w^ / ARABIAN MEDICINE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries http://www.archive.org/details/arabianmedicinebOObrow The Rival Physicians [See pp. 89—90 of the text") ARABIAN MEDICINE BY E. G. BROWNE The Fitr^Patrick Lectures delivered at the College of 'Physicians in November igig and November igzo CAMBRIDGE AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 1962 PUBLISHED BY THE SYNDICS OF THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Bentley House, 200 Euston Road, London, N.W. i American Branch: 32 East 57th Street, New York 22, N.Y. West African Office: P.O. Box 33, Ibadan, Nigeria R IH y. ■B7 "JIO 1 a 6^111 o First printed 1921 Keprinted 1962 BOSTON COLLii^GE LIBRARY CHESTNUT HILL, MASS- AUG 2 6 1963 First printed in Great Britain at the University Press, Cambridge Reprinted by Bradford & Dickens, Ltd., 'London, W.C, i TO SIR NORMAN MOORE, Bart., M.D. PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS Iri admiration of his catholic scholarships in gratitude for his inspiring teachings and in memory of three fruitful years passed under his guidance at St Bartholomew's Hospital^ I dedicate this book PREFACE In the course of the last ten years there have been con- ferred upon me two public honours which have given me the greatest pleasure and satisfaction, my election in 191 1 as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, and the presentation, on the occasion of my fifty-ninth birthday in February, 1921, of a complimentary address (accompanied by very beautiful presents) signed by a number of representative Persians, expressing their ap- preciation of the services which, they were kind enough to say, I had rendered to their language and literature. I hope that this little book may be regarded, not as a discharge, but as an acknowledgment, of this double debt. In it I have sought on the one hand to indicate the part played by the scholars and physicians of Isl^m, and especially of Persia, in the transmission of medical science through the dark ages from the decline of the ancient to the rise of the modern learning; and on the other to suggest to lovers of Arabic and Persian litera- ture in the wider sense that hitherto they have perhaps allowed the poets and euphuists to occupy a dispropor- tionate amount of their attention, to the exclusion of the scientific Weltanschauung which, to a greater degree in the medieval East than in the modern West, forms the background of these lighter, though more artistic, efforts. Indeed, as I have attempted to show in these viii Preface pages^ that great Persian poem the Mathnawi of Jaldlu'd-Din Rumi will be better appreciated by one who is conversant with the medical literature of the period. Before I began to prepare the FitzPatrick lectures now offered to the public I consulted Sir Clifford Allbutt, the Regius Professor of Medicine in the University of Cambridge, as to the best books on the history of that science which the Prophet Muhammad, in a tradition familiar to all Muslims, is said to have linked in import- ance with Theology ^ Of the numerous works which Sir Clifford Allbutt indicated, and, in many cases, lent to me for preliminary study, I have derived more profit from none than from Professor Max Neuburger s excel- lent Geschichte der Medizin ( Stuttgart, 1 908 ). Although the section of this work dealing with Arabian Medicine comprises only 86 pages ^ it is extraordinarily rich in facts and accurate in details, and supplies an outline of the subject which is susceptible of amplification but not of correction. I have thought it better to publish these four lectures in the form in which they were originally delivered than to recast them in a fresh mould, but the proofs have been read by several of my friends and colleagues, namely Dr F. H. H. Guillemard, M.D., Dr E. H. Minns, Litt.D., ^ See pp. 87-88 infra. ^ " Science is twofold : Theology and Medicine." ^ Vol. I, part ii, pp. 142-228 = pp. 346-394 of vol. i of Ernest Playfair's English translation (London, 19 10). Preface ix Mirza Muhammad Khan of Qazwin, and Muhammad Iqbal, to all of whom I am indebted for many valuable corrections and suggestions. I am also deeply indebted to Professor A. A. Bevan and the Rev. Professor D. S. Margoliouth for their help in establishing the text and emending the translation of the clinical case recorded by ar-R4zi which will be found on pp. 51-3 infra. It has afforded me particular pleasure to be allowed to dedicate this little volume explicitly to Sir Norman Moore, as representing that fine tradition of learning, acumen and humanity proper in all countries and ages to the great and noble profession of Medicine, with which living tradition, to my infinite advantage, I was brought in contact in my student days both here at Cambridge and in St Bartholomew's Hospital; and im- plicitly to those other great teachers in these two famous schools of medical learning whose methods of investi- gation and exposition I have endeavoured to apply in other fields of knowledge. EDWARD G. BROWNE. April 16, 1921. CONTENTS The Rival Physicians Frontispiece (Photo, by Mr R. B. Fleming from the British Museum MS. Or. 2265, f. 26 <5.) PAGE LECTURE I I Meaning of the term "Arabian Medicine" — Periods of Arabian and Islamic history — The transmission of Greek learning — Syrian and Persian contributions — The I^tino- Barbari — Aptitude of Arabic for scientific purposes. LECTURE II 33 Evolution of scientific terminology in Arabic — Was dissec- tion practised by the Muslims? — Four early Persian medical writers: (i) 'All ibn Rabban; (2) Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyaar-Razl; (3) 'Ali ibnu'l-'Abbas al-Majusi; (4) Abd 'All Husayn ibn Sfna (Avicenna). LECTURE III 65 Recapitulation — Arabian popular Medicine — The translators from Arabic into Latin — Practice of Medicine in the time of the Crusades — Anecdotes of notable cures in Arabic and Persian literature — Psychotherapeusis — Love and Melan- cholia — Persian medical works — Introduction of European Medicine into Muslim lands. LECTURE IV 97 Contributions of the Moors of Spain— The School of Toledo — Persian medical literature from the twelfth to the four- teenth centuries — Biographical works of the thirteenth cen- tury—Muslim hospitals— Letters of "Rashld the Physician" — Outlines of Muslim cosmogony, physical science and phy- siology — Conclusion. INDEX 127 LECTURE I Ihe extent of my subject and the limitations of the time at my disposal forbid me, even were it otherwise desirable, to introduce into these lectures any unessential or irrelevant matter. Yet I cannot lose this, the first opportunity accorded to me since my election as a Fellow of this College, of expressing publicly my deep sense of gratitude for an honour as highly appreciated as un- expected. I am well aware that this honour was con- ferred on me on the ground (the only ground on which it could have been conferred in my case) that, having regard to the position occupied by Arabian Medicine in the history of our profession, it was desirable that there should be amongst the Fellows of the College one who could study that system at first hand. There is a pro- verbial saying amongst the Arabs when the time comes when the services of a person or thing provided for a particular contingency are at last actually required — ^JijJJ ':Jt ,^jii-»i b ^ji-Jl U — '' I have not stored thee up, my tear, save for my time of distress''-, and when I was invited to deliver the FitzPatrick lectures this year, 1 felt that this proverb was applicable, and that, even though I felt myself unworthy of this fresh honour on the part of the College, it was impossible to decline, especially in view of the expressed wish of the President of the College, Sir Norman Moore, to whose inspiring teaching in my far-off student days I owe a greater debt of gratitude than I can adequately express. I can only hope that at the conclusion of my lectures you may not apply to me another proverbial saying of the Arabs : 2 Arabian Medicine, I aJLop c>-X»I d,j\^js. J^\ ^>« — "A^ the first bout his quarter-staff was broken'' When we speak of ''Arabian Science" or "Arabian Medicine" we mean that body of scientific or medical doctrine which is enshrined in books written in the Arabic language, but which is for the most part Greek in its origin, though with Indian, Persian and Syrian accretions, and only in a very small degree the product of the Arabian mind. Its importance, as has long been recognized, lies not in its originality, but in the fact that in the long interval which separated the decay of Greek learning from the Renascence it represented the most faithful tradition of ancient Wisdom, and was during the Dark A^es the principal source from which Europe derived such philosophical and scientific ideas as she possessed. The translation of the Greek books into Arabic, either directly or through intermediate Syriac versions, was effected for the most part under the en- lightened patronage of the early 'Abbdsid Caliphs at Baghdad between the middle of the eighth and ninth centuries of our era by skilful and painstaking scholars who were for the most part neither Arabs nor even Muhammadans,but Syrians, Hebrews or Persians of the Christian, Jewish or Magian faith. Some four or five centuries later European seekers after knowledge, cut off from the original Greek sources, betook themselves with ever increasing enthusiasm to this Arabian presentation of the ancient learning, and rehabilitated it in a Latin dress; and for the first century after the discovery of the art of printing the Latin renderings of Arabic philosophical, scientific and medical works constituted a considerable proportion of the output of the European Press; until the revival of a direct knowledge of the Recent Revival of Interest 3 Greek originals in the first place, and the inauguration of a fresh, fruitful and first-hand investigation of natural phenomena in the second, robbed them to a great ex- tent of their prestige and their utility, and changed the excessive veneration in which they had hitherto been held into an equally exaggerated contempt. In recent years, however, when the interest and importance of what may be called the Embryology of Science has obtained recognition, the Arabian, together with other ancient and obsolete systems of Medicine, has attracted increasing attention, has formed the sub- ject of much admirable and ingenious research, and has already produced a fairly copious literature. The chief Arabic biographical and bibliographical sources, such as th^Fikrist or "Index" (377/987), ^^-Qiiti s History of the Philosophers (c. 624/1227), Ibn Abi Usaybi'a's Classes of Physicians (640/1 242), the great bibliography of H^jji Khalifa (-[-1068/1658) and the like, have been made available in excellent editions, while their most essential contents have been summarized by Wenrich, Wiisten- feld, Leclerc, Brockelmann and others ; the general character and relations of Arabian Medicine have been concisely yet adequately described by Neuburger, Pagel, Withington and Garrison, to name only a few of the more recent writers on the history of Medicine; while amongst more specialized investigations, to mention one branch only of the subject, the admirable works of Dr P. de Koning and Dr Max Simon have accurately de- termined the anatomical terminology of the Arabs and its equivalence with that of the Greek anatomists. For the pathological terminology much more remains to be done, and I have been greatly hampered in my reading of Arabic medical books by the difficulty of determining the exact scientific signification of many words used in 4 Arabian Medicine. I the ordinary literary language in a looser and less pre- cise sense than that which they evidently bear in the technical works in question. Nor is much help to be derived from the medieval translations of the " Latino- Barbari," who too often simply preserve in a distorted form the Arabic term which they pretend to translate. Thus the first section of the first discourse of the first part of the third book of Avicenna's great QdnUn is entitled in the Latin Version Sermo universalis de Soda, but who, not having the original before him, could divine that soda stands for the Arabic cijb^, the ordinary Arabic word for a headache, being the regularly formed *'noun of pain" from the verb ^^ **to split"? Now the history of Arabian Medicine can only be studied in connection with the general history of Isldm, which, as you all know, first began to assume political significance in a.d. 622. In that year Muhammad, whose real miracle was that he inspired the warring tribes of Arabia with a common religious and social ideal, welded them into one people, sent them forth to conquer half the then known world, and founded an Empire destined to rival and replace those of Caesar and Chosroes, transferred the scene of his activities from Mecca to al-Madina. This event marks the beginning of the Muhammadan era known as the hijra or "Flight," from which 1338 lunar years have now elapsed. About the middle of this period, viz. in the seventh century of the Flight and the thirteenth of our era, Arabian or, more correctly speaking, Muham- madan Civilization suffered through the Mongol or Tartar invasion an injury from which it never recovered, and which destroyed for ever the Caliphate, the nominal unity of the Arabian Empire, and the pre-eminence of The Golden Age (a.d. 750-850) 5 Baghdad as a centre of learning. Even before this, however, partly in consequence of the triumph of the narrower and more orthodox doctrines of the Ash'ari over the more liberal Mu'tazila school of theology, partly in consequence of the gradual displacement of Arabian and Persian by Turkish influences in the political world, science, and particularly philosophy (which was so closely connected with medicine that the title Hakim was, and still is, indifferently applied alike to the metaphysician and the physician), had ceased to be cultivated with the same enthusiasm and assiduity which had prevailed in "the Golden Prime of good Harunur-Rashid" and his immediate predecessors and successors. This Golden Age of Arabian learning cul- minated in the century between a.d. 750 and 850, the century succeeding the establishment of the 'Abbdsid Caliphate with its metropolis at Baghdad. Of the ten Caliphs who reigned during this period the second, al-Mansur, and the seventh, al-Ma'mun (whose mother and wife were both Persians, and in whose reign Persian influences, already powerful, reached their culminating point), were conspicuous for their intellectual curiosity and for their love and generous patronage of learning, and for a broad tolerance which scandalized the orthodox and led one of them to change the Caliph's title of "Commander of the Faithful" [Amiru l-Mu minin) into that of "Commander of the Unbelievers" {Amirul- Kdfirinf. To the ancient learning, especially that of the ancient Greeks, they were enthusiastically attached ; by purchase, conquest or exchange they possessed them- selves of countless precious manuscripts, Greek and other, which they stored in the Royal Library or Baytu I'Hikmat {'' House of Wisdom") and caused to be ^ Al-Ya'qiibi, ed. Houtsma, p. 546. BAM 6 Arabian Medicine, I translated, by the most competent scholars they could attract to their court, into Arabic, either directly from the Greek, or through the intermediary of the Syriac language. In the Fihrist or Index {ix. of Sciences), an Arabic work composed in a.d. 987, more than a century after what I have spoken of as the ''Golden Age," we have at once a mirror of the learning of that time, and an indicator of the appalling losses which it afterwards sustained, for of the books there enumerated it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that not one in a thousand now exists even in the most fragmentary form. The hateful M ongols — ' ' that detestable nation of Satan, ' ' as old Matthew Paris (writing in a.d. 1240) calls them, *' who poured forth like devils from Tartarus so that they are rightly called 'Tartars'" — did their work of de- vastation only too thoroughly, and the Muhammadan culture which survived the sack of Baghddd and the ex- tinction of the Caliphate in a.d. 1258 was but a shadow of that which preceded it. I have used the term " Muhammadan Civilization," which, for reasons to be given shortly, I prefer to "Arabian." As Latin was the learned language of me- dieval Europe, so was (and to some extent is) Arabic the learned language of the whole Muhammadan world. There is no objection to our talking of "Arabian Science" or "Arabian Medicine" so long as we never lose sight of the fact that this simply means the body of scientific or medical doctrine set forth in the Arabic language, for it is not until the eleventh century of our era that we begin to meet with what may be called a vernacular scientific literature in Muhammadan lands, a litera- ture typified by such works as al-Biruni's Tafhim on astronomy (eleventh century) and the Dhakhira or Arabs not apt for Research 7 ** Thesaurus" of Medicine composed for the King of Khwarazm or Khiva in the twelfth century. Now this scientific Hterature in the Arabic language was for the most part produced by Persians, Syrians, Jews, and in a lesser degree by Greeks, but only to a very small extent by genuine Arabs. Ibn Khaldiin, who composed his celebrated Prolegomena to the Study of History — one of the most remarkable books in Arabic — about a.d. 1400, judges his countrymen very harshly. He declares that every country conquered by them is soon ruined \ that they are incapable of evolving a stable and orderly system of government^ that of all people in the world they are the least capable of ruling a kingdom ^ and that of all people in the world they have the least aptitude for the arts'*. Goldziher, one of the profoundest Arabic scholars of our time and himself a Jew, rightly says that Lagarde goes too far when he asserts that *'of the Muhammadans who have achieved anything in science not one was a Semite"; yet he himself is constrained to admit that even in the religious sciences (exegesis of the Qurdn, tradition, jurisprudence, and the like) ''the Arabian element lagged far behind the non- Arabian I" Much more evi- dence of this might be adduced, but I will content my- self with one instance (hitherto, I believe, unnoticed in Europe) of the mistrust with which Arab practitioners of medicine were regarded even by their own people. The anecdote in question is related by that most learned but discursive writer al-Jahiz (so called on account of his prominent eyes) in his "Book of Misers" [Kitdbul- Bukhald^) and concerns an Arabian physician named ^ De Slane's transl., i, p. 310. ^ Ibid., i, p. 311. ^ Ibid., ii, p. 314. ^ Ibid., ii, p. 365. ^ See my Lit. Hist, of Persia, i, p. 260. ^ Ed. Van Vloten, pp. 109-110. 