No,’ said the messenger, ‘but after her death.’ ‘Return to the sultan with this coffin,’ said Abū Ḥulayqah, ‘and tell him from me that she is not going to die.’ So the messenger went back and informed the sultan of what Abū Ḥulayqah had said. When night fell, a servant from the sultan arrived, bearing a candle and a piece of paper on which the words ‘The son of al-Fāris is to appear before us’ were written in the sultan’s handwriting. – He was not yet called Abū Ḥulayqah, for that was not his name until after the sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil made a remark one day, when the future Abū Ḥulayqah was sitting with physicians at the gate and the sultan ordered his servant to look for the physician. The servant asked him, ‘My lord,641 which physician do you mean?’, and the sultan replied, ‘The one with the ring (Abū Hulayqah)’, after which he became known by that name until his epithet was eclipsed by that of his uncle, whose name gave rise to those known as the Banū Shākir.642 – When Abū Ḥulayqah appeared, the sultan said, ‘Was it you who stopped the work on the coffin?’ ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Why does your diagnosis differ from all the other physicians?’ asked the sultan. ‘My lord,’ said Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah, ‘it is due to my knowledge of that woman’s temperament643 and the recurrent time-periods644 of her illness, of which the others have no knowledge. There is nothing to fear for her from this illness.’ ‘Go and attend to her then,’ said al-Malik al-Kāmil, ‘and take care of her.’ Abū Ḥulayqah treated the woman and she recovered. In due course the sultan married her off, and she bore her husband many children.
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One of the accomplishments of Abū Ḥulayqah was that he thoroughly understood al-Malik al-Kāmil’s pulse. So much so that one day the sultan hid himself behind the curtain along with the women patients of his household. Abū Ḥulayqah took the pulse of each person and gave prescriptions for them, but when he read the pulse of the sultan, he knew whose it was, and so he said: ‘This is the pulse of our master, the sultan, and it is healthy, God be praised.’ Al-Malik al-Kāmil was greatly amazed, and his esteem for Abū Ḥulayqah rose even further.
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There are various stories about Abū Ḥulayqah’s dealings with al-Malik al-Kāmil. On one occasion the sultan ordered him to make the theriac known as al-Fārūq, and Abū Ḥulayqah was occupied with its preparation for a long period of time, spending all night on it until he had determined every one of its ingredients by name according to the writings of the two masters of the medical art, Hippocrates and Galen. Meanwhile, the sultan had developed a discharge from his teeth645 for which he was bled while he was at the ‘Elephant Pond’,646 where he had gone for recreational pleasure. When the sultan returned to the citadel, the physician al-Asʿad ibn Abī l-Ḥasan,647 attended him, because Abū Ḥulayqah was busy preparing the theriac. Al-Asʿad treated him for a while, but his condition worsened. When al-Malik al-Kāmil complained to al-Asʿad, the physician said to him, ‘There is nothing I can do except bloodletting.’ ‘Bleed me again?’ said the sultan. ‘I was bled three days ago. Have Abū Ḥulayqah sent for.’
When Abū Ḥulayqah arrived, the sultan complained to him of his condition and informed him that the physician had advised bloodletting. He asked his advice on this method of treatment or one involving a medicinal potion. ‘My lord,’ replied Abū Ḥulayqah, ‘your body is sound, God be praised, and the matter is not so serious as all that.’ ‘Not serious!’ exclaimed the sultan, ‘but I am in great distress from this pain. I cannot sleep at night, and I cannot rest during the day.’ ‘My lord,’ said Abū Ḥulayqah, ‘Rub your teeth with the theriac that the servant has brought in that small silver vessel, and you will see, God willing, a most amazing thing.’ Abū Ḥulayqah departed toward the gate, but hardly had he gone out when a message in the sultan’s handwriting was brought to him. ‘O ḥakīm’, it read, ‘I did what you told me and the pain ceased immediately.’ Abū Ḥulayqah was with al-Asʿad, the physician who had first treated the sultan, when he received the message. ‘By God,’ said al-Asʿad, ‘we have no right to treat our rulers, for only you should treat them.’ Then al-Malik al-Kāmil went to his treasury and sent Abū Ḥulayqah splendid robes of honour and a large quantity of gold.
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Here is another story about Abū Ḥulayqah: Because of the long time required to prepare the theriac called al-Fārūq and the difficulty in obtaining the correct ingredients from distant lands, he prepared a simplified theriac compounded of ingredients that are easily found everywhere. He did not intend to use it in order to obtain favours from a king or to seek money or glory in the world. Rather, he intended to seek closeness to God by aiding all of His creatures and showing compassion to all creation. He gave it freely to the sick, and with it he relieved the partially paralyzed and straightened crooked hands immediately and quickly, for it would produce in the nerves (ʿaṣab) an increase in the innate heat (ḥarārat al-gharīzah) and would strengthen them (taqwiyah) and dissipate (idhābah) the phlegm in them. The patient would find relief immediately, and the pain of colic (qawlanj) would subside immediately after purging (istifrāgh).
One day, Abū Ḥulayqah passed by the doorman of a gate that was situated between the two walls of Cairo, may God protect it. The doorman was a man known as ʿAlī, and he lay on his back, unable to move from one side to the other. This man complained of his condition to Abū Ḥulayqah, who gave him a dose of the theriac and then went on his way, ascending to the citadel to attend to the infirm there. When the physician returned the following morning, the doorman who had been paralyzed was standing on his legs, calling to him. ‘Sit down,’ said Abū Ḥulayqah, but the doorman replied, ‘By God, I am fed up with sitting, let me enjoy myself.’
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Another story about Abū Ḥulayqah: Al-Malik al-Kāmil had a muezzin known as Amīn al-Dīn Jaʿfar who had a stone that was blocking his urethra. This caused him intense suffering, to the point that he was on the verge of death. He wrote to al-Malik al-Kāmil informing him of his condition and requesting authorization to go home to be treated. When he arrived at his house all the great physicians of the day were summoned, and each of them prescribed something for him, but nothing was of any benefit. But then he sent for the ḥakīm Abū Ḥulayqah, who gave him a dose of his theriac. In the amount of time it took for it to reach his stomach, its potency penetrated to the place of the stone and broke it up so that it came out when he urinated, stained from the colouring of the medication. The patient recovered immediately, returned to his service with the sultan, and called for the noon prayer. At that time, the sultan was encamped at Giza,648 in Cairo, and when he heard the muezzin’s voice he ordered him brought to him. When Jaʿfar arrived, al-Malik al-Kāmil said to him, ‘What about the letter that you sent to me yesterday, in which you said you were near death? Explain to me what has happened!’ ‘My lord,’ said the muezzin, ‘it would have been so had it not been for my lord’s physician, Abū Ḥulayqah, who gave me a theriac that cured me immediately.’
It so happened on that same day that a man who was squatting to urinate was bitten by a viper on his penis and died. When the sultan heard this news he was moved to pity, for he was of a compassionate nature.649 Then the sultan departed for the citadel of Cairo and spent the night there, rising early in the morning. Meanwhile, Abū Ḥulayqah was there fulfilling his duties, sitting near the gate with the head eunuch.650 The sultan came out, stopped. and called out to him, ‘Ḥakīm, what is this theriac that you have prepared? Its benefit has become famous among the people, but you have never told me of it?’
‘My lord’, said Abū Ḥulayqah, ‘your humble servant does nothing but for your lordship. The reason for the delay in informing you was so that your humble servant might test the theriac, since it was he who had developed it, and if the testing were to work out well, he would bring it to my lord’s notice. But since the theriac’s effectiveness is now known to my lord, that aim has been achieved.’
‘Go and bring me all of what you have of it,’ said al-Malik al-Kāmil, and he returned to the palace, leaving a servant sitting at the gate waiting for Abū Ḥulayqah to return. It was as if the sultan had gone up to the citadel that night and left his palace at such an hour only for that specific purpose!
Abū Ḥulayqah went to his house, but could only find a meagre amount of the theriac because the people had almost exhausted his supply of it with their demand for it. So he went to his colleagues, to whom he had given some of it, and gathered a quantity of eleven dirhams from them, promising them that he would give them double compensation for it. He put the theriac in a small silver vessel on which he wrote the uses and dosages and took it to the aforementioned servant who was sitting waiting for him. The servant carried the vessel to the sultan, who kept the theriac secure in the vessel, so that when his teeth were hurting, he could rub some of it on them and in that way obtain relief.
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Another story involving Abū Ḥulayqah and the sultan: A woman of the sultan’s household had an illness that Abū Ḥulayqah was unable to cure. The woman sent the following message to Abū Ḥulayqah:
I know that if the sultan knew of a physician in Egypt better than you he would not entrust himself and his children to you to the exclusion of all the other physicians. You do not come to treat me, not because you lack the knowledge but because of indifference toward my personal state. The proof of your skill is that if you became ill, you would treat yourself in a few days, and, likewise, if one of your children were to become ill, you would cure the child within a couple of days as well. The same goes for the other women here, for you treat them and your treatment is always effective after a short period.
‘Not every disease can be treated,’ replied Abū Ḥulayqah, ‘for if every disease responded to treatment, no one would die.’ But she would not listen to his explanation. ‘I know that there isn’t a physician in Egypt [who can cure me],’ she said, ‘so I shall ask the sultan to engage physicians from Damascus for me.’
The sultan engaged two Christian physicians for her. They arrived from Damascus to treat her just as the sultan was about to travel to Damietta.651 The physicians asked which of them would go with the sultan and which would stay behind. ‘All of the physicians will remain to care for the woman,’ said al-Malik al-Kāmil, ‘except Abū Ḥulayqah, for he shall be the only one to come with me.’ Since the physicians had done all they could for the woman and had become weary of treating her to no purpose, it [travelling with the sultan] was a convenient excuse for Abū Ḥulayqah. He quoted what Hippocrates says about prognosis.652
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So Abū Ḥulayqah travelled to Damietta with al-Malik al-Kāmil as his personal physician, but for a month the sultan did not request his services. Then one night the sultan sent for him, and when Abū Ḥulayqah came before his master, he found the sultan feverish and displaying various contradictory symptoms. So the physician compounded a potion (mashrūb) that was suitable for these various symptoms and brought it to the sultan at dawn, and the Sun had not set but what all his suffering ceased. That was very much to his liking, and the sultan continued to follow that regimen until he arrived in Alexandria.
It happened that on the first day of the fasting in the month of Ramadan Abū Ḥulayqah became ill. The physicians who were in the sultan’s service came to him and sought his advice on what they should bring to the sultan for his fast-breaking meal that evening. ‘He has a potion that he praises highly, has been using regularly, and always requests,’ replied Abū Ḥulayqah. ‘As long as he does not complain of anything new that would make it unwise for him to take it, give it to him. If some new symptom becomes apparent to you, use your judgment and prescribe accordingly.’
But the other physicians did not follow his instructions and deliberately changed the sultan’s regime. This altered the sultan’s temperament for the worse. He sent for the physicians and requested Abū Ḥulayqah’s potion, interrogating them about it. The formula for the compound had included endive seeds,653 which they had removed. ‘Why did you omit this seed?’ asked the sultan, ‘for endive seed is a restorative for the liver, cleans the blood vessels and prevents thirst?’ One of the physicians present said, ‘By God, your servants are not to be blamed for the omission. It is only that al-Asʿad ibn Abī l-Ḥasan has related a curious tradition according to which endive seed is harmful to the spleen. But your humble servant, (I swear) by God, doesn’t know! And al-Asʿad maintains that your lordship has an inflammation of the spleen (ṭuḥāl), and your servants agreed with him on that.’ ‘By God, he speaks falsely,’ said the sultan, ‘for I do not have any pain in the spleen.’ He ordered them to restore the endive seed, and then he interrogated them closely on the benefits of each and every ingredient of the potion that they had left out until they restored them. He then took the drink again as before, finding it always beneficial and praiseworthy.
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Another story about Abū Ḥulayqah: One day, al-Malik al-Kāmil sultan asked him to prepare for him a sauce that could be eaten with a meat stew654 while travelling. The sultan suggested to him that it should strengthen his stomach and stimulate his appetite, and in addition act as a laxative (mulayyin). So Abū Ḥulayqah prepared a sauce according to the following recipe:
Take one part parsley (maqdūnis) and half a part each of lemon balm655 and the pulp of a fresh citron,656 both of which have been steeped in water and salt for several days and then soaked in fresh water. In a brewer’s mortar,657 pound each of these separately until it becomes like an ointment. Then mix all the ingredients in the mortar, squeeze the juice of a ripe green lemon (līmūn) over the mixture, and sprinkle a good amount of Andarānī658 salt on it for seasoning. Finally, put the mixture into small jars, each one holding the amount of a single serving, filling the container full, because if there is any [space] left it will spoil. Seal those containers with good oil and store them away.
When the sultan partook of the sauce, he got the desired results, and he praised it greatly. One day, when the sultan was about to travel to Asia Minor (Bilād al-Rūm), he asked Abū Ḥulayqah, ‘Will this sauce keep for a long time?’ ‘No,’ replied Abū Ḥulayqah. ‘Does it last even a month?’ enquired the sultan. ‘Yes,’ Abū Ḥulayqah answered, ‘if it is prepared in the way I indicated.’ ‘Every month make me a quantity sufficient to last the month,’ said the sultan, ‘and send it to me at the beginning of every (lunar) month.’ Abū Ḥulayqah produced some of the sauce each month, sending it to him along the difficult mountain passes659 of Asia Minor. The sultan never failed to use it while travelling and praised it profusely.
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Yet another anecdote about Abū Ḥulayqah is the following: A woman from the countryside came to him with her son, who was an emaciated, sickly youth. She complained of her son’s condition and said that, although she had tried hard to treat him, he had only become thinner and weaker. The woman had come to Abū Ḥulayqah in the morning before he rode out on his rounds, so it was still cold. The physician looked at the youth, enquired about his condition, and felt the young man’s pulse. While doing so he said to his servant, ‘Go and bring me my farajiyyah (a robe),660 so that I can put it on.’ The young man’s pulse changed drastically at this statement and he also changed colour, so that Abū Ḥulayqah surmised that he was in love. After a little time had passed, he felt the youth’s pulse, and found that it had calmed down. But when the servant came to him and said, ‘Here is your farajiyyah,’ he felt the youth’s pulse and found that it had changed again. ‘Your son is in love,’ he said to the mother, ‘and the one whom he loves is named Farajiyyah.’ ‘Yes, by God!’ said the mother, ‘he is in love with a girl named Farajiyyah, and I have been unable to dissuade him from [being in love] with her.’ She was amazed that simply by examining the young man, Abū Ḥulayqah had known the name of the girl, without having had any previous knowledge of the matter.
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that this story is similar to one attributed to Galen with regard to a woman in love. He had been called to the house of a woman of high rank who had been ill for a long time. He surmised that she was in love and visited her frequently. One day, he was feeling her pulse while soldiers were carrying out exercises in the square. Someone present was relating what they were doing and that so-and-so was displaying good horsemanship and excellent athletic ability. When the woman heard the name of the man, her pulse changed. Galen felt it some time later and found that it had settled back to its previous rate. Then Galen secretly told the person to repeat his report. When he repeated it, Galen again felt the woman’s pulse and found it had quickened, so he diagnosed that she was in love with the man being described. This anecdote indicates an abundance of knowledge and great insight in prognostics.661
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I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that all the relatives of the ḥakīm Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah are known in Egypt and Syria as the Banū Shākir, owing to the fame of the ḥakīm Abū Shākir662 and his good reputation. All those related to him became known as Banū Shākir, even if they were not his sons. When I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – met the scholar Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah, he had heard that I had mentioned the well-known physicians of his family and described their learning and achievements. He kindly thanked me, whereupon I recited the following verses to him, extemporizing:663
And why should I not thank those whose excellencehas travelled east and west?In the heaven of lofty deeds there shine from themauspicious stars that have never set:People whose status among mankindranks as high as a planet.They have written so many books on medicine,containing every original, amazing idea.My gratefulness (shukrī) to the Banū Shākirwill not cease to be with those far and near;I have immortalized a lasting glory among them,by fine description and friendly praise.
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The reason for the ring (ḥulayqah) that was attached to Abū Ḥulayqah’s ear and from which he took his nickname is as follows: His father, al-Fāris, had no male children who lived, except for Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah. When his mother was pregnant with him, his father was advised to have made a silver ring and to give the value of its silver as alms. Al-Fāris had arranged to have a jeweller present at the hour in which his child was born, in order to pierce the infant’s ear and put the silver ring in it. He did so, and God gave the boy life. His mother made a pact with her son (Abū Ḥulayqah, ‘the one with the ring’) that he was not to remove the ring, and so it remained. In due course Abū Ḥulayqah married and had a number of male children who died, as had happened in his own family. Then he thought of the ring and had one made for his eldest son, who was known as Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd,664 whom he named after his paternal uncle.
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The poetry of the ḥakīm Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah includes the following poem, which he recited to me – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – himself. He also recited it in the presence of Sayf al-Islām,665 the brother of Saladin:666
The beloved granted a meeting on a nightwhen the chaperone was heedless and slept, unaware,In a meadow that, but for its transience, would resemblethe gardens of Eden in all its attributes.The birds were singing amid the branches with their voicesand the wine was unveiled in the cups of those who poured it,While my companion was the bright moon, in whichthe senses were revelling, in all their senses. (?)667
The following verses are also by him:668
I am yearning for mentioning a being-together, O Suʿd,669as reddish-white camel mares yearn when a water-hole appears to them;For Suʿdā gives more pleasure to my heart than anything one could wishand being near to her when we meet is my intent.She possesses a mouth where teeth are like pearls, well-strung,front teeth like camomile with honey,Hair like the night, or (black) as a lover’s fortune,670and a face like the light of dawn, one being the opposite of the other.5 I say to her when we say farewell, while we exchangewords like the scent of musk mixed with incense:‘Do you think we shall meet after parting, in some place,and will a yearning lover, harmed by distance, have success?’The nights pass, night after night,but thoughts of you will remain, renewed by our acquaintance.But the lover’s fear is that separation from you will be lengthy,so that he will pass away and your promise will not be fulfilled.I have come to love Indian swords becausethese Indians resemble her in the effect of her glances,10 And I have in brown spears …671 becausethey resemble her in shape – ah, what a lovely shape!Roses have a meaning that testifies (shāhidun) on her cheeks,which we see (nushāhiduhū) in her when the roses have gone.I have disavowed loving her, but my tears (ʿabratī)expressed (ʿabbarat) it, so the denial was of no avail.
The following verses also:672
My two friends, I have remained sleeplessfrom love, captive of heart and fettered,Through loving a girl whose face puts the full moon to shame,especially in a night of hair, when it shines.I lost my way through her, though she is pretty as the crescent moon:how strange, that it should lead astray and not guide!She has a mouth where teeth are like pearls, well-strung,673and speech like pearls when scattered.
While Abū Ḥulayqah was in Damietta, his father became ill in Cairo. When a letter arrived informing him that his father had recovered, he composed the verses:674
The clouds of bliss rained upon mesince the misery you complained of ceased.Since I saw your handwriting I have been clothed in happiness;so what can I do to be duly grateful?
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Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah is the author of the following works:675
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On the preservation of health (M. fī ḥifẓ al-ṣiḥḥah).
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A treatise explaining that spiritual pleasures are better than physical pleasures since the spiritual ones are perfections and the attainment of perfections, whereas the physical ones are for avoiding suffering, and if they increase they cause other sufferings.
-
On simple drugs, entitled The Selection of One Thousand Drugs (K. fī l-adwiyah al-mufradah sammāhu al-mukhtār fī l-alf ʿuqqār)
-
On diseases, their causes and their symptoms and treatments with simple and compound drugs (K. fī l-amrāḍ wa-asbābihā wa-ʿalāmātihā wa-mudāwātihā bi-l-adwiyah al-mufradah wa-l-murakkabah), the merits of which have proven successful from experience, and when the treatment is applied to a curable disease it is successful. The author gathered the information for this book from books on the art of medicine composed from the time of Adam to our time, organizing the scattered and miscellaneous materials.
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On the inevitability of death (M. ḍarūrat al-mawt). In this treatise, in the explanation (of this inevitability) the author says that since the human being continues to disintegrate due to the inner heat of its body and the heat from the atmosphere which is outside, it is eventually destroyed by these two factors. Abū Ḥulayqah illustrates this by quoting this verse:676
One alone will kill me,
let alone when the two combine.
This verse could not have been more aptly quoted than in this place, for it corresponds to what he wrote and agrees with the intended sense.
14.55 Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥulayqah677
[14.55.1]
Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥulayqah was a peerless scholar and the most perfect of physicians. Born in Cairo in the year 620/1223, he was named Muḥammad when he became a Muslim during the reign of al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Malikī al-Ṣāliḥī.678 God bestowed upon him the most perfect intellect, the best manners, abundant intelligence and vast knowledge. Muhadhdhab al-Dīn mastered the medical art so thoroughly and came to know the philosophical disciplines to such an extent that no one came close to him in regard to anything he undertook. Nor did anyone possess the fine characteristics that were combined in him, including courteous speech and the generous giving of alms to friends and relations, both far and near.
[14.55.2]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – received a letter from Muhadhdhab al-Dīn while he was in the military encampment of al-Manṣūr al-Ẓāhirī679 in the month of Shawwāl in the year 667 [June 1269]. The letter displayed brilliant refinement, abundant knowledge, Aṣmaʿian insight,680 an Akhzamite nature,681 great affection and immense charity. In the letter, he stated that he had found in Cairo a copy of this book that I have written on the classes of physicians and that he had acquired it, making it part of the collection in his library. He exaggerated in the characterization of the book, which shows the generosity of his nature and the nobility of his origins. His letter began with the following line relating to me:682
And I am a man who loves you because of good qualitiesI heard: the ear, like the eye, can fall in love.683
I wrote back to him with a poem in the same metre and rhyme:
A letter reached me, pleasing with its inscription,containing thoughts that shine like the sun,The letter of a noble, generous man who is to be lauded,with a bright countenance, its light sparkling:He is the master, the cultured patron through whomwest and east have boasted of learning,A sage who encompasses all fields of knowledge:no door to noble deeds is locked to him;5 A noble man who combines all praiseworthy qualities,but in his generosity he scatters wealth.Whenever his attributes are mentioned in assembliesa fragrance of musk spreads from their pleasant odour.He has been first in races pursuing lofty deeds;he who would seek a simile for him would not find it.When he speaks he surpasses all speakers in eloquence;Quss684 would fall silent in his presence if he spoke,And if Galen lived in his timehe would say, ‘One can rely on this man in matters of medicine.’10 No one resembles him in his preservation of health,and no one like him deals as skilfully with illness in the body.When I685 speak in praise of Muḥammad’s noble qualitiesevery man will confirm what I say;But if I wished to enumerate all the lofty things he encompassesI would be unable, even if I were that eloquent al-Farazdaq.686It is no wonder that I am, with sincere loyalty, in thrallto the sons of Ḥulayqah, firmly bound.Their father showed me favours in the past,and so my gratitude to them is assured in length of time.15 Each one of them has risen to the heights, especiallyhe who said, when longing came over him:‘And I am a man who loves you because of good qualitiesI heard: the ear, like the eye, can fall in love.’May they forever live in comfort and wellbeing,with (God’s) support, as long as lofty trees put forth leaves.