2-2 8 Arabian Medicine. I Asad Ibn Jdnf, who, even in a year of pestilence, and in spite of his recognized learning, skill and diligence, had but few patients. Being asked the reason of this by one of his acquaintances he replied: "In the first place I am a Muslim, and before I studied medicine, nay, before ever I was created, the people held the view that Muslims are not successful physicians. Further my name is Asad, and it should have been Salfba, Marail, Yuhanna or Bira \i.e. a Syriac or Aramaic name] ; and my kunya is Abu'l-Hdrith, and it should have been Abii 4sa, Abu Zakariyya or Abii Ibrahim \i.e. Christian or Jewish instead of Muhammadan]; and I wear a cloak of white cotton, and it should have been of black silk; and my speech is Arabic, and it should have been the speech of the people of Jundi-Shapur" [in S.W. Persia]. The Arabs, whose scepticism was not confined to matters of religion, avenged themselves to some extent by disparaging verses about doctors, such as the following on the death of Yuhanna ibn Masawayhi (the Mesues of the medieval writers) in a.d. 857: ' ^^^Ac j3 U^ ^1^ C$j^ O^ ^ ' L^^l ^^^^ ^^^ v^a-i^>^ ^ " Verily the physician, with his physic and his drugs, Cannot avert a summons that hath come. What ails the physician that he dies of the disease Which he used to cure in time gone by ? There died alike he who administered the drug, and he who took the drug, And he who imported and sold the drug, and he who bought it." Similar in purport are the following verses from the popular romance of 'Antara, the old Bedouin hero : Earlier Periods of Arabian History 9 " The physician says to thee^ '•I can cure thee,'' When he feels thy wrist a?td thy arm; But did the physician know a cure for disease Which would ward off death, he would not himself suffer the death agony:' Now in considering the genesis and development of the so-called Arabian Medicine, of which, though the main outlines are clearly determined, many details remain to be filled in, we may most conveniently begin by enquiring what was the state of medical knowledge, or ignorance, amongst the ancient Arabs before the driving force of Islam destroyed their secular isolation, sent them out to conquer half the then known world, and brought this primitive but quick-witted people into close contact with the ancient civilization of the Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, Indians and others. We have to distinguish three periods antecedent to what I have called the Golden Age, viz. : ( 1 ) The Jdhiliyyat, or Pagan Period, preceding the rise and speedy triumph of Isldm, which was fully accomplished by the middle of the seventh century of our era. (2) The theocratic period of the Prophet and his immediate successors, the Four Orthodox Caliphs, which endured in all, from the hiJ7^a or "Flight" to the assassination of *Ali, less than forty years (a.d. 622- 661) and which had its centre at al-Madina, the ancient Yathrib {'IddpLTTwa). (3) The period of the Umayyad Caliphs, whose immense Empire stretched from Spain to Samarqand, and whose court at Damascus speedily began to show lo Arabian Medicine, I a luxury and wealth hitherto utterly undreamed of by the Arabs. For our present purpose it is hardly necessary to consider separately the first and second of these three periods, those namely which preceded and immediately followed the rise of Islam, and which, however widely they differed in their theological, ethical and political aspects, were, as regards scientific knowledge, almost on the same level. The life of the old pagan Arabs was rough and primitive in the highest degree — very much what the life of the Bedouin of Inner Arabia remains to this day ; — the different tribes were constantly engaged in savage wars fomented by interminable vendettas; only the strong and resourceful could hold their own, and for the weak and sick there was little chance of survival. On the other hand they were intelligent, re- sourceful, courageous, hardy, chivalrous in many respects, very observant of all natural phenomena which came within the range of their observation, and possessed of a language of great wealth and virility of which they were inordinately proud, so that to this day, when they still praise God ''who created the Arabic language the best of all languages," the poems of that far-off time, describing their raids, their battles, their venturous journeys and their love affairs, remain the standard and model of the chastest and most classical Arabic. Most of these warring tribes acknowledged no authority save that of their own chiefs and princes; only on the borders of the Persian and Roman Empires respectively, in the little kingdoms of Hira and Ghassan, did the elements of civilization and science exist. The first Arab doctor mentioned by those careful biographers of philosophers and physicians, al-Qifti and Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, is al-Harith ibn Kalada, an elder Al'Hdrith ibn Kalada ii •% contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad, who had completed his studies at the great Persian medical school of Jundi-Shapur, and who had the honour of being con- sulted on at least one occasion by the great Persian King Khusraw Aniisharwan (the Kisra of the Arabs and Chosroes of the Greeks) who harboured and protected the Neo-Platonist philosophers driven into exile by the intolerance of the Emperor Justinian. An account of this interview, authentic or otherwise, fills a couple of closely-printed pages of Arabic in Ibn Abi Usaybi'a's Classes of Physicians, and the substance of it is given by Dr Lucien Leclerc in his Histoire de la Mddecine Arabe. It consists almost entirely of general hygienic principles, sound enough as far as they go, but of little technical interest. A certain tragic interest attaches to Nadr, the son of this al-Hdrith\ who like his father seems to have had some skill in medicine and a Persian education. This led him to mock at the biblical anecdotes contained in the Qurdn, these being, he did not hesitate to say, much less entertaining and instructive than the old Persian legends about Rustam and Isfandiyar, with which he would distract the attention and divert the interest of the Prophet's audience. Muhammad never forgave him for this, and when he was taken prisoner at the Battle of Badr — the first notable victory of the Muslims over the un- believers — he caused him to be put to death. Of the Prophet's own ideas about medicine and ^ My learned friend Mirza Muhammad of Qazwin, after reading these pages, has proved to me by many arguments and citations that Nadr was not, as Ibn Abi Usaybi'a asserts, a son of al-Harith ibn Kalada, the physician, of the tribe of Thaqif, but of al-Harith ibn 'Alqama ibn Kalada, a totally difterent person, though contem- porary. 12 Arabian Medicine. I hygiene (partly derived, very likely, from the above- mentioned al-Harith) we can form a fairly accurate idea from the very full and carefully authenticated body of traditions of his sayings and doings which, after the Qurdn, forms the most authoritative basis of Muham- madan doctrine. These traditions, finally collected and arranged during the ninth and tenth centuries of our era, are grouped according to subjects, each subject constituting a "book" {kitdb) and each tradition a "chapter" (bdb). If we take the Sahih of al-Bukhdri, the most celebrated of these collections, we find at the beginning of the fourth volume two books dealing with medicine and the sick, containing in all 80 chapters. This looks promising ; but when we come to examine them more closely we find that only a small proportion deal with medicine, surgery or therapeutics as we understand them, and that the majority are concerned with such matters as the visitation, encouragement and spiritual consolation of the sick, the evil eye, magic, talismans, amulets and protective prayers and formulae. Although the Prophet declares that for every malady wherewith God afflicts mankind He has appointed a suitable remedy, he subsequently limits the principal methods of treatment to three, the administration of honey, cupping, and the actual cautery, and he re- commends his followers to avoid or make sparing use of the latter. Camel's milk, fennel-flower [Nigella sativa), aloes, antimony (for ophthalmia), manna, and, as a styptic, the ashes of burnt matting, are amongst the other therapeutical agents mentioned. The diseases referred to include headache and migraine, ophthalmia, leprosy, pleurisy, pestilence and fever, which is charac- terized as "an exhalation of Hell." The Prophet advises his followers not to visit a country where pestilence The '' Prophet' s Medicine ' 13 is raging, but not to flee from it if they find themselves there. The scanty material furnished by these and other traditions (for the Qurdn, apart from some mention of wounds and a vague popular Embryology, contains hardly any medical matter) has been more or less systematized by later writers as what is termed Tibbun- Nabi, or the "Prophet's Medicine," and I am informed that a manual so entitled is still one of the first books read by the student of the Old Medicine in India, along with the abridgment of Avicenna's QdnUn known as the Qdnt^ncha, The ingenious Ibn Khalddn, whom we have already had occasion to mention, speaks slightingly^ of this ** Prophetic Medicine" and of the indigenous Arab Medicine which it summarized and of which it formed part, but judiciously adds that we are not called upon to conform to its rules, since " the Prophet's mission was to make known to us the prescriptions of the Divine Law, and not to instruct us in Medicine and the common practices of ordinary life." A propos of this he reminds us that on one occasion the Prophet endeavoured to forbid the artificial fecundation of the date-palm, with such disastrous results to the fruit-crop that he with- drew his prohibition with the remark, " You know better than I do what concerns your worldly interests." ''One is then under no obligation," continues our author, ''to believe that the medical prescriptions handed down even in authentic traditions have been transmitted to us as rules which we are bound to observe ; nothing in these traditions indicates that this is the case. It is however true that if one likes to employ these remedies with the object of earning the Divine Blessing, and if one takes them with sincere faith, one may derive from ^ De Slane's transl., iii, pp. 163-4. 14 Arabian Medicine. I them great advantage, though they form no part of Medicine properly so-called." I hope I have now said enough to show how wide was the difference between what passed for medical knowledge amongst the early Arabs of the pagan, prophetic and patriarchal periods, and the elaborate system built up on a Hippocratic and Galenic basis at Baghdad under the early 'Abbasid Caliphs. The facts here are certain and the data ample. More difficult is the question how far this system of Medicine was evolved under the Umayyad Caliphs in the intermediate period which lay between the middle of the seventh and the middle of the eighth centuries of the Christian era. These Umayyads, though, indeed, purely Arab, were by this time accustomed to the settled life and the amenities of civilization, and already far removed from the conquerors of Ctesiphon, the Sdsdnian capital, who mistook camphor for salt and found it insipid in their food; exchanged gold for an equal amount of silver — "the yellow for the white," as they expressed it; — and sold an incomparable royal jewel for a thousand pieces of money, because, as the vendor said when reproached for selling it so cheap, he knew no number beyond a thousand to ask for. Under these Umayyads the Arabian or Islamic Empire attained its maximum ex- tent, for Spain, one of their chief glories, never acknow- ledged the 'Abbdsid rule. In Egypt and Persia, as well as in Syria and its capital Damascus, where they held their court, they were in immediate contact with the chief centres of ancient learning. How far, we must enquire, did they profit by the opportunities thus afforded them ? In the development of their theology, as von Kremer has shown\ they were almost certainly influenced by ^ Culturgeschichte d. Orients^ vol. ii, pp. 401 et seqq. Early Study of Alchemy 15 John of Damascus, entitled Chrysorrhoas, and named in Arabic Mansur, who enjoyed the favour of the first Umayyad Caliph Mu'dwiya. The first impulse given to the desire of the Arabs for knowledge of the wisdom of the Greeks came from the Umayyad prince Khalid the son of Yazid the son of Mu'dwiya, who had a passion for Alchemy. According to the Fihrisf^, the oldest and best existing source of our knowledge on these matters, he assembled the Greek philosophers in Egypt and commanded them to translate Greek and Egyptian books on this subject into Arabic ; and these, says the author of the Fihrist, ** were the first translations made in Isldm from one language to another." With this prince is associated the celebrated Arabian alchemist Jabir ibn Hayydn, famous in medieval Europe under the name of Geber. Many, if not most, of the Latin books which passed under his name in the Middle Ages are spurious, being the original productions of European investigators who sought by the prestige attaching to his name to give authority and currency to their own writings. The Arabic originals of his works are rare, and the only serious study of them which I have met with is contained in the third volume of Berthelot's admirable Histoire de la Chimie au Moyen Age, where the text and French translation of one of his genuine treatises are given. Berthelot points out, what, indeed, has long been recognized, that though the chief pursuit of the old alchemists was the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life, they nevertheless made many real and valuable discoveries. How many of these we owe to the Arabs is apparent in such words as alcohol, alembic and the like, still current amongst us. It is indeed generally recognized that it was in the domains of chemistry and ^ p. 242. 1 6 Arabian Medicine. I materia medica that the Arabs added most to the body of scientific doctrine which they inherited from the Greeks. Of medicine proper we find Httle trace amongst the Arabs at this period, only three or four physicians being specifically mentioned, mostly Christians, and probably non-Arabs. One of them was Ibn Uthdl, physician to Mu'dwiya, the first Umayyad Caliph, who was murdered by a man of the tribe of Makhzum on suspicion of having, at the instigation of the Caliph, poisoned an obnoxious relative named 'Abdu'r-Rahmdn. Another, Abu'l- Hakam, also a Christian, lived to be a centenarian, as did also his son Hakam. In the case of the latter we have a fairly detailed account of his successful treatment of a case of severe arterial haemorrhage caused by an unskilful surgeon-barber. Neither of these men seems to have written anything, but to 'fsd the son of Hakam is ascribed a large Kunndsh, or treatise on the Art of Medicine, of which no fragment has been preserved. Mention is also made by the Arab biographers of a cer- tain Theodosius or Theodorus\ evidently a Greek, who was physician to the cruel but capable Hajjdj ibn Yusuf, by whom he was held in high honour and esteem. Some of his aphorisms are preserved, but none of the three or four works ascribed to him. The short list of these medical practitioners of the Umayyad period is closed by a Bedouin woman named Zaynab, who treated cases of ophthalmia. That somewhat more attention began to be paid to public health is indicated by the fact re- corded by the historian Tabarf ' that the Caliph al-Walid in the year 88/707 segregated the lepers, while as- 1 Ibn Abi Usaybi'a (vol. i, pp. 121-123) gives the name in the form of Thiyadhdq ( J^iU5). '^ Secunda Series, vol. ii, p. 11 96. John Philoponus 1 7 signing to them an adequate supply of food. Amongst the Bedouin the recourse was still to the old charms and incantations, often accompanied by the application to the patient of the operator's saliva. An instance of this is recorded in connection with the poet Jarfr\ who gave his daughter Umm Ghayldn in marriage to a ma- gician named Ablaq who had cured him in this fashion of erysipelas. The practice of medicine amongst the genuine Arabs of Arabia, both Bedouin and dwellers in towns, at the present day is succinctly described by Zwemer in his book Arabia, the Cradle of IsldTri^', and his description, so far as we can judge, fairly represents its condition at the remote period of which we are now speaking. One important question demands consideration be- fore we pass on to the great revival of learning under the early 'Abbdsid Caliphs at Baghddd in the eighth and ninth centuries of our era. Leclerc in his Histoire de la MMecine Arabe maintains that already, a century earlier, when the Arabs conquered Egypt, the process of assimilating Greek learning began. In this process he assigns ^n important part to a certain Yahyd an-Nahwf, or ''John the Grammarian," who enjoyed high favour with 'Amr ibnu'l-'As, the conqueror and first Muslim governor of Egypt, and whom he identifies with John Rhiloponus the commentator of Aristotle. This Yahyi, of whom the fullest notice occurs in al-Qifti's "History of the Philosophers " ( Td rikhu l-Hukamdf , was a Jacobite bishop at Alexandria, who subsequently re- pudiated the doctrine of the Trinity, and consequently attracted the favourable notice of the Muslims, to whose strict monotheism this doctrine is particularly obnoxious. ^ Sevan's ed. of the Naqd'id, p. 840. 2 pp. 280-4. 3 £(j Lippert, pp. 354-7. 1 8 Arabian Medicine. I He it was, according to the well-known story, now generally discredited by Orientalists, who was the ulti- mate though innocent cause of the alleged burning of the books in the great library at Alexandria by the Muslims, a story which Leclerc, in spite of his strong pro-Arab and pro-Muhammadan sympathies, oddly enough accepts as a historical fact'. This Yahya, at any rate, was a great Greek scholar, and is said by al- Qifti to have mentioned in one of his works the year 343 of Diocletian (reckoned from a.d. 284) as the current year in which he wrote. This would agree very well with his presence in Egypt at the time of the Arab conquest in a.d. 640, but would prove that he was not identical with John Philoponus, who, according to a note added by Professor Bury to Gibbon's narrative of the event in question, flourished not in the seventh but in the early part of the sixth century after Christ'. The precious library of Alexandria had, as Gibbon observes, been pretty thoroughly destroyed by Christian fanatics nearly three centuries before the Muslims over-ran Egypt. The questions of the fate of the Alexandrian library and the identity of the two Johns or Yahyds are, how- ever, quite subordinate to the much larger and more important question of the state of learning in Egypt at the time of the Arab conquest. Leclerc's view is that the School of Medicine, once so famous, long outlived that of Philosophy, and continued, even though much fallen from its ancient splendour, until the time of the ^ The arguments against the truth of this story are well set forth by L. Krehl ( Uber die Sage von der Verbrennung der Alexandrinischen Bibliothek durch die Araber) in the Acts of the Fourth International Congress of Orientalists (Florence, 1880). - Vol. V of Bury 's ed, p. 452 ad calc. The School of Jundi-ShdpiZr 1 9 Arab conquest. This is a difficult point to decide; but Dr Wallis Budge, whose opinion I sought, definitely took the view that the Egyptian writings of this period at any rate, so far as they touched on these topics at all, showed little or no trace of medical science, Greek or other. At the same time we must give due weight to the well-authenticated Arabian tradition as to the translation of Greek works on Alchemy for the Umayyad prince Khdlid ibn Yazid in Egypt, and must admit the possibility, if not the probability, that these translations included other subjects, philosophical, medical and the like, besides that which constituted the aforesaid prince's special hobby. Be this as it may, it was in the middle of the eighth century of our era and through the then newly-founded city of Baghdad that the great stream of Greek and other ancient learning began to pour into the Muham- madan world and to reclothe itself in an Arabian dress. And so far as Medicine is concerned, the tradition of the old Sasanian school of Jundi-Shdpur was pre- dominant. Of this once celebrated school, now long a mere name, with difficulty located by modern travellers and scholars on the site of the hamlet of Shdh-abad^ in the province of Khuzistdn in S.W. Persia, a brief ac- count must now be given. The city owed its foundation to the Sdsanian monarch Shdpiir I, the son and successor of Ardashir Bdbakdn who founded this great dynasty in the third century after Christ, and restored, after five centuries and a half of eclipse, the ancient glories of Achaemenian ^ See Rawlinson's Notes on a March from Zohdb to Khuzistdn in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, vol. ix, pp. 71-2, and Layard's remarks in vol. xvi, p. 86 of the same Journal. 20 Arabian Medicine. I Persia. Shipiir, after he had defeated and taken captive the Emperor Valerian, and sacked the famous city of Antioch, built, at the place called in Syriac Beth Lipit, a town which he named Veh-az-Andev-i-ShdpUr, or *' Shipur's ' Better than Antioch,' " a name which was gradually converted into GundS SkdpT^r or in Arabic fundi SdbicrK Another ''Better than Antioch" was founded in the sixth century of our era by Khusraw Anu- sharwdn, the Chosroes of the Greeks and Kisrd of the Arabs, which, to distinguish it from the first, was called Veh-az-Andev-i-Khusraw. This latter town, by a practice which prevailed in Persia even until the sixteenth cen- tury, was chiefly populated by the deported citizens — especially craftsmen and artisans — of the foreign town after which it was named; and it seems likely that Jundi- Shapiir also received a considerable number of Greek settlers, for the Greek translations of Shdpur's Pahlawi inscriptions carved on the rocks at Istakhr in Fdrs prove that Greek labour was available at this time even in the interior of Persia. Forty or fifty years later, in the early part of the fourth century, in the reign of the second Shcipilr, the city had become a royal residence, and it was there that Mani or Manes, the founder of the Manichaean heresy, was put to death, and his skin, stuffed with straw, suspended from one of the city gates, known long afterwards, even in Muhammadan times, as the " Gate of Manes." There also, as appears probable, Shapur II established the Greek physician Theodosius or Theodorus whom he summoned to attend him, and whose system of medicine is mentioned in the Fihrisf' as one of the Persian books on Medicine after- ^ See Th. Noldeke's Gesch. d. Perser u. Arab, zur Zeit der Sasa- niden (Leyden, 1879), PP- 40-42. ' P- 303- The School of Jundi-ShdpUr 2 1 wards translated into Arabic and preserved at any rate until the tenth century of our era. This physician, who was a Christian, obtained such honour and consideration in Persia that Shapur caused a church to be built for him and at his request set free a number of his captive countrymen. The great development of the school of Jundi-Shapiir was, however, the unforeseen and unintended result of that Byzantine intolerance which in the fifth century of our era drove the Nestorians from their school at Edessa and forced them to seek refuge in Persian terri- tory. In the following century the enlightened and wisdom-loving Khusraw Anusharwdn, the protector of theexiled Neo-Platonist philosophers^ senthis physician Burzuya to India, who, together with the game of chess and the celebrated Book of Kalila and Dimna, brought back Indian works on medicine and also, apparently, Indian physicians to Persia. The school of Jundi-Shipur was, then, at the time of the Prophet Muhammad's birth, at the height of its glory. There converged Greek and Oriental learning, the former transmitted in part directly through Greek scholars, but for the most part through the industrious and assimilative Syrians, who made up in diligence what they lacked in originality. Sergius of Ra'su'l-'Ayn, who flourished a little before this time^ was one of those who translated Hippocrates and Galen into Syriac. Of this intermediate Syriac medical literature, from which many, perhaps most, of the Arabic translations of the eighth and ninth centuries were made, not much survives, but M. H. Pognon's edition and French translation of a Syriac version of the Aphorisms^ of Hippocrates, and ^ About A.D. 531. ''He died at Constantinople about a.d. 536. ^ Une Version Syriaque des Aphorismes (THippocrate^ Leipzig, 1903. BAM 22 Arabian Medicine, I Dr Wallls Budge's Syriac Book of Medicines^, enable us to form some idea of its quality. To the Syrians, what- ever their defects, and especially to the Nestorians, Asia owes much, and the written characters of the Mongol, Manchu, Uyghiir and many other peoples in the western half of Asia testify to the literary influence of the Aramaic peoples. But though the medical teaching of Jundi-Shapiir was in the main Greek, there was no doubt an under- lying Persian element, especially in Pharmacology, where the Arabic nomenclature plainly reveals in many cases Persian origins. Unfortunately the two most glorious periods of pre- Islamic Persia, the Achaemenian (b.c. 550-330) and the Sdsanian (a.d. 226-640) both terminated in a disastrous foreign invasion, Greek in the first case, Arab in the second, which involved the wholesale destruction of the indigenous learning and literature, so that it is impossible for us to reconstitute more than the main outlines of these two ancient civilizations. Yet the Avesta, the sacred book of the Zoroastrians, speaks of three classes of healers, by prayers and religious observances, by diet and drugs, and by instruments; in other words priests, physicians and surgeons. As regards the latter, one curious passage in the Vendiddd ordains that the tyro must operate successfully on three unbelievers before he may attempt an operation on one of the ''good Mazdayasnian religion." And, of course, Greek physicians, of whom Ctesias is the best known, besides an occasional Egyp- tian, were to be found at the Achaemenian court before the time of Alexander of Macedon. The medical school of Jundi-Shdpur seems to have been little affected by the Arab invasion and conquest ^ Two vols., text and translation, 19 13. The Bukkt'YiskH' Family 23 of the seventh century of our era, but it was not till the latter half of the eighth century, when Baghdad became the metropolis of Islam, that its influence began to be widely exerted on the Muslims. It was in the year A.D. 765' that the second 'Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur, being afflicted with an illness which baffled his medical advisers, summoned to attend him Jiirjis the son of Bukht-Yishu'(a half- Persian, half-Syriac name, meaning ''Jesus hath delivered ")^ the chief physician of the great hospital of Jundi-Sh^piir. Four years later Jurjis fell ill and craved permission to return home, to see his family and children, and, should he die, to be buried with his fathers. The Caliph invited him to embrace the religion of Isldm, but Jurjis replied that he preferred to be with his fathers, whether in heaven or hell. Thereat the Caliph laughed and said, ''Since I saw thee I have found relief from the maladies to which I had been ac- customed," and he dismissed him with a gift of 10,000 dindrs, and sent with him on his journey an attendant who should convey him, living or dead, to Jundi-Shapur, the "Ci vitas Hippocratica" which he loved so well. Jurjis on his part promised to send to Baghdad to replace him one of his pupils named 'Isa ibn Shahld, but declined to send his son, Bukht-Yishii' the second, on the ground that he could not be spared from the Bimdristdn, or hospital, of Jundi-Sh4pur. For six generations and over 250 years the Bukht- Yishu' family remained pre-eminent in medicine, the last (Jibrail son of 'Ubaydu'lldh son of Bukht-Yishu' son of Jibra'il son of Bukht-Yishu' son of Jurjis son of 1 Al-Qifti's TaWikhuU-Hukamd, p. 158. ^ The explanation of these old Persian names beginning or ending with -bukht we owe to Professor Th. Noldeke, Gesch. d. Artakhshir- i-Pdpakdn, p. 49, n. 41 3-2 24 Arabian Medicine. I Jibrd'il), who died on April lo, 1006, being as eminent and as highly honoured by the rulers and nobles of his time as the first. That a certain exclusiveness and un- willingness to impart their knowledge to strangers charac- terized the physicians of Jundi-Shdpur may be inferred from the treatment received at the beginning of his career by the celebrated translator of Greek medical works into Arabic, Hunayn ibn Ishaq, known to medi- eval Europe as *'Johannitius." He was a Christian of Hira with a great passion for knowledge, and acted as dispenser to Yuhannd ibn Mdsawayh (the ^'Messues" of the Latino- Barbari), whose lectures he also followed. But he was prone to ask too many troublesome questions, and one day his master, losing patience, exclaimed, " What have the people of Hira to do with medicine } Go and change money in the streets!" and drove him forth in tears; "for," says al-Qifti\ "these people of Jundi-Shdpiir used to believe that they only were worthy of this science, and would not suffer it to go forth from themselves, their children and their kin." But Hunayn, more resolved than ever on pursuing knowledge to its source, went away for several years to learn Greek. During this period one of his former acquaintances, Yusuf the physician, one day saw a man with long hair and undipped beard and moustaches reciting Homer in the street, and, in spite of his changed appearance, recognized his voice as that of Hunayn. He, being questioned, admitted his identity, but enjoined silence on Yusuf, saying that he had sworn not to continue his medical studies until he had perfected himself in know- ledge of the Greek language. When he finally returned, Jibra'il ibn Bukht-Yishu', to whom he attached himself, was delighted with his Greek scholarship and declared ^ Op. dt.^ p. 174. Hunayn ibn Ishdq i^^Johannitius') 25 him to be a miracle of learning, and Ibn Mdsawayh, who had formerly driven him out with contumely, sought Yusuf's good offices to effect a reconciliation with him. Later he gained high favour with the Caliph, who, how- ever, was minded first to prove his professional honour by a hard test, for he bade him concoct a poison for one of his enemies, offering him rich rewards if he would do so, but severe punishment — imprisonment or death — if he refused. He refused and was imprisoned for a year, when he was again brought before the Caliph and bidden to choose again between compliance and a rich reward, or the sword of the executioner. " I have already told the Commander of the Faithful," replied Hunayn, **that I have skill only in what is bene- ficial, and have studied naught else"; and being again threatened with instant death he added, "I have a Lord who will give me my right to-morrow in the Supreme Uprising, so if the Caliph would injure his own soul, let him do so." Then the Caliph smiled and declared that he had only desired to assure himself of Hunayn's probity before yielding him implicit confidence. So the incident ended satisfactorily, but it serves to show that the position of Court Physician at Baghdad in early 'Abbdsid times was sometimes a trying one ; a fact brought out in the well-known story of the physician Dubdn and King Yundn (which, however, had a much more tragic ending) in the Arabian Nights^, Hunayn was not only the most celebrated but the most productive of these translators. Of the ten Hippo- cratic writings mentioned by the author of the Fihrist as existing in Arabic translations in his time, seven were his work and three the work of his pupil 'Isd ibn Yahyd, while the^'sixteen books" of Galen were all translated by ^ Lane's translation (London, 1859), vol. i, pp. 83-6. 26 Arabian Medicine. I him or his pupil Hubaysh. Generally, as we learn from the Fihrist^, Hunayn translated the Greek into Syriac, while Hubaysh translated from Syriac into Arabic, the Arabic version being then revised by Hunayn, who, however, sometimes translated directly from Greek into Arabic. All three languages were known to most of these translators, and it is probable, as Leclerc suggests, that whether the translation was made into Syriac or Arabic depended on whether it was primarily designed for Christian or Muslim readers. At the present day comparatively few of these Arabic translations are avail- able, even in manuscript ; but good mss. of the Aphor- isms^ and Prognostics^ exist in the British Museum, besides an epitome of the "sixteen books" of Galen* ascribed toYahydan-Nahwi,or "John the Grammarian." Of the Aphorisms in Arabic there is an Indian litho- graphed edition, which, however, I have not seen. This dearth of texts is very unfortunate for the student of Arabian Medicine, who is thereby much hampered in the solution of two important preliminary questions, viz. the accuracy and fidelity of these early Arabic translations, and the development of the Arabic medical terminology, often unintelligible without reference to the Greek original. As regards the first question, Leclerc^ is apparently right in his opinion that the trans- lation from Greek into Arabic was generally effected with much greater skill and knowledge than the later transla- tion from Arabic into Latin, and that he who judges Arabian Medicine only by the latter will inevitably under- value it and do it a great injustice. Indeed it is difficult 1 p. 289. 2 Or. 5914, Or. 6419, Or. 5820, Or. 6386, and Or. 5939. ^ Or. 5914. ^ Arundel, Or. 17. ^ Hist, de la Medecine Arabe^ vol. ii, pp. 346-8. The so-called Sabaeans of Harrdn 2 7 to resist the conclusion that many passages in the Latin version of the Qdrnln of Avicenna were misunderstood or not understood at all by the translator, and conse- quently can never have conveyed a clear idea to the reader. Another group of great translators from Greek into Arabic was provided by the city of Harran, the classical Charrae, which remained pagan down to the thirteenth century, and, by reason of the high degree of Greek culture long maintained there, was known as Helleno- polis. How the inhabitants of this city came to be known as "Sabaeans" from the ninth century onwards, tliough they had nothing to do with the true Sabaeans of Chaldaea (of whom a remnant, known to the Muham- madans as al-Mughtasila from their frequent ceremonial bathings and washings, and to Europeans, for the same reason, as ''Christians of St John the Baptist," exist to the present day near Basra and along the banks of the Shattu'l-'Arab), is a very curious story, exhaustively set forth, with full documentary evidence, by Chwolson in his great work Die Ssabier und Ssabismus^. Of these learned Harranians the most celebrated were Thabit ibn Qurra (born a.d. 836, died a.d. 901), his sons Ibrdhim and Sinan, his grandsons Thabit and Ibrahim, and his great-grandson Sinan; and the family of Zahrun. Mention should also be made of another contemporary translator, though his predilection was for mathematics rather than medicine, Qusta ibn Luqd, a Christian of Baalbek in Syria, who died about a.d. 923. Thus by the tenth century the Muslims, to all of whom, irrespective of race, Arabic was not only the language of Revelation and Religion, but also of science, diplomacy and polite intercourse, had at their disposal ^ St Petersburg, 1856 (2 vols.). See vol. i, ch. vi (pp. 139-157). 28 Arabian Medicine. I a great mass of generally excellent translations of all the most famous philosophical and scientific writings of the Greeks. For Greek poetry and drama they cared little, and of the Latin writers they seem to have known nothing whatever. Of the Greek medical writers, besides Hippocrates and Galen, their favourites were Rufus of Ephesus, Oribasius, Paul of ^gina, and Alexander of Tralles; and, for materia medica, Dioscorides. In some cases Greek writings, lost in the original, have been pre- served to us in Arabic translations. The most notable instance of this is afforded by the seven books of Galen's Anatomy (ix-xv), lost in the original Greek but pre- served in the Arabic, of which the text, with German translation and f\i\\ apparatus criticus, has been published by Dr Max Simon ^ with an admirable Arabic-Greek- German vocabulary of technical terms, to which re- ference has already been made. Were the materials accessible, it would be interesting to compare those Arabic translations made directly from the Greek with those which first passed through the medium of Syriac. Of the few Syriac versions preserved to us I cannot myself form an opinion, being unfortu- nately unacquainted with that language, but they are rather harshly judged by M. Pognon, of whose edition and translation of the Syriac Aphorisms of Hippocrates I have already spoken^ "The Syriac version of the Aphorisms contained in my manuscript," he writes, "is a very faithful, or rather too faithful, translation of the Greek text; sometimes, indeed, it is a literal trans- lation absolutely devoid of sense. This, unfortunately, does not allow us to determine the epoch at which it ^ Sieben Bucher Anatomie des Galen^ u.s.w.^ 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1906). ^ Une Version Syriaque des Aphorismes d^Hippocrate, texte et tra- duction^ par M. Pognon^ Consul de France d, Alep (Leipzig, 1903). Limitations of the Syrian Translators 29 was made, since to render too literally has been the defect of many Syrian translators." "I will not venture to say," he continues, "that the Syrians never possessed clear translations written in a correct style, but in most of the translations which have reached us the style is often obscure, the construction incorrect, and words are often employed in a sense not properly belonging to them, this generally arising from the desire of the Syriac translator to reproduce the Greek text too faithfully. The Syrian translators, when they found a difficult passage, too often contented them- selves with rendering each Greek word by a Syriac word without in any way seeking to write an intelligible sentence. Thus we find in their translations many incorrect sentences, and even expressions which have absolutely no meaning. In short, I believe that when they did not understand the meaning of a Greek word, the translators did not hesitate to transcribe it in Syriac characters, leaving their readers to conjecture the meaning of these barbarisms which they had created." The translation of the Aphorisms, with which he is specially concerned, M. Pognon characterizes as ''de- testable," and adds: "Whenever the translator comes across an obscure passage, his translation is obscure; and whenever he meets with a passage which is suscep- tible of several different renderings, his translation can be interpreted in several different ways." This assertion he proves by numerous examples. The Arab mind, on the other hand, is clear and positive, and the Arabic language nervous, virile and rich both actually and potentially. The old Arabs were an acute and observant people, and for all natural objects which fell under their notice they had appropriate and finely differentiated words. To render the medical 30 Arabian Medicine. I works of the Greeks into their own language they had, of course, in many cases, to invent new terms translated or imitated from the Greek, and often only to be under- stood by reference to the Greek originals; but they already possessed a fairly copious anatomical vocabulary, which, moreover, they were fond of using in ordinary life, even in their poetry. Thus the Umayyad Caliph Yazid ibn 'Abdu'l-Malik, who, in 105/723-4, died of love for the slave-girl Habbaba, was deeply stirred by her singing of the following verse ^: ^^ Between the clavicles and tJu uvula is a burning heat Which cannot be appeased or swallowed down and cooled^ The poet al-Mutanabbi (tenth century) has a poem^ on a fever by which he was attacked in Egypt in Dhu'l-Hijja 348 (February 960), and which left him — ^'Sick of body, unable to rise up, vehemently intoxicated {i.e. delirious) without wine." He compares the fever to a coy maiden who will only visit him under cover of darkness : '^U,*JI cl^U 4ju^^JLi '>ola».M> ^.jujjLj lyA.