[14.55.3]
Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd Muḥammad was constantly committed to serious study, which is a way of life praiseworthy in both words and deed. Under his father,687 he studied the medical art and wrote accurately about its several subdivisions, including both generalities and particularities, and acquired knowledge of its essentials, both theoretical and practical. He served the sultan al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Baybars al-Malikī al-Ṣāliḥī with medical advice and enjoyed the utmost respect on the part of the ruler, who bestowed numerous favours, a fine position and abundant gifts upon him.
Muhadhdhab al-Dīn had two brothers. One of them was Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū l-Khayr, who was prominent in the art of ophthalmology (ṣināʿat al-kuḥl), being learned and meritorious, and who, before reaching the age of twenty, had composed a book on eye medicaments (al-kuḥl) for al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn.688 The other brother, ʿAlam al-Dīn Abū Naṣr, who was the younger, had a prodigious intellect and was accounted a scholar distinguished in the art of medicine, having been well-endowed with insight and understanding.
[14.55.4]
Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥulayqah is the author of a book on medicine (K. fī l-ṭibb).
14.56 Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd689
[14.56.1]
The very illustrious, learned, physician Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd ibn Muwaffaq al-Dīn Yaʿqūb was a Christian from Jerusalem. He was distinguished in the art of medicine, having been an expert in both its theory and its practice, with a keen intellect, eloquence in speech and an excellent turn of phrase.
He studied Arabic under our teacher Taqī l-Dīn Khazʿal ibn ʿAskar ibn Khalīl,690 a shaykh who was peerless in his time in the science of grammar. Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd subsequently engaged in the study of medicine under my paternal uncle, the physician Rashīd al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Khalīfah,691 while the latter was in the service of the sultan al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam.692 Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd was the most distinguished of all his pupils, for he attached himself to my uncle, never leaving his side either at home or while travelling. He remained with him in Damascus, always applying himself to study until he knew by heart everything that needs to be memorized from the books that reveal the art of medicine. After that, he studied under my uncle’s direction many of the books of Galen and others until he had acquired an unprecedented understanding of them. He also studied under our teacher, the sage Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿAlī.693 In the year 632/1234, Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd entered the service of al-Malik al-Kāmil, drawing a regular stipend, and he remained in that ruler’s service for some time, residing in Cairo. Subsequently, Rashīd al-Din Abū Saʿīd served al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb ibn al-Malik al-Kāmil694 remaining in his service for about nine years.
[14.56.2]
While al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn was in Damascus he developed an ulceration (akilah) on his thigh, for which the physician Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah695 treated him. After it had persisted for a long time, al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ summoned Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd and complained to him about his condition. But there was ill-will and rivalry between the two physicians. When Abū Saʿīd declared to al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ that Abū Ḥulayqah’s treatment had not been the correct one, al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ gave Abū Ḥulayqah an angry look, whereupon Abū Ḥulayqah rose, left the ruler’s presence, and went and sat at the gate of the sultan’s residence. Abū Saʿīd stayed behind with the sultan, intending to undertake treatment, but in the course of that very consultation, Abū Saʿīd was stricken696 with partial paralysis697 and fell prostrate on the ground in front of the sultan, who gave orders for him to be carried to his house. Abū Saʿīd remained in that condition for four days and then died. His death occurred in Damascus during the last ten days of the month of Ramadan in the year 646 [January 1249].
[14.56.3]
Al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ then went to Egypt, but his illness became worse and finally he died, may God have mercy upon him. His death occurred on Monday the fifteenth of Shaʿbān in the year 647 [23 November 1249]. Al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb had enormous prestige and the power of a sultan, but when death – the destroyer of pleasures – came to him, it was as if he had never existed. Thus does time deal with humanity – as I (Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah) have said in the following verses:698
Beware your time as much as you are able, for it isFate that wrongs noble people, even though it is just.699Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb, who ruled all creaturesand overcame dynasties,Was healthy through his lucky stars, until an illnessplayed havoc with his body, defying all remedies.The world had been untroubled for him and he thoughtit would last for him forever. But then his appointed time took him by surprise.In truth, he was a star (najm) that rose;but thus are stars: afterwards, it set.
[14.56.4]
Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd is the author of the following works:
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Choice Facts of Medicine (K. ʿUyūn al-ṭibb), which he composed for al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb. It is one of the best books ever written on the art of medicine, and it includes selected summaries of medical treatments.700
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Notes on the The Comprehensive Book (Taʿālīq ʿalā Kitāb al-Ḥāwī) of Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī701 on medicine.
14.57 Asʿad al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥasan702
[14.57.1]
The outstanding learned physician, Asʿad al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī l-Ḥasan, was a very eminent scholar, who was prominent amongst the erudite, with a keen intellect and great dedication to learning. Asʿad al-Dīn had mastered the art of medicine and acquired knowledge of the philosophical disciplines. In matters of religious law, he was also learned and one whose word carried great weight.
Asʿad al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥasan studied medicine under Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā al-Bayyāsī703 in Egypt and served al-Malik al-Masʿūd Aqsīs ibn al-Malik al-Kāmil704 with whom he stayed for a period in the Yemen. He received many honours and generous gifts from al-Malik al-Masʿūd, including a monthly stipend of one hundred Egyptian dinars. Asʿad al-Dīn continued in his service until the death of al-Malik al-Masʿūd, may God have mercy upon him. Then al-Malik al-Kāmil705 granted Asʿad al-Dīn estates in Egypt from which he received an annual revenue, and the ruler made him a member of his entourage. Asʿad al-Dīn was born in Egypt in the year 570/1174. His father was also a physician in Egypt. The shaykh Asʿad al-Dīn studied belles-lettres (ʿilm al-adab) and poetry, composing some fine poetry himself.
[14.57.2]
I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – first met Asʿad al-Dīn in Damascus at the beginning of the month of Rajab in the year 630 [April 1233] and found him to be an elderly man of handsome appearance, with attractive grey hair, a perfect build, and a light-brown complexion, charming in conversation and well endowed with honourable virtues. Subsequently I met him again in Egypt where he received me kindly and warmly. He had been a friend of my father’s for many years. The death of Asʿad al-Dīn occurred in Cairo in the year 635/1237.
[14.57.3]
Asʿad al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥasan is the author of Anecdotes of the Insightful regarding the Examination of Physicians (K. Nawādir al-alibbāʾ fī imtiḥān al-aṭibbāʾ), which he composed for al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb.
14.58 Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Bayṭār706
[14.58.1]
Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Bayṭār – that is, the very illustrious, learned physician Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Mālaqī al-Nabātī – is generally known as Ibn al-Bayṭār. He was without peer in his day and was the authority of his age on the knowledge, identification, selection, and locations of plants as well as the attribution of names in terms of their differences and types. Ibn al-Bayṭār travelled to the land of the Greeks,707 reaching even the remotest areas of Asia Minor (Bilād al-Rūm), where he not only met experts in that discipline, from whom he obtained a great deal of knowledge about plants, but also observed the plants in their natural environment. In the Maghrib and elsewhere he also met with many authorities in the field of botany (ʿilm al-nabāt) and observed the places where plants grew and examined their nature. Ibn al-Bayṭār had mastered the contents of the book of Dioscorides with such thoroughness that practically no one else could equal him in that regard.
[14.58.2]
Indeed, I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – found him to have an astonishing degree of insight, astuteness and knowledge about plants and about what Dioscorides and Galen had said concerning them. My first meeting with him was in Damascus in the year 633/1235 when I also observed his easy social qualities, the range of his honourable virtues, the excellence of his disposition, the goodness of his character and the nobleness of his soul, which were beyond description.
In his company, I inspected many plants in their natural habitats on the outskirts of Damascus. Under his guidance, I also studied his commentary on the names of the medicinal substances in Dioscorides’ book, and so I was able to observe at first hand his vast knowledge and his understanding of a great number of subjects. For my studies with him, I had procured a number of books concerning simple drugs, such as Dioscorides’ book, Galen’s, the one by al-Ghāfiqī,708 and similar important works on that subject. Ibn al-Bayṭār’s commentary begins with a reiteration of the information from Dioscorides’ Greek book that he had been able to confirm in Asia Minor (bilād al-Rūm). It then discusses the whole of what Dioscorides says concerning the attributes, descriptions and functions of plants, and also what Galen says concerning the attributes, temperament and functions of plants and related matters. In addition, Ibn Bayṭār discusses a number of sayings of later scholars and their differences of opinion and also cites instances of error and ambiguity that have occurred in some of their descriptions of substances.
I used to analyse those books with him, and I could not find anything in them that he had got wrong. But more astounding still, he never mentioned a drug without also citing in which chapter it is to be found in the book of Dioscorides or Galen, and even under which numbered item it appears amongst all the drugs mentioned in that chapter.
[14.58.3]
Ibn al-Bayṭār was in the service of al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ayyūb, who used to rely on him for simple medicaments and herbs and appointed him the chief over the other herbalists (raʾis ʿalā sāʾir al-ʿashshābīn) in Egypt and master of those who cultivate plants (aṣḥāb al-basṭāt). He continued in al-Malik al-Kāmil’s service until the ruler died in Damascus, may God have mercy upon him. He then went to Cairo, where he served al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb ibn al-Malik al-Kāmil, enjoying his favour and holding a high position during his reign. Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn, the herbalist (ʿashshāb), died suddenly, may God have mercy upon him, in Damascus in the month of Shaʿban in the year 646 [November 1248].
[14.58.4]
Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn ibn al-Bayṭār is the author of the following works:709
-
Explanation and information on the flaws and errors in al-Minhāj (K. al-Ibānah wa-l-iʿlām bi-mā fī l-Minhāj min al-khalal wa-l-awhām).710
-
A commentary on medicinal substances in the book of Dioscorides711 (Sharḥ adwiyat kitāb Dīyasqūrīdus).
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A compendium on medicinal substances (K. al-Jāmiʿ fī l-adwiyah al-mufradah)712 in which the author examines the simple medicaments, giving their names, classifications, properties and benefits. In this book he indicates the ones that can readily be identified, distinguishing them from those that can be confused with others. There is no other book on simple drugs as important as this. He composed it for al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb ibn al-Malik al-Kāmil.713
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The ultimate on simple drugs (K. Mughnī fī l-adwiyah al-mufradah), which he arranged in accordance with the treatment of affected organs.
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Astonishing effects and wondrous occult properties (K. al-Afʿāl al-gharībah wa-l-khawāṣṣ al-ʿajībah)
MS A has a twelve-line marginal note written upside-down at the start of Chapter Fourteen. The ḥāshiyah reads: ‘The writer of this [marginal note] said: I found in the draft of the author (musawwadat al-muṣannif) names that were not in the exemplar copy (al-nuskhah al-manqūl minhā). And the exemplar (al-manqūl minhā) is a copy that was transcribed from a copy also written by the author [Ibn Abī Usaybiʿah] in his own hand. It occurred to me that he [Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah?] omitted names in the fair copy (al-mubayyaḍah) either because he intended to compose an abridgement, since they [the omitted names] are of no benefit or for some other reason. I did not want this copy [MS A] to lack a single name from amongst those found in the draft [of the author]. And I have included in the preceding chapters of this book [MS A] whatever was not present in the exemplar. In this copy [MS A] [I have included] each name at the point where the author [Ibn Abī Usaybiʿah] mentioned it in his draft (fī musawwadatihi), out of concern that the copyist of his [Ibn Abī Usaybiʿah’s] fair copy had [inadvertently] omitted them. And now it occurred to me that I should include all of the names present in the author’s draft (musawwadah) following one another in lists (qāʾimāt) and indicate their positions [in the text] as far as I am capable and able to do so. From God I ask assistance in this.’ For a discussion of this ḥāshiyah and its significance in terms of the manuscript tradition of the treatise, see the essay by Ignacio Sánchez, ‘The Textual and Manuscript Tradition …’ in Volume One.
This biography is missing in Version 1 but found in Version 2 and Version 3. For Politianus, see Skreslet, Greeks in Medieval Islamic Egypt, 126–145; Nasrallah, Histoire, ii(2):21–22.
For Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, known as Eutychius, see Ch. 10.11. He was a Melkite Patriarch of Alexandria as well as a physician. For the passage cited here from his Kitāb al-Tārīkh al-majmūʿ alā-l-taḥqīq wa-l-taṣdīq or Naẓm al-jawhar (The String of Jewels), see Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, Annalenwerk (Breydy), 49.
The fourth year of the reign of al-Manṣūr began in 140/757–758, and if Politianus served for 46 years until his death, it would mean that he died in 186/802, a date which coincides with that given at the end of the entry. However, other sources suggest that Politianus was made Patriarch of Alexandria in 151/768 and that he died in 197/813; see Skreslet, Greeks in Medieval Islamic Egypt, 127–128; Nasrallah, Histoire, ii(2):21n1.
Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, Annalenwerk (Breydy), 51–52.
According to al-Yaʿqūbī, in his account of Egypt in his Kitāb al-Buldān, ‘All of Egypt’s non-Arabs are Copts: those of Upper Egypt are called al-Marīs and those of Lower Egypt are called al-Biyamā’; al-Yaʿqūbī, The Works, (i:) 176–177. In his Tārīkh, in the annals for around the year 216/831, he speaks of ‘the people of the Ḥawf, al-Biyamā, and al-Basharūd, all of which are areas of Lower Egypt’; see al-Yaʿqūbī, The Works, (iii:) 1233; al-Yaʿqūbī, Tārīkh, entry for year 216/831.
This biography does not occur in Version 1 or Version 2. This physician has as yet not been found in other sources and nothing further is known of him. The biographies of physicians who worked under the Tulunids (Ch. 14.2–14.4) are for the most part based on the history of Ibn Ṭūlūn’s reign (Sīrat Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn) written by Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Dāyah (d. between 330/941 and 340/951). This hagiographical biography (now lost) is partially preserved in the Sīrat Aḥmad Ibn Ṭūlūn by al-Balawī, whose history was largely based upon that by Ibn al-Dāyah. IAU’s unacknowledged borrowings can be clearly seen by looking at Balawī’s work (see al-Balawī, Sīrat Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn).
See Ch. 8.26.
Founder of the Tulunid dynasty in Egypt. He served as a regent in Egypt for the Abbasids from 254/868 to 260/874 before declaring independence from the caliph; EI2 art. ‘Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn’ (Zaky M. Hassan).
This biography is found in Versions 2 and 3 but is missing from Version 1. This physician, al-Ḥasan ibn Zīrak (or Ibn Zayrak) has as yet not been found in other sources and nothing further is known of him. See al-Balawī, Sīrat Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, 312–313, where these andecdotes are given with slightly different wording.
See Ch. 14.4.
For thughūr, lines of fortifications protecting gaps along frontiers, see EI2 art. ‘al-T̲h̲ug̲h̲ūr’ (C.E. Bosworth & J.D. Latham).
Ibn Ṭūlūn conducted a campaign in Syria in 264/878 with the purpose of defending the borders with Asia Minor against the Byzantines. The result was the occupation of Syria, making Ibn Ṭūlūn the first Muslim governor of Egypt to annex Syria. Note that MS A gives the date as 296 rather than 269, which is surely an error.
Samak qarīṣ is a type of marinated or pickled fish (see Dozy, Supplément, ii:336 under qarīṣ). Fishes were commonly pickled, salted and sold for eating through Egypt. Garum (a fish-based condiment) was also commonly consumed, since antiquity, in areas around the Mediterranean; see Waines, ‘Murrī’; and Curtis, Garum.
This biography is missing from Version 1 but present in Versions 2 and 3. The name Tawfīl is not an Arabic name but a corruption of Theophilos. For a treatise by Isḥāq ibn ʿImrān addressed to Saʿīd ibn Tawfīl, see Sezgin, GAS III, 267.
See al-Balawī, Sīrat Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, 312–313, where the following andecdote is given with slightly different wording, indicating that IAU took it from Ibn al-Dāyah’s biography of Ibn Ṭūlūn. It is also found almost verbatim in Ṣibt ibn al-Jawzī, Mirʾāt al-zamān (ed. Barakāt), xvi:79–80.
See the previous biography, that of Ḥasan ibn Zīrak (Ch. 14.3).
Mutanabbidh (having drunk nabīdh, or date wine).
Farārīj.
Kardanāj (here written as kardabāj); Dozy, Supplément, ii:462; the Persian form gardanāj, defined as ‘meat parboiled and roasted’ (Steingass, Persian-English Dictionary, 1080). The form kardabāj (used consistently in the manuscripts) is otherwise unattested.
Bazmāward (from Persian bazm-āward ‘banquet-bringing’) consists of round flat bread loaves, with the pith extracted and then stuffed with a minced meat preparation combining the meat with mint leaves, salted lemons, walnuts and vinegar. It is unclear here whether the cold young goat’s meat was to be combined with the fowl in the bazmāward or whether it was served separately. For bazmāward, see Perry, Medieval Arab Cookery, 73 and cf. 382–348, 448; see also Lewicka, Food of Medieval Cairenes, 160–161. We thank David Waines for his assistance in identifying this dish.
Kharūf.
Literally, majālis, in the sense of ‘sittings’ for the purpose of evacuation of the bowels.
A fortified town located in the Sinai along an ancient route connecting important centres of the ancient world.
Ibn Ṭūlūn seems to be saying: you are dependent on my favours while I’m alive, so keep me alive!
All copies state that the following information was taken from ‘the History’ (al-taʾrīkh). This is a reference to Ibn al-Dāyah’s (now lost) history of the Tulunids, preserved in paraphrase in al-Balawī’s Sīrat Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn; for this particular anecdote, see al-Balawī, Sīrat Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, 323–329.
This is a loose outer garment, slit in the front.
An otherwise unidentified physician. The following account is found, in slightly different wording, in al-Balawī, Sīrat Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, 325.
Miʾat Alf means literally ‘One Hundred Thousand’. Abū l-ʿAshāʾir is probably Abū l-ʿAshāʾir (Jaysh) ibn Khumārawayh, a grandson of Ibn Ṭūlūn and third ruler of the Tulunid dynasty.
ʿAṣīdah is a very thick porridge or gruel, consisting of wheat-flour mixed with boiling water and clarified butter, often with the addition of honey; Lane, Lexicon, 2060.
This statement is also found in the version taken from Ibn al-Dāyah paraphrased in al-Balawī, Sīrat Aḥmad ibn Ṭūlūn, 325. The following sentence, however, appears to have been added by IAU.
Ibn Ṭūlūn actually died in the following year (in Dhū l-Qaʿdah of the year 270/March 884); see EI2 art. ‘Aḥmad b. Ṭūlūn’ (Zaky M. Hassan). There appears to have been some confusion regarding the year of Ibn Ṭūlūn’s death. All manuscript copies indicate the possible date of Ibn Ṭūlūn’s death as 299, though some do add additional statements saying it might have been in 269 or 270.
This biography is found in Version 1 and Version 3 but is missing in Version 2.
The reference is presumably to one or more of the four Abbasid caliphs (al-Muʿtamid, al-Muʿtaḍid, al-Muktafī, and al-Muqtadir) who ruled between 256/870 and 351/963.
This treatise is not preserved today, though it was quoted in at least one later Arabic treatise on ophthalmology. See Hirschberg, Geschichte, 40 § 267 no. 7; Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, Ten Treatises, xii.
This biography is found in Version 1 and Version 3 but is missing from Version 2. For Nasṭās ibn Jurayj, a Melkite Christian, see Ullmann, Medizin, 138; Sezgin, GAS III, 303; The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Nasṯas Ibn Jurayj’ (Khalil Samir); Nasrallah, Histoire, ii(2):66. This entry is a slightly paraphrased quotation from Ibn Juljul, (Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ, 82), which also has the book titles.
Muḥammad ibn Ṭughj (r. 323–334/935–946), of Turkish origin, was the founder of the Ikhshidid dynasty. After the death of Ibn Ṭughj, power was held by his principal military commander, the eunuch, Abū l-Misk Kāfūr. The dynasty fell to the Fatimids in 358/969. EI2 art. ‘Muḥammad b. Ṭug̲h̲d̲j̲’ (J.L. Bacharach).
For preserved copies of his treatises, see Sezgin, GAS III, 303.
A Christian physician of al-Andalus, whose biography is given at Ch. 13.14.
This biography is found in Version 1 and Version 3 but is missing in Version 2. For Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Nasṭās, see Nasrallah, Histoire, iii(2):150–151; Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, Histoire (Kratchkovsky & Vasiliev), 18, 480; The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Ishaq ibn Ibrahim ibn Nasṯas’ (Khalil Samir).
Whose biography preceded this one, at Ch. 14.6.
Al-Ḥākim (d. 411/1021) was the sixth caliph of the Fatimid dynasty ruling in Egypt from 358/969 to 566/1171. EI2 art. ‘Al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh’ (M. Canard).
See Ch. 14.25.
This biography is found in all three versions.
Al-Bālisī’s name is derived from Bālis, a town in northern Syria, see EI2 art ‘Bālis’ (J. Sourdel-Thomine). In Ibn Zawlāq’s Sīrat Muḥammad ibn Ṭughj al-Ikhshīd, his name is given as Abū l-Faraj al-Bālisī al-Ṭabīb and later in the text as Ibn al-Bālisī al-Ṭabīb; see ʿAbbās, Shadharāt, 267 and 278.
Abū l-Misk Kāfūr was a eunuch of African origin who became principal military commander under the Ikhshidid ruler, Muḥammad ibn Ṭughj. While ibn Ṭughj’s sons succeeded him, it was Kāfūr who held real power and control until the fall of the Ikhshidid dynasty to the Fatimids in 358/969; see EI2 art. ‘Kāfūr’ (A.S. Ehrenkreutz).
This biography is found in Version 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2. For Mūsā ibn al-ʿĀzār, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 320, where the name is given as Mūsā ibn al-ʿAyzār.
Maʿadd Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh (r. 341–364/953–975) was the fourth Fatimid caliph; EI2 art. ‘al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh’ (F. Dachraoui).
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2. For Joseph, patriarch of Jerusalem from 981 to 983, see Nasrallah, Histoire, iii(1):154.
Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā was a Melkite Christian who composed a supplement (dhayl) to the chronicles known as Kitāb al-taʾrīkh al-majmūʿ ʿalā l-taḥqīq wa-l-taṣdīq or Naẓm al-jawhar (Row of Jewels) by Eutychius of Alexandria (Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq); for a biography of the latter, see Ch. 14.11. For Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, also known as Abū l-Faraj al-Anṭākī, see EI2 art. ‘Al-Anṭākī’ (M. Canard).
For this passage, see Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, Histoire (Kratchkovsky & Vasiliev), 408; Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, Histoire (Micheau & Tropeau); and Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, Taʾrīkh al-Anṭākī, 196.
Nizār Abū Manṣūr al-ʿAzīz bi-Allāh, the fifth Fatimid caliph (r. 365–386/975–996).
The Church of Saint Theodore (Thawādrus) lies just to the south of Old Cairo (Qaṣr al-Shamaʿ), but it was a Coptic church, which would be a puzzling place of burial for a Melkite.
The title Anbā or Abbā is an ecclesiastical title of the Coptic Church which precedes the names of metropolitans, bishops, patriarchs and saints. The Arabic ʾ.kh.r m.n.ṭ.w.d.lā is a corruption of ‘Christodulos’; see Nasrallah, Histoire, iii(1):154. Al-Qaysarānī is the nisbah of Qaysāriyyah or Qaysariyyah, i.e., Caesarea, on the coast of Palestine; the entries in EI2, ‘ḳaysāriyya’ (with sīn) and ‘Ḳayṣariyya, Ḳayṣāriyya’ (with ṣād), are misleading, because they suggest that the name of the town is always spelled with ṣād (see Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldan and al-Samʿānī, Ansāb).
This biography is found in all three versions. By some his name has been read as al-Baṭrīq (the patrician) rather than al-Biṭrīq (the patrikios). See Sezgin, GAS III, 297; EI2 art. ‘Saʿīd b. al-Biṭrīḳ’ (F. Micheau); EI Three art. ‘Eutychius of Alexandria’ (U. Simonsohn); Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Eutychius of Alexandria’ (S.H. Griffith); The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Ibn al-Bitriq, Saʿid’ (A.S. Atiya); Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, Histoire (Kratchkovsky & Vasiliev), 705, 713–719; Nasrallah, Histoire, ii(2):23–24; Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, Etudes (Breydy).
Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad al-Qāhir bi-Allāh was the nineteenth Abbasid caliph in Baghdad (r. 320–322/932–934).
This dissension in the Christian community in Alexandria and Egypt during his tenure was perhaps in opposition to his appointment as Patriarch, implying that it was a political appointment; see Pummer, Early Christian Authors.
This last paragraph occurs almost verbatim in Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, Taʾrīkh al-Anṭākī, 23.
For further information on his treatises, see Sezgin, GAS III, 297; EI2 art. ‘Saʿīd b. al-Biṭrīḳ‘ (F. Micheau); Encycl. Iranica, art. ‘Eutychius of Alexandria’ (S.H. Griffith); The Coptic Encycl., art. ‘Ibn al-Bitriq, Saʿid,’ (A.S. Atiya). EI Three art. ‘Eutychius of Alexandria’ (Uriel Simonsohn); Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, Etudes (Breydy); Skreslet, Greeks in Medieval Islamic Egypt, 205–212.
Known later to Europeans as the Annals of Eutychius. An alternative Arabic title is Kitāb al-taʾrīkh al-majmūʿ ʿalā l-taḥqīq wa-l-taṣdīq. For French translations of selections, see Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, Etudes (Breydy); for German selections, Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq, Annalenwerk (Breydy).
See Ch. 14.12.
For Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā, see Ch. 14.10. The idea that Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā was a relative of Saʿīd ibn al-Biṭrīq is inaccurate according to Sidney H. Griffith; see Encyl. Iranica, art. ‘Eutychius of Alexandria’. IAU’s assertion of this relationship has been frequently repeated in subsequent historical documents.
K. taʾrīkh al-dhayl; see Ch. 14.10.
This biography is found in Version 3 but is missing in Versions 1 and 2. For ʿĪsā ibn al-Biṭrīq, see The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Ibn al-Bitriq, ʿIsa’ (P. Johnstone); Nasrallah, Histoire, ii(2):66.
See Ch. 14.11.
This biography is found in Version 2 and Version 3 but is missing in Version 1. For Aʿyan ibn Aʿyan, see Sezgin, GAS III, 310.
Nizār Abū Manṣūr al-ʿAzīz bi-Allāh was the fifth Fatimid caliph (r. 364–385/975–996); See EI2 art. ‘Al-ʿAzīz Biʾllāh’ (M. Canard).
For further information on his treatises, see Sezgin, GAS III, 310.
This biography is found in all three versions. In Version 1, it is found in a much abbreviated form as the fifth biography in Ch. 15. For al-Tamīmī, see Sezgin, GAS III, 317–318; Ullmann, Medizin, 245, 269, 315, 332.
Maʿājīn.
An otherwise unidentified figure. The title Anbā or Abbā is an ecclesiastical title of the Coptic Church which precedes the names of metropolitans, bishops, patriarchs and saints.
See Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 105–106, where this story is given.
The statement about the grandfather’s association with Aḥmad ibn Abī Yaʿqūb, a client of the Abbasids, is omitted from the surviving text of Ibn al-Qifṭī.
The term al-fārūq is applied to something that distinguishes between two things, and, in particular, to a person who makes a distinction between truth and falsity. The fārūq theriac (al-tiryāq al-fārūq) became one of the most highly valued of all compound general remedies; it was said to have been called al-fārūq because it makes a distinction between disease and health; see Lane, Lexicon, 2386.
This is a town situated on the coastal plain 40 km west-northwest of Jerusalem; EI2 art. ‘al-Ramla’ (E. Honingmann).
Here called al-ʿalawiyyah al-dawlah, for the Fatimids were an Ismāʿīlī-Shīʿī dynasty and hence grouped amongst the Alids or those who sided with the Prophet’s cousin and son-in-law, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib; see Bernheimer, The ʿAlids.
Abū l-Faraj Yaʿqūb ibn Killis (318–380/930–991) was a famous vizier of the Fatimid caliph al-ʿAzīz.
al-Muʿizz li-Dīn Allāh, the fourth Fatimid ruler of Egypt.
The source of this story is unidentified. The anecdote does not occur in the version of Ibn al-Qifṭī that is preserved today.
Though Ibn al-Qiftī is given as the source, this anecdote does not occur in the version of Ibn al-Qifṭī that is preserved today.
The term aḥkām al-tarkībāt means literally ‘principles of synthesis’, but in the context of medicine and alchemy it refers to the preparation of compound remedies and recipes.
Mukhalliṣ al-nufūs.
Literally, ‘vermin having 44 legs’.
Miftāḥ al-surūr min kull al-humūm.
Mufriḥ al-nafs’.
For further information on his treatises, see Sezgin, GAS III, 317–318; Ullmann, Medizin, 245, 269, 315, 332; Sezgin and Ullmann note two additional titles: al-Murshid ilā jawāhir al-aghdhiyah wa-quwā al-mufradāt min al-adwiyah and Manāfiʿ khawāṣṣ al-Qurʾān. For an additional title attributed to al-Tamīmī on which Ibn Riḍwān prepared some notes (taʿlīq), see Ch. 14.25.9 no. 32.
This is preserved in a single manuscript, recently edited; see al-Tamīmī, K. māddat al-baqāʾ (Shʿar).
This biography is not found in Versions 1 and 2 but is present in Version 3. For Sahlān, see Nasrallah, Histoire, 3.1, 149–150. Although IAU does not list any works by Sahlān, three titles are elsewhere attributed to him; see Sezgin, GAS III, 310; Ullmann, Medizin, 315; The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Sahlan ibn ʿUthman ibn Kaysan’ (S.J. Khalil Samir). One of these works was published by Paul Sbath in 1944 (see Sahlān, Mukhtaṣar fī l-ṭibb). A second treatise titled Mukhtaṣar fī l-adwiyah al-murakkabah fī akthar al-amrāḍ was incorrectly attributed to Sahlān ibn Kaysān and published by Paul Sbath (posthumously) and his pupil Christo D. Avierinos with a French translation; it is in fact a shorter version of al-Dustūr al-bīmāristāni by Ibn Abī l-Bayān (see Ch. 14.43; Ullmann, Medizin, 309; Ibn Abī l-Bayan, Al-Dustūr al-bīmāristānī shorter version).
The Fatimid ruler al-ʿAzīz bi-Allāh (r. 365–386/975–996).
The date is slightly confused, for the last day of Dhū l-Ḥijjah was a Saturday (21 March 991), while the previous Saturday (24 Dhū l-Ḥijjah/14 March) would have left seven, not five, days remaining.
The Greco-Coptic township of Babylon or Bābalyūn, on the east bank of the Nile, was known in Arabic as Qaṣr al-Shamʿ, and the first settlement founded by Muslim conquerors, Fustat, was built alongside it. It is an area known as Old Cairo. After its surrender to the Arabs in the 7th/13th century, it became inhabited mainly by Christians. Most of the ancient Coptic Churches of Cairo are located in Qaṣr al-Shamʿ.
Al-naḥḥāsīn.
The Mosque of ʿAmr, built in 21/642.
The Square, or al-murabbaʿah, probably refers to the structure built by ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ at the gate of the Mosque of ʿAmr. According to Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, it was a large house (al-dār al-kabīrah) in which there was erected a pavilion (qaṣr) that was squared, as was the first Kaʿbah. See, Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, Futūḥ Misr, 97 [lines 1 to 5]; Hilloowala, History of the Conquest of Egypt, 85–86.
Literally, ‘the bathhouse of the mouse’, in reference to its size. It was said, in comparison to the bathhouses of the Byzantine and Roman baths existing in this area, that this bathhouse was so small as to only be accessible to a mouse. According to Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, this bathhouse was attached to or near the house of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ which was at the gate of the Mosque of ʿAmr. See Ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, Futūḥ Miṣr, 96 [lines 15 to 20]; Hilloowala, History of the Conquest of Egypt, 84–85.
This is a reference to al-Sayyidah al-ʿAzīziyyah (ʿAzīz’s Lady), the Christian wife of al-ʿAzīz, who was also known simply as ‘al-Sayyidah’ (the Lady); see Walker, ‘The Fatimid Caliph al-ʿAziz and His Daughter Sitt al-Mulk’, 31. This is confirmed by the Taʾrīkh al-Anṭākī of Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, where it is said that the metropolitan of Sahlān’s funerary procession was Arsenius, who was appointed muṭrān (metropolitan) of Cairo and Fustat in 375/985–986, and Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd refers to him as ‘maternal uncle of al-Sayyidah, daughter of al-ʿAzīz bi-Allāh’; see Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, Taʾrīkh al-Anṭākī, 203. Both daughter and mother were referred to as al-Sayyidah.
See Ch. 14.16, for this physician.
Ṭabīb al-khāṣṣ is the common term for a court physician.
This is the Monastery of Saint Arsenius near the town of Ṭurā about 10 miles (15 km) south of Cairo. The monastery is located on a hill called the Jabal Ṭurā and is also known as the Dayr al-Quṣayr (Monastery of the little Castle) or the Dayr al-Baghl (Monastery of the Mule) presumably because a mule was used to carry water from the Nile to the monastery.
He was also a tenth-century physician from Egypt. He is mentioned in an entry in Ibn al-Qifṭī under the name Kaysān ibn ʿUthmān ibn Kaysān Abū Sahl (Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 267–268; Nasrallah, Histoire, iii(1):149). IAU does not give him a separate entry. Kaysān served as a court physician to Fatimid caliphs al-Muʿizz and al-ʿAzīz and died in 378/988.
That is to say, the caliph did not allow those not entitled to it to take a share of the inheritance, but rather saw to it that the inheritance was divided among only those entitled to it and according to the correct rules. The caliph preventing others who might have extracted some of the inheritance illustrates the respect the caliph had for Sahlān.
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2. For Ibn Muqashshir, see The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Mansur ibn Sahlan ibn Muqashshir’ (Khalil Samir); EI2 art. ‘al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allah’ (M. Canard); Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Anṭākī, Histoire (Kratchkovsky & Vasiliev), 464, 480–481.
The sixth Fatimid caliph (r. 386–411/996–1021); EI2 art. ‘al-Ḥākim Bi-Amr Allāh’ (M. Canard).
See Ch. 14.6.
This biography is found in all three versions. Ullmann, Medizin, 209–210; Sezgin, GAS III, 329–333; EI Three art. ‘ʿAmmār b. ʿAlī al-Mawṣilī’ (E. Savage-Smith).
The Fatimid ruler of Egypt from 386/996 to 411/1021.
For a partial translation into Spanish, English, French and German, see ʿAmmār ibn ʿAlī al-Mawṣilī, Las operaciones de catarata; for a complete German translation, see Hirschberg, Lippert & Mittwoch, Die arabischen Augenärzte, 2:1–152; for an English translation of the German, see Blodi & Wafai, Arabian ophthalmologists, 58–184.
This biography is found in Version 2 and Version 3 but is missing in Version 1.
A version of this anecdote appears in Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd al-Antākī, Taʾrīkh al-Anṭākī, 311. The name of the physician is not mentioned, but it states that al-Ḥākim killed two of the doctors that had failed to treat him before.
The reference is to Abū l-Fatḥ Manṣūr ibn Sahlān ibn Muqashshir, whose biography is given in Ch. 14.16.
This biography is found in Version 1 and Version 3 but is missing in Version 2.
This physician, who was a Jacobite, is mentioned in a history of the Patriarchs; see Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis Clementino-Vaticana, 145, where the Latin translation of his position (ṭabīb al-ʿaẓīmiyyah) is given as archiater ‘king’s physician’.
This biography is found in Version 1 and Version 3 but is missing in Version 2. A variant version of this short biography is given by Ibn al-Qifṭī, where the name is interpreted by the editor Julius Lippert as Ibn Muqashshir; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 438.
For ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl (Jabrāʾīl) ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Bukhtīshūʿ, see Ch. 8.6. The work quoted from is undoubtedly his K. manāqib al-aṭibbāʾ.
This biography is found in all three versions. For ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān, a physician-astrologer who lived during the reigns of three Fatimid rulers (al-ʿAzīz, al-Ḥākim, and al-Ẓāhir), see Köhler, Wissenschaft unter den ägyptischen Fatimiden, 181; Sezgin, GAS VII, 287.
Al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz Dīn Allāh (r. 413–427/1023–1036) was the seventh Fatimid caliph; EI2 art. ‘al-Ẓāhir li-Iʿzāz Dīn Allāh’ (Th. Bianquis).
The Comprehensive Book on Medicine (al-Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī l-ṭibb) by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī; see Ch. 11.5.
All copies read kawākib al-dhanab (the stars of the tail), except for one copy representing Version 2 of the treatise, which reads simply shukūk fī kawākib (doubts about the stars). The expression kawākib al-dhanab may be a garbled reference to all comets in general or to one specific comet or meteor called ‘the star of the tail’ (kawkab al-dhanab), which was said to have three tails and to return every 107 years. It is described in an anonymous Egyptian cosmography of the 5th/11th century as being amongst a group of ‘obscure stars that have the appearance of faint lances’, for which Hermes Trismegistus is given as an authority. Given that ʿAlī ibn Sulaymān was said to be an expert in knowledge of the stars and was working in Cairo at the beginning of the 5th/11th century, it seems reasonable that he was discussing a comet described in an Arabic Hermetic treatise circulating in Egypt at that time; see Rapoport & Savage-Smith, Egyptian Guide, 589 and sect. 1.7 no. 24. The common term for comets was al-kawākib dhawāt al-dhawāʾib (the stars having wisps of tails), reflecting the earlier Greek designation of comets as
It is unclear in the manuscripts whether these last three treatises are to be considered one treatise or are to be treated as three separate items.
This biography is found in all three versions. The ‘autobiography’ (subsections 14.22.4.1–14.22.5.2) is also preserved in a copy dated 556/1161 now part of a majmūʿah in a private collection in Lahore (Heinen, ‘Ibn al-Haiṯams Autobiographie’).
He is more commonly known as Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham. The biographical entry for Ibn al-Haytham given by IAU is in five parts, which will be indicated in the formatting of this section: Parts 1, 2 and 3 include biographical information about Ibn al-Haytham taken from earlier sources such as Ibn al-Qifṭī. Following this, Part 4 presents an autobiography that Ibn al-Haytham completed at the end of the year 417/Feb 1027, which includes a two-part list of his writings up to that date, transcribed from Ibn al-Haytham’s own handwriting. In Part 5.1 there is another list of his compositions completed between the end of Dhū l-Ḥijjah 417 and at the end of Jumādā II, 418 [11 February 1027 to 25 July 1028], also said to be transcribed from Ibn al-Haytham’s hand, while yet another list or ‘catalogue’ (fihrist) of compositions up to the end of 429 [October 1038] – that is, one to three years before he died – is given in 14.22.5.2.
On the relationship between Ibn al-Haytham’s autobiography and Galen’s De libris propriis, see Rosenthal, ‘arabische Autobiographie’, 7–8; Sabra, Optics, ii:xxiii; and Mattila, ‘Philosophical Lives of Ibn al-Haytham and Ibn Riḍwān’. For other discussions of his biography and the book-lists, see Nebbia, ‘Ibn al-Haytham nel millesimo anniversario’; DSB art. ‘Ibn al-Haytham’ (A.I. Sabra); New DSB art. ‘Ibn al-Haytham’ (A.I. Sabra); and Sabra, Optics, ii:xix–liii.
The phrase al-ʿulūm al-riyāḍiyyah can also mean the introductory disciplines.
ʿAlam al-Dīn Qayṣar ibn Abī l-Qāsim ibn Musāfir was a mathematician and architect, born in Upper Egypt in 573/1178. In 622/1225 ʿAlam al-Dīn Qayṣar constructed a celestial globe for the Ayyubid ruler al-Malik al-Kāmil, preserved today in Naples at the Museo Nazionale (Savage-Smith, Celestial Globes, 218–219 no. 3). His name is also associated with the construction of water wheels, particularly in Hama. He died in Damascus in 649/1251. See Sabra, Optics, ii:xxi–xxii.
Al-Azhar Mosque was founded in 361/972 during the Fatimid period as a mosque and seat of learning of Ismāʿīlī doctrine; EI2 art. ‘al-Azhar’ (J. Jomier).
For Ibn al-Qifṭī’s version as preserved in his Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 165–168. Another account of Ibn al-Haytham’s meeting with al-Ḥākim exists in Ẓahīr al-Dīn al-Bayhaqī (d. 564/1169). see Sabra, Optics ii: xxxi; DSB art. ‘Ibn al-Haytham’ (A.I. Sabra); EI2 art. ‘al-Bayhaḳī (D.M. Dunlop).
Al-Ḥākim is here referred to as al-Ḥākim ṣāḥib Miṣr min al-ʿAlawiyyīn. The term al-ʿAlawiyyīn, or ʿAlids’, is a general term for Shiʿite dynasties or movements, and those claiming descent from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib; see EI2 art. ‘ʿAlids’ (B. Lewis), EI Three art. ‘ʿAlids’ (F. Daftary); Bernheimer, The ʿAlids.
He is referring to regulating the flow of its waters.
This is a reference to the fact that the construction of New Cairo (al-Qāhirah) was begun in 359/970 under the reign of the Fatimid caliph al-Muʿizz (r. 341–365/953–975).
Literally, ‘the length of the clime’.
Aswān is a town in Egypt located on the eastern bank of the Nile at the first cataract.
Junūn and khabāl, the former meaning madness and the latter unsoundness of mind or body. For the former, see Dols, Majnūn, 57–59 et passim. Both words have to do with possession by jinn.
A qubbah, a round or dome-like structure, or a tent.
Abū l-Ḥajjāj Yūsuf ibn Yaḥyā ibn Isḥāq al-Sabtī al-Maghribī (d. 624/1227) a Jewish physician from Sabtah or Ceuta in North Africa, often known by the name Ibn Shamʿūn. See Ch., 15.41, where IAU refers to him as Yūsuf al-Fāsī al-Isrāʾīlī, while Ibn al-Qifṭī (in the edition of Lippert) refers to him as Yūsuf ibn Yaḥyā al-Nāshī, but quite certainly it is the same physician. For Yūsuf ibn Yaḥyā (Joseph ben Judah), see also Joosse, Rebellious Intellectual, 16–22; Sabra, Optics, ii:xx nt 4; DSB art. ‘Ibn al-Haytham’ (A.I. Sabra).
That is, the Elements of Euclid.
The Mutawassiṭāt, or Intermediate Books, were a collection of mathematical and astronomical Greek writings, available in Arabic translations, that were to be studied after Euclid’s Elements and before embarking on Ptolemy’s Almagest. They included Autolycus’ Moving Sphere, Euclid’s Data, Optics and Phenomena, and two treatises on spherics, one by Theodosius and the other by Menelaus; see Sabra, Optics, ii:xxi n. 5.
For a reproduction of a manuscript copied by Ibn al-Haytham (in this case, an Arabic version of the Conics of Apollonius), see Schramm, Ibn al-Haytham, facing p.x.
MS A reads ‘when he had finished’, but all other manuscripts read ‘when he had begun …’.
At this point, following his recording of this quotation from Yūsuf al-Isrāʾīlī, Ibn al-Qifṭī adds a comment (not quoted by IAU): ‘I have seen in his [Ibn al-Haytham’s] handwriting a volume on geometry that he wrote in the year 432/1040 and it is in my possession, thanks be to God.’ (Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 167; Sabra, Optics, ii: xxi). If this is correct, then Ibn al-Haytham died in or shortly after 432/1041 and not at the end of 430 [September 1039]. Ibn al-Qifṭī does not himself comment on the contradictory dates.
For a partial German translation of the ‘autobiography’ that follows, see Wiedemann, ‘Ibn al-Haiṯam, ein arabischer Gelehrter’.
The Arabic in this sentence may have been corrupted.
The quotation of Galen is from the second preface of De methodo medendi at the start of Book VII: ‘I do not know how, but right from my youth, by a miracle, divine inspiration, or by madness, or whatever one wishes to call it, I despised repute among the general public and preferred truth and knowledge, considering that men can have no finer or holier acquisition’ (Galen, ed. Kühn, x:457). In this instance Ibn al-Haytham accurately reproduced the Arabic translation of Galen’s treatise by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq.
Categories; see above, Ch. 4.6.5.1 (al-Fārābī’s description in his Iḥṣāʾ, the ordering of which is followed here for the logical books), and Ch, 4.6.13.1 no. 29 for basic bibliography.
That is, types of the sentence and its constituents.
On Interpretation; see Ch. 4.6.5.1 and 4.6.13.1 no. 30.
Prior Analytics; see Ch. 4.6.5.1 and 4.6.13.1 no. 32.
Posterior Analytics; see Ch. 4.6.5.1 and 4.6.13.1 no. 33.