«tjL« a f- J ^^ JO ^.jJi^L^ ^^jiJLijli Lo 131 ^ jj o ^ J vt e- ^jaSs U;kj-lsu 9>-^cJt ^l^ ^ Kitdbu U-Fakhri, ed. Ahlwardt, p. 155. ^ Ed. Dieterici, pp. 675-680. Al-Mtitanabbf s Ode to a Fever 31 ^^And it is as though she who visits me were filled with modesty^ For she does not pay her visits save under cover of darkness. I freely offered her my linen and my pillows^ But she refused them, and spent the night in my bones. My skin is too contracted to contain both my breath and her, So she relaxes it with all sorts of sickness. When she leaves me, she washes me [with perspiration^ As though we had retired apart for some forbidden action. It is as though the morning drives her away, And her lachrymal ducts are flooded in their four chaitnels. I watch for her tim^ [of arrival~\ without desire. Yet with the watchfulness of the eager lover. And she is ever faithful to her appointed time, but faithfulness is an evil When it casts thee into grievous sufferings. ^^ Under such astonishing imagery are clearly depicted the delirium and regular nightly recurrence of the fever, the rigors which mark its onset, and the copious perspiration with which it concludes, the latter being fantastically likened to the weeping of a woman torn from her lover's arms. That in the days of the Caliphate every educated person was expected to take some interest in Medicine and to know something about Anatomy is shown by the curious story of the equally fair and talented slave-girl Tawaddud in the A^^abian Nights. The girl is offered to the Caliph Harunu'r-Rashid for an enormous price (10,000 dindrs) by her bankrupt master Abu'1-Husn, and the Caliph agrees to pay this sum provided she can answer satisfactorily any questions addressed to her by those most learned in each of the many branches of knowledge in which she claims to excel. Therefore the most notable professors of Theology, Law, Exegesis 32 Arabian Medicine, I of the Qur'dn, Medicine, Astronomy, Philosophy, Rhetoric and Chess examine her in succession, and in each case she not only gives satisfactory replies to all their questions, but ends by putting to each of them a question which he is unable to answer. Lane describes this story, which provides material for six of the looi NightsS as '* extremely tiresome to most readers," but it is very valuable as indicating what was regarded by the medieval Muslims as a good all-round education. The medical portion of the examination includes the outlines of Anatomy and Physiology, according to Arabian ideas, diagnosis from signs and symptoms, humoristic Patho- logy, Hygiene, Dietetics and the like. The enumeration of the bones is fairly complete, but that of the blood- vessels very vague. Of the branches of the Aorta, says Tawaddud, "none knoweth the tale save He who created them, but it is said that they number 360" — a mystical number, 1 2 x 30, which still plays a great part in the doctrines of certain Muhammadan sects, by whom it is called ''The Number of All Things" (^ J& >j^) for reasons which it would be tedious to enumerate in this place. I have already taken up too much of your time this afternoon in the discussion of these preliminaries. In my next lecture I propose to speak of four of the most notable early medical writers of the Muslims who succeeded the epoch of the great translators. These were all Persians by race, though they wrote in Arabic; and the Latin versions of the chief works of three of them, known to the Latino- Barbari as Rhazes, Haly Abbas and Avicenna, constituted three of the most highly esteemed medical works current in medieval Europe. ^ Nights 449-454; ed. Macnaghten, vol. ii, pp. 512-521; Sir R. Burton's translation, vol. v, pp. 318-227. LECTURE II IN my last lecture I traced the growth of the so-called "Arabian Medicine" down to the ninth century of our era, the time of the great translators of the early 'Abbisid period ; and I showed how, by their diligence and learning, the teachings of the most eminent physi- cians of Ancient Greece, notably Hippocrates, Galen, Oribasius, Rufus of Ephesus and Paul of JEgina., were rendered accessible to the Muslim world. We must now pass to the independent Arabic writers on medicine, who, starting from this foundation, compiled more or less original works embodying, to some extent, observa- tions of their own, and arranged on their own plan. The great extent of the subject, however, obliges me to impose on myself somewhat strict limitations of region, period and topic, and I shall therefore confine myself to the two centuries immediately succeeding the Golden Age, which lies between a.d. 750 and 850, and to the Eastern lands of the Caliphate, especially Persia. Further, I shall confine myself to four or five of the principal medical writers of this limited period, and, as a rule, to one only of the works of each. Even under such limitations only a very partial and superficial view can be obtained, for a whole series of lectures might evidently be devoted to a single section of any one of the works which I propose briefly to discuss to-day. Before proceeding further, however, there are one or two preliminary matters on which a few words should be said, and first of all as to the evolution of Arabic scientific terminology. The Syrians, as we have seen, were too much disposed to transcribe Greek words as 34 Arabian Medicine, II they stood, without any attempt at elucidation, leaving the reader to make the best he could of them. The medieval Latin translators from the Arabic did exactly the same, and the Latin Qdmln of Avicenna swarms with barbarous words which are not merely transcrip- tions, but in many cases almost unrecognizable mis- transcriptions, of Arabic originals. Thus the coccyx is named in Arabic 'us'ms i^^^joatlc^), or, with the definite article, al-us'us (^^^JiJJui), which appears in the Latin version as alhosos\ al-qatan (,j^|), the lumbar region, appears as alchatim\ al'ajuz or al-'ajiz (>a^)), the sacrum, variously appears as alhauis and al-hagiazi\ and an-nawdjidh (j^t^jt), the wisdom-teeth, as nuaged or neguegidi. Dozens of similar monstrosities can be gleaned from Dr Hyrtl's Das Arabische und Hebrdische in der Anatomie (Vienna, 1879), and it must be con- fessed that the Arabs also were, in a lesser degree, guilty of a similar mutilation of Greek words, as, for example, the transformation of dfjuvelos into an/as (j^^i), which in turn, in the hands of the Latino- Barbari, became abgas. Generally, however, in spite of the fact that the Arabic language almost entirely lacks the Greek facility of forming compound words to express new and com- plex ideas, the Arabs succeeded in paraphrasing the Greek technical terms with fair success. Diaznosis is fairly rendered by tashkhis, which primarily means the identification of a person (shakhs) ; prognosis is more cumbrously rendered by taqdimatti l-ma^rifati, literally, the sending forward of knowledge. In the earliest Arabic medical books, like the Firdawsul-Hikmat, or *' Paradise of Wisdom," of which I shall speak immediately, strange Syro- Persian words, probably borrowed from the vocabulary of Jundi-Shdpiir, and Evolution of Arabic Terminology 35 subsequently replaced by good Arabic equivalents, appear. Thus in the almost unique ms. of the work just mentioned there twice occurs a word for a headache affecting the whole head (as contrasted with shaqiqa, which denotes hemicrania or migraine), faultily written in both cases (once as ^jyi^ and once as iSj^-^), which only after numerous enquiries of Syriac scholars was identified as the Syriac sanwarta (r^^io^oo), said to be a Persian word meaning primarily a helmet. And in fact it is evidently the Persian sar-band {JSl^ or sar-wand with transposition of the r and the n i^san-ward for sar- wand) and the addition of the Syriac final emphatic a. This may serve as an instance of the kind of trouble which the reader or translator, or still more the editor, of these old Arabic medical works is apt to meet with, for of scarcely any, even of the few which have been published in the original, do critical editions exist. On the other hand, apart from the fairly copious anatomical, pathological and medical vocabulary properly belonging to the Arabic language, it has a great power of forming significant derivatives from existing rdots, which, when formed, are at once intelligible. Thus there exists in Arabic a special form for the ''noun of pain," wherein the first root-letter is followed by a short m and the second by a long a (the form known to Arab grammarians as j\^,fu'dl), and this is the form assumed by the names of most diseases and ailments; as the already mentioned sudd' (cljJ>), ''a splitting headache," the ''soda'' of the Latino-Barbari; zukdm (^li»j), "a C2it2ocr\i' \ j'udkdm {jiS'jJ^), '* elephantiasis," etc. On this analogy we get, from the root dawr (jji), ''revolving," duwdr (jtji), "vertigo," the sickness produced by being whirled round; from bakr {jLS), *'the sea," buhdr{j\L^^), 36 Arabian Medicine. II ''sea-sickness"; from khamr (j^)', *'wine," khumdr (jCi^), the headache resulting from undue indulgence in wine; and so forth. I never met with the word jubdl (jl^) iromjabal (j^), "a mountain," but, if I did meet with it, I should know that it could mean nothing else but "mountain-sickness." In other cases the Arabic technical term implies a pathological theory, as, for example, istisqdy^'^k^S^^ mustasqi (^^ 3 jL li .> U ^, which are respectively the verbal noun and the active participle of the tenth, or desiderative, conjugation of the root saqa, yasqi (^^5*-^ \^\ ''to give drink to," and in ordinary language mean "craving for drink" and "one who craves for drink," but in Medicine "dropsy" and "dropsical," conformably to the familiar Latin adage, Crescit indulgens sibi dims hydrops. Thus it will be apparent that Arabic is on the whole well adapted for providing a suitable technical terminology, which, in fact, it has done for the whole Muslim world, whether they speak Arabic, Persian, Turkish or Urdu, and which, as the modern Egyptian Press testifies, it continues to do at the present day. Another point deserving brief notice is the question whether dissection was ever practised by the Muslims. The answer is usually given in the negative, and I must admit that I incline to this view; but in an immense, unfinished, modern Persian biographical dictionary en- titled Ndma-i-Ddnishwardn, "the Book of Learned Men," compiled by command of the late Nasiru'd-Din Shdh by four learned men, to wit Mirzd Abu'1-Fadl of Sawa the physician, Shaykh Muhammad Mahdi 'Abdu'r- Rabb-dbddi, entitled Shamsul-'Ulamd, Mirza Hasan-i- Tdlaqdni, entitled Adib, and Mirzd 'Abdu'l-Wahhab ibn 'Abdu'l-'Ali of Qazwin, and lithographed at Tihrdn Dissection in Muslim Lands 2^7 25 years ago, it is stated^ that the celebrated Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, being unable to obtain human subjects, dissected apes in a special dissecting-room which he built on the banks of the Tigris, and that a particular species of ape, considered to resemble man most closely, was, by command of the Caliph al-Mu'tasim, supplied to him about the year a.d. 836 by the ruler of Nubia. This story is given on the authority of Ibn Abi Usaybi^a, in whose Classes of Physicians^ it in fact occurs in a less clear and detailed form. It is, however, not to be found in al-Qifti's History of the Philosophers, and cannot, I fear, be regarded as affording weighty evidence as to the practice of dissection in the medical schools of the Arabs. This Yuhanna ibn Mdsawayh had a bad temper and a sharp tongue. According to the Fihrist he once said to a courtier who had annoyed him, ''If the ignorance wherewith thou art afflicted were converted into understanding, and then divided amongst a hundred beetles, each one of them would be more sagacious than Aristotle!" To come now to the medical writers of whom I pro- pose to speak this afternoon, the oldest of them is 'Ali ibn Rabban of Tabaristan, the Persian province south of the Caspian Sea. Rabban, as he himself explains at the beginning of his book, was the title, not the name, of his father. ''My father," he says, "was the son of a certain scribe of the city of Merv...who had a great zeal for the pursuit of virtue... and sought to derive benefit from books on Medicine and Philosophy, preferring Medicine to the profession of his fathers. Herein his object was not so much to seek after praise and profit as to con- form himself to the Divine Attributes, and so to earn ^ Vol. ii, pp. J7-8. * Vol. i, p. 178 of the Cairo ed. BAM 4 $S Arabian Medicine, II the consideration of mankind. Wherefore he received the title of Rabban^ which being interpreted signifies 'our Master' and 'our Teacher.'" From this title we may infer that our author's father was a Christian or a Jew, and in fact al-Qifti^ who gives a short notice of him, says that he -professed the latter religion ; that the father s proper name was Sahl, and that the son only made profession of Isldm after he entered the service of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil. Pre- viously to this he had been secretary to the celebrated Mazyar, of the noble Persian house of Qdren, who rebelled against the Caliph in the hope of liberating his country from the Arab yoke, and was finally captured and crucified at Baghdad beside the heresiarch Babak. 'All ibn Rabban subsequently entered the service of the Caliph, and finally, in the third year of his reign (a.d. 850), succeeded, after many interruptions, in com- pleting the work on Medicine and Natural Philosophy on which he had long been engaged, and which he entitled Firdawsu l-Hikmat, the " Paradise of Wisdom." This is nearly all that is known of his life, except that from an illustration given in his book^ it is evident that he was, as his nisba implies, familiar with the mountains and mists of Tabaristan, and the much more important fact that he was one of the teachers of the great physician ar-Razi or Rhazes, a fact which in itself in- vests his work with considerable interest. According to the Fihrist^ he only wrote four books, of which the "Paradise of Wisdom" is the most important. It must at one time have been well known and highly esteemed, for, as we learn from Yaqiit's Dictionary of Lea^^ned Men\ the great historian Muhammad ibn Jarir at- ^ p. 231. 2 Brit. Mus. MS. Arundel, Or. 41, f. 15 a. ' p. 296. * "E. J. W. Gibb Memoriar' Series, vi, 6, p. 429. The ''Paradise of Wisdom'^ 39 Tabari was reading it while he lay sick in bed; while in another passage of the same work\ where that eminent patron of letters the Sahib Ismail ibn *Abbad is censured for imagining himself to be superior to all the greatest authorities in every science and art, the Firdaws, or 'Taradise," of 'Ali ibn Rabban^ is mentioned amongst those authorities. Subsequently this book, like so many other precious Arab works, became almost extinct, and at the present day, so far as I can ascertain, there exist only two manuscripts of it, one fine old copy (Arundel, Or. 41) in the British Museum, which I have had photographed for my use ; and another (Landberg, 266) at Berlin ; but this latter copy seems, so far as I have been able to learn, to be only an abridgment, or at least to contain a somewhat mutilated or abbreviated text. The ''Paradise of Wisdom," which I hope some day to edit and perhaps translate, deals chiefly with Medicine, but also to some extent with Philosophy, Meteorology, Zoology, Embryology, Psychology and Astronomy. It is a fair-sized book containing nearly 550 pages, and is divided into 7 parts {Naw'), 30 dis- courses {Maqdla), and 360 chapters. The author mentions as his principal sources Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, Yuhanna ibn Mdsawayh (Messues) and Hunayn "the Interpreter," t,e. Hunayn ibn Ishdq, the medieval Johannitius. The fourth and last Discourse of the seventh Part contains in 36 chapters a summary of Indian Medicine. It would be tedious to you if I were to read out the abstract of the contents of the book which I have made, nor would the author himself have approved such a procedure, for he says : *' He who perpends this book with understanding 1 "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, vi, 2, p. 279. ^ The text erroneously has ^j-jj {Zayn) for ^^ {Rabban). 4-2 40 Arabian Medicine. II resembles one who wanders in fruitful and pleasant gardens, or in the markets of great cities, wherein is provided for each of the senses its pleasure and delight. But just as he who limits his knowledge of such gardens and cities to the contemplation of their gates is as one who seeth naught of them, so he who enumerates the chapters of this my book without attentively reading what is contained in each, doth not understand the true meaning of what I say.... But he who masters this book, and fully fathoms and perpends it, will find In it the greater part of what the young graduate needs of the Science of Medicine and the action of the natural forces in this Microcosm and also in the Macrocosm." Some justification is perhaps needed for rendering the Arabic word mutakharrij in the above passage in its modern sense of "graduate," which may seem too definite a translation of a word implying one who comes out, or issues forth, from a school or college at which he has completed his studies. It Is therefore worth noting that some sort of qualifying examination in medicine, if it did not already exist in a.d. 850, when our author wrote, was instituted 80 years later in the reign of the Caliph al-MuqtadIr on account of a case of malpraxis which came to his notice In a.d. 931. He thereupon issued an order, as al-Qifti informs us\ that none should practise medicine In Baghdad unless he was able to satisfy Sindn ibn Thdbit of Harrdn of his com- petence and proficiency, with the exception of a few physicians of recognized standing, who, on account of their reputation, were exempted from this test, to which the remainder, numbering some 860, had to submit. That the examination was not always of a very searching character is shown by the following incident. Amongst ^ TaWikhuH'Hukamdy pp. 19 1-2. A lenient Oral Examination 41 the practitioners who presented themselves before Sindn was a dignified and well-dressed old man of imposing appearance. Sindn accordingly treated him with con- sideration and respect, and addressed to him various remarks on the cases before him. When the other can- didates had been dismissed, he said, *' I should like to hear from the Shaykh (Professor) something which I may remember from him, and that he should mention who was his Teacher in the Profession." Thereupon the old gentleman laid a packet of money before Sindn and said, "■ I cannot read or write well, nor have I read any- thing systematically, but I have a family whom I main- tain by my professional labours, which, therefore, I beg you not to interrupt." Sindn laughed and replied, ''On condition that you do not treat any patient with what you know nothing about, and that you do not prescribe phlebotomy or any purgative drug save for simple ailments." ''This," said the old man, "has been my practice all my life, nor have I ever ventured beyond sirkangabin (oxymel) and julldb (jalap)." Next day amongst those who presented themselves before Sindn was a well-dressed young man of pleasing and intelligent appearance. "With whom did you study?" enquired Sinan. " With my father," answered the youth. "And who is your father V asked Sindn. "The old gentleman who was with you yesterday," replied the other. " A fine old gentleman!" exclaimed Sindn ; "and do you follow his methods ?... Yes?... Then see to it that you do not go beyond them ! " Although, as I have said, a detailed statement of the contents of the "Paradise of Wisdom" would be out of place, the general plan of the book may be briefly indicated. 42 Arabian Medicine, II Part I. Treats of certain general philosophical ideas, the categories, natures, elements, metamorphosis, genesis and decay. Part II. Treats of embryology, pregnancy, the func- tions and morphology of different organs, ages and seasons, psychology, the external and Internal senses, the temperaments and emotions, personal idiosyncrasies, certain nervous affections (tetanus, torpor, palpitation, nightmare, etc.), the evil eye, hygiene and dietetics. Part III. Treats of nutrition and dietetics. Part IV. (The longest, comprising 1 2 Discourses) treats of general and special pathology, from the head to the feet, and concludes with an account of the number of muscles, nerves and veins, and disserta- tions on phlebotomy, the pulse and urinoscopy. Part V. Treats of tastes, scents and colours. Part VI. Treats of materia medica and toxicology. Part VII. Treats of climate, waters and seasons In their relation to health, outlines of cosmography and astronomy, and the utility of the science of medicine: and concludes, as already noted, with a summary of Indian Medicine in 36 chapters. It will be noticed that the book contains very little about anatomy or surgery and a great deal about climate, diet and drugs. Including poisons. Part IV, dealing with pathology. Is on the whole the most interesting, and I may, perhaps, be permitted to enumerate more fully the contents of the 12 Discourses which It comprises: Discourse i (9 chapters) on general pathology, the signs and symptoms of Internal disorders, and the principles of therapeutics. Discourse 2 (14 chapters) on diseases and Injuries of the head ; and diseases of the brain, Including epi- lepsy, various kinds of headache, tinnitus, vertigo, amnesia, and nightmare. Contents of the ''Paradise of Wisdom" 43 Discourse 3(12 chapters) on diseases of the eyes and eyelids, the ear and the nose (including epistaxis and catarrh), the face, mouth and teeth. Discourse 4(7 chapters) on nervous diseases, including spasm, tetanus, paralysis, facial palsy, etc. Discourse 5 (7 chapters) on diseases of the throat, chest and vocal organs, including asthma. Discourse 6 (6 chapters) on diseases of the stomach, including hiccough. Discourse 7 (5 chapters) on diseases of the liver, in- cluding dropsy. Discourse 8(14 chapters) on diseases of the heart, lungs, gall-bladder and spleen. Discourse 9(19 chapters) on diseases of the intestines (especially colic), and of the urinary and genital organs. Discourse 10 (26 chapters) on fevers, ephemeral, hectic, continuous, tertian, quartan and semi-quartan ; on pleurisy, erysipelas, and small-pox ; on crises, prog- nosis, favourable and unfavourable symptoms, and the signs of death. Discourse 11(13 chapters) on rheumatism, gout, sciatica, leprosy, elephantiasis, scrofula, lupus, cancer, tumours, gangrene, wounds and bruises, shock, and plague. The last four chapters deal with ana- tomical matters, including the numbers of the muscles, nerves and blood-vessels. Discourse 12 (20 chapters) on phlebotomy, cupping, baths and the indications afforded by the pulse and urine. This Fourth Part constitutes nearly two-fifths of the whole book, occupying 107 out of 276 folios and com- prising in all 152 chapters. Each chapter is therefore very short, often less than one page and seldom more than two. There is little attempt to go beyond the 44 Arabian Medicine, II chief signs and symptoms of each disease and the treat- ment recommended, and, so far as I have seen, there are no references to actual cases, or clinical notes. The book, indeed, except for the First Part — which deals with general philosophic conceptions, and contains some interesting ideas regarding the genesis of the Four Elements (Earth, Air, Fire and Water) from the Four Natures (Heat, Cold, Dryness and Moisture) and their metamorphosis (aJU*:;:-!) — is little more than a Prac- titioner's Vade-mecum, chiefly interesting as one of the earliest extant independent medical works in Arabic written by the teacher of the great physician whom we have now to consider. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyd of Ray, hence called in Arabic ar-Rdzi, and by the medieval Latinists "Rhazes," was probably the greatest and most original of all the Muslim physicians, and one of the most prolific as an author. His birth-place, Ray, situated a few miles from Tihrdn, the modern capital of Persia, was one of the most ancient Persian cities, being mentioned in the Avesta"- as "Ragha of the three races," the twelfth of the good lands created by Ahura Mazda. In early life music was his chief interest, and he was a skilful player on the lute. He then devoted himself to Philosophy, but, according to the Qddi Sd'id^ ''did not fathom Metaphysics, nor apprehend its ultimate aim, so that his judgment was troubled and he adopted indefensible views, espoused objectionable \i.e. heterodox] doctrines, and criticized people whom he did not understand, and whose methods he did not follow." Herein he stands in sharp contrast with A vicenna, of whom we shall speak ^ Vendtddd, Fargard ii, v. i6. ^ Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, p. 310. A r-Rdzi ( ' 'Rhazes') 45 presently ; for Avicenna was a better philosopher than physician, but Razi a better physician than philosopher. Rdzi, as Ibn Abi Usaybi*a informs us, spent most of his life in Persia, because it was his native country, and because his brother and his kinsmen dwelt there. His interest in Medicine was aroused, when he was of mature age, by visits to the hospital and conversations with an old druggist or dispenser who served in it. Of the hospital at Ray he ultimately became chief physician, and there he attended regularly, surrounded by his pupils and the pupils of his pupils. Every patient who presented himself was first examined by the latter — the clinical clerks, as we should say '; and if the case proved too difficult for them it was passed on to the Master's immediate pupils, and finally, if necessary, to himself. Subsequently Rdzi became physician-in-chief to the great hospital at Baghdad, about the foundation of which he is said to have been consulted. Being asked to select the most suitable site, he is said to have caused pieces of meat to be hung up in different quarters of the city, and to have chosen the place where they were slowest in showing signs of decomposition. While in Persia he enjoyed the friendship and patronage of Mansdr ibn Ishdq, the ruler of Khurasan, for whom he composed his Kitdbu l-Mansiiri (the *' Liber Al- mansoris"). The chronology of his life is very uncer- tain, for not only do the dates assigned to his death vary between a.d. 903 and 923^ but he has even been associated by some writers^ with the great Bu way hid ^ Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, i, p. 314. ^ Jbid.^ pp. 309-310, but the author expresses the correct opinion that Razi was antecedent to 'Adudu'd-Dawla, and that the hospital with which he was connected only received the name of ^Adudi at a later date. 46 Arabian Medicine. II ruler *Adudu'd-Dawla, who reigned from a.d. 949-982, and who founded the Bimdristdnu I' Adudi, or 'Adudi Hospital, the site of which Rdzi is said to have selected as described above, at the end of his reign. One detail occurring in all the accounts of Razi is that he became blind towards the end of his life from a cataract, and that he refused to undergo an operation on the ground that he desired to see no more of a world with which he was disg-usted and disillusioned. The indirect cause of his blindness is further stated to have been his preoccupation with Alchemy, on which, as we know from the list of his writings given by al-Oifti and Ibn Abi Usaybi^a, he composed twelve treatises. One of them he dedicated and presented to a certain great man, who gave him a large reward, and then bade him apply his science to the actual production of gold. Rdzi made various excuses for declining this test, whereupon the great man lost his temper, accused him of fraud and charlatanism, and struck him a blow on the head which caused him to go blind. Other writers assert that he was secretly strangled for his failure, while others ascribe his blindness to the excessive eating of beans, of which he was very fond. In short his biographers have sought to compensate us for the meagre and conflicting details of his career which they offer us by just such extra- ordinary stories as gathered round the natural philo- sophers of the Middle Ages in Europe, where every student of science who transcended his age was sus- pected of being a magician. When we turn to the writings of Razi, however, we are on surer ground, for there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the list of those given by the three most trustworthy biographers, and said to be based on the author's own notes and statements. The Fihrist, our Writings of Ar-Rdzi 47 oldest authority, enumerates 113 major and 28 minor works by him, besides two poems. Most of these are lost, but what remain are amply sufficient to enable us to appraise his learning, though even of these but few are accessible save in manuscript. Of his many mono- graphs the most celebrated in Europe is his well-known treatise on small-pox and measles, first published in the original Arabic with a Latin translation by Channing (London, 1766). Of this a Latin translation had already appeared in Venice in 1565, and an English version by Greenhill was published by the Sydenham Society in 1848. This tract was formerly known as de Peste or de Pestilentid, and, as Neuburger says\ "on every hand and with justice it is regarded as an ornament to the medical literature of the Arabs." ** It ranks high in importance," he continues, *'in the history of epi- demiology as the earliest monograph upon small-pox, and shows us Rhazes as a conscientious practitioner, almost free from dogmatic prejudices, following in the footsteps of Hippocrates." Another monograph by Razi on stone in the bladder and kidneys has been published in the original, with a French translation (Leyden, 1896), by Dr P. de Koning, who has also published the text and translation of the anatomical portion of the A^//<^^2^7-//ii?x'/, or '* Con tinens," together with the corresponding portions oi x\\^ Kitdbu l- Maliki, or "Liber Regius," of 'AH ibnu'l- 'Abbas and the Qdnun of Avicenna. To Steinschneider we are in- debted for German translations of other tracts by Razi, notably his entertaining work on the success of char- latans and quacks in securing a popularity often denied to the competent and properly qualified physician". ^ Ernest Playfair's translation, vol. i, p. 362. ^ Virchow's Archiv^ vol. xxxvi, pp. 570-586. 48 Arabian Medicine. II Other unpublished monographs by Rdzi exist in various public libraries in Europe and the East. Thus a ms. (Add. 3516) recently acquired by purchase by the Cambridge University Library contains the treatises on gout and rheumatism^ and on colic^ mentioned by al-Qifti. Of general works on Medicine, apart from his numerous monographs, Rdzi composed some half dozen, to wit the Jdmi' or "Compendium," the Kdfi or ** Sufficient," the Lesser and the Greater Madkhal or ** Introduction," the MulUki or '* Royal," compiled for *Ali ibn Veh-Sildhdn the ruler of Tabaristdn, the Fdkhir or "Splendid" (of which, however, the authorship seems to be uncertain), and last but not least the Mansiiri or "Liber Almansoris," of which a Latin translation was published in a.d. 1489, and the Hdwi or *' Con- tinens," of which a Latin translation was published in A.D. i486 at Brescia, and again at Venice in a.d. 1542. This translation is very rare, and the only copy at Cambridge is in the Library of King's College^ It is of the Hdwi or " Continens " only that I propose to speak, since it is by far the largest and most important of Rdzi's works. Unfortunately the study of the Hdwi is fraught with peculiar difficulties. Not only has it never been pub- lished in the original, but no complete manuscript exists, and, indeed, so far as my present knowledge goes, I doubt if more than half of this immense work exists at all at the present day, while the extant volumes are widely dispersed, three volumes in the British Museum, three in the Bodleian, four or five in the Escorial, others at Munich and Petrograd and some abridgments in 1 Ff. 110-142. 2 Yi. 48-62. ' Its class-mark is xv. 4. 2. The Hdwi or ''Continens" 49 Berlin. Moreover there is some uncertainty as to the number and contents of the volumes which the work comprises, for while the Fihrist^ enumerates only 12, the Latin translation contains 25, nor is there any cor- respondence in subject-matter or arrangement. This confusion arises partly, no doubt, from the fact that the Hdwi was a posthumous work, compiled after the death of Rdzi by his pupils from unfinished notes and papers which he left behind him, and lacking the unity of plan and finishing touches which only the author's hand could give, and partly from the fact that the same title seems to have been sometimes applied to another of his larger works. Moreover the Hdwi, on account of its enormous size and the mass of detail which it contained, appalled the most industrious copyists, and was beyond the reach of all save the most wealthy bibliophiles, so that 'AH ibnu'l-'Abbds, of whom I shall next speak, and who wrote only 50 or 60 years after Razi's death, tells us that in his day he only knew of two complete copies ^ From what original the Latin translation was made, and whether or where that original now exists, we are unfortunately ignorant, since the medieval translators did not condescend to mention such details. In face of these difficulties all that I have been able to do is to examine superficially the half dozen volumes in the British Museum and the Bodleian Libraries. Of these the most interesting is Marsh 156 of the latter library, and in particular ff. 239 ^-245 b, of which, through the kindness of Dr Cowley and Professor Margoliouth, I have obtained photographs. I have already said, and indeed it has been generally 1 p. 300. 2 Kdmilu' s-^ind'at {=al-Kitdbu'l-Maliki)i Cairo edition of 1294/ 1877, vol. i, pp. 5-6. 50 Arabian Medicine. II recognized by all authorities on this subject, that it is as a clinical observer that Razi excels all his compeers ; and since the clinical notes of these old '' Arabian " physicians are of much greater interest and importance than their obsolete physiology and pathology or their second-hand anatomy, a careful study of the works of Razi, especially of his great Hdwi ox '' Continens," is probably the most repaying field to which the Arabic scholar interested in Medicine can devote himself. Some of his more celebrated and sensational cases are recorded in such collections of anecdotes as the Arabic Kitdbu I'Faraj ba'da ^ sh-Shidda (" Book of Relief after Distress") of at-Tanukhi (d. a.d. 994), and the Persian Chahdr Maqdla (" Four Discourses "), compiled by Nizami-i-'Ariidi of Samarqand about a.d. 1155. Ibn Abi Usaybi'a says in his Classes of Physicians^, "There are many accounts and various valuable observa- tions by ar-Razi as to what he achieved by his skill in the Art of Medicine, his unique attainments in the healing of the sick, his deduction of their condition through his skill in prognosis, and the information which he gave as to their symptoms and treatment, unto the like of which but few physicians have attained. He has many narratives of what fell within his experience in these and like matters, which are contained in many of his works." Now the dozen pages in the Bodleian ms. referred to above (supposed to be the seventh volume of the Ildwi, but agreeing better with the seventeenth of the Latin translation^), contain precisely such clinical notes as are mentioned by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a. They are ^ Vol. i, p. 311. 2 Book vii of the Latin translation is entitled De passionibus cordis et epatis et splenis', Book xvii De effimera et ethica i^ hectica). Clinical Notes of A r-Rdzi 5 1 entitled ''Illustrative accounts of patients, and narra- tives of unusual cases about which we were doubtful \" Some twenty-four cases are recorded, the full names of the patients being usually given, with the symptoms, treatment and results. They are not easy to understand, the Arabic text being represented by one manuscript only, and the style, apart from apparent scribe's errors, being crabbed and technical. The first case, which I interpret as well as I can, may serve as a specimen. ^Lw ^ lyA w'j-'^ Ahi'w./t OL.o». 0t>^ O^ <^' J^ \^^ O^ ^^15 t^l AU jIjuo Jij aJ:> aIUS o' l5^' *^^*^ 3 l5>^* l«-<9>« j-a1» L5!5*i 0^^ SjJL^ O^ *^ 3 *^ aJUwI j^t Lflul 01 c-Ai^l Jb O 3 '4&t *V.^ O' L5-^' ^^ ^^ "'^ «-^*^ '^ ^^ L5*^ ft 2 MS. jt^^S. 52 Arabian Medicine. II sj\ .>ju o^ ^ ^h^ t\^\ l^\ ^^ ^t ^i ^ j^> Ub ptjjiJt JJU9 ^ jjj Ujj- i^' sioJt Ob ^^ 5^ o^ aJU. 0>«^ ^ ^' ^J^ JW O' J^ '>'^>rv^^ *U»^)t v>« i^j-^ '"Abdu'llah ibn Sawada used to suffer from attacks of mixed fever, sometimes quotidian, sometimes tertian, sometimes quartan, and sometimes recurring once in six days. These attacks were pre- ceded by a slight rigor, and micturition was very frequent. I gave it as my opinion that either these accesses of fever would turn into quartan, or that there was ulceration of the kidneys. Only a short while elapsed ere the patient passed pus in his urine. I thereupon informed him that these feverish attacks would not recur, and so it was. "The only thing which prevented me at first from giving it as my definite opinion that the patient was suffering from ulceration of the kidneys was that he had previously. suffered from tertian and other mixed types of fever, and this to some extent confirmed my suspicion that this mixed fever might be from inflammatory processes which would tend to become quartan when they waxed stronger. "Moreover the patient did not complain to me that his loins felt like a weight depending from him when he stood up; and I neglected to ask him about this. The frequent micturition also should have strengthened my suspicion of ulceration of the kidneys, but I did not know that his father suffered from weakness of the bladder and was subject to this complaint, and it used likewise to come upon him when he was healthy \ and it ought not to be the case henceforth, till the end of his life, if God will. "So when he passed the pus I administered to him diuretics until the urine became free from pus, after which I treated him with terra sigillata, Boswellia thurifera, and Dragon's Blood, and his sickness departed from him, and he was quickly and completely cured in about two months. That the ulceration was slight was indicated to me by the fact that he did not complain to me at first of weight in the loins. After he had passed pus, however, I enquired of him whether he had experienced this symptom, and he replied in the affirmative. Had the ^ I.e. before he suffered from fever. 