Aristotle’s Topics (Topica), On Sophistical Refutations (Sophistici elenchi, usually known in Arabic as al-Safsaṭah or al-Mughālaṭah), The Art of Rhetoric, The Art of Poetry; see Ch. 4.6.13.1 nos. 31, 34, 39, 38.
K. fī l-samāʿ al-ṭabīʿī, the Physics or Phusikē akroasis in Greek, meaning ‘Lectures about Nature’; see Stern, ‘Ibn al-Samḥ’; and Ch. 4.6.13.1 no. 40.
For a discussion of Ibn al-Haytham’s use of the term istiqrāʾ in different contexts, see Sabra, Optics, i:11–14.
K. fī l-kawn wa-l-fasād (De generatione et corruptione); see Ch. 4.6.13.1 no. 42.
K. fī l-āthār al-ʿulwiyyah (Meteorologica); see Ch. 4.6.13.1 no. 43.
The reference here is probably to the pseudo-Aristotelian De plantis and the books that circulated in Arabic under the title Kitāb al-ḥayawān, which included De generatione animalium and De partibus animalium. See Ch. 4.6.13.1 nos. 48 (the Historia animalium), 54.
K. fī l-samāʾ wa-l-ʿālam (De caelo et mundo); see Ch. 4.6.13.1 no. 41.
K. fī l-nafs (De anima); see Ch. 4.6.13.1 no. 44.
K. fī l-ilāhiyyāt (Metaphysics); see Ch. 4.6.13.1 no. 55.
Galen, De methodo medendi. The quotation appears to be an amalgam of a statement at the opening of Book I (‘I was especially keen to grant your request [to write this book], and not least aimed to benefit people in the future as far as possible’) with a statement in the second preface at the start of Book VII (‘You know that I have written neither this treatise nor any other from a desire to be famous among the general public. Rather, I wish to grant the requests of friends and to keep myself in training, turning my writings into a treasury as a most useful exercise for the present as well as for ‘forgetful old age’, to quote Plato.’). See Galen, ed. Kühn, i:1 and x:456–457.
The term al-ʿulūm al-riyāḍiyyah can also refer to introductory texts on a variety of topics, but in this context the meaning is mathematical. For further information on his treatises in the following book-lists, see Sezgin, GAS V, 358–374; DSB art. ‘Ibn al-Haytham’ (A.I. Sabra); New DSB art. ‘Ibn al-Haytham’ (A.I. Sabra); Sabra, ‘One Ibn al-Haytham or two?’; Sabra Optics, ii:xxii–xxxiv. The following book-list of 25 items is list Ia in the studies by A.I. Sabra.
For an edition and German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, Muʿāmalāt.
For a critical edition and translation and commentary, see Ibn al-Haytham, Completion of the Conics. See also Hogendijk, ‘Two Editions’.
Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān (d. 355/946) was an important mathematician who, amongst other topics, wrote on conics; see Bellosta, ‘Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān’.
The term al-ṣumm is the plural of al-aṣamm and appears to have caused some confusion to copyists, for the word is omitted in a number of manuscripts and written overline in MS A as an addition. The term aṣamm (lit. ‘deaf’) is used for fractions such as 1/11 and 1/13 that cannot be reduced to fractions called by words derived from names of their denominators, such as 1/12 that can be described as ‘half one sixth’. In other contexts aṣamm was applied to a number, such as √2, that cannot be expressed as the ratio of two natural numbers. See EI2 art. ‘Ilm al-Ḥisāb’ (A.I. Sabra) and Berggren, ‘Numbers at work’.
Shakl can mean either diagram or (in some contexts) ‘method’ or ‘proposition’.
The following book-list of 44 items is list Ib in the studies by A.I. Sabra.
For Porphyry of Tyre (A.D 234–c305) and his Isagoge, see EI2 art. ‘Furfūriyūs’ (R. Walzer). For the four books of logic, cf. above.
For translation and edition, see Ibn al-Haytham, On the Configuration of the World. The attribution of this treatise to Ibn al-Haytham has been challenged; see Houzel, ‘New Astronomy of Ibn al-Haytham’; Rashed, ‘Configuration of the universe’.
See Ch. 6.2 no. 29.
Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās ibn Fasānjas [or Fasānajis] is an unidentified 11th-cent. critic of astrologers, whose refutation of the opinion of astrologers was rebutted by Ibn al-Haytham, to which then he replied with a rejoinder to which Ibn al-Haytham replied. Some manuscript copies write the name as Qasānjas, but the name Fasānjas [or Fasānajis] is attested elsewhere; see Antoon, Poetics of the Obscene, 111 and esp. 207n75 which reads: ‘Ibn Fasānjas [sic, read Fasānajis] was one of the ruthless officials of the Būyid establishment. He was exiled to Sāmarrāʾ later in life.’
Abū Hāshim ʿAbd al-Salām (d. 321/933), son of the prominent Muʿtazilah theologian al-Jubbāʾī, was one of the last Muʿtazilah theologians to have a direct influence on Sunnī thought. None of his writings have survived. See EI2 art. ‘al-D̲j̲ubbāʾī’ (L. Gardet).
While al-jabriyyīn commonly refers to ‘algebraists’, as in Ch. 14.14.4.2 above, the contrast here with astrologers suggests a possible interpretation as ‘believers in predestination (jabr)’ (who are more commonly called collectively al-jabriyyah).
See Ch. 4.6.13.1 no. 57.
A town on the river Kārūn (or Dujayl, the ‘small Tigris’) in Khūzistān, a province of southwestern Persia. Situated halfway between Baghdad and Shiraz, it was an important commercial town and centre for trade in the early centuries of Islam. It had a large sugar industry and an important silk industry. However, it was known for its heat and insalubrious climate, where one could easily catch fevers and where insects, fleas, scorpions, and serpents abounded. Ibn al-Haytham seems to be unusual in advocating the natural conditions of al-Ahwāz over those of Baghdad, though perhaps he was advocating its location on the river for supporting large mills on pontoon boats rather than its healthy climate. See EI Three art. ‘al-Ahwāz’ (Mathieu Tillier).
The sense is obscure. It might refer to proof by reductio ad absurdum.
Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Samḥ al-Baghdādī (d. 418/1027) was a Christian commentator on Aristotle’s Physics; see Stern, ‘Ibn al-Samḥ’.
For further information on Galen’s treatises listed by Ibn al-Haytham, see Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum; Sezgin, GAS III, 68–150; Ullmann, Medizin, 35–68. In the list that follows the standard Latin titles used to reference Galenic writings will be given alongside the Arabic titles.
This is likely to be Galen’s major work on anatomy, though it is unclear from the title; see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, no. 17.
This is a collection of four separate treatises by Galen. Their common Latin titles are: De pulsuum differentiis, De dignoscendis pulsibus, De causis pulsuum, and De praesagitione ex pulsibus; see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, no. 28.
This is probably the treatise usually known as K. Dalāʾil ʿilal al-ʿayn (On symptoms of eye diseases), lost today but partially preserved in a jawāmiʿ or summary; see Savage-Smith, ‘Galen’s Lost Ophthamology’.
The Arabic title recorded here by Ibn al-Haytham for this treatise is relatively unusual. Both his contemporary Ibn Riḍwān and the much earlier Thābit ibn Qurrah give the title as K. fI-l-kathrah, but the usual Arabic form for the title was Maqālah fī l-imtilāʾ; see Ullmann, Medizin, 43 no. 26, and Fichter, Corpus Galenicum, no. 53. For Ibn Riḍwān, see Ch. 14.25.9 no. 45 in book-list, and for Thābit ibn Qurrah, see Ch. 10.3 treatise 19.
No specific passage in Galen’s writings has been identified. There are, however, a number of passages where Galen says something to the effect that people got hold of copies of his works and distributed them; cf. De libris propriis 2 (ed. Boudon-Millot, Galien).
This epigram already appeared in Ch. 10.22.3. Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād, xii:515. The father of Abū l-Qāsim, ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā (d. 334/996), was vizier to the caliph al-Muqtadir; see EI Three art. ‘ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā b. Dāʾūd b. al-Jarrāḥ’ (M.L.M. van Berkel).
The quotation occurs in De dignoscendis pulsibus (Galen, Kühn ed., viii:826–827): ‘This text has been composed not for the general public, but is looking for the one in a million, the individual for whom one must write books that will be reviled countless times for being “impossible” and “outrageous” before they reach a single worthy person. I just need a reader like …’.
This list is ‘List II’ in the studies of A.I. Sabra.
Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib (d. 435/1043) was a Christian philosopher and physician working at the ʿAḍudī hospital in Baghdad; see Ch. 10.37. See also EI2 art. ‘Ibn al-Ṭayyib’ (J. Vernet).
Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī (d. 303/915) was from Khuzistan and became one of the most celebrated Muʿtazilah from the school of Basra. With his son Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī (d. 321/933) he began a reformulation of kalām atomism as part of their project of ‘systematising’ kalām; see EI Three art. ‘Atomism’ (Alnoor Dhanani); EI2 art. ‘al-D̲j̲ubbāʾī (L. Gardet).
Ibn Rāwandī, (b. at the beginning of the 3rd/9th cent.; death date uncertain) was a follower of Muʿtazilism at first and then later became an ardent opponent of that school of thought. He was known for a biting criticism of prophecy in general and of the prophecy of Muḥammad in particular. In addition, he maintained that religious dogmas are not subject to reason and must, therefore, be rejected and that miracles attributed to the prophets – persons who may reasonably be compared to sorcerers and magicians – are pure invention. The Qur’an, he held, is neither a revealed book nor even an inimitable literary masterpiece. In order to cloak these theses, he used the fiction that they were uttered by the Brahmans. Several generations of Muslim theologians devoted themselves to refuting his attacks, including Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī and his son Abū Hāshim; see EI2 art. ‘Ibn al-Rāwandī’ (P. Kraus & G. Vajda).
The sense of the latter part of this sentence is unclear.
The ‘Promise and the Threat’ (al-waʿd wa-l-waʿīd) are two of the five principles (al-uṣūl al-khamsah) considered characteristic of Muʿtazilah theology. The phrase reflects the conviction that not only unbelievers had to face damnation on the Day of Judgement, but that Muslims who had committed a grave sin were equally threatened by eternal hellfire. See EI2 art. ‘al-Waʿd wa ’l-Waʿīd’ (U. Rudolph).
The first treatise on this topic was listed in the book-list above in 14.22.4.3, no. 18.
This sentence is omitted in the copy of the autobiography and book-list found in a collected volume in a collection in Lahore. In place of this sentence, the Lahore manuscript reads: ‘Appended to it is [a note] written in Baghdad in the [al-Madrasah] al-Niẓāmiyyah on 1 Ṣafar 556 [30 January 1161] [reading] “also by him is On light (M. fī l-ḍawʾ) and On the rainbow (M. fī qaws quzaḥ)”.’
In Sabra’s studies, this list is no. III.
This treatise was also listed as no. 10 in the first book-list above (Ch. 14.22.4.3). For an edition and English translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, On the Configuration of the World.
For a partial Russian translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Kniga kommentariev k vvedeniyam knigi Evklida’. For a commentary and English translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘On the Premises of Euclid’s Elements’.
For English translation, see Sabra, Optics; For a critical edition, English translation and commentary, see Ibn al-Haytham, Alhacen’s Theory of Visual Perception, and Ibn al-Haytham, Alhacen on the Principles of Reflection and Ibn al-Haytham, Alhacen on Image-Formation. For a French translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, de l’ Optique d’ Ibn al-Haytham.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Über das Licht des Mondes’.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Über die Bestimmung der Richtung der Qibla’. For an edition, English translation and commentary, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Finding the Direction of the Qibla’.
For a German translation of a paraphrase, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Theorie des Regenbogens’.
For a French translation and edition, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales V, 617–679.
This treatise on commercial arithmatic was also listed in the first book-list, Ch. 4.2 no. 10. For an edition and German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, Muʿāmalāt.
For a French translation and edition, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales V, 803–849.
For an edition and translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘On Seeing the Stars’.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Kleinere Arbeiten von Ibn al Haiṯam’.
For a French translation, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales II, 294–323.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Die Ausmessung des Paraboloides’; Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Die Abhandlungen Thâbit b. Ḳurras’; for a French translation, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales II, 208–293.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Die sphärischen Hohlspiegel’; for an English translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Discourse on the Concave Spherical Mirror’.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Über parabolische Hohlspiegel’; for an English translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘On the Paraboloidal Focusing Mirror’.
For a French translation, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales II, 70–81.
For a French translation, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales II 102–175.
In this treatise, Ibn al-Haytham explains the theory and construction of an instrument that would be suitable for accurately drawing circles with large radii which cannot be drawn with an ordinary pair of dividers; for a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham ‘Geometrische Instrumente.’
For a French translation and edition, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales V, 851–879.
For a French translation, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales II, 384–459.
For an edition and German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Die Kreisquadratur’; for a French translation, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales II, 8–101. See also Albertini, ‘Quadrature du cercle’.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Über die Beschaffenheit der Schatten’.
For a discussion of this treatise, see Sabra, Optics, iixxvi n. 16. For a partial edition and translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘On Seeing the Stars, II’.
For a French translation, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales II, 324–329.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, Die trigonometrischen Lehren.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Über die Lage der Milchstrasse’.
For an abridged German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Über das Licht der Sterne’; for an English translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘The Light of the Stars’.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, Über die Natur der Spuren [Flecken].
For an edition and French translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘L’ analyse et la synthèse’.
For an edition and French translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Les connus’.
The nature of this now lost treatise is uncertain. It may have concerned the method of approaching a value, say
For an edition and German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Abhandlung über das Licht’; for a French translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Le Discours de la lumière’; for an edition and French translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, Les Mathématiques Infinitésimales.
The term al-iltifāf refers to the representation of the variations in latitude of planetary motions by means of solid spheres – that is, the movements that each planet is imagined to trace out round the surface of its epicyclic sphere and that account for variations in latitude. This treatise by Ibn al-Haytham is not preserved, but is discussed at length in Sabra, ‘Solution of Difficulties Concerning Iltifāf’.
This concerns criticisms of Ptolemy’s Almagest, Planetary hypotheses (Kitāb al-iqtiṣāṣ) and Optics. For a partial translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Criticism of Ptolemy’s Optics’; for a full translation and commentary, see Ibn al-Haytham, Doubts Concerning Ptolemy.
For a French translation and edition, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales V, 687–801.
This must be the treatise that ʿAbd Laṭīf al-Baghdādī attempted to refute in his treatise ʿAn māhiyyat al-makān bi-ḥasab raʾy Ibn al-Haytham (On the quiddity of space according to Ibn al-Haytham); see Ch. 15.40.9, no. 158. The geometrization of space advocated by Ibn al-Haytham was contested by ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī, who wished to restore Aristotle’s definition; see El-Bizri, ‘Defence of the Sovereignty of Philosophy’; Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales IV, 908–905.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Einige geometrische Aufgaben.’
The Banū Mūsā ibn Shākir were among the most important figures in the intellectual life of Baghdad in the 3rd/9th century. Today they are best known for their treatise on automata and ingenious mechanical devices. See EI 2 art. ‘Mūsā, Banū’ (D.R. Hill) and Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Banū Mūsā’ (D. Pingree).
For an edition and French translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Construction de l’ heptagone régulier’.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Die Polhöhe mit grösster Genauigkeit zu bestimmen’.
For a German translation of a recension, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Über die Brechung des Lichtes in Kugeln’.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Behandlung einiger geometrischen Fragenpunkte’.
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Über die Camera obscura’. For an edition with English translation and study, see Raynaud, Ibn al-Haytham’s On the Shape of the Eclipse; for a review by T. Mimura urging cautious use of this study, see Isis 109 (2018), 621–622. See also, Raynaud, ‘Ibn al-Haytham’s Solar Eclipse Record’, who argues that Ibn al-Haytham recorded in this treatise the partial solar eclipse seen in Basra on 28 Rajab 380 (21 October 990).
For a German translation, see Ibn al-Haytham, ‘Besondere Art des Gesellschaftsrechnens.’
For the phrase ʿalā ṭarīq al-taʿlīq meaning ‘in the form of notes’, see EI2 art. ‘Taʿlīḳ’ (F. Rosenthal).
This treatise probably concerned music theory and the division of a string (monochord) to produce different consonant or dissonant intervals, as did al-Kindī’s treatise R. fī qismat al-qānūn (On the division of the canon); see Ch. 10.1.14 no. 19. Qānūn became the name of a zither-like musical instrument; see Farmer, ‘The Music of Islam’. A similar book on the division of the canon is also attributed to Euclid; see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 266.
This was probably a commentary on Ptolemy’s treatise on harmonics, for which see Solomon, Ptolemy Harmonics.
The greatest obliquity (mayl kullī or al-munḥarif al-kullī) is the greatest distance of the ecliptic from the equator.
A physician from Cairo who studied under Ibn Samḥ. His biography is given at Ch. 14.24.
This biography is found in all three versions. For further information see Sezgin, GAS III, 388; Ullmann, Medizin, 230; EI2 art. ‘al-Mubas̲h̲s̲h̲ir b. Fātik’ (F. Rosenthal); Rosenthal, ‘Prolegomena to an Abortive Edition’; Bürgel, Ärztliches Leben, 351, 395–396 etc.
Judging by his titles amīr and maḥmūd al-dawlah, he occupied a high position in court circles.
See previous biography, Ch. 14.22.
Sayf al-Dīn Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Abī ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Sālim al-Taghlibī al-Āmidī (d. 631/1233), an Arab theologian and philosopher. IAU mentions that he studied under him and that al-Āmidī was personally associated with his family. See Ch. 15.22; EI2 art. ‘al-Āmidī’ (D. Sourdel).
See Ch. 14.25.
This Sadīd al-Dīn is probably to be identified with Sadīd al-Dīn ibn Raqīqah, a colleague of IAU’s and fellow ophthalmologist whose biography is given in Ch. 15.46. Sadīd al-Din ibn Raqīqah also wrote on ḥikmah and could therefore arguably be called al-manṭiqī ‘the logician’.
A Jewish physician from Egypt; see Ch. 14.27.
For two additional works by al-Mubashshir ibn al-Fātik that are not mentioned by IAU, see Rosenthal, ‘Prolegomena to an Abortive Edition’, 138.
This, his only surviving treatise, was composed in 440/1048. It is devoted to biographical sketches of ancient sages and collections of wise sayings. It contains some 125 sayings attributed to the legendary Egyptian-Greek sage Hermes, and it was largely responsible for establishing Hermes Trismegistus as a source of wisdom, not only in Fatimid Egypt but in later Ismāʿīlī literature as well; see van Bladel, The Arabic Hermes, 94–95, 184–196, 200. For Middle English translations made in the 15th century, see Rosenthal, ‘Prolegomena to an Abortive Edition’; there is no modern translation available.
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2.
See above, Ch. 13.6.
This biography is found in all three versions. The primary sources for Ibn Riḍwān are this biographical entry by IAU (which incorporates Ibn Riḍwān’s own autobiography), the biography of Ibn Buṭlān in IAU (see Ch. 10.38), and some brief information contained in the introduction of IAU. In addition, Ibn Buṭlān’s treatises also contain biographical information about Ibn Riḍwān, as do many of Ibn Riḍwān’s own writings. Ibn al-Qifṭī also has a biographical entry on him; see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 443– 44. For an earlier translation of portions of this biography, see Schacht & Meyerhof, The Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 34–49. For other secondary sources, see Ullmann, Medizin, 158–159; Seymore, Life of Ibn Riḍwān; Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine; EI2 art. ‘Ibn Riḍwān’ (J. Schacht); Bürgel, Ärztliches Leben, xxxi, 149–152; Mattila, ‘Philosophical Lives of Ibn al-Haytham and Ibn Riḍwān’.
While the determination of latitude for a given locality was relatively consistent in the medieval geographical tables, the value for longitude could vary considerably, depending upon the position taken for the prime meridian. For various localities through which a prime meridian was calculated, see Tibbetts, ‘Beginning of a Cartographic Tradition’, 103–105. In forty-three preserved medieval Arabic tables of geographical coordinates recording a value for Miṣr (Old Cairo), the longitude varies between 51° and 65°. For Miṣr, latitude of 30° and longitude of 55° were given in an important set of astronomical and geographical tables prepared for the Fatimid caliph al-Ḥākim by Ibn Yūnus, a contemporary of Ibn Riḍwān also working in Egypt. See Kennedy & Kennedy, Coordinates of Localities from Islamic Sources, 111–112.
An astronomer (d. 216/832) who carried out astronomical observations as part of the program instigated by the Abbasid caliph al-Maʾmūn (r. 198–218/813–833); see EI2 art. ‘Marṣad’ (J. Samsó); DSB art. ‘Yaḥyā ibn Abī Manṣūr’ (J. Vernet).
‘Lots’ are points along the ecliptic calculated by measuring the longitudinal distance between two planets and counting the same number of degrees from a third point, usually the ascendant; they were used to indicate length of life, success in an endeavour, and other matters. For the Lot of Fortune (sahm al-saʿādah) and other lots in medieval Islamic astrology, see Qabīṣī, Introduction to Astrology, 141–155; EI Three art. ‘Astrology’ (C. Burnett).
The Dragon’s Head is not an actual planet, but rather the point where the Moon crosses to the north of the ecliptic. It was often treated as a ‘planet’ by astrologers, along with the point where the Moon crosses to the south (the ‘Tail’).
Two stars are indicated on this horoscope: Vega (
See Seymore, Life of Ibn Riḍwān, 244–249 and 130–139 for a discussion of the data in this horoscope; for Latin versions of this same horoscope, see North, Horoscopes and History, 84–87. The values for some of the planetary positions differ in different manuscripts and between those given by Ibn Riḍwān in his commentary on the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy and those in this ‘autobiography’ reproduced by IAU; the values given in the latter were used for the reconstruction below (see Figure 14.1).
Ṣināʿat al-qaḍāyā bi-l-nujūm, literally ‘the art of making predictions by the stars’.
Tadhkirah.
That is, neither coveting what he has not got nor grieving for what he has lost.
A quotation from the Qur’an. Q Aʿrāf 7:185.
Fī l-tadbīr (Greek, Oikonomikos), a treatise on management of the estate attributed to Aristotle in late antiquity; see Swain, Economy, Family and Society, 129 and index (Ps.-Aristotle, Oikonomika I and II).
Q Aʿrāf 7:185.
K. al-Ḥashāʾish, one of several Arabic titles given the treatise on materia medica by Dioscorides (d. AD ca. 90). See Ch. 4.1.11.1.
Rufus of Ephesus (fl. AD ca. 100); see DSB art. ‘Rufus of Ephesus’ (F. Kudlien); Ullmann, Medizin, 71–76; Sezgin, GAS III, 64–68; Ullmann, Die Gelbsucht; Pormann, Rufus of Ephesus; and Ch. 4.1.10.2 for a list of his works.
Oribasius of Pergamon (d. ca. 400), court physician to Julian the Apostate. Educated in Alexandria, he composed a number of Greek medical treatises that circulated in Arabic translation, some of which preserve earlier important medical works now otherwise lost. See DSB, art. ‘Oribasius’ (F. Kudlien); Ullmann, Medizin, 83–84; Sezgin, GAS III, 152–154; and Ch. 5.2.1.
Paul of Aegina (fl. AD ca. 640s) practised medicine in Alexandria and remained there after 18/640 and the Arab invasion of Egypt. The Arabic translation of his Greek medical compendium had great influence on early physicians in the Islamic world. See DSB art. ‘Paul of Aegina’ (P.D. Thomas); Sezgin, GAS III, 168–170; Ullmann, Medizin, 86–87; and Ch. 5.2.1.
For al-Kitāb al-Ḥāwī, known in Latin as Continens, see the biography of Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, in Ch. 11.5.
K. al-Murabbaʿah (‘the four-part’), sometimes written ad K. al-Arbaʿah, was the Arabic title of the defence of astrology titled the Tetrabiblos (‘the four books’) composed by the Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy (fl. ca. 150–170). It was translated into Arabic by Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ṣalt in the mid-3rd/9th cent. and then revised by Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq not long thereafter.
Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. ca. 200), a Peripatetic philosopher primarily known for his interpretation of Aristotle’s doctrines. See DSB art. ‘Alexander of Aphrodisias’ (P. Merlan); EI2 art. ‘al-Iskandar al-Afrūdīsī’ (G. Strohmaier); and Ch. 4.8.
Themistius (ca. 317–388) was part of the Peripatetic school of philosophy and an Aristotelian scholar who had close relationship with Christian emperors from Constantius to Theodosius. He worked in Constantinople where many students came to attend his lectures. He was frequently quoted by medieval Arab philosophers. See DSB art. ‘Themistius’ (G. Verbeke). For an edition and translation of Themistius’ letter to Julian the Apostate (surviving mainly in Arabic), see Swain, Themistius, Julian, and Greek Political Theory.
Abū Naṣr Muḥammad al-Fārābī (ca. 256–338/870–950). Known as Alfarabius or Avennasar in medieval Latin texts, he was a philosopher and scholar of music; see DSB art. ‘Al-Fārābī’ (M. Mahdi); EI2 art. ‘al-Fārābī’ (R. Walzer); EI Three art. ‘al-Fārābī, philosophy’ (D. Janos). An entire entry is devoted to him in Ch. 15.1.
Jīzah, or Giza, a town on the west bank of the Nile.
Schacht and Meyerhof, as well as Dols, state that this should probably be the caliph al-Mustanṣir (r. 427–487/1036–1094) but Seymore disagrees, saying the text is referring to the sixth Fatimid caliph, al-Ḥākim (r. 385–411/996–1021); see Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 39 n. 12; Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 57; Seymore, Life of Ibn Riḍwān, 26. Ibn Riḍwān would have been 29 years old when the caliph al-Ḥākim died and 44 years old when the caliph al-Mustanṣir came to rule, so either is technically possible; if al-Mustanṣir were intended, then Ibn Riḍwān would have had twenty-five years in which he might have served him, while the period of service to al-Ḥākim would have been considerably less.
The Greco-Coptic township of Babylon or Bābalyūn, on the east bank of the Nile, was known in Arabic as Qaṣr al-Shamʿ, and the first settlement founded by Muslim conquerors, Fustat, was built alongside it. See EI2 art. ‘al-Fusṭāṭ’ (J. Jomier); Monneret de Villard, Qasr eš-Šamʿ.
Two major famines struck the Nile Valley in the 5th/11th century: the first in the mid-1050s and the second began in 1065. Other sources record that the drought of 1056 was so severe that many people fled Egypt and that the majority of people in Fustat died of hunger or ‘ate each other’; see Ellenblum, The Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean, 148–155.
For Ibn Buṭlān (d. 458/1066), see his biography in Ch. 10.8.
That is, the eighth Fatimid ruler, al-Mustanṣir bi-Allāh (r. 427–487/1036–1094); EI2 art. ‘al-Mustanṣir’ (H.A.R. Gibb & P. Kraus).
See Ch. 8.29 for his biography.
See Ch. 10.37 for his biography.
See Ch. 11.5 for his biography.
This refers to the fact that Ibn Riḍwān did not apprentice with a master as was customary during this period for the study of medicine and other disciplines. For discussion of this see Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy; Seymore, Life of Ibn Riḍwān; and Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine.
A similar list of reasons given by Ibn Buṭlān is translated and discussed in Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 83–86; however, the latter is based on a text by Ibn Buṭlān that differs slightly in content and numbering from the summary found in IAU; the text employed by Schacht and Meyerhof is no longer available to scholars (see Conrad, ‘Scholarship and social context’, 85 n. 7). The passage is also found in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:107–109, with small variations.
Nāṭiq, meaning a ‘rational (being)’. The teacher is a speaking and rational being, the book is dumb and inanimate.
The expression ʿallāmah bi-l-fiʿl is reminiscent of
Reading wa-ṣudūr al-fiʿl ʿanhā, as given in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxi:108, and Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 50. All manuscripts and editions of IAU read wa-ṣūrat al-fiʿl ʿanhā, whose significance is unclear.
Min muḍāf.
Or by design (bi-l-ṭabʿ).
ʿAllāmah bi-l-quwwah.
In other words, one can only teach if someone is learning at the same time, and one can only learn if someone is teaching.
An argument reminiscent of Plato’s Phaedrus, 274–278.
Diacritical dots used in Arabic to distinguish between letters – such as r and z, or f and q, or b/n/t/th/y – are not always written and are often misplaced.
Iʿrāb, that is, desinential inflection, indicating case and mood by the final vowels of nouns and verbs.
An example of the former is perhaps the written ū pronounced short in muʿallimū l-rajul, while an example of the latter might be the customary omission of the alif in words such as hādhā and thalāthah.
Thawrūs is possibly intended as a transliteration of the Greek
The modified or ‘privative’ affirmative (al-mūjabah al-maʿdūlah) and the simple negative (al-sālibah) are technical terms of logic. For these two types of propositions, see al-Tahānawī, Kashshāf, 1017; Wolfson, ‘Infinite and Privative Judgements in Aristotle’; Martin, ‘All Brutes are Subhuman’. We thank Richard Sorabji for his assistance in interpreting this seventh argument given by Ibn Buṭlān.
Faṣl, in the sense of a true saying (Lane, Lexicon, 2406).
Theophrastus (ca. 371–287 BC) was a follower of Aristotle and succeeded him as the head of what would become the Peripatetic school of philosophy. See Brill’s New Pauly art. ‘Theophrastus’ (W.W. Fortenbaugh); DSB art. ‘Theophrastus’ (J.B. MacDiarmid); Gutas, ‘Life, works and sayings of Theophrastus’; Daiber, ‘Survey of Theophrastean material’.
Eudemus of Rhodes (b. before 350 BC) was a student of Aristotle and a correspondent with Theophrastus; see Brill’s New Pauly art. ‘Eudemus [3] of Rhodes’ (H. Gottschalk); DSB art. ‘Eudemus of Rhodes’ (I. Bulmer-Thomas); Eudemus (ed. Bodnár & Fortenbaugh). Both Eudemus and Theophrastus are credited with important modifications of Aristotelian logic; see Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, art. ‘Ancient Logic, sect. 3.1 Improvement and Modifications of Aristotle’s Logic’ (S. Bobzien).
Perhaps the reasoning is as follows: There is a privative affirmative proposition generally agreed upon – namely, that Aristotle’s pupils would not have understood his teaching from his writings only. This is a convincing ‘substitute’ for the simple negative proposition that ‘teaching from books is not effective’.
Reading majāl (space, scope), rather than maḥāll (localities, places), as the manuscripts read.
Modern scholarship tends to place his death in 460/1068 (Ullmann, Medizin, 158). Ibn al-Qifṭī says: ‘Ibn Riḍwān remained in Egypt … until his death around (fī ḥudūd) the year 460 [1067–1068]’ (Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 444, lines 10–12). Seymore follows IAU, giving his death date as ‘about 1061’ (Seymore, Life of Ibn Riḍwān, 22), though Dols opts for the later date (Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 66).
Salīm al-qalb; in the Qur’an the phrase bi-qalb salīm means with a heart free from unbelief or divested of corruptness (Q Shuʿarāʾ 26:89).
For further information on his treatises, see Sezgin, GAS III, 35–42; Ullmann, Medizin, 39, 63, 68; EI2 art. ‘Ibn Riḍwān’ (J. Schacht); Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy. The majority of his writings are not preserved today; for one that is preserved today but not included in the list below (his commentary on the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy), see Seymore, Life of Ibn Riḍwān.
De sectis medicorum; Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 4. In Ch. 1.7 above, IAU indicates that he had access to a copy of this work by Ibn Riḍwān that was in the author’s own handwriting.
Ars medica; Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 7.
De pulsibus ad tirones; Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 61.
Ad Glaucon de methodo medendi; Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 70.
This title and the following one should really be subsets of title no. 4. Their separate entries here suggest that the commentary on the first book of Galen’s Ad Glaucon de methodo medendi circulated separately from the commentary on the second book.
De elementis secundum Hippocratem libri II; Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum no. 8.
De temperamentis, Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum no. 9.
Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophy Controversy, 41, consider this title to be part of the previous book-title, but all manuscript copies employed in this edition treat it as a separate entry.
Referring to Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s book, Questions on Medicine; see IAU, 8.29.
For an English translation of two sections (comprising eleven chapters), see Ibn Riḍwān, ‘The Kitāb al-Nāfīʾ’; for an edition, see Ibn Riḍwān, Kitāb al-Nāfīʾ (Sāmarrāʾī). IAU makes extensive use of the ‘Useful Book’ in Ch. 6.3 concerning the medical curriculum.
For an edition and English translation, see Dols, Medieval Islamic Medicine.
This is the autobiography from which IAU presented excerpts in this entry on Ibn Riḍwān. Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 42 n. 27.
An otherwise unknown Jewish physician of the eleventh century, presumably from Egypt. Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 42 n. 29; EI2 art. ‘Ibn Riḍwān’ (J. Schacht).
Ṣaydalah is a general term for the production and sale of drugs and perfumes. The phrase ṣaydalat al-ṭibb presumably distinguishes the manufacture and sale of medical compounds from that of perfumes.
Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib (d. 435/1043) was a prominent Christian physician and philosopher in Baghdad and was the teacher of Ibn Riḍwān’s antagonist, Ibn Buṭlān; for his life, see Ch. 10.37.
Probably Ifrāʾīm ibn al-Zaffān, a pupil of Ibn Riḍwān. For his life, see Ch. 14.26.
Abū ʿAlī ʿĪsā ibn Isḥāq ibn Zurʿah was a 10th-century Jacobite Christian philosopher and translator from Baghdad who also studied medicine; see Ch. 10.23; EI2 art. ‘Ibn Zurʿa’ (Ed.).
For a partial English translation, see Ibn Riḍwān, ‘On the Nature of Man’.
Lex; see Fichtner, Corpus Hippocraticum, no. 15; Jouanna, Hippocrates, 396 no. 35. This deontological work is quoted at Ch. 4.1.3.2.
The Testament (waṣiyyah) of Hippocrates is more often in Arabic known as al-waṣāyā (the testaments), and IAU is unique in preserved Arabic sources in giving the secondary title tartīb al-ṭibb (The Conduct of Medicine). See Sezgin, GAS III, 39 for various Arabic forms of the title, which in Latin is referred to as Testamentum or Qualem oportet esse discipulum (Fichter, Corpus Hippocraticum, no. 172; Jouanna, Hippocrates, 415 no. 60). It is a small treatise devoted to the proper appearance and behaviour of the physician. It does not belong to the ancient core of the Hippocratic collection and does not figure in modern editions, but in the Arabic tradition it was considered to be authentic and figured alongside The Oath and the Law as an important guide to ethical standards. It is quoted at Ch. 4.1.3.3.
In the biography of al-Tamīmī, a tenth-century physician working in Jerusalem and then Cairo, given earlier (Ch. 14.14) there is no book with this title attributed to him.
The reference is probably to a physician named Posidonius who flourished at the end of the 4th century BC, though it might possibly be to the famous Stoic philosopher and geographer also named Posidonius who lived in the 2nd cent. BC; for the former, see Brill’s New Pauly art. ‘Poseidonius [1]’ (V. Nutton) and, for the latter, Brill’s New Pauly art. ‘Poseidonius [3]’ (B. Inwood).
For Philagrius, a physician of Epirus who flourished 3rd–4th cent. AD, see Brill’s New Pauly art. ‘Philagrius’ (V. Nutton); and Ch. 5.2.2 for a list of works.
His identification at this point is uncertain. Schacht & Meyerhof (Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 44 n. 41) suggest that he was a contemporary of Ibn Riḍwān whose name has not yet been found in other chronicles or treatises. On the other hand, Seymore (Life of Ibn Riḍwān, 23 n. 53) says that he was ‘nicknamed “al-Mufīd” (d. 1022)’, without citing any evidence other than an article in the Encyclopaedia of Islam on Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Nuʿmān al-Ḥārithī al-ʿUkbarī al-Mufīd, an Imāmī Shiite theologian and jurist who died in 413/1032 [EI2 art. ‘al-Mufīd’ (W. Madelung)]; there is no indication in this latter article that al-Mufid was also called Abū l-Ṭayyib Azhar ibn al-Nuʿmān.
Makrān (or Mukrān) is the medieval name for the coastal region of southern Baluchistan on the Indian Ocean. Under the period of the Ghaznavids, the local ruler Maʿdān and his son ʿĪsā after 416/1026 acknowledged Ghaznavid suzerainty. Abū l-ʿAskar was ʿĪsā’s brother and overthrew him with the help of the Ghaznavids. See EI2 art. ‘Makrān’ (C.E. Bosworth).
De methodo medendi, Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 69.
De sanitate tuenda, Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 37; see above Ch. 5.1.37 nos. 84 and 85.
De plenitudine, Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 53; see also Ch. 5.1.37 no. 56. The Arabic title K. al-Kathrah for this treatise is relatively unusual. Both his contemporary Ibn al-Haytham and the much earlier Thābit ibn Qurrah give the title as K. al-kathrah, but the usual Arabic form for the title was Maqālah fī l-imtilāʾ; see Ullmann, Medizin 43 no. 26, and Fichter, Corpus Galenicum, no. 53. For Ibn al-Haytham, see Ch. 14.22.4.3 no. 44.22 in book-list, and for Thābit ibn Qurrah, see Ch. 10.3 no. 19.
Possibly the spurious De venae sectione (Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 125), but more likely the amalgam of works (typical of late antiquity) called K. al-faṣd; see Ch. 5.1.37 no. 71 with note.
De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis et facultatibus; Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, nos. 78 and 79.
The term mayāmir comes from the Syriac word for a discourse and was used by medieval Islamic physicians to refer to Galen’s On the Composition of Medicaments Arranged According to Place (De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos). See Ullmann, Medizin, 48 no. 50a; Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, nos. 80 and 81.
Qāṭājānis (a transliteration of the Greek phrase kata genē, meaning ‘according to type’) was commonly used by Islamic physicians to refer to Galen’s On the Composition of Medicaments Arranged According to Type (De compositione medicamentorum per genera); Ullmann, Medizin, 48 no. 50b; Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 82.
The treatise must have been a response to the tract Doubts about Galen (al-Shukūk ʿalā Jālīnūs) composed by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (d. ca. 313/925). For his life and writings, see Ch. 10.5.
Abū Zakariyyā Yahūdhā ibn Saʿādah is an otherwise unknown Jewish physician of the 5th/11th century, presumably from Egypt; see booktitles 17 and 18 above.
K. fī l-ṣināʿah al-ṣaghīrah; see book title 2 above.
The meaning of the phrase fī taḥlīl al-ḥadd in this context is uncertain.
Ibn Buṭlān’s essay in which he argued that the pullet or hatchling has a warmer nature than a hen, followed by Ibn Riḍwān’s rsponse to these questions formed the framework for the famous debate between these two antagonists; see Conrad, ‘Scholarship and social context’; Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy.
For an English translation, see Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy.
For an English translation, see Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 112–118.
For Ibn al-Haytham’s discourses on the Milky Way and on ‘place’ (makān), see Ch. 14.22.5.2 nos. 46 and 68 in the book-list.
The Complete Book of the Medical Art (Kāmil al-ṣināʿah al-ṭibbiyyah) was written in Baghdad in the 4th/10th century by ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī; for his life, see Ch. 10.25.
For an edition and German translation, see Ibn Riḍwān, Weg zur Glückseligkeit. The treatise includes an important list of Hippocratic treatises available in Egypt at this time; see Rosenthal, ‘Eleventh-Century List of Works of Hippocrates’. See also Ch. 4.1.9.1 n. 56.
This item in the book-list is essentially a repetition of no. 42 above, without the name of the person who sent the description. This item is omitted in most of the manuscript copies, including MS A, but does occur in some copies of Version 1 and in the edition by Müller.
For this treatise, see Ch. 4.1.2.
The Kitāb al-qiyās is the Prior Analytics of Aristotle; see Ch. 4.6.5.1.
Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī (d. 363/974) was a Christian philosopher of Baghdad and commentator on Aristotle; see EI2 art. ‘Yaḥyā b. ʿAdī.’ (G. Endress). An account of his life is also given in Ch. 10.22. The vocalization and meaning of al-mḥrsāt is uncertain, though at least one manuscript copy (MS L) clearly marks the letter ḥ as a ḥāʾ. Schacht and Meyerhof, however, write this word as ‘mukhrisāt and translate it as ‘dumbfounding, i.e. striking, arguments’ (Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 47).
Reading al-quṭb (rather than al-ʿ.t.b.), in the sense of ‘sayyid al-qawm’; see also Lane, Lexicon, 2541, on quṭb banī fulān: ‘the chief, or lord, of the sons of such a one, upon whom their state of affair turns [i.e. depends, and by whose government their affairs are regulated]’. The context suggests a gradation from ‘excellent (fāḍil)’ via ‘adequate (sadīd)’ to, perhaps, ‘hopeless case (ʿaṭb?)’; for the latter, see Dozy, Supplément, under: ʿaṭb/ʿaṭab, perdition, état d’ un homme hors la voie du salut, dans le vice. However, using ʿaṭ(a)b for a person rather than a ‘state’ is problematic.
Abū Sulaymān ibn Bābashādh has not been identified. He might be a relative of Abū l-Ḥasan Ṭāhir ibn Aḥmad ibn Bābashādh (d. 469/1077), an Egyptian grammarian; see EI2 art. ‘Ṭāhir b. Aḥmad ibn Bābashādh’ (M.G. Carter). Hayūlā is a technical philosophical term for ‘primary matter’; see EI2 art. ‘Hayūlā’ (L. Gardet).
The text appears to be corrupt at this point and the interpretation somewhat conjectural. See also Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 48 n. 62.
For Porphyry of Tyre (A.D 234–ca. 305) and his Isagoge on ‘Introduction’ to Aristotle’s book on logic, see EI2 art. ‘Furfūriyūs’ (R. Walzer).
The person named here has not been identified. The name is written without any dots in all copies (a-l-j/ḥ/kh-a-b/n/y-s), and is likely a faulty rendition of a Greek name.
a-l-j/ḥ/kh-a-b/y/n-s.
The text appears also to be corrupt in this book title. It is evident that the copyists were also uncertain how to read the title. See Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy, 48 n. 64.
The significance of this title is rather unclear. It may be a reference to the fact that at the equator the days and nights are always the same length and therefore there are no days in which the daylight lasts longer than the darkness.
This biography is found in all three versions. For further biographical and treatise information see Steinschneider, ‘Arabische Aerzte’.
Isrāʾīlī al-madhhab (of the Jewish religion).
For the biography of Ibn Riḍwān, see Ch. 14.25.
For biographical information about IAU’s father, Sadīd al-Dīn, see the biography of IAU’s uncle, Rashīd al-Dīn (Ch. 15.51).
Al-Afḍal ibn Amīr al-Juyūsh was the military vizier (amīr al-juyūsh) under three successive Fatimid caliphs from 487/1094 to 515/1121; see EI Three art. ‘al-Afḍal b. Badr al-Jamālī’ (P.E. Walker).
Ibn Ḥamdān was a military leader under the eighth Fatimid caliph, al-Mustanṣir (r. 427–487/1036–1094), descended from the Hamdanids of Mosul in Iraq. He led the Turkish and Berber troops to defeat Arab uprisings in the Delta in Egypt but eventually turned on al-Mustanṣir and took control of Cairo for a period, taking the title of Sulṭān al-Dawlah. He and his family were eventually killed by a rival Turkish military faction. EI2 art. ‘al-Mustanṣir’ (H.A.R. Gibb & P. Kraus).
This is the name of the western province of the Nile delta. During the Fatimid period, regions were divided in provinces with Buḥayrah situated west of the Rosetta branch, and reaching from the point of the delta right up to Alexandria; EI2 art. ‘Buḥayra’ (G. Wiet).
This biography is found in Versions 1, 2 and 3. For further biographical and treatise information, see Steinschneider, ‘Arabische Aerzte’; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 209–210.
See Ch. 14.26.
See Ch. 14.23.
See Ch. 13.58.
Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah, al-Risālah al-Miṣriyyah, 35–37. He travelled to Egypt from al-Andalus in 510/1117; see Ch. 13.58.2.1.
Ashbah, or conforming to type.
For Ifrāʾīm ibn al-Zaffān, see Ch. 14.26.
For Ibn Riḍwān, see Ch. 14.25.
Metre: mutaqārib. Al-Mutanabbī, Dīwān, 400; anonymously in Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah, al-Risālah al-Miṣriyyah, 36; also Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 210, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:346.
Metre: mutaqārib. By a woman from Ghāmid (pre-Islamic), addressing a tribe that had been defeated by hers; see al-Jāḥiẓ, Bayān, i:249; anonymously in al-Mubarrad, Kāmil, i:72; Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah, al-Risālah al-Miṣriyyah, 36; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 210, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:346.
Abū l-Bayḍāʾ (literally, ‘the possessor of whiteness’) is used here ironically by way of antiphrasis.
Presumably Jirjis forged these documents under the name of Salāmah ibn Raḥmūn to make the latter look ridiculous.
The translation of wa-anā muttahimun lahū fīhi is not wholly certain. Metre of the lines: sarīʿ. Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah, al-Risālah al-Miṣriyyah, 37, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xv:330; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:346.
Metre: khafīf. Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah, al-Risālah al-Miṣriyyah, 37, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xv:330.