'AH, ibmtl-' Abbas {''Hafy Abbas'') 53 ulceration been extensive, he would of his own accord have complained of this symptom. And that the pus was evacuated quickly indicated a limited ulceration. The other physicians whom he consulted besides myself, however, did not understand the case at all, even after the patient had passed pus in his urine." In spite of several difficulties, both verbal and material, which I have not yet been able to solve to my satisfaction, the general nature of this case seems fairly clear. The patient suffered from intermittent and ir- regular attacks of fever preceded by slight rigors, which, in a land infested with ague, were diagnosed and treated as malarial, though really septic in origin. R4zi himself at first took this view, but subsequently, observing the presence of pus in the urine, diagnosed the case as one of pyelitis, and treated it accordingly with success. We now come to the third name in our list, 'Ali ibnu'l-'Abbis, known in Europe in the Middle Ages as *' Haly Abbas," of whose Kztdbu l-Maliki, or " Liber Regius," the Latin translation by *' Stephen the Philo- sopher," with annotations by Michael de Capella, was printed at Lyons in 1523. The notice of him given by al-Qifti' is so short that it may be translated in full : '*Ali ibnu'l-' Abbas al-Majiisi (the Magian or Zoroastrian), an accomplished and perfect physician of Persian origin, known as ' the son of the Magian.' He studied with a Persian professor (Shaykh) known as Abu Mihir [Musa ibn Sayyar], and also studied and worked by himself, and acquainted himself with the writings of the ancients. He composed for the King 'Adudu'd-Dawla Fanakhusraw the Buwayhid' his Sys- tem of Medicine entitled ^/-J/a/2>^/('' the Royal"), which is a splendid work and a noble thesaurus comprehending the science andpracticedf Medicine, admirably arranged. ^ p. 232. ^ Reigned 949-982. BAM 54 Arabian Medicine, II It enjoyed great popularity in its day and was diligently studied, until the appearance of Avicenna's Qdniln, which usurped its popularity and caused the Maliki to be somewhat neglected. The latter excels on the practical and the former on the scientific side." The Fihrist no longer serves us, as it was com- pleted at a date antecedent to that of which we are now speaking, and the only important particular added by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a' is that 'All ibnu'l-'Abbds was a native of Ahwdz in S.W. Persia, not far from the once great medical school of Jundi-Shapur of which so much was said in the last lecture ; while his nisba or title of al-Majusi indicates that his father or grandfather origi- nally belonged to the old Persian religion of Zoroaster. Neither he nor his master Abii Mdhir wrote much; the Maliki is the only work ascribed to him by the bio- graphers, though Brockelmann^ mentions a ms. at Gotha containing another medical treatise attributed to him, while only two works by his master are mentioned, a treatise on phlebotomy, and a supplement to one of Ishaq ibn Hunayn's smaller manuals on practical Medicine. Although we know no more of the life of *Ali ibnu '1-' Abbas than the meagre details just mentioned, and of his date only that he was contemporary with the great and enlightened 'Adudu'd-Dawla, the founder of the *Adudi Hospital at Baghdad, who flourished in the latter half of the tenth century, his work, the Maliki or " Liber Regius," is the most accessible and most read- able of the great Arabic Systems, of Medicine, since an excellent edition in two volumes was printed at Cairo in 1 294/1877, and the Latin version, though rare, is ^ Vol. i, pp. 236-7. ^ Gesch. d. Arab. Litt.^ vol. i, p. 237. Al-Kitabu'1-Maliki {''Liber Regius'') 55 fortunately not included amongst the Incunabula, and can therefore be borrowed from the libraries which possess it. The Arabic text comprises some 400,000 words, and is divided into 20 Discourses, each sub- divided into numerous chapters, of which the first ten deal with the theory, and the second ten with the practice of Medicine. The second and third of these Discourses, dealing with Anatomy, have been published with a French translation by Dr P. de Koning (Leyden, 1903) in his Trois Trait ^s d'Anatomie Arabes (pp. 90-431). The nineteenth Discourse, containing no chapters, is devoted entirely to Surgery \ The introductory portion of the book, comprising the first three chapters of the first Discourse, is very well written and very interesting, especially the criticism of previous works on Medicine. Of the Greek physicians he discusses especially Hippocrates, Galen, Oribasius and Paul of ^gina; of the Syrians and Muslims, Ahriin the Priest, Yuhanna ibn Serapion, and ar-Razi. He finds Hippocrates too concise and hence sometimes obscure, and Galen too diffuse ; he criticizes Oribasius and Paul of /^gina for omitting or dealing inadequately with Anatomy, Surgery, Natural Philosophy, Humoral Pathology, and the Etiology of disease. Of the moderns he finds the work of Ahrun alone adequate in its scope, but complains of the badness and obscurity of the Arabic translation. Ibn Serapion, he says, ignores Surgery, omits all mention of many important diseases which he enumerates, including Aneurism, and arranges his materials badly and unsystematically. I have already alluded to his observations on the enormous size and prolixity of Razi's "Continens," which placed it beyond the reach of all save the very wealthy, and so led to an ^ pp. 454-516 of vol. ii of the Cairo edition. 5-2 56 Arabian Medicine, II extreme scarcity of manuscripts, even within a short time of the author's death, while Razi's other and better- known work the Manstiri he finds unduly concise. He then explains the plan of his own book, in which he seeks to find a via media between undue conciseness and prolixity, and illustrates his method by a specimen description of pleurisy. He begins with the definition of the disease and its aetiology ; then proceeds to the four constant symptoms, fever, cough, pain and dyspnoea; whence he passes to the prognosis, and especially the indications furnished by the sputa, and concludes with the treatment. His remarks at the end of this chapter on the importance of regular attendance at the hospitals are worth quoting\ "And of those things which are incumbent on the student of this Art are that he should constantly attend the hospitals and sick-houses ; pay unremitting attention to the conditions and circumstances of their inmates, in company with the most acute professors of Medicine; and enquire frequently as to the state of the patients and the symptoms apparent in them, bearing in mind what he has read about these variations, and what they indicate of good or evil. If he does this, he will reach a high degree in this Art. Therefore it behoves him who desires to be an accomplished physician to follow closely these injunctions, to form his character in accordance with what we have mentioned therein, and not to neglect them. If he does this, his treatment of the sick will be successful ; people will have confidence in him and be favourably disposed towards him, and he will win their affection and respect and a good reputa- ^ Vol. i, p. 9. The corresponding passage in the Latin translation occurs in the upper part of the left-hand column of f. 7^ of the Lyons edition of a.d. 1523. Fees received by leading Physicians 57 tion ; nor withal will he lack profit and advantage from them. And God Most High knoweth best." In connection with the concluding words of the above extract, something may be said here as to the fees earned by one of the most eminent physicians under the early 'Abbasid Caliphs, viz. Jibrd'il ibn Bukht-Yishu*, who died about a.d. 830. According to al-Qifti^ he received out of the public funds a monthly salary of 10,000 dirhams, and from the Privy Purse 50,000 dirhams at the beginning of each year, besides clothes to the value of 10,000 dirhams. For bleeding the Caliph Hdriinu'r-Rashid twice a year he was paid 100,000 dirhams, and an equal sum for administering a biennial purgative draught. From the nobles of the Court he received in cash and kind 400,000 dirhams a year, and from the great Barmecide family 1,400,000 dirhams. According to al-Qifti's computation, the total amount which he received in these ways, apart from what he earned privately from lesser patients, during his 23 years' service of Hdrunu'r-Rashid and his 13 years' service of the Barmecides, amounted to 88,800,000 dir- hams, a sum equivalent, if we accept von Kremer* s^ estimate of the dirham as roughly equivalent to a franc, to more than three and a half million pounds sterling. I come now to the last and most famous of the four Persian physicians of whom I propose to speak to-day, viz. Avicenna, or, to give him his correct name, Abu 'AH Husayn ibn 'Abdu'llah ibn Sind, generally entitled ash'Shaykhur-Rdis, the ** Chief Master," or al-Mu 'alliwMth-Thdni, the "Second Teacher," to wit after Aristotle. The difficulty here is to decide what to say 1 pp. 142-3. ' Culturgeschichte d. Orients, vol. i, p. 15 ad calc. 58 Arabian Medicine. II out of so much that deserves mention, for in Avicenna, philosopher, physician, poet and man of affairs, the so- called Arabian science culminates, and is, as it were, personified. In the limits prescribed to me it would be impossible to enumerate his multitudinous writings on philosophy and science, or to narrate the details of a life of which he himself kept a record, still preserved to us, up to his twenty-first year, and of which the remainder has been recorded by his pupil and friend Abu *Ubayd of Juzjan. His father, an adherent of the Isma'ili sect, was from Balkh and his mother from a village near Bukhard, and he was born about a.d. 980. At the age of ten he was already proficient in the Qurdn and the Arabic classics. During the six succeed- ing years he devoted himself to Muslim Jurisprudence, Philosophy and Natural Science, and studied Logic, Euclid, the ^Eiaayayyt], and the Almagest, He turned his attention to Medicine at the age of sixteen, and found it "not difficult," but was greatly troubled by metaphysical problems, until, by a fortunate chance, he obtained possession of a small and cheap manual by the celebrated philosopher al-F4rdbi, which solved his difficulties. When he was not much more than eighteen years old his reputation as a physician was such that he was summoned to attend the Sdmani ruler Niih ibn Mansiir (reigned a.d. 976-997), who, in gratitude for his services, allowed him to make free use of the royal library, which contained many rare and even unique books. This library was subsequently destroyed by fire, and Avicenna s detractors did not scruple to assert that he himself had purposely burned it so as to enjoy a monopoly of the learning he had derived from it. At the age of twenty-one he lost his father, and about the same time composed his first book. He entered the Avicenna^s Life and Adventures 59 service of 'All ibn Ma'miin, the ruler of Khwarazm or Khiva, for a while, but ultimately fled thence to avoid the attempt of Sultin Mahmiid of Ghazna to kidnap him. After many wanderings he came to Jurjan, attracted by the fame of its ruler Qdbus as a patron of learning, but the deposition and murder of that prince almost coincided with his arrival, and he bitterly ex- claimed in a poem which he composed on this occasion : i 6 ^ w 9 J w ^^When I became great no country had room for me ; When my price went up I lacked a purchaser ^ Such a ''purchaser," however, he ultimately found in the Amir Shamsu'd-Dawla of Hamadan, whom he cured of the colic, and who made him his Prime Minister. A mutiny of the soldiers against him caused his dismissal and imprisonment, but subsequently the Amir, being again attacked by the colic, summoned him back, apologized to him, and reinstated him. His life at this time was extraordinarily strenuous; all day he was busy with the Amir's service, while a great part of the night was passed in lecturing and dictating notes for his books, with intervals of wine-drinking and minstrelsy. After many vicissitudes, which time forbids me to enumerate, but which are minutely chronicled by his faithful friend and disciple Abu 'Ubayd of Jiizjan, Avicenna, worn out by hard work and hard living, died in 428/1036-7 at the comparatively early age of 58. In his last illness he treated himself unsuccessfully, so that it was said by his detractors that neither could his physic save his body nor his metaphysics his souP. ^ The verses in question are given by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a {Taba- qdtu' l-Atibbd, vol. ii, p. 6), and in the notes to my forthcoming trans- lation of the Chahdr Maqdla ("E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, vol. xi, 2, p. 156). 6o Arabian Medicine. II His writings were numerous and in many cases voluminous, some of his major works comprising as many as twenty volumes. The professedly complete list of them given by al-Qifti' includes the titles of 2 1 major and 24 minor works on philosophy, medicine, theology, geometry, astronomy, philology and the like. Most of these are in Arabic ; but in Persian, his native language, he wrote one large book, a manual of philosophical sciences entitled Ddnish-ndma-i-'Al(£i (represented by a MS. in the British Museum^), and a small treatise on the Pulse. The list given by Brockelmann in his Ge- schichte der Arabischen Litteratur (vol. i, pp. 452-458), which includes only extant works, is, however, much more extensive than al-Qifti's, and comprises 68 books on theology and metaphysics, 1 1 on astronomy and natural philosophy, 16 on medicine, and 4 in verse, 99 books in all. His most celebrated Arabic poem is that describing the descent of the Soul into the Body from the Higher Sphere ( fij^t J*^0 which is its home, a poem of real beauty, of which a translation is given in my Literary History of Persia (vol. ii, pp. i lo-i 1 1 ). The industry of the late Dr Eth^ has also collected from various biographical works 1 5 short Persian poems, mostly quatrains, comprising in all some forty verses, which are ascribed to Avicenna. Of these the best known is commonly, but probably falsely, ascribed to *Umar Khayydm, at least one fifth of whose reputed quatrains are attributed on as good or better evidence to other people. The quatrain in question is the one translated by FitzGerald: ^ Ed. Lippert, p, 418. 2 Or. 16, 830. See Rieu's Pers. Cat, pp. 433-4. Mr A. G. Ellis has called my attention to a lithographed edition of this work, pub- lished in India in 1309/1891. Avicenna's Poems 6i ''''Up fr 0711 Earth's Centre through the Seventh Gate I rose J and on the Throne of Saturn sate, And many a knot unravelled by the Road, But not the Master-knot of Human Fate^ The original, as given in the Majma'u l-Fusahd}, runs as follows: Of Avicenna's medical works exactly half, viz. 8, are versified treatises on such matters as the 25 signs indi- cating the fatal termination of illnesses, hygienic pre- cepts, proved remedies, anatomical memoranda, and the like. One or two of them have been published in the East, but I have not seen them. I imagine, however, that they are of little value either as verse or as science. Of his prose works, after the great Qdnicn, the treatise on Cardiac Drugs (aIjLaJI AJ^^^)t), of which the British Museum possesses several fine old manuscripts, is probably the most important, but it remains unpublished, and is inaccessible beyond the walls of that and a few other great public libraries ^ The Qdniln is, of course, by far the largest, the most famous, and the most important of Avicenna's medical works, and at the same time the most accessible, both in the original Arabic and in the Latin translation of Gerard of Cremona. There is a modern Egyptian edition of the Arabic text, besides the Roman edition of A.D. 1593; and a fine Venetian translation into Latin published in 1544. The work contains not m.uch less than a million words, and, like most Arabic books, is 1 Vol. i, p. 68. ^ Berlin, Gotha, Leyden, and the Escorial, 62 Arabian Medicine, II elaborately divided and subdivided. The main division is into five Books, of which the first treats of general principles ; the second of simple drugs arranged alpha- betically ; the third of diseases of particular organs and members of the body, from the head to the feet ; the fourth of diseases which, though local and partial in their inception, tend to spread to other parts of the body, such as fevers ; and the fifth of compound medicines. These descriptions are in fact very inadequate. Thus Book IV treats not only of fevers, but of critical days, prognosis, tumours and ulcers, fractures, dislocations and toxicology. I had intended to discuss this great and celebrated book more fully than the time at my disposal to-day actually allows, but this is of the less consequence inas- much as the College has done me the honour of inviting me to deliver the FitzPatrick lectures again next year, when I hope to recur to it in connection with the topics of which I shall then have to treat. Its encyclopaedic character, its systematic arrangement, its philosophic plan, perhaps even its dogmatism, combined with the immense reputation of its author in other fields besides Medicine, raised it to a unique position in the medical literature of the Muslim world, so that the earlier works of ar-Razi and al-Majilsi, in spite of their undoubted merits, were practically abrogated by it, and it is still regarded in the East by the followers of the old Greek Medicine, the Tibb-i'Yundni, as the last appeal on all matters connected with the healing art. In proof of this state- ment, and to show the extraordinary reverence in which Avicenna is held, I will conclude with a quotation from that pleasant work the Chahdr Maqdla, or " Four Dis- courses," composed in Persian in the middle of the twelfth century of our era, and dealing with four classes The Qdnun of Avicenna 63 of men, to wit Secretaries of State, Poets, Astrologers and Physicians, deemed by the author, Nizami-i-'Ariidi of Samarqand, indispensable for the service of kings. After enumerating a number of books which should be diligently studied by him who aspires to eminence in Medicine, the author says that if he desires to be in- dependent of all other works he may rest satisfied with the Qdnun, and thus continues^: " The Lord of the two Worlds and Guide of the two Material Races saith : ' Every kind of game is com- prehended in the Wild Ass! All this, together with much more, is to be found in the Qdnun, and from him who hath mastered the first volume thereof nothing will be hidden concerning the general theory and principles of Medicine, so that could Hippocrates and Galen return to life, it would be proper that they should do reverence to this book. Yet have I heard a wonderful thing, to wit that one hath taken exception to Abii 'All [Avicenna] in respect to this work, and hath embodied his criticisms in a book which he hath entitled the Rectification of the Qdnun^ It is as though I looked upon both, and saw how foolish is the author and how detestable his work. For what right hath anyone to find fault with so great a man, when the very first question he meets with in a book of his which he comes across is difficult to his comprehension "^ For four thousand years the physicians of antiquity travailed in spirit and spent their very souls in order to reduce the science of ^ The passage cited occurs on pp. 70-71 of the text of the Chahdr Maqdla published in 19 10 in the "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, vol. xi, and on pp. iio-iii of the separate reprint of the translation which I published in 1899 in \}i\& Jouimal of the Royal Asiatic Society. In my new revised translation, which will appear shortly as vol. xi, 2 of the Gibb Series, it will be found on pp. 79-80. 