Metre: ṭawīl. Abū l-Ṣalt Umayyah, al-Risālah al-Miṣriyyah, 37, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xv:331.
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2.
Presumably these terms were used because it was thought that carbuncles (or pustules, for jamrah can also simply mean pustules) have the general appearance of broken ceramics. Another explanation of the title is that carbuncles and pustules were sometimes cured by opening them with the edge of a potsherd. Sami Hamarneh argues that this treatise should actually be ascribed to Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī (see Ch. 14.29 for his biography) based on a copy of this work that was found housed at the Ẓāhiriyyah Library of Damascus in which an introductory statement of the manuscript ascribes authorship to Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī. Hamarneh also argues that the style of the treatise is the same as other compositions by Ibn al-ʿAynzarbI; see Hamarneh, ‘Ibn al-ʿAyn Zarbi and his Definition of Diseases’.
This biography is found in Versions 1, 2 and 3. The subject’s name is often given in other sources as Adnān ibn Naṣr al-ʿAynzarbī, and MS A inserts ibn Naṣr after ʿAdnān; he is sometimes referred to simply as al-ʿAynzarbī rather than Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī. See Ullmann, Medizin, 161, 255; Hamarneh, ‘Ibn al-ʿAyn Zarbi and his Definition of Diseases’; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, 318–320; Savage-Smith, NLM, MS A 25; Hamarneh & Ḥimṣī, Fihris, 297–298.
Anazarbus or Anazarba, an ancient city in central south Anatolia (Cilicia Pedias in ancient times). See EI2 art. ‘ʿAyn Zarba’ (M. Canard); Brill’s New Pauly art. ‘Anazarbus’ (M.H. Sayar).
Fatimids.
Mashāyikh.
The proportional Arabic script developed by Ibn Muqlah (d. 328/940), in which the shapes of all letters are based on the dimension of the single dot.
Al-Ẓāfir bi-Amr Allāh was the twelfth Fatimid caliph, who ruled 544/1149 to 549/1154. EI Three art. ‘Fāṭimids’ (H. Halm).
The title in preserved copies is given as al-Kāfī fī ṣināʿat al-ṭibb (The Sufficient Book: on the art of medicine); Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, 318; Savage-Smith, NLM, MS A 25; no edition or translation has been published. For a preliminary overview, see Hamarneh, ‘Ibn al-‘Ayn Zarbi and his Definitions of Diseases’.
Ars medica; Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, no. 7.
An otherwise unidentified physician, presumably a student or colleague of Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī; see Hamarneh, ‘Ibn al-‘Ayn Zarbi and his Definitions of Diseases’, 308.
This biography is found in all three versions. The subject’s name is sometimes transliterated as Balmuẓaffar. Bal- is normally a variant of Banū l-, in tribal names (e.g. Balḥārith for Banū l-Ḥārith). This does obviously not apply here, and the name (a kunyah, short for Abū l-Muẓaffar, the form used below in IAU’s entry and also in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxvii:88–89) should be read as Bulmuẓaffar (compare modern names such as Bourguiba, Boumedienne). The name Muʿarrif is here first spelled without the article but with it further into the entry; the entry on him in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī has al-Maʿrūf.
See the previous biography, Ch. 14.29.
Alexander of Aphrodisias (fl. AD 2nd–3rd c.). For his commentaries on Aristotelian treatises, see EI Three art. ‘Aristotle and Aristotelianism’ (C. D’Ancona) sect. 3.1–3.2; DSB, art. ‘Alexander of Aphrodisias’ (P. Merlan).
This Sadīd al-Dīn is probably to be identified with Sadīd al-Dīn ibn Raqīqah, a colleague of IAU’s and fellow ophthalmologist whose biography is given in Ch. 15.46. Sadīd al-Din ibn Raqīqah also wrote on ḥikmah and could therefore arguably be called al-manṭiqī ‘the logician’.
Here the name is written in the more common form of Abū l-Muẓaffar.
Metre: mutaqārib. Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:347, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxvii:89.
The word ṭabīʿah, of the nominal pattern faʿīlah, suggests a passive sense (‘something imprinted’).
Metre: mutaqārib. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxvii:89, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:347.
Or ‘its definition’.
This biography is found in all three versions.
Fatimids.
Born in 555 or 556/1160, Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr studied medicine under Ibn Shūʿah and al-Shaykh al-Sadīd Raʾīs al-Ṭibb; see Ch. 14.47.
Born 13 Muḥarram 490 [31 December 1096], al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh was the tenth Fatimid caliph in Egypt. He came to the throne as a child, proclaimed caliph by the vizier, al-Afḍal, who held power for most of the caliph’s reign. Al-Āmir was assassinated by Nizārī supporters in 524/1130. See EI2 art. ‘al-Āmir’ (S.M. Stern).
This term has a range of meanings and at the Fatimid court was used for certain high officials serving the ruler, such as the crown-bearer or the bearer of the royal inkstand; see EI2, ‘Ustād̲h̲’ (W. Floor).
Asʿad al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī l-Ḥasan (570–635/1174–1237) was from a family of physicians in Egypt who served under the Ayyubid rulers and was personally acquainted with IAU and his family, see Ch. 14.57.
Al-Ḥāfiẓ li-Dīn Allāh (d. 544/1149) was the eleventh Fatimid caliph in Egypt and followed al-Āmir to the throne. His reign saw many intrigues to gain control of the state by various viziers including al-Āmir’s vizier, al-Afḍal. He died of intestinal colic; EI2 art. ‘al-Ḥāfiẓ’ (A.M. Magued).
For the biography of Raḍī al-Dīn al-Raḥbī, see Ch. 15.36.
Ibn al-Naqqāsh was a physician originally from Baghdad but flourished in Syria; see Ch. 15.13.
For Ibn al-ʿAynzarbī, see Ch. 14.29.
Al-ʿĀḍid bi-Allāh (d. 567/1171) was the last Fatimid caliph of Egypt, after which the Fatimids lost power to Saladin’s invading forces in 567/1171; EI2 art. ‘al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh’ (G. Wiet).
He was in fact assassinated as he was crossing a bridge on one of his outings by members of the Nizārī branch of the Ismaʿīlīs, who bitterly opposed the line represented by al-Āmir and his father. Sources differ as to the day in the month of Dhū l-Qaʿdah on which he was killed. See EI Three art. ‘al-Āmir bi-Aḥkām Allāh’ (P.E. Walker).
This is probably the island of Rawḍah (Roda), an island in the Nile in the southern part of Cairo. Its most well-known structure was the Nilometer (miqyās). Literally meaning ‘garden’ it derives its name from the Fatimid period when the island was the site of gardens and palaces due to its pleasant climate. Before this (and after) the island was called Jazīrat Miṣr or often al-Jazīrah. See EI2 art. ‘Rawḍa’ (O. Weintritt).
The bayʿah of the caliph or ruler was the act by which a person was recognized as the head of a Muslim state; EI2 art. ‘Bayʿa’ (E. Tyan).
Ismāʿīl al-Ẓāfir bi-Amr Allāh ruled as Fatimid caliph of Egypt from 544/1149 to 549/1154. See EI Three art. ‘Fāṭimids’ (H. Halm).
Al-Fāʾiz bi-Naṣr Allāh (r. 549–555/1154–1160), the son of the caliph al-Ẓāfir, was five years old when he became caliph. During this later period, power was often in the hands of the vizier or ministers. The powerful minister Ṭalāʾiʿ ibn Ruzzīk held power during al-Fāʾiz’s reign. See EI Three art. ‘Fāṭimids’ (H. Halm).
Part of the date is missing in the MSS. From other sources we know that ʿĪsā al-Fāʾiz bi-Naṣr Allāh died in 555/1160, at the age of eleven; EI Three art. ‘Fāṭimids’ (Heinz Halm).
Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (532–589/1138–1193), referred to in European sources as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty in Syria and Egypt; EI2 art. ‘Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn’ (D.S. Richards) and Phillips, Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin.
The majority of manuscripts speak of the ‘well, or pit’ (biʾr) of Zuwaylah rather than the gate (bāb). Biʾr Zuwaylah is described in al-Maqrīzī’s Khiṭaṭ (i:363) as being near a quarter called Ḥārat Zuwaylah. It was in Iṣṭabl al-Jummayzah, where the caliphal horses were kept.
He is Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Khāliq, known as al-Ṣāḥib Ṣafī al-Dīn Ibn Shukr; see al-Dhahabī, Tārīkh al-Islām, Ḥawādith wa-wafayāt 621–630 H, 109–112, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xvii:327–330.
al-Malik al-ʿĀḍil Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb was an Ayyubid prince (540–615/1145–1218) who took the honorific title of Sayf al-Dīn (Sword of the Faith). He was the brother of Saladin and ruled in Syria and Egypt in various positions during his lifetime including his attempts as heir to Saladin’s empire; EI2 art. ‘al-ʿĀdil’ (H.A.R. Gibb).
Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm al-Juwaynī al-Kātib, known as Ibn al-Luʿaybah, died in Cairo 586/1190. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, ix:43–46; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, ii:131–132; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:127–128.
Metre: wāfir; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xvii:335–336 (where the poet’s ism is wrongly given as al-Ḥusayn).
A reference to the Day of Judgement, see Q al-Insān 76:10: « We fear from our Lord a frowning day ».
One of the many expressions meaning Doomsday.
Translation uncertain and sense unclear.
Metre: kāmil. It is not clear by whom these two lines are; they recur at the end of the poem. On composing lines on a given model, called ijāzah, see Ibn Rashīq, ʿUmdah, ii:89–91, Ibn Ẓāfir al-Azdī, Badāʾiʿ, 69–163.
An old expression (see e.g. the famous ode by Kaʿb ibn Zuhayr on the prophet Muḥammad, Qaṣīdat al-Burdah, vs. 55).
At first sight aqwātihā looks like an error for awqātihā (as in MSS LGbGc); but the former, found in the other sources and explicitly confirmed by MS A, may be correct; possibly an allusion to Q Fuṣṣilat 41:10, « He measured in it [viz. the world] its diverse sustenance (aqwātahā) in four days ».
The reading taʿtāmu is also possible: ‘it (scil. the soul) aims’.
Literally, ‘from their uvulas’, apparently meaning that life was saved just as the soul was about to depart with the last breath.
Adopting the reading of MS Gb: ka-tilāwati l-qurāni, which is more plausible than li-tilāwati l-qurʾāni (“because of the recitation of the Qurʾan”) found in all other sources. On the Qur’an as medicine, see e.g. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah, al-Ṭibb al-nabawī, 352–353, where ‘Qurʾān’ is listed in an alphabetical series of medicaments, with a reference to Q al-Isrāʾ 17:82, where the Qur’an is called ‘a healing’. For ‘prophetic medicine’ (al-ṭibb al-nabawī) in general, see Pormann & Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 71–75, 150–152; Perho, The Prophet’s Medicine.
Al-sadīd, a reference to the name whereby he is known.
Reading, with MS A, dhuʿʿārihī; it could also be read as dhuʿʿāratin, even though this form is not attested elsewhere. Reading dhaʿāratin, ‘mischief’ would not suit the metre. The forms with dh, instead of the more correct d, are so common that they should perhaps be left as found.
Metre: ṭawīl.
ʿAbd al-Ilāh, a variant of the addressee’s given name, ʿAbd Allāh.
The year 592 began on 6 December 1195 and al-Shaykh al-Sadīd may well have died in 1196, for we do not know the specific month in which he died.
This biography is found in all three versions. For further information on Ibn Jumayʿ, see Ullmann, Medizin, 164–165; EI2 art. ‘Ibn D̲j̲āmiʿ’ (J. Vernet); EI Three art. ‘Ibn Jumayʿ’ (D. Nicolae); Nicolae, Ibn Jumay; Meyerhof, ‘Sultan Saladin’s Physician’; Chipman, Pharmacists in Mamlūk Cairo, 19–25.
The biography of ibn al-ʿAynzarbī was given earlier in Ch. 14.29.
Ibn Abī l-Bayān was a Jewish physician from Egypt and a contemporary and teacher of IAU who practised in various hospitals of this period including the al-Nāṣirī hospital in Cairo. His biography is given in Ch. 14.43.
Abū Naṣr Ismāʿīl ibn Ḥammād al-Jawharī (d. 393/1002 or 398/1007) was a famous Arabic lexicographer best known for his dictionary, Tāj al-lughah wa-ṣiḥāḥ al-ʿarabiyyah which became one of the most widely used authoritative sources on the Arabic language for centuries; EI2 art. ‘al-D̲j̲awharī’ (L. Kopf).
Al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb was the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt from 638/1240 to 647/1249 and before that prince in Damascus and other areas of the Ayyubid empire; see Humphreys, From Saladin to the Mongols.
Abū l-Ḥasan Yaḥyā ibn ʿĪsā ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥusayn Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Maṭrūḥ (592–649/1195–1251) was a famous poet who held several high official appointments under the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt. He was appointed vizier of Damascus under al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb in 643/1245 and it was during this period that IAU was probably acquainted with him. See EI2 art. ‘Ibn Maṭrūḥ’ (J. Rikabi); Hilloowala, Analysis of Ibn Abi Usaybiʿah, 63, 116–117.
An expression meaning ‘in charge of both the military and civil administration’.
A dukkān is a common word for a pharmacy or place where medical care and medicines was dispensed.
The Sūq al-Qanādīl (Candlestick Market) is a quarter in Fustat (Old Cairo). Nāṣir-i Khusraw describes this market during his travels; see Schefer, Sefer Nameh, 149; Raymond, Cairo, 42.
Juan Vernet suggested that the patient in this scenario was in a cataleptic fit; see EI2 art. ‘Ibn D̲j̲āmi’ (J. Vernet).
This paragraph and the next three short poems are found only in the first version of the ʿŪyūn and are omitted in versions two and three. In manuscript A, the paragraph and poems are written in the left-hand margin, preceded by the following note: ‘The copyist [of this note] says: I saw in the author’s draft (musawwadat al-muṣannif) lines of poetry satirizing the aforementioned Ibn Jumayʿ, and that the author had struck them out and abandoned them. He did that after discussing the matter with al-Ṣāḥib Jamāl al-Dīn ibn al-Maṭrūḥ, and the lines of poetry were not included in the fair copy (al-mubayyaḍah). In his musawwadah he said …’.
Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Mufarrij (d. 616/1219), called al-Maʿarrī after his origin and al-Miṣrī because he lived and died in Egypt, was known as Ibn al-Munajjim al-Miṣrī; see al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (Miṣr), i:168–169, Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, vi:64, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxii: 215–217, al-Suyūṭī, Ḥusn al-muḥāḍarah, i:565.
Metre: munsariḥ.
Metre: mutaqārib.
For the desiccating power of the narcissus (narjis), which is used in healing wounds, see e.g. Ibn al-Bayṭār, Jāmiʿ, iv:476–477.
Metre: mutaqārib.
In order to make the line scan correctly and to make the play on words work one has to read, in the first hemistich, the colloquial form al-Yahūdī instead of al-Yahūdiyyu. The sense is not (as Kopf thinks) that ‘your father is [as wicked as] all the Jews together’, but rather that his mother was promiscuous to the extent that any male Jew could have been his father.
Not identified.
Metre: ṭawīl. Lines 1–3 and 10–12 in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxvii:274.
The meaning of taqrumi (thus vowelled in L) is unclear; taqrami normally means ‘craves for meat’.
The reading is problematical because what looks like lā kas(s)ara Kisrā (all sources) is neither metrical nor meaningful. Read perhaps la-aksara Kisrā (even though KSR IV is not in the dictionaries) or emend to la-kassara Kisrā.
Chosroes (Kisrā, an Arabicized form of Persian Khusraw) and Tubbaʿ are the generic names of the rulers of Sasanid Persia and pre-Islamic Yemen, respectively. ʿĀd and Jurhum (or Jurham) are pre-Islamic Arabian nations.
Yalamlam: said to be a mountain in Arabia (Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān); see Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, ʿIqd, ii:153: athqal min ruknay Yalamlam (‘heavier than the two corners of Yalamlam’).
Translation uncertain.
Literally, ‘watering place’.
Ibn Jumayʿ.
Jamīl ibn Maʿmar (d. 82/701), celebrated poet-lover of the tribe of ʿUdhrah; Mutammim ibn Nuwayrah (1st/7th century), poet of famous elegies on the death of his brother Mālik.
Perhaps this is the meaning of al-muʿaẓẓim (thus vowelled in A).
The meaning of bi-m.rz.m is unclear. The sense is apparently that he wishes his body were all eyes, weeping for the deceased.
The syntax would seem better if one read ramā (‘[a misfortune] that struck’), but all sources have ramat.
Translation uncertain, see textual note. Another possible reading could be tukhīlu (cf. Lane, Lexicon, KhYL: akhālat al-saḥābatu).
Translation uncertain.
For additional information on treatises by Ibn Jumayʿ, see Nicolae, Ibn Jumay, 43–54; Meyerhof, ‘Sultan Saladin’s Physician’; and Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entries 55 and 74. A treatise by Ibn Jumayʿ not included in the list below is his treatise written for Saladin on the revival of the art of medicine (see Ibn Jumayʿ, Treatise to Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn).
Ibn Jumayʿ died ca. 594/1198 before finishing the treatise, and it was subsequently completed by his son Abū Ṭāhir Ismāʿīl. The treatise is composed of four sections: the first concerned with the general principles of medicine, the second with materia medica and foodstuffs, the third with the treatment of diseases, and the fourth with compound remedies. Numerous copies are preserved, but there is no published edition or translation; see Ullmann, Medizin im Islam, 164; Nicolae, Ibn Jumayʿ, 44–47; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, entry 74. For an English translation of an extract, see Ibn Jumayʿ, ‘Ibn Jamiʿ on the Skeleton’.
Numerous copies are preserved of this commentary on the Qānūn fī l-ṭibb by Ibn Sīnā, the first such commentary to be composed. No modern edition or translation has been published. For manuscripts, see Nicolae 47–51. For selected passages, with translations, see Iskandar, Wellcome, 35–38; and Iskandar, ‘An autograph of Ibn al-Tilmīdh’, 180.
Not identified.
For an edition and translation, see Watson, ‘In Defence of the Lemon’.
Al-Malik al-ʿĀdil (d. 615/1218) was brother and assistant to Saladin. He held the honorific title of Sayf al-Dīn (Sword of the Faith) and was known to the Crusaders as Saphadin. See EI2 art. ‘al-ʿĀdil’ (H.A.R. Gibb).
This biography is found in all three versions. For further information on Abū l-Bayān ibn al-Mudawwar, see Ullmann, Medizin im Islam, 309; EI2 art. ‘Ibn Abi’l-Bayān’ (J. Vernet); Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’. There is a very short entry on him by al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xv:127, listing him under ‘al-Sadīd’, as if it were an ism rather than a laqab.
This is a Jewish sect which does not recognize the authority of the post-biblical tradition in the Talmud. There was a Karaite community existing in Fustat during this period; see EI2 art. ‘Karaites’ (L. Nemoy & W. Zajaczkowski).
This is probably al-Mubārak ibn Kāmil ibn ʿAlī ibn Munqidh, a member of the Banū Munqidh clan of Syria. The clan itself played a significant role in the political affairs of Syria and Egypt under the Ayyubids. Al-Mubārak ibn Kāmil became a part of the administrative system of Saladin’s government in Egypt and then participated in a military expedition to Yemen where he became governor of Zabīd for a time. He returned from Yemen to Egypt in 571/1175; EI2 art. ‘Munḳid̲h̲’ (R.S. Humphreys).
Al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil (529–596/1134–1199) was born in ʿAsqalān, Palestine, and served during the period of the last Fatimid caliphs in Cairo. He was a counsellor and secretary to Saladin in Egypt and accompanied him on his campaigns. See EI2 art. ‘al-Ḳāḍī al-Fāḍil’ (C. Brockelmann & Cl. Cahen).
Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk (550–608/1155–1211) was known as al-Qāḍī al-Saʿīd. He was a high-placed official of the Ayyūbid administration in Egypt. He encountered ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī when the latter first set foot on Egyptian soil. He was a poet from Cairo who served under the Ayyūbid princes and was a protégé of al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil. He wrote a work on strophic poetry (muwashshaḥ). See EAL art. ‘Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk’ (L. Alvarez); EI2 art. ‘Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk’ (Ed.).
Not identified.
This biography is found in all three versions. For Abū l-Faḍāʾil ibn al-Nāqid, see Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’. The term al-naqīd translates to ‘chief Rabbi.’
This is short for the honorific al-Muhadhdhab al-Dīn.
The meaning and syntax of ʿaẓīm al-ishtiyām is unusual and puzzling. It is possible that IAU himself misinterpreted the word. The etymology of ishtiyām is obscure; possibly from Aramaic ishtayyāmā, ‘mark, distinction’, itself of unknown origin; see Jastrow, Dictionary of the Targumim, i:131 and Fraenkel, Die aramäische Fremdwörter, 222. The normal meaning of ishtiyām is ‘ship’s captain’; see Glossarium to al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh (ed. de Goeje), cccv–cccvi, or al-Azdī, Ḥikāyat Abī l-Qāsim al-Baghdādī, ed. ʿAbbūd al-Shāljī, 318. In all known occurrances of ishtiyām, sometimes spelled istiyām, it is used in a nautical sense, and no other text could be found where the word refers to ‘riders’ of animals. Yet the context here, which has no mention of a boat or river, compels the interpretation of ‘master horseman’.
For Ayyubid nāṣirī dirhams, see EI2 art. ‘dirham’ (G.C. Miles); Ehrenkreutz, ‘Knowledge of the Fiscal Administration of Egypt’, 503–504. In the winter 583/1187 Saladin introduced a new type of dirham called nāṣirī, so called after his honorific name al-Nāṣir; its alloy was 50 per-cent silver and 50 per-cent copper. Given that Abū l-Faḍāʾil ibn al-Nāqid died in 584/1188, the event described here must have occurred just shortly before his death. Sawād dirhams were presumably minted in the Sawād, or lower Iraq.
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2. See Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’.
The Fatimid dynasty ruled Egypt from 297/909 until 567/1171.
This biography is found in Versions 1, 2 and 3. See Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’.
An early string instrument of the lyre family; see EI2 art. ‘Ḳīt̲h̲āra’ (A. Shiloah).
This person is unidentified.
Khānqāh is a term of Persian origin for a building reserved for Muslim mystics; see EI2 art. ‘K̲h̲ānḳāh’ (J. Chabbi).
Al-Khabūshānī was a theologian of Persian origin who was rewarded for his support of the overthrow of the Fatimids in Egypt by Saladin opening a college for him. Khabūshān is a town near Nishapur. See EI2 art. ‘al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh’ (G. Wiet).
He was the father of al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin).
An uncle of Saladin, he was known as Shīrkūh (d. 564/1168), eventually becoming one of the last viziers of Fatimid Egypt. He eventually helped to overthrow the Fatimid dynasty. See EI2 art. ‘S̲h̲īrkūh’ (D.S. Richards).
The expression: yaʾkulu al-dunyā bi-l-nāmūs – literally: ‘he eats away at the world by rules’.
A non-Muslim, but member of a revealed religion (including Christianity and Judaism) that was given protected status under Islam; see EI2 art. ‘D̲h̲imma’ (Cl. Cahen).
For the physician al-Qāḍī Nafīs al-Dīn ibn al-Zubayr, see Ch. 14.47.
Metre: basīṭ.
For Ibn Jumayʿ, see Ch. 14.32.
Metre: basīṭ. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxvii:273–274.
The text is defective and the sense unclear.
Metre: basīṭ.
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is not found in Version 2. See Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians.’
An abbreviation for the more common honorific Muwaffaq al-Dīn.
He was the second son of Saladin and became ruler of Egypt upon the death of his father and reigned 589–595/1193–1198. See EI Three art. ‘Ayyūbids’ (Anne-Marie Eddé).
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is not found in Version 2. Abū l-Maʿālī ibn Tammām was probably the brother-in-law of Mūsā ibn Maymūn (Maimonides); see Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’, 450 n. 50; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 318. For Maimonides, see Ch. 14.39.
Al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Ayyūb was brother and assistant to Saladin. He held the honorific title of Sayf al-Dīn (Sword of the Faith) and was known to the Crusaders as Saphadin. After the death of Saladin in 589/1193, internal struggles plagued the Ayyubid Empire until al-ʿĀdil managed to consolidate power under him and his sons in 604/1207. He died outside of Damascus at ʿĀliqīn on 7 Jumādā I 615 [31 August 1218]. See EI2 art. ‘al-ʿĀdil’ (H.A.R. Gibb).
This biography is found in all three versions. In the West al-Raʾīs Mūsā is known as Maimonides, the great Jewish philosopher and religious scholar; in the Jewish tradition he is often called by his acronym Rambam (Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon); see Sezgin, GAS III, 30, 49, 77, 78, 98, 106, 110, 120, 121, 298, 317, 320, 351, 388; Ullmann, Medizin, 167–170; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 317–319; EI2 art. ‘Ibn Maymūn’ (G. Vajda); Encyclopaedia Judaica art. ‘Maimonides, Moses’ (L.I. Rabinowitz, et al.) xiii:381–397; Kraemer, ‘Maimonides: An Intellectual Portrait’; Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’; Langermann, ‘L’ oeuvre médicale de Maimonide, un aperçu general’; Langermann, ‘Maimonides and the Sciences,’; Bos, ‘Maimonides’ Medical Works’; Bos, ‘Reception of Galen in Maimonides’; Freudenthal & Zonta, ‘Avicenna Among Medieval Jews’; Chipman, ‘Jewish Presence in Arabic Writings on Medicine’, 397 (for a different translation of the brief biography presented here).
Al-Raʾīs Mūsā ibn Maymūn was born in Cordova (al-Qurṭubī) in 532/1138; see Bos, ‘Reception of Galen in Maimonides’, 139 n. 2; Stroumsa, Maimonides in his World, 8.
The term ḥibr (pl. aḥbār) refers to any non-Muslim religious authority, and in the case of the Jewish community is used for a rabbi.
The assertion that he was the ‘head’ (raʾīs) of the Jewish community in Egypt may have implied some official administrative duties, although there is no corroborating evidence for this. Some scholars suggest that he may have reported to Muslim authorities in Egypt on both the Rabbanite and Karaite Jewish communities (Stroumsa, Maimonides in his World, 40 and n. 57) while others are skeptical of the claim that he was head of the community in Egypt (raʾīs al-yahūd); see Bos, ‘Reception of Galen in Maimonides’, 139 n. 5.
Al-Malik al-Afḍal Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Nūr al-Dīn (d. 622/1225) was the eldest son of Saladin and became ruler of Damascus and head of the Ayyubids upon the death of his father but quickly lost this position to other Ayyubid rulers and princes. See EI2 art. ‘al-Afḍal’ (H.A.R. Gibb).
Fustat was an area of Egypt where there was a large Jewish population.
In 555/1160, when Maimonides was in his early twenties, his family and he moved to Fez, close to the capital of the Almohads (Muwaḥḥidūn), a Berber dynasty that deprived religious minorities of their traditional protected rights in Islam. This passage is one of only two sources for the ‘forced conversion’ of Maimonides to Islam, the other source being Ibn al-Qifṭī, who says: wa-lammā aẓhara shiʿār al-islām iltazama bi-juzʾiyyātihi min al-qirāʾah wa-l-ṣalāh (‘when he proclaimed the credo of Islam, he observed its particular duties such as reciting the Qur’an and prayer’); Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ, 317. IAU may have obtained his information from Maimonides’ son Abraham, whom IAU worked with in the Nāṣirī hospital in Cairo (see below, Ch. 14.40), while Ibn al-Qifṭī may have relied on a student of Maimonides named Joseph Ibn Shimʿon. See Stroumsa, Maimonides in his World, 57–61, esp., n. 18 & n. 31.
Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn Jaʿfar ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk (d. 608/1211), qāḍī and prolific poet of traditional poetry and of the strophic poems called muwashshaḥāt, on which he was the first to write a treatise. See EI2 art. ‘Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk’ (Ed.); EAL art. ‘Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk’ (L. Alvarez).
Metre: ṭawīl. Ibn Sanāʾ al-Mulk, Dīwān, ii:296; Ibn Shākir al-Kutubī, Fawāt, iv:176 (lines 1, 3–4).
For additional works by al-Raʾīs Mūsā ibn Maymūn that are not mentioned in IAU and for further information on his treatises, see Sezgin, GAS III, passim; Ullmann, Medizin, 48–49, 61–62, 167–169; Seeskin, Cambridge Companion to Maimonides; and the bibliographic introductions by Gerrit Bos to the ongoing series The Medical Works of Moses Maimonides, of which Volumes 1–10 were published by Brigham Young University Press in Provo, Utah, and Volumes 11–12 by Brill in Leiden.
The ‘sixteen books’ of Galen refer to the summaries of the so-called ‘Canon’ of sixteen books read by the Alexandrians, for which see Ch. 6.3–4 and Savage-Smith, ‘Galen’s Lost Ophthalmology’. For an English translation of portions of al-Raʾīs Mūsā’s summary of these sixteen books, see Maimonides, Art of Cure.
For an edition and English translation of this short treatise, composed about 583/1187 at the request of an unidentified youth, see Maimonides, On Hemorrhoids.
This essay on medical regimen was written in 594/1198 at the request of the eldest son of Saladin, al-Malik al-Afḍal ʿAlī (r. 582–592/1186–1196). For an English translation, see Maimonides, Regimen of Health, 16–31; and Maimonides, On the Regimen of Health (Bos & McVaugh).
This treatise on antidotes for poisons and poisonous bites was composed in 595/1199 at the request of al-Qāḍī al-Fāḍil (d. 596/1200), vizier to Saladin. For an edition and English translation, see Maimonides, On Poisons.
All copies give the title as K. sharḥ al-ʿuqqār, although the usual form in modern scholarship is K. sharḥ asmāʾ al-ʿuqqār. For an English translation, see Maimonides, Glossary of Drug Names.
This is likely to be his philosophical treatise Dalālat al-ḥāʾirīn (The Guide of the Perplexed), composed in Judeo-Arabic; for an English translation, see Maimonides, Guide of the Perplexed. It might also be a reference to Maimonides’ codification of Jewish Law entitled Mishneh Torah.
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2. See Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’. As his name indicates, he was a son of Mūsā ibn Maymūn (Maimonides); for the latter, see the previous entry, Ch. 14.39.
Al-Malik al-Kāmil (d. 635/1238) was the fifth Ayyubid ruler in Egypt; see EI2 art. ‘al-Kāmil’ (H.L. Gottschalk).
This is the Nāṣirī hospital founded in 566/1171 in Old Cairo by al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin), after whom it was named. The phrase al-bīmāristān alladhī bi-l-Qāhirah min al-qaṣr may also refer to the fact that the Nāṣirī hospital was created by modifying a part of the palace built by the Fatimid caliph al-ʿAzīz in 384/994 so that it could serve as a hospital; see Rageb, Medieval Islamic Hospital, 84–89.
In MS R there is a long marginal note reproducing an account of the apostasy of Maimonides given by the historian al-Ṣafadī (d. 763/1363); see the Arabic edition of Ch. 14.40.2 in Vol. 2-2. and also Ibn Shākir al-Kutubī, Fawāt, iv:175–176. An English translation of this passage can be found in Margoliouth, ‘The Legend of the Apostasy of Maimonides’, 539–540.
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2. See Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’.
An abbreviation for the more common honorific Muwaffaq al-Dīn.
This biography is found in all three versions. For al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī, see the introduction by Oliver Kahl to his edition/translation of al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī’s, Treatise on the errors of the physicians in Damascus, 3–11, where Kahl gives the author’s primary form of personal name as Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Isrāʾīlī, rather than al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī; see Kahl, Treatise on the Errors of Physicians. See also Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’; Ullmann, Medizin, 159 n. 2, 201 n. 5.
A noun of place, the term maḥallah was given to approximately a hundred towns or villages in Egypt. The term designated a place where one makes a stop along a journey. Its precise identification in this context is uncertain, but it is very likely the city now known as al-Maḥallah al-Kubrā, an ancient and large town in the Delta; see e.g. EI2 art. ‘al-Maḥalla al-Kubrā’ (J.H. Kramers). For the term maḥallah, see EI2 art. ‘Maḥalla’ (Ch. Pellat).
This entire story is missing from all the manuscript copies used in this edition and from the main text of MS A based on his first exemplar. It was, however, added in the margin of MS A, taken from the ‘draft copy’ in the author’s hand that the copyist was collating against his first exemplar. At the end the author added the note ‘This section needs to be completed because it was in the margin and was cut off’, indicating that the ‘draft copy’ in the author’s hand was damaged at this point and that this anecdote had been added by IAU at a later date in the margin of his ‘draft copy.’
This is probably IAU’s uncle Rashīd al-Dīn, who was a physician. For his biography, see Ch. 15.51.
Oxymel (sakanjubīn, or sakanjabīn) is a syrup made of honey and vinegar. Often combined with other ingredients, such as quince, it was a popular remedy throughout the ancient and medieval literature for fevers and indigestion. It was also used to combat opium poisoning. See Chipman, Pharmacists in Mamluk Cairo, 185–186, 193–196; Tibi, Medicinal Use of Opium, 93, 152; Lev & Amar, Materia Medica, 60; Levey, Medical Formulary, no. 149; Marin & Waines, ‘Ibn Sīnā on Sakanjabīn’.
For the following books, as well as several additional treatises attributed to al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī, and manuscripts preserving them, see al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī, Treatise on the errors of the physicians in Damascus, 4–5.
This treatise appears not to be preserved today under this name. However, a medical treatise by al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī in six chapters (abwāb) concerned with nutrition, dietetics and medicaments has been edited and translated into English by Oliver Kahl, using three manuscripts, none of which bears a title; Kahl has reconstructed the title as ‘Treatise on the Errors of the Physicians in Damascus’; see al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī, Treatise on the errors of the physicians in Damascus, 12–13. It is possible that the latter tract is the same as Fī qawānīn ṭibbiyyah (On medical principles).
The title al-Nuzah could also be rendered as The Excursions. Oliver Kahl, in his list of treatises by al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī, reads the title as al-Nazah and translates it as ‘The Infallible Explanation’ (al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī, Treatise on the errors of the physicians in Damascus, 4).
MS B takes the last phrase, referring to the book consisting of three chapters, and makes that the full title, reading ‘A book in three chapters, on medicine’.
The treatise was actually composed by Ṣadaqah ibn Manjā ibn Ṣadaqah al-Sāmirī in response to questions asked him by al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī, and hence technically should not be in this book-list. In the biography of Ṣadaqah ibn Manjā given by IAU (Ch. 15.47) the sixth title is A treatise in which he answered medical questions put to him by the Jew al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī (Maqālah ajāba fīhā ʿan masāʾil ṭibbiyyah saʾalahu ʿanhā al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī al-Yahūdī). See also al-Asʿad al-Maḥallī, Treatise on the errors of the physicians in Damascus, 5 and 59.
This biography is found in all three versions. For biographical information and information on his works, see Ullmann, Medizin, 309; Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica 216–217; EI2 art. ‘Ibn Abi’l-Bayān’ (J. Vernet); EI Three art. ‘Ibn Abī l-Bayān’ (L. Chipman); Meyerhof, ‘Medieval Jewish Physicians’; Chipman, Pharmacists in Mamlūk Cairo, 38–46.
See Ch. 14.32.
See Ch. 14.34.
The successor to Saladin and Ayyubid ruler of Egypt from 596/1200 to 614/1218.
Metre: mutaqārib. See al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:467.
This work is often referred to as al-Dustūr al-bīmāristānī fī l-adwiyah al-murakkabah (The hospital register of compound drugs). The treatise was first published by Paul Sbath in 1932 (Sbath, ‘Le formulaire des hôpitaux d’ Ibn abil Bayan’). The manuscript employed by Sbath (dated 874/1469 and in his own collection) was reproduced photographically and prefaced with a Castilian translation in José Luis Valverde and Carmen Peña Muñoz (Ibn Abī l-Bayān, El formulario de los hospitales). The treatise was published a second time, with a French translation, by Paul Sbath (posthumously) and Cristos D. Avierinos from a manuscript that falsely attributed it to Sahlān ibn ʿUthmān ibn Kaysān (Ibn Abī l-Bayan, Al-Dustūr al-bīmāristānī, Sbath & Avierinos). For an edition and English translations of portions of this treatise, see Ibn Abī l-Bayān, ‘A Hospital Handbook’.
The parts of this late antique amalgam are preserved separately; see Ch. 5.1.37 no. 14. See also Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum, nos. 42–47; Sezgin, GAS III, 89, 90, 146.
This biography is found in Versions 1, 2 and 3. No treatises by Ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir are known to be preserved and none are mentioned by IAU. For biographies of his son Faṭḥ al-Dīn, who was an oculist, and his grandson Shihāb al-Dīn, also a prominent physician, see Ch. 14.45 and Ch. 14.46. Ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir also had another grandson, Jamāl al-Dīn ʿUthmān ibn Aḥmad, who is known today through his treatise on the medicinal and magical uses of animals, Badāʾiʿ al-akwām fī manāfiʿ al-ḥayawān (see Ullmann, Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften, 33–34).
See Ch. 15.13.
See Ch. 15.36.
Al-ʿAzīz ibn al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (r. 589–595/1193–1198), the second son of Saladin who became ruler of Egypt upon the death of his father. See EI Three art. ‘Ayyūbids’ (A.-M. Eddé).
Al-Malik al-Kāmil (d. 635/1238) was the fifth Ayyubid ruler in Egypt; EI2 art. ‘al-Kāmil’ (H.L. Gottschalk).
Mīl, a probe or style by which a medicinal lotion or compound ocular remedy (kuḥl pl. akḥal) was applied to the eye.
The ‘art’ (al-ṣināʿah) is of course the art of medicine (ṣināʿat al-ṭibb), a phrase universally used at this time for the science and practice of medicine. In addition, the author may well have been referencing the first aphorism of Hippocrates (‘Life is short, the Art long, …’), which was known to virtually all well-educated people of his day.
See Ch. 15.51.
This biography is found in Versions 2 and 3 but is missing in Version 1. In the published literature today, Fatḥ al-Dīn ibn Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir is most often referred to simply as Fatḥ al-Dīn al-Qaysī. He was an oculist who composed an important treatise titled Natījat al-fikar fī ʿilāj amrāḍ al-baṣar (Result of thinking about the cure of eye diseases), dedicated to al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb, the Ayyubid ruler in Egypt from 637/1240 to 647/1249. For a German translation of the Natījat see Bischoff, Ergebnis des Nachdenkens and for a partial French translation, see Kahil, ‘Une ophtalmologie arabe’. See also Ullmann, Medizin, 212.
For his father, Jamāl al-Din ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir, see the previous biography Ch. 14.44.
Laṭīf al-tadbīr wa-l-mudāraʾah, possibly also suggesting that he was careful when dealing with the relationships of the household and the boundaries of the household.
The Ayyubid ruler in Egypt from 615/1218 to 635/1238.
Ayyubid ruler of Egypt from 638–647/1240–1249. See EI Three art. ‘Ayyūbids’ (A.-M. Eddé); EI2 art. ‘al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Ayyūb’ (D.S. Richards).
This biography is found in Versions 2 and 3 but is missing in Version 1.
A reference to his father and grandfather, also physicians. For their biographies, see the two previous entries, Ch. 14.44 and Ch. 14.45.
Metre: kāmil; the second hemistich is by al-Buḥturī, Dīwān, i:247. Also in Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:348. ‘From node to node’: the Arabic unbūb used here is in fact the part between two nodes.
Al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars I al-Bunduqdārī was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt, reigning from 658/1260 to 676/1277. See EI2 art. ‘Baybars I’ (G. Weit) and EI Three art. ‘Baybars I, al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn’ (P. Thorau).
This biography is found in all three versions.
Kūlam is the name given in medieval Arabic geographies and travel literature to the port of Quilon in Kerala. It was one of the main sea ports on the trade routes between China and the Middle East. See EI2 art. ‘Kūlam’ (C.E. Bosworth).
Ibn al-Zubayr, al-Qāḍī al-Muhadhdhab al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Zubayr (d. 561/1166), poet. See al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (Miṣr), i:204–225; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, ix:47–70; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:131–138.
Metre: kāmil. The line is by al-Qāḍī al-Muhadhdhab al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Zubayr (d. 561/1166), see e.g. Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, ix:50, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, vii: 220 and xii:136. On this poet see also al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (Miṣr), i:204–225.
The verbs anjada (‘to go to Nejd’, the central Arabian plateau) and at′hama (‘to go to Tihāmah’, the coastal plain on the Red Sea) are often used in a more general sense, for moving to the highlands or lowlands, respectively. The verb yammama in the first hemistich is a play on the name of yet another Arabian region, al-Yamāmah, in the east.
See Ch. 14.36.
See Ch. 14.31.
Ayyubid ruler of Egypt from 615/1218 to 635/1238.
The Nāṣirī hospital (founded in 566/1171 by the Ayyubid ruler Saladin) was created by modifying a part of the palace built by the Fatimid caliph al-ʿAzīz in 384/994 so that it could serve as a hospital; see Ragab, Medieval Islamic Hospital, 84–89.
The precise year within the decade of the 630s is uncertain. Most manuscript copies leave a blank space for the precise year, while one copy (Gc) writes the word shayʾ (‘something’) and then 30 and 600. Another copy (H) provides the date of his death as Rabīʿ II 642 [September 1244]. Müller reads the date as 636 [1238].
This biography is found in Versions 2 and 3, but is missing in Version 1. For further details regarding Abū al-Faḍāʾil Muḥammad ibn Nāmāwar al-Khūnajī, generally known by his honorific Afḍal al-Dīn, a central figure in the history of Arabic logic, see EI Three art. ‘al-Khūnajī, Afḍal al-Dīn’ (K. El-Rouayheb). He or his family came originally from Khūnaj, near Zanjān in modern Azerbaijan.
This cemetery is often called the great southern cemetery (al-Qarāfah al-Kubrā). It was established during the period of ʿAmr and was the principal burial place in Cairo since the Arab invasion with expansion and construction of mausoleums occurring up to the Mamluk period. See EI2 art. ‘Al-Ḳāhira’ (J.M. Rogers).
The ‘Muḥammad ibn Ḥasan’ is an error for ‘(al-)Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad’, The poem is by ʿIzz al-Dīn al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Ghanawī al-Rāfiḍī al-Irbilī (d. 660/1262), ‘the blind philosopher’ (al-faylasūf al-ḍarīr), who was also a poet; see for example al-Yūnīnī, Dhayl Mirʾāt al-zamān, ii:165–170, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xii:247–251, idem, Nakt al-himyān, 142–144. This poet is also mentioned in Ch. 15.21.
Metre: ṭawīl; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī v:108 (line 1 only), Ibn al-ʿImād, Shadharāt, vii:409 (lines 1–2).
Afḍal al-dunyā, referring to his honorific Afḍal al-Dīn (‘the most excellent of the religion’).
For further information on his writings, see EI Three art. ‘al-Khūnajī, Afḍal al-Dīn (K. El-Rouayheb).
The copyist of MS R has added the following note: ‘I say that al-Quṭb al-Shīrāzī, may God have mercy upon him, said that al-Khūnajī made a commentary on the generalities [Book One] of the Qānūn that to me was unparalleled in its clarity, but only God knows’. This is a reference to Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 710/1311), who in his own very extensive and influential commentary on the first book of the Qānūn specified al-Khūnajī amongst eight earlier commentators on the Qānūn whom he found particularly useful; see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, 258–263, and Ullmann, Medizin, 178.
All manuscripts clearly read fī l-ḥudūd wa-l-rusūm. The treatise is not preserved today and no further information is available regarding the nature of the work.
This biography is found in Versions 2 and 3 but is missing in Version 1.
The Fatimid caliphs ruled Egypt from 297/909 until 567/1171.
See Ch. 14.54.
The emir Majd al-Dīn is probably Majd al-Dīn Abū Bakr ibn al-Dāyah, the foster brother of the Zangid ruler Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Zangī and governor of the province of Ḥalab (Syria); see EI2 art. ‘Manbid̲j̲’ (N. Elisséeff). Majd al-Din was talking with Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah after the death of al-Malik al-ʿĀdil in 1218. Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn Zangī ruled Damascus and Aleppo from 541/1146 to 569/1174, and in 563/1168 Nūr al-Dīn went to Manbij accompanied by Majd al-Dīn Abū Bakr ibn al-Dāyah. If Majd al-Din were 20 years old in 563/1168, then he would have been about 70 years of age when talking with Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah (b. 591/1194), who would then have been 24 years of age.
Ayyubid ruler in Egypt 615/1218 to 635/1238.
Shirimsāḥ (or Shirmasāḥ) is a town near Dimyāṭ (Damietta) in Lower Egypt. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (where it is vowelled Shirmasāḥ) and al-Zabīdī, Tāj al-ʿarūs, where it is explicitly vowelled as Shirimsāḥ.
Ayyubid ruler in Egypt 596/1200 to 615/1218.
The Franks besieged Damietta (Dimyāṭ) in Lower Egypt in 565/1169. See EI2 art. ‘Dimyāṭ’ (P.M. Holt); EI2 art. ‘Ifrand̲j̲’ (B. Lewis); EI Three art. ‘Franks’ (A. Mallett).