64 Arabian Medicine. II Philosophy to some fixed order, yet could they not effect this ; until after the lapse of this period that pure philo- sopher and most great thinker Aristotle weighed out this coin in the balance of Logic, assayed it with the touch- stone of Definitions, and measured it with the measure of Analogy, so that all doubt and uncertainty departed from it, and it was established on a sure and critical basis. And during these fifteen centuries which have elapsed since his time, no philosopher has won to the inmost essence of his doctrine, nor travelled the high road of his pre-eminence save that most excellent of the moderns, the Philosopher of the East, the Proof of God to mankind, Abii *Ali Husayn ibn 'Abdu'llah ibn Sind [Avicenna]. Whosoever, therefore, finds fault with these two great men will have cast himself out from the fellowship of the wise, ranked himself with madmen, and revealed himself as fit company only for fools. May God by His Grace and Favour keep us from such stumblings and vain imaginings ! " LECTURE III OEFORE proceeding further with my subject, it may, perhaps, be well that I should recapitulate very briefly the main points I endeavoured to establish in the two lectures which I had the honour of delivering before you last year. I pointed out that the term ''Arabian Medicine" (to which *' Islamic Medicine" would be preferable) can be justified only if we regard the language which serves as its vehicles and the auspices under which it was evolved ; that it was an eclectic synthesis of more ancient systems, chiefly Greek, but in a lesser degree Indian and old Persian, with a tincture of other exotic systems less easily to be identified; and that the Medicine of the Arabian people at the time of their Prophet's advent, that is in the early seventh century of the Christian era, was, as it continues to be, of the most primitive type. In this connection I referred to the observations of Dr Zwemer in his Arabia, the Cradle of Isldm, and I must now add a reference to a very interesting little book in Arabic by an Egyptian doctor, 'Abdu'r-Rahmdn Efendi Isma'fl, published at Cairo in 1892 or 1893, on the popular medicine and medical superstitions of his countrymen, and, still more, of his countrywomen. This system, if such it can be called, is entitled Tibbu r-Rukka^ , roughly equivalent in meaning to " Old Wives' Medicine," and is fiercely exposed and denounced by the author, who regards its survival until ^ On the word Rukka, which is apparently borrowed from the Italian rocco, see an interesting observation by Vollers in vol. xxi of the Z. D. M. G. (1897), p. 322. 66 Arabian Medicine, III the present day in a country like Egypt, supposed to be in touch with modern enlightenment, as an abomination. In the development of Arabian Medicine in the wider sense, that is to say, the adaptation of ancient Greek Medicine to the general system of civilization and science eclectically built up by Muslim scholars and thinkers during the ''Golden Prime" of the Caliphate of Baghdad, namely from the middle of the eighth century of our era onwards, I distinguished two periods, that of the translation into Arabic of the masterpieces of Greek medical literature, destined to form the basis of further study; and that of the Arabic-speaking or at any rate Arabic-writing physicians (many of whom were Jews, Christians, Sabaeans and even Zoroastrians), who, checking or modifying this material in the light of their own experience, produced more or less independent works. Of these I briefly discussed four of the most notable who flourished in Persia between a.d. 850 and A.D. 1036, the year in which died Abu *Ali ibn Sina, familiar to the West as Avicenna, the three others being *Ali ibn Rabban, who composed his ''Paradise of Wis- dom" for the Caliph al-Mutawakkil in a.d. 850; Abii Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya ar-Rdzi, familiar to medieval Europe as Rhazes; and 'Ali ibnu'l-'Abbas al- Majusi, called by the Latino- Barbari of the Middle Ages " Haly Abbas." I briefly described four of the chief works of these four great physicians, namely the " Para- dise of Wisdom" (which, from its extreme rarity, has hitherto remained unnoticed outside the Arabic Cata- logues of the British Museum and Berlin) ; the Hdwi or "Continens"; the Kdmilus-Sind^at or "Liber Re- gius"; and the Qdnun or "Canon of Medicine" of Avicenna. I further expressed my agreement with the view, advanced by Neuburger, Pagel and other historians Early Muslims^ Love of Learning 67 of Medicine, that, notwithstanding the greater celebrity achieved by Avicenna, Razi, by virtue of his clinical observations (some of which are preserved to us in a manuscript volume of the Hdwi in the Bodleian Library ^), deserves to rank highest of the four, and perhaps of all the physicians produced by Isldm during the thirteen centuries of its existence. To his work, and to that of the three other physicians just mentioned, I would gladly recur, should the brief time at my disposal allow, but other matters connected with the history, literature and status of Medicine in the Muslim world demand prior consideration, so that the whole field may be sur- veyed before any attempt is made to fill in details. It has been already pointed out that the Muslims were rather the faithful transmitters of the ancient learning of Greece than the creators of a new system. Withington, in his excellent little Medical History'^, puts the case so well that I cannot do better than quote his words. '' This display of physical vigour," he says, after describing the wonderful conquests of the Arabs in the seventh century, " was followed by an intellectual activity hardly less wonderful. A Byzantine emperor was astonished to find that the right of collecting and purchasing Greek manuscripts was among the terms dictated by a victorious barbarian, and that an illustrated copy of Dioscorides was the most acceptable present he could offer to a friendly chieftain. The philosophers of Constantinople were amazed by the appearance of Muslim writers whom they styled with reluctant ad- miration * learned savages,' while the less cultured Christians soon came to look upon the wisdom of the Saracens as something more than human. It was this ^ Marsh 156, ff. 239 ^-246 a. See pp. 50-3 supra. ^ The Scientific Press, London, 1894, pp. 138-9. 68 Arabian Medicine. Ill people who now took from the hands of unworthy suc- cessors of Galen and Hippocrates the flickering torch of Greek medicine. They failed to restore its ancient splendour, but they at least prevented its extinction, and they handed it back after five centuries burning more brightly than before." '* Five centuries," however, is an over-statement, for while Avicenna was still in the prime of life there was born in North Africa, probably in Tunis, a man of whose biography little is known, but who was destined to become famous, under the name of Constantinus Afri- canus, as the first to make known to Western Europe the learning of the Arabs through the medium of the Latin tongue\ He attached himself to the celebrated medical school of Salerno — the '*Civitas Hippocratica" — and died at Monte Casino, after a life of great literary activity, about a.d. 1087, exactly a century before the still more famous Oriental.scholar and translator Gerard of Cremona. To these two, and to the Jewish physician Faraj ibn Sdlim (Fararius or Faragut), who completed his translation of the ''Continens" of Rdzi in a.d. 1279, medieval Europe was chiefly indebted for its knowledge of Arabian Medicine. The transmission of ideas between East and W^st was effected, however, through other than literary channels. However great may have been the bitterness of feeling on both sides associated with the Crusades, it is astonishing how much friendly intercourse took place in the intervals of fighting between the Crusaders and their Saracen antagonists. Amongst many somewhat arid chronicles there has been preserved to us, and ^ See an article on his work in vol. xxxvii (pp. 351-410) of Vir- chow's Archiv (Berlin, 1866) by that most erudite Orientalist Moritz Steinschneider. Saracen Scorn of Prankish Medicine 69 rendered available by M. Hartwig Derenbourg in the original Arabic accompanied by a French translation^, the illuminating memoirs of a Saracen Amir named Usdma ibn Munqidh, who flourished in Syria in the twelfth century, and spent most of his life in fighting the Franks. He was born in a.d. 1095, the very year in which the Crusaders captured Antioch and Jerusalem, and died in A.D. 1 188. It was during a temporary lull in the fighting between a.d. i 140 and 1 143 that his intercourse with the Franks chiefly fell. In his discursive but entertaining memoirs he discusses many of their customs and characteristics which seemed to him curious or enter- taining, andamongst other matters relates several strange stories about their medical practiced At the request of the Frankish Warden of the Castle of Munaytira in the Lebanon, Usama's uncle sent his Christian physician Thdbit to treat certain persons who lay sick there. Ten days later Thdbit returned, and was greeted with con- gratulations on the rapidity with which he had cured his patients. For these congratulations, however, there was, as he explained, no occasion. On his arrival they introduced to him two patients, a man suffering from an abscess in the leg, and a consumptive woman. These he proceeded to treat, the first by poultices, the second by suitable diet and drugs. Both were progressing satis- factorily when a Frankish doctor intervened, and, de- nouncing the treatment pursued as useless, turned to the male patient and asked him whether he would prefer to die with two legs or to live with one. The patient expressed his preference for the second alternative, whereupon the Frankish doctor summoned a stalwart ^ Leroux, Paris, 1886-1893. '^ These will be found on pp. 97-101 of the Arabic text and pp. 491-4 of the French translation. BAM 6 JO Arabian Medicine. Ill man-at-arms with an axe, and bade him chop off the patient's leg at one blow. This he failed to do, and at the second blow the marrow was crushed out of the bone and the patient almost immediately expired. The Prankish doctor then turned his attention to the woman, and, after examining her, declared her to be possessed of a devil which was located in her head. He ordered her hair to be shaved off and that she should return to the ordinary diet of her compatriots, garlic and oil ; and when she grew worse he made a deep cruciform incision on her head, exposing the bone, and rubbed salt into the wound, whereupon the woman also expired. " After this," concluded Thibit, *' I asked if my services were any longer required, and, receiving a negative answer, returned home, having learned of their medical practice what had hitherto been unknown to me." Usama relates another similar anecdote on the au- thority of Guillaume de Bures\ with whom he travelled from Acre to Tiberias. ^' There was with us in our country," said Guillaume, "a very doughty knight, who fell ill and was at the point of death. As a last resource we applied to a Christian priest of great authority and entrusted the patient to him, saying, * Come with us to examine such-and-such a knight.' He agreed and set off with us. Our belief was that he had only to lay hands upon him to cure him. As soon as the priest saw the patient, he said, ' Bring me wax.' We brought him some, and he softened it and made [two plugs] like the joints of a finger, each of which he thrust into one of the patient's nostrils ; whereupon he expired. ' He is dead,' we exclaimed. 'Yes,' replied the priest; 'he was suffering, and I plugged his nostrils so that he might die and be at peace!'" ^ Op. cit, text, p. loij translation, p. 494. Medicine amongst the Crusaders 7 1 To the Arabs of that period, then, as we can well understand, Prankish medicine appeared most barbarous and primitive compared with their own; and it is not surprising that, when Usama was himself attacked by a chill accompanied by rigors at Shayzar, he preferred the services of an Arab physician, Shaykh Abu'1-Wafa Tamim, to those of a Prankish doctor\ Yet, in justice to the Pranks, he relates two cases of successful treatment by their medical practitioners; one of a certain Bernard, treasurer to Count Poulques of Anjou, whom Usdma describes as ''one of the most accursed of the Pranks and the foulest of them," whose death he earnestly desired and prayed for^; and the other of the scrofulous child of an Arab artisan named Abu 1- Path I The former suffered from an injury to the leg caused by a kick from his horse, and fourteen incisions had been made which refused to heal until the Prankish doctor finally consulted removed all the ointments and plasters which had been applied to the wounds, and bathed them with very strong vinegar, as a result of which treatment they gradually healed, and the patient, to quote Usdma's expression, "was cured and arose like the Devil," or, as we should say, ready for any fresh mischief The scrofulous boy had been taken to Antioch by his father, who had business there, and aroused the compassion of a Prank with whom they foregathered. '* Swear to me by thy faith," said he to the father, ''that, if I impart to thee a remedy to heal him, thou wilt accept no pecuniary recompense from anyone whom thou mayst treat therewith, and I will give thee the recipe." The father gave the required Op. cit.j text, p. 137; translation, p. 491. cii.^ text, D. q8: translation, dd. 4.02-' 6-2 Up. at. J text, p. 137; translation, p. 491. ^ Op. cii., text, p. 98; translation, pp. 492-3. ^ Op. cit.y text, pp. 98-9; translation, pp. 493-4 72 Arabian Medicine. Ill assurance, and was instructed to take unpounded soda, heat it and mix it with olive oil and strong vinegar, and apply the mixture to the strumous ulcers in the child's neck, this to be followed by the application of what Usama calls "burnt lead" mixed with butter or grease. The boy, we read, was cured, and the same treatment was subsequently employed with success in other cases. The above anecdotes do not exhaust the medical material contained in these interesting memoirs. There was a somewhat notable Arab Christian physician named Ibn Butlan who died about a.d. 1063, and was the author of numerous medical works (enumerated by Leclerc' and Brockelmann^), of the most celebrated of which, the Taqwimu s-Sihha, a Latin translation entitled Tacuini Sanitatis was printed at Strassburg in a.d. 1531 or 1532. A copy of this work is included amongst the Arabic mss. of this college. Ibn Butlin, in the course of his extensive travels, was for a time in attendance on Usama's great-grandfather at Shayzar, and our author records some of the anecdotes about him still current in the household when he was young. One of these is of a dropsical man whose case Ibn Butldn gave up as hopeless, and whom he subsequently met completely cured of his malady. In reply to enquiries as to the treatment which had proved so successful, the man declared no one had attempted to do anything to alleviate his misery except his old mother, who had daily given him a piece of bread soaked in vinegar which she took from a jar. Ibn ButUn asked to see the jar, poured out the remains of the vinegar, and dis- covered at the bottom two vipers which had fallen into it and become partly macerated or dissolved. '' O my ^ Hist, de la Medecine Arabe^ vol. i, pp. 489-492. " Gesch. d. Arab. LUt.^ vol. i, p. 483. Medicine in Arabic Literature 73 son," he exclaimed, ''none but God, mighty and glorious is He, could have cured thee with a decoction of vipers in vinegar^ ! " On another occasion a man came to Ibn Butldn in his surgery at Aleppo complaining of hoarseness and complete loss of voice, and stating in reply to enquiries as to his occupation that he was a sifter of earth. Ibn Butlan made him drink half a pint of strong vinegar, whereupon he was presently seized with vomiting and threw up a quantity of mud with the vinegar, after which his throat was cleared and his speech became normal. Ibn Butlan said to his son and his pupils who were present, " Treat no one with this remedy or you will kill him. As for this man, some of the dust from the sieve had stuck in his gullet and nothing but vinegar could have dislodged it"." I have already observed how general was the interest taken in medical topics in the medieval Muslim world. A very popular branch of literature, both in Arabic and Persian, was constituted by collections of strange and quaint anecdotes, called Nawddir, in which the historical or quasi-historical stories are grouped under appropriate headings. In such books a special section is often devoted to Medicine and Physicians. The material thus afforded, though it has not hitherto attracted much attention, appears to me worthy of some notice. One of the older Arabic books of this sort is a work entitled al-Faraj ba'da ' sh-Shidda ("Joy after Sorrow," or better, perhaps, "Relief after Distress") by the Qadi Abu 'All at-Tanukhi, who was born in a.d. 939 and ^ Op. cii.^ text, p. 135; translation, pp. 488-9. ^ Op. cit.^ text, pp. 135-6; translation, p. 489. 74 Arabian Medicine, III died in a.d. 994. This book was printed in Cairo in 1903-4 in two volumes. It comprises 14 chapters, of which the tenth (pp. 94-104 of vol. ii) deals with remarkable cases and contains 15 anecdotes, some of which are trivial or disgusting, while others are of con- siderable interest. Two of them, which I shall notice first, are connected with the great physician Abii Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya ar-Rdzi (Rhazes) of whom I spoke last year in the second of my two lectures, and with whom our author was almost contemporary. The first of these ^ is about a young man of Baghdad who came to Rhazes complaining of haematemesis. Careful examination failed to reveal the cause or explain the symptom. The patient was in despair, believing that where Rhazes failed, none could succeed. Rhazes, touched alike by his distress and his faith, then pro- ceeded to question him very carefully as to the water he had drunk on his journey, and ascertained that in some cases it had been drawn from stagnant ponds. ''When I come to-morrow," said he to the patient, '*I will treat you, and not leave you until you are cured, on condition that you will order your servants to obey me in all that I command them concerning thee." The patient gave the required promise, and Rhazes returned next day with two vessels filled with a water-weed called in Arabic Tuhlub and in Persian Jd^na-i-Ghuk ("Frog's coat") or Pashm-i-Wazagh'^ (''Frog's wool"), which he ordered the patient to swallow. The patient, having swallowed a considerable quantity, declared ^ Vol. ii, p. 96. The story is also given by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a, vol. i, pp. 31 1-3 1 2. ^ Identified by Achundow (pp. 231 and 383) with Lemna or Herba Lentis Palustris^ the ^aKos of Dioscorides, in German Wasserlinde. At the present day it is called by the V ox^izxi^ Jul-i-Wazagh. Celebrated Cures of R hazes 75 himself unable to take any more, whereupon Rhazes ordered the servants to hold him on his back on the ground and open his mouth, into which he continued to cram more and more of the nauseous substance until violent vomiting ensued. Examination of the vomit revealed a leech which was the source of the trouble, and with the expulsion of which the patient regained his health. This same anecdote occurs in the Persian collection of stories by 'Awfi of which I shall shortly speak, and it is there added that the leech when swallowed in the drinking-water had attached itself to the mouth of the patient's stomach and there remained until in- duced to transfer itself to the more congenial water- weed. In the next anecdote^ Rhazes is represented as describing the case of a dropsical boy whose father consulted him at Bistam in N.E. Persia as he was returning from his celebrated cure of the Amir of Khurdsan^ for whom he composed his ''Liber Alman- soris." Rhazes declared the case to be hopeless, and advised the father to let his son eat and drink whatever he pleased. Twelve months later he returned to the same town, and, to his great astonishment, found the boy completely restored to health. On enquiring how this had come about, he was told that the boy, de- spairing of health and life, and wishing to put an end to his existence, had one day observed a great snake approach a bowl of madira (a kind of broth prepared with sour milk) which was standing on the ground, drink some of it, and then vomit into the rest, which ^ Al-Faraj\vo\. ii, pp. 103-104, and Ibn Abi Usaybi'a,vol. i, p. 312. - Really the governor of Ray, Mansilr ibn Ishaq ibn Ahmad. See my translation of the Chahdr Maqdla ("E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series, xi, 2, p. 150). 