Al-Malik Mārī is Amalric I of Jerusalem, who ruled as King of Jerusalem from 558/1162 to 569/1174. Amalric invaded Egypt four times between 558/1163 and 564/1167. See EI Three art. ‘The Crusades’ (P. Thorau); Mallett, Reactions to the Franks in the Levant, 44–48.
His biography follows this one; see Ch. 14.50.
And brother of Majd al-Dīn Abū Bakr ibn al-Dāyah, who is relating the tale.
al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin), when he came to power in 565/1170, put an end to Amalric’s invasions and occupations of Egypt and Syria; see Phillips, Life and Legend of the Sultan Saladin.
Bāb al-Raḥmah, ‘the Door of Mercy’, is one of the doors of the Golden Gate on the east side of the Ḥaram al-Sharīf in Jerusalem.
Prince Baldwin, the son of Amalric, came to the throne as a child and was crowned Baldwin IV of Jerusalem (r. 1174–1183). He is well-known for having suffered from leprosy (see Mitchell, ‘An evaluation of the leprosy of King Baldwin IV’; Mitchell, Medicine in the Crusades, 31). Baldwin IV eventually handed over power to his sister Sibylla’s son, Baldwin V and his regent Raymond of Tripoli in 1184 and died one year later; see Hamilton, The Leper King.
Ghurrah refers to the first or beginning of anything, in this case the year 580. The copyist of MS A (as did Müller in his edition and Kopf in his translation) interpreted this as Ghazzah, referring to the town of Gaza; such an interpretation, however, is not supported by the majority of the manuscripts and leaves a defective grammatical structure to the sentence as well as a puzzling meaning.
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2. See entry in The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Muhadhdhab al-Din Abu Saʿid ibn Abi Sulayman’ (P. Johnstone).
His father, Abū Sulaymān Dawūd ibn Abī l-Munā ibn Abī Fānah, is the subject of the previous biography; see Ch. 14.49.
Al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam Sharaf al-Dīn ʿĪsā ibn al-Malik al-ʿĀdil Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb (576–624/1180–1227) was ruler of Damascus from 594/1198 until his death; EI2 art. ‘al-Muʿaẓẓam’ (R.S. Humphreys).
A fortress located east of the Dead Sea in present-day Jordan. During the time of the Crusades it began to play a more prominent role in Muslim history when, in the possession of the Crusader Kings, it stood in the way of the caravan route from Syria to Egypt and the pilgrimage route to Damascus. It fell finally to Muslim advances in 584/1188 under al-Malik al-ʿĀdil; EI2 art. ‘al-Karak’ (D. Sourdel).
A fortress located in the medieval Islamic town of al-Raqqah in present day Syria. The fortress is across from the village of Abū Hurayrah (west of al-Raqqah), considered to be the capital of the province of Diyār Muḍar during the medieval Islamic period; EI2 art. ‘al-Raḳḳa’ (M. Meinecke).
This is the Arabic name for a city in the province of Diyār Muḍar (now in the province of Diyarbakir in southeast modern Turkey). The area was known in Western and ancient Greek and Latin sources as Edessa. The city was fortified during the early Abbasid period. It came under Ayyubid control in 1182 under Saladin’s advances. The city and its numerous churches and its cathedral are mentioned in medieval Arabic sources. See EI2 art. ‘al-Ruhā’ (S. Faroqhi).
This is the Citadel of Damascus which was possibly built on existing structures but significantly fortified under Atsiz ibn Uvak, a Turkoman chief who had been in the pay of the Fatimids but seized power for himself in Damascus in 468/1075. Later fortifications were undertaken by the Zangids and Ayyubids. See EI2 art. ‘Dimas̲h̲ḳ’ (N. Elisséeff).
Most manuscript copies leave a large blank space for the precise year in the 7th/13th century in which he died. Only one provides a specific year (613/1216), but that occurs in a copy (MS B) that has a widely variant text, lacking altogether the entry for the subject’s father (see Ch. 14.49) and combining into one extremely short entry material for both the father and the son. Müller, in his edition, gives the date as 613.
This monastery was founded around 359/970 north of Cairo. See The Coptic Encyl. art. ‘Dayr Al-Khandaq’ (R-G. Coquin & M. Martin).
This biography is found in all three versions. For Abū Shākir, see The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Muwaffaq al-Din Abu Shakir ibn Abi Sulayman Dawud’ (P. Johnstone); Zaborowski, ‘Abū Shākir as a modern Christian expert’.
See previous entry, Ch. 14.50.
IAU relates in the biography of Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah (Ch. 14.54) that ‘all of the family related to the ḥakīm Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah are known in Egypt and Syria as the Banū Shākir due to the fame of the ḥakīm Abū Shākir and his good reputation. All those related to him became known as Banū Shākir, even if they were not his sons.’
Al-Malik al-Kāmil Muḥammad ibn Abū Bakr ibn Ayyūb (573–635/1177–1237), Ayyubid emir who became the fourth Ayyubid sultan in Egypt; see EI2 art. ‘al-Kāmil’ (H.L. Gottschalk).
A similar honour was granted to his brother Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī Sulaymān; see previous entry, Ch. 14.50.
For al-maḥrūsah having an optative force, ‘may God protect it’, see Wright, Grammar, ii:135.
Literally ‘between the two palaces,’ this was a square that was formed by the existence of the eastern and western palaces built by the Fatimids in the centre of the city; see Yāqūt, Muʿjām al-buldān, i:534.
ʿAḍud al-Dīn (or ʿAḍud al-Dawlah) Abū l-Fawāris Murhaf ibn Usāmah (d. 613/1216), son of the more famous Usāmah ibn Munqidh; see Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ, v: 243–245, and Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, i:162.
Metre: mutaqārib. Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik, ix:351, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xvi:89.
This monastery was founded around 359/970 north of Cairo. See entry in The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Dayr al-Khandaq’ (R.G. Coquin & M. Martin).
This biography is found in Version 3 but is missing in Versions 1 and 2.
This biography is found in Version 3 but is missing from Versions 1 and 2.
The biographies of three of his brothers are found in Ch. 14.50, Ch. 14.51 and Ch. 14.52.
This biography is found in Versions 2 and 3 but is missing in Version 1. Ullmann, Medizin, 126, 310; The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Abu Hulayqah’ (P. Johnstone); Bürgel, Ärtzliches Leben, 106, 262–263, 376–377; EI Three art. ‘Abū Ḥulayqa’ (F. Hilloowala).
It is possible that Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah was still living at the time that IAU wrote this biographical entry. IAU provides a date of birth (591/1195) but not a date of death, and these opening paragraphs appear to refer to the present.
He was a Christian, probably of the Melkite sect, as were his relatives who were also prominent physicians (see Ch. 14.50, Ch. 14.51, Ch. 14, 52, and Ch. 14.53).
See Ch. 14.50.
See Ch. 15.50.
In the province of Diyārbakr in southeastern region of modern Turkey, it was known in medieval Western and ancient Greek and Latin sources as Edessa and today as Urfa.
Literally, ‘the house of the son of the merchant of saffron’.
See Ch. 14.49 for information about Abū Ḥulayqah’s father.
In the year 598/1201–1202, when Abū Ḥulayqah would have been about eight years of age, al-Malik al-Kāmil (b. 573/1177 or 576/1180) would have been 21 or 23 years of age. He was the eldest son of the then Ayyubid ruler of Syria (including Diyārbakr) and Egypt, al-Malik al-ʿĀdil I Sayf al-Dīn, and at this time served as his father’s representative. Al-Malik al-Kāmil did not himself become the ruler in Egypt until 615/1218. It is unclear from this account if al-Malik al-ʿĀdil was in the eastern provinces in Diyārbakr or Syria or even in Egypt.
That would be his uncle Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd, see Ch. 14.50.
Kitāb al-fuṣūl; Fichtner, Corpus Hippocraticum, no. 13.
Taqdimat al-maʿrifah; Fichtner, Corpus Hippocraticum, no. 3.
For khubz, the generic word for bread, used in the sense of a piece of land whose revenues are given by a ruler to someone for services rendered, see Dozy, Supplément, i:348, and Tramontana, ‘Khubz as Iqṭāʿ’.
See his biography in Ch. 14.51.
A region consisting of five villages in Egypt named for the Fatimid caliph al-ʿAzīz (r. 365–386/975–996); Yāqūt, Muʿjām al-buldān, iv:120.
Literally ‘the site of ruins’, whose precise location is unidentified.
On 21 Rajab 635 [6 March 1238].
He was the son of al-Malik al-Kāmil and the last major Ayyubid sultan (r. 636–647/1239–1249); EI2 art. ‘al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Ayyūb’ (D.S. Richards).
The son of al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb, al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam Tūrānshāh, was a child when he came to the throne upon the death of his father. He was murdered several months afterwards by his troops. EI2 art. ‘Ayyūbids’ (Cl. Cahen). All manuscript copies write his name as Turanshāh, using unusual orthography rather than the common Tūrānshāh or Tūrān Shāh.
The Mamluk Dynasty that ruled Egypt and Syria from 648/1250 to 922/1517; EI2 art. ‘Mamlūk’ (D. Ayalon).
Al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars I al-Bunduqdārī was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt, reigning from 658/1260 to 676/1277. See EI2 art. ‘Baybars I’ (G. Wiet) and EI Three art. ‘Baybars I, al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn’ (P. Thorau).
A town in Egypt much favoured by the Ayyubid ruler al-Malik al-Kāmil as a retreat for hunting and fishing. Its name derives from that of a daughter of Ibn Ṭūlūn named ʿAbbāsah; EI2 art. ‘ʿAbbāsa’ (G. Wiet).
Khawand or Khwand is a Persian title of respect, meaning ‘maître, seigneur’; see entry khawand in Dozy, Supplément.
The reference is to his uncle Abū Shākīr ibn Abī Sulaymān, whose biography is given in Ch. 14.51. Later on, in section 13 below, IAU reiterates the fact that the relatives of Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah were known in Egypt and Syria as the Banū Shākir because of the fame of the uncle Abū Shākir.
Mizāj.
Awqāt maraḍihā.
Nazlah fī asnānihi.
Birkat al-Fīl was the largest of several ponds and marshy areas in Cairo left by the River Nile as it shifted towards the West. The areas are now dry. See Salmon, Topographie du Caire … la Birkat al-Fīl; and Pradines & Rahmat Khan, ‘Fāṭimid gardens’.
See Ch. 14.57.
Al-Jīzah, a town on the west bank of the Nile.
There may be a lacuna in the text at this point, for something seems to be missing between this sentence and the following story.
Zimām al-dār is the term for the head or principal eunuch; see Dozy, Supplément, i:601.
Damietta (Dimyāṭ) a town in Lower Egypt in 565/1169. See EI2 art. ‘Dimyāṭ’ (P.M. Holt).
The reference is to On Prognosis (Taqdimat al-maʿrifah) 1, ‘It is impossible to restore every patient to health … for it is a fact that men do die … You will be beyond reproach if you predict and identify who must die and who can be saved.’
Hindibāʾ is cultivated endive; see EI2 art. ‘Hindibāʾ’ (A. Dietrich).
Yakhnī or yakhnah is a thick meat stew or ragout; the word is of Persian origin. See; Dozy, Supplément, ii:857; Steingass, Persian-English dictionary, 1529.
The plant name al-rayḥān al-turunjānī is an unusual designation and may reflect a confusion of traditions, Rayḥān is the common name for sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L. and related species), but a very common synonym is ḥabaq. The plant ḥabaq al-turunjānī is synonymous with turujān and bādrunjubūyah, all of which have been identified as lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L., and related species), whose leaves have a characteristic lemon scent, while the term rayḥān al-turunjān occurs in Ibn al-Bayṭār’s treatise where modern scholars have also identified it as lemon balm; see EI2 art. ‘Turund̲j̲ān’ (P.C. Johnstone); Dozy, Supplément, i:146. For some medicinal uses of both sweet basil and lemon balm, see Lev & Amar, Materia Medica, 108–110 and 348–349.
For numerous medicinal uses of al-utrujj (or al-utrunj), see Lev & Amar, Materia Medica, 147–149. For various citrus fruits available in the medieval world, see EI2 art. ‘Nārand̲j̲’ (F. Viré), and Encycl. Iranica art. ‘Citrus Fruits’ (A. Hūšang).
A jurn al-fuqqāʿī is a mortar used by a person making fuqqāʿ, a term associated by some with a fermented drink made of raisins and by others with a non-alcoholic sparkling drink often made from barley. The drink was poured into a sphero-conical clay vessel that was then sealed with a piece of leather tied round the knob and left to cool, preferably on ice or snow; when desired, the seal was pierced and the liquid consumed directly from the container; see Maddison & Savage-Smith, Science, Tools and Magic, ii:324–333; Ghouchani & Adle, ‘Sphero-conical vessel as fuqqāʿa’, 78–86; EI2 art. ‘Fuḳḳāʿ’ (eds.).
Andarānī (or Darānī) salt is obtained by the evaporation of sea water, and it was considered the best type of salt. Its name possibly derives from the root n-d-r meaning to be rare or priceless. See Levey, Medical Formulary, 337 no. 294; Dozy, Supplément, under n-d-r; EI2 art. ‘milḥ’ (J. Sadan, et al.).
Darbandāt, a word of Persian origin, designates the treacherous roads and passes in mountains; Dozy, Supplément, i:430; Steingass, Persian-English dictionary, 508.
A farajiyyah is a long-sleeved man’s robe worn in Egypt; see EI2 art. ‘Libās’ (Y. Stillman, et al.)
See Galen’s On Prognosis 6 in Nutton, Galeni de Praecognitione.
See Ch. 14.51 for the biography of Abū Shākir ibn Abī Sulaymān, an uncle of Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah.
Metre: sarīʿ.
See Ch. 14.55.
Sayf al-Islām Abū l-Fawāris al-Malik al-ʿAzīz Ẓahīr al-Dīn Ṭughtukīn ibn Ayyūb (d. 593/1197), brother of Saladin; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, ii:523–525, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xvi:450–451.
Metre: kāmil; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxvii:436.
A peculiar verse, not only because of ḥawāssu with its overlong syllable (extremely rare in mid-verse) and the more common ‘incorrect’ hamzah in bi-ʾismihā, required by the metre, but in particular since w.k.nātihā (unvowelled in all sources) only seems to make sense here if it is connected with the word kunyah, ‘agnomen’, as if the plural were kunāh instead of kunā.
Metre: ṭawīl.
Although vowelled Saʿdu in A and L, it ought to be a shortened form of Suʿdā (a woman’s name common in poetry), as in the following line (a phenomenon called tarkhīm).
The reading of Müller (ḥaẓẓ) is clearly better than khaṭṭ (‘line’ or ‘handwriting’, ALRH) or khadd (‘cheek’, Gc).
Vowelled as sumrun in L; it is difficult to interpret it, whether as sumr, ‘brown (spears)’ or samr, ‘nightly conversation’, ‘nailing’, or ‘putting out (the eye) with a hot nail’. It may be better to read, with R and H, sirrun: ‘(I have in brown spears) a secret’.
Metre: ṭawīl.
The poet recycled most of this hemistich (see above, line 3 of the preceding poem).
Metre: kāmil.
None of the treatises named below are known to be preserved today. For information on additional treatises (including one on compound purgative drugs (iyārijāt) and another on melancholy), see Sbath and Avierinos ‘Sahlān Ibn Kaysān et Raŝīd al-Dīn Abū Ḫulayka’, 77–88; Ullmann, Medizin, 126, 310; and The Coptic Encycl. art. ‘Abu Hulayqah’ (P. Johnstone).
Metre: mutaqārib majzūʾ. Ibn Shākir al-Kutubī, Fawāt, iv:250, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xxvii:436. The verb tamaththala (‘to quote by way of illustration’) suggests that Abū Ḥulayqah did not compose the line, but it has not been found elsewhere as being by an earlier poet.
This biography is found in Versions 2 and 3 but is missing in Version 1.
Al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars I al-Bunduqdārī was the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt, reigning from 658/1260 to 676/1277. See EI2 art. ‘Baybars I’ (G. Weit) and EI Three art. ‘Baybars I, al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn’ (P. Thorau).
The camp of the ruler al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Rukn al-Dīn Baybars al-Malikī al-Ṣāliḥī.
‘Aṣmaʿian insight (fiṭnah aṣmaʿiyyah)’ is so-called after the famous philologist al-Aṣmaʿī, d. 213/828. For the latter, see EI2 art. ‘al-Aṣmaʿī’ (B. Lewin) and EI Three art. ‘al-Aṣmaʿī’ (R. Weipert).
An ‘Akhzamite nature’ (shinshinah akhzamiyyah) is so-called after an old, proverbial verse by an obscure poet: ‘a nature I know of Akhzam’, Akhzam being the poet’s son; see al-Maydānī, Majmaʿ, i:457.
Metre: ṭawīl.
This is in fact the opening line of a poem by Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad al-Mawṣilī, known as Ibn al-Shiḥnah (d. 608/1211), addressed to Saladin; see Ibn Abī Ḥajalah, Dīwān al-ṣabābah, 63; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt, i:272, v:214; Ibn Ḥijjah, Thamarāt, 112.
See above, Ch. 10.65 (Müller i:265), line 29.
A: qulta, but it must be 1st person because of the following aqūlu.
Hammām ibn Ghālib, known as al-Farazdaq (d. 110/728), one of the great poets of the Umayyad period.
His father was Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Ḥulayqah, see Ch. 14.54. Muhadhdhab al-Dīn is mentioned briefly in this biography.
Al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Najm al-Dīn Ayyūb (d. 647/1249) was the last major sultan of the Ayyubid dynasty. He ruled in Egypt from 637/1240 to 647/1249 and in Damascus in 636/1239 and again from 643/1245 to 647/1249. See EI2 art. ‘al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Ayyūb’ (D.S. Richards).
This biography is found in Versions 2 and 3 but is missing in Version 1.
Abū l-Majd Taqī al-Dīn Khazʿal ibn ʿAskar ibn Khalīl (d. 623/1226), a grammarian, originally from Egypt, who settled in Damascus; see Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Bughyat, 3241–3243, Ibn al-Qiftī, Inbāh, i:388–389, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī, xiii:309–310.
See Ch. 15.51.
Al-Malik al-Muʿaẓẓam Sharaf al-Dīn ʿĪsā ibn al-Malik al-ʿĀdil I (r. 594–624/1198–1227) was an Ayyubid prince and ruler of Damascus. See EI2 art. ‘al-Muʿaẓẓam’ (R.S. Humphreys).
Often known as al-Dakhwār; see Ch. 15.50.
He was the son of al-Malik al-Kāmil and the last major figure of the Ayyubid sultans. (603–647/1206–1249). EI2 art. ‘al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ Nad̲j̲m al-Dīn Ayyūb’ (D.S. Richards).
See Ch. 14.54.
In one manuscript copy (R), alongside this portion of the text, the copyist made the marginal comment ‘Such is the result of delusion and finding fault with perfect people’, an apparent reference to the fate of Abū Saʿīd.
Fālij, with one manuscript reading ‘apoplexy (saktah) and partial paralysis (fālij)’.
Metre: kāmil.
This sense of ʿadala is strongly suggested by its antonym, implied with jawr; the paradox can be resolved if in ʿadal is here taken as ‘even though it turns away (for some time)’.
No copy is known to be preserved today.
Not preserved today. For Rāzī, see Ch. 11.5.
This biography is found in Versions 1 and 3 but is missing in Version 2. For this otherwise unknown physician, see Bürgel, Ärtzliches Leben, 166, 179. His name is given (probably incorrectly) in most manuscripts as Asʿad al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī l-Ḥasan ʿAlī, though in at least one copy the ʿAlī is omitted and in another it is given as ibn ʿAlī.
See Ch. 15.14. For the spelling of al-Bayyāsī, see EI2 art. ‘Bayyāsa’ (A. Huici Miranda).
Al-Masʿūd Yūsuf, son of the Ayyubid sultan al-Malik al-Kāmil and emir of Yemen during his father’s reign; see Humphreys, From Saladin to the Mongols, 163.
Al-Malik al-Kāmil (d. 635/1238) was the fifth Ayyubid ruler in Egypt; EI2 art. ‘al-Kāmil’ (H.L. Gottschalk).
This biography is found in all three versions. For Ibn al-Bayṭār, see Sezgin, GAS III (index); Ullmann, Medizin, 280–283, 290; Ullmann, Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften, 91, 101, 108, 139, 412; EI2 art. ‘Ibn al-Bayṭār’ (J. Vernet); EI Three art. ‘Ibn al-Bayṭār’ (A.M. Cabo-González); Biblioteca de al-Andalus art. ‘Ibn al-Bayṭār’ (A.M. Cabo-González).
An unusual word for the Greeks, al-Aghāriqah, is used here instead of the more common terms al-Yūnān and al-Rūm.
Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Ghāfiqī (d. ca. 560/1165) was a botanist and pharmacologist from Muslim Spain. His most famous work is K. fī l-adwiyah al-mufradah (Book on simple drugs), which was used by Ibn Bayṭār in the compilation of his work on simple drugs K. al-Jamiʿ al-adwiyah al-mufradah. See EI Three art. ‘al-Ghāfiqī, Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad b. Muḥammad’ (L. Chipman). See also Ch. 13.54.
For additional treatise titles and further information about his treatises, see Sezgin, GAS III (index); Ullmann, Medizin, 280–283, 290; Ullmann, Natur- und Geheimwissenschaften, 91, 101, 108, 139, 412; Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, 641–658; EI2 art. ‘Ibn al-Bayṭār’ (J. Vernet); EI Three art. ‘Ibn al-Bayṭār’ (Ana M. Cabo-González).
Apparently a discourse on the errors found in an otherwise unidentified treatise titled al-Minhāj (the method, or, the management). It could possibly be Ibn Rushd’s K. Minhāj al-adillah fī uṣūl al-fiqh (see above Ch. 13.66.6 no. 25), or Ibn Jazlah’s K. Minhāj al-bayān fīmā yastaʿmiluhu l-insān (see Ch. 10.59 no. 2).
For an edition and German translation, see Ibn al-Bayṭār, Die Dioskurides-Erklärung.
The title is more commonly given as al-Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ li-mufradāt al-adwiyah wa-l-aghdhiyah. This enormous dictionary of some 1,400 simple medicaments and foodstuffs, presented in alphabetical order, is preserved in many copies. For a French translation, see Ibn al-Bayṭār, ‘Traité des simples’; for an edition and Spanish translation of the substances under the letters ṣād and ḍād, see Ibn al-Bayṭār, Colección de Medicamentos y Alimentos.
For evidence that it might in fact not have been originally dedicated to the Ayyubid ruler, see Savage-Smith, NCAM-1, 646; and EI Three art. ‘Ibn al-Bayṭār’ (A.M. Gabo-González).