76 Arabian Medicine, III shortly changed colour. Thinking to put an end to his life with this poisonous mixture he consumed the greater part of it, after which he fell into a deep sleep, from which he awoke in a copious perspiration, and, after violent purging, found that he was quit of his dropsy and his appetite had returned. A third anecdote similar to the last, related by a man named Abu *Ali *Umar ibn Yahyi al-*Alawi\ con- cerns a fellow-pilgrim from Kiifa who suffered from dropsy and was kidnapped with his camel by Arab marauders. One day his captors entered the hut where he was lying, bringing some snakes which they had caught, and which they proceeded to roast and eat after they had cut off their heads and tails. He, hoping that this unaccustomed food would poison him, craved a portion and ate it, when, after experiencing precisely the same symptoms as the sufferer mentioned in the last story, he similarly found himself cured of his sickness. A fourth anecdote^ is of a boy who suffered from violent pain and throbbing in the stomach for which no cause or cure could be found, though he was examined by many physicians of Ahwaz in S. W. Persia, a well-known town situated near the once famous medical school of Jundi-Shdpiir, of which I spoke in a previous lecture. Finally he was sent home, and there a passing physician, not named, cross-examined him at length and discovered that his ailment dated from a day when he had eaten pomegranates stored in a cow-house. The physician next day brought him broth made with the flesh of a fat puppy, and bade him take as much as he could of it, while refusing to make known its nature. Then he gave him to eat a quantity of melon, and two hours later beer mixed with hot ^ Al-Faraj\ vol. ii, p. loo. ^ Ibid.y vol. ii, pp. 96-7. Dropsy cured by a Diet of Locusts yy water, after which he informed him how the broth had been prepared. Thereupon the patient was violently sick, and in his vomit the physician presently discovered ''a black thing like a large date-stone which moved," and which proved to be a sheep- or cattle-tick which had entered the pomegranate, been accidentally swallowed by the boy, and attached itself to the coats of his stomach, from which, like the leech in a previous anec- dote, it was induced to detach itself by being presented with a more attractive substance. The case of another dropsical patient forms the subject of a fifth of these anecdotes. He was, after being dosed with various drugs, pronounced incurable by the physicians of Baghdad, and thereupon begged that he might be allowed to eat and drink what he pleased, and not, as he expressed it, be *' destroyed by dieting." One day he saw a man selling cooked locusts, of which he bought and ate a large quantity. Violent purging followed this repast and lasted three days, at the end of which he was so weak that his life was despaired of, but he gradually recovered and was en- tirely cured of his dropsy. On the fifth day, being able to walk abroad, he met one of the physicians who had seen him before, and who was amazed at his recovery, about v/hich he questioned him. '* These were no ordinary locusts," said the physician, when he had heard the story; " I should like you to point out to me the man who sold them to you." The seller being found and questioned, said that he collected the locusts in a village some miles from Baghdad, whither, for a small reward, he accom- panied the physician, who found the locusts in a field in which grew quantities of the herb called Mddharyun (identified by Schlimmer and Achundow as Daphne oleoides, the Laurel-spurge or Spurge-flax), yS Arabian Medicine. Ill known to be beneficial in small doses for dropsy, but too dangerous to be commonly prescribed\ The double coction which it had undergone in the locusts' bodies had, however, so mitigated its violence that its results had in this case proved wholly beneficial. Other anecdotes in this book, on which I have not time to dwell, include a cure of apoplexy by flagellation, of pleurisy by a scorpion-bite, and of paralysis by a decoction of colocynth in milk. The Persian collection of anecdotes to which I alluded above was compiled by Muhammad 'Awfi about A.D. 1230, and is enUXXe^d Jawdmi'u l-Hikdydt wa Lawdmi'u r-Riwdydt. It is a gigantic work, comprising four volumes, each consisting of twenty-five chapters, and has never yet been published; but I am fortunate enough to possess one complete ms. and another of the first volume. The twentieth chapter of this volume concerns Physicians, and comprises nine anecdotes, four of which are taken from at-Tamikhi's work *' Relief after Distress," described above. In only one of the five new stories is mention made of Rhazes, who is represented as curing a patient of intussusception or obstruction of the intestines by giving him two drachms of quicksilver. In the remaining anecdotes there is little worth notice except one aphorism and one story. The aphorism, uttered by an unnamed physician to a patient, is as follows : '* Know that I and thou and the disease are three factors mutually antagonistic. If thou wilt side with me, not neglecting what I enjoin on thee and ^ See the Qdnicn of Avicenna (ed. Rome, 1593), p. 205, and the Latin translation (Venice, 1544), p. 147, where two drachms of this *'Mezereon" are said to be fatal to man. In the Burhdn-i-Qdti^ and the Farhang-i-Ndsirl the form Mdzaryicn (with j instead of i) is given. Early Traditions of Anaesthesia 79 refraining from such food as I shall forbid thee, then we shall be two against one and will overcome the disease." The story, which concerns Aristotle and an Indian physician named Sarbat or Sarnab — who came to him incognito as a disciple in order to study his methods, but revealed himself at a critical stage in the trephining of a patient — is a very absurd one, about a millipede or ear-wig {Jiazdr-pdy or gllsh-khurak) which entered the patient's ear and attached itself to his brain. The in- teresting point in it is that, before beginning the opera- tion, Aristotle ''gave him a drug so that he became unconscious." I have only met with one earlier reference to anaesthesia in Persian literature, namely the well- known passage in the Shdh-ndma, or " Book of Kings," of Firdawsi^ (composed early in the eleventh century of our era) describing the Caesarean section practised on Rudaba, the mother of Rustam, at the time of his birth, though in this case wine was the agent used to produce unconsciousness, while the operator was a Mubadh or Zoroastrian priest. Another Persian book, entitled Chahdr Maqdla (the "Four Discourses"), and composed about a.d. i 155 by a court-poet of Samarqand named Nizami-i-'Ariidi, affords more copious material for our present purpose than either of the books mentioned above. The author treats of four classes of experts whom he considers in- dispensable at a properly constituted court, to wit Secretaries of State, Poets, Astrologers and Physicians; for, as he observes with propriety, the business of kings cannot be conducted without competent secretaries; their triumphs and victories will not be immortalized without eloquent poets; their enterprises will* not succeed ^ Ed. Turner Macan, vol. i, pp. 162-3. 8o Arabian Medicine, III unless undertaken at seasons adjudged propitious by- sagacious astrologers; while health, the basis of all happiness and activity, can only be secured by the services of able and trustworthy physicians. Each Dis- course, therefore, deals with one of these classes, in the order given above, and, after some preliminary remarks on the qualifications requisite for success in the pro- fession in question, gives a number of anecdotes (about ten as a rule) illustrating the author's views. These are of special value as being for the greater part derived from his own recollections and experience. Twenty years ago I published a complete translation of this work in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'^', ten years later a critical text with Persian notes was prepared by a learned Persian friend of mine, Mi'rz^ Muhammad Khdn of Qazwin, and published in the " E. J. W. Gibb Memorial " Series^ ; and I am now engaged on a revised and annotated translation in which special attention has been given to the medical anecdotes. The fact that this book is now reasonably accessible renders it unnecessary for me to speak at greater length about it, and I shall confine myself to a few remarks on the Fourth Discourse dealing with Physicians. '* The physician," says our author, *' should be of tender disposition, of wise and gentle nature, and more especially an acute observer, capable of benefiting everyone by accurate diagnosis, that is to say, by rapid deduction of the unknown from the known. And no ^ July and October, 1899. The separate reprint, now exhausted, comprises, with the Index, 139 pages. ^ It is vol. xi of this series, and was published in 19 10. The revised and annotated translation, now in the Press, will constitute vol. xi, 2, of the same series. Persian Medical Studies in a.b. ii ^6 8i physician can be of tender disposition if he fails to recognize the nobility of man; nor of philosophical nature unless he be acquainted with Logic; nor an acute observer unless he be strengthened by God's guidance; and he who is not an accurate observer will not arrive at a correct understanding of the cause of any ailment." After developing this thesis, and relating the case of a sick man healed by prayer, the author gives an in- structive list of the books which should be read by the aspirant to medical science, which range from the Aphorisms of Hippocrates and the Sixteen Treatises of Galen to the great ** Thesaurus" of Medicine compiled in Persian fdr the Shdh of Khwarazm, or Khiva, by Sayyid Ismail of Jurjin only twenty or thirty years earlier. *'But," he concludes, '*if the student desires to be independent of other works, he may rest satisfied with the Qdw^n of Avicenna," whom he puts second only to Aristotle, and praises in the highest terms as the only thinker during fifteen centuries who has won to the inmost essence of the Aristotelian philosophy and travelled the road of his great predecessor's pre- eminence. The anecdotes which follow are of a somewhat different type from those we have hitherto considered ; we find none of those grotesque stories of abnormal parasitic invasion, or of the therapeutic virtues of vipers and locusts. On the other hand elementary methods of psychotherapeusis form the subject-matter of no less than four of the narratives, and several of these have passed into general Persian literature, even poetry, and have thus attained considerable notoriety. We may take first two of the best known, wherein the emotions of anger and shame are employed respectively in the treat- ment of rheumatic affections of the joints. 82 Arabian Medicine. Ill The great physician Rhazes was summoned to Transoxiana to attend the Amir Mansur, who was suffering from a rheumatic affection of the joints which baffled all his medical attendants. On arriving at the Oxus, Rhazes was so much alarmed at its size and the small and fragile appearance of the boat in which he was invited to embark that he declined to proceed further, until the King's messengers bound him hand and foot, threw him into the boat, and carried him across by force, though otherwise they treated him with the utmost respect and even apologized for the use of violence, begging him to bear them no grudge. Rhazes assured them that he harboured no resentment and ex- plained the motive of his resistance. *' I know," said he, "that every year many thousand persons cross the Oxus safely, but, had I chanced to be drowned, people would have said, 'What a fool Muhammad ibn Zakariyya was to expose himself to this risk of his own free will.' But, being carried across by force, had I then perished people would have pitied, not blamed me." On reaching Bukhdra he tried various methods of treatment on the Amir without success. Finally he said to him, " To-morrow I shall try a new treatment, but it will cost you the best horse and best mule in your stables." The Amir agreed and placed the animals at his disposal. Next day Rhazes brought the Amir to a hot bath out- side the city, tied up the horse and the mule, saddled and bridled, outside, and entered the hot room of the bath alone with his patient, to whom he administered douches of hot water and a draught which he had pre- pared *'tiU such time" says the narrator, '*as the humours in his joints were matured. Then he went out, put on his clothes, and, taking a knife in his hand, came in, and stood for a while reviling the Amir, saying, 'Thou Psychotherapeusis [Rkazes) 83 didst order me to be bound and cast into the boat, and didst conspire against my life. If I do not destroy thee as a punishment for this, my name is not Muhammad ibn Zakariyya! ' The Amir was furious, and, partly from anger, partly, from fear, sprang to his feet." Rhazes at once fled from the bath to where his servant was awaiting him outside with the horse and the mule, rode off at full gallop, and did not pause in his flight until he had crossed the Oxus and reached Merv, whence he wrote to the Amir as follows^: '' May the life of the King be prolonged in health and authority! Agreeably to my undertaking I treated you to the best of my ability. There was, however, a deficiency in the natural caloric, and this treatment would have been unduly protracted, so I abandoned it in favour of psychotherapeusis ['tldj-i-nafsdni), and, when the peccant humours had undergone sufficient coction in the bath, I deliberately provoked you in order to increase the natural caloric, which thus gained sufficient strength to dissolve the already softened humours. But hence- forth it is inexpedient that we should meet." The Amir, having recovered from his anger, was delighted to find himself restored to health and freedom of movement, and caused search to be made everywhere for the physician, but in vain, until on the seventh day his servant returned with the horse and mule and the letter cited above. As Rhazes persisted in his resolution not to return, the Amir rewarded him with a robe of honour, a cloak, a turban, arms, a male and female slave, and a horse fully caparisoned, and further assigned to ^ I have slightly abridged and otherwise modified the letter, of which the literal translation will be found on p. 1 1 7 of the separate reprint of my translation in they". R. A. S. for 1899, and on p. 84 of the forthcoming revised translation. 84 Arabian Medicine, III him a yearly pension of 2000 gold dindrs and 200 ass- loads of corn. This anecdote is cited in a well-known Persian ethical work, the Akhldq-i-Jaldli, composed three hundred years later than the Chahdr Maqdla, In the other anecdote which I place in the same category the patient is a woman in the King's household who, while bending down to lay the table, is attacked by a sudden ''rheumatic swelling of the joints," and is unable to as- sume an erect posture. The Kings physician (not named), being commanded to cure her, and having no medicaments at hand, has recourse to "psychic treat- ment" (tadbir~i-nafsdni) and, by removing first her veil and then her skirt, calls to his aid the emotion of shame, whereby, in the author's words, '*a flush of heat was produced within her which dissolved the rheumatic humour," so that she stood upright completely cured. This story is retold by the great poet Jdmi, who flourished about the end of the fifteenth century, in his Silsilatu dh-Dhahab or '* Chain of Gold," but, much more important, it has been found by Mirzd Muhammad Khan in a manuscript of Avicennas rare and un- published Kitdbu l-Mabdd wdl-Ma'dd (the '' Book of the Origin and the Return"), whence the author of the Chahdr Maqdla avowedly took it\ Avicenna, therefore, evidently believed the story, though he too omits the name of the physician, only stating that he was in the service of one of the Samdnid rulers, who flourished in Khurdsdn and Transoxiana in the tenth century. Of both the two next anecdotes Avicenna is again the hero. When in his flight from Mahmiid of Ghazna he came incognito to Jurjdn or Gurgdn (the ancient ^ See p. 73 of the text and p. 242 of the notes in vol. xi of the "E. J. W. Gibb Memorial" Series* Avicenncis Diagnosis of Love 85 Hyrcania) by the Caspian Sea, a relative of the ruler of that province lay sick of a malady which baffled all the local doctors. Avicenna, though his identity was then unknown, was invited to give his opinion, and, after examining the patient, requested the collaboration of someone who knew all the districts and towns of the province, and who repeated their names while Avicenna kept his finger on the patient's pulse. At the mention of a certain town he felt a flutter in the pulse. " Now," said he, "I need someone who knows all the houses, streets and quarters of this town." Again when a cer- tain street was mentioned the same phenomenon was repeated, and once again when the names of the inhabit- ants of a certain household were enumerated. Then Avicenna said, ''It is finished. This lad is in love with such-and-such a girl, who lives in such-and-such a house, in such-and-such a street, in such-and-such a quarter of such-and-such a town ; and the girl's face is the patient's cure." So the marriage was solemnized at a fortunate hour chosen by Avicenna, and thus the cure was com- pleted. For this story again, or at least for its essential feature, we have the best authority, namely Avicenna's own statement in the Qdmrn^ in the section devoted to Love, which is classed under cerebral or mental diseases, together with somnolence, insomnia, amnesia, mania, hydrophobia, melancholia, and the like. In the Latin translation^ this section is hardly recognizable under the title De Ilixi, with alhasch as a marginal variant, both these monstrosities being intended to represent ^ See p. 316 of the Arabic text printed at Rome in a.d. 1593. Ibn Abi Usaybi'a (vol. ii, p. 128) relates very similar anecdotes of Galen and of Rashidu'd-Din Abii Haliqa. ^ Venice, 1544, f. 2oZb. BAM 7 86 Arabian Medicine. Ill the Arabic al- 'Ishq, *' Love." After describing the symp- toms, and especially the irregularities of the pulse, Avicenna says : "And hereby it is possible to arrive at the identity of the beloved person, if the patient will not reveal it, such knowledge affording one means of treatment. The device whereby this may be effected is that many names should be mentioned and repeated while the finger is retained on the pulse, and when it becomes very irregular and almost ceases, one should then repeat the process. I have tried this method repeatedly, and have discovered the name of the beloved. Then, in like manner, men- tion the streets, dwellings, arts, crafts, families and countries, joining each one with the name of the beloved, and all the time feeling the pulse, so that when it alters on the mention of any one thing several times, you will infer from this all particulars about the beloved as regards name, appearance and occupation. We have ourselves tried this plan, and have thereby arrived at knowledge which was valuable. Then, if you can dis- cover no cure except to unite the two in such wise as is sanctioned by religion and law, you will do this. We have seen cases where health and strength were com- pletely restored and flesh regained, after the patient had become greatly attenuated and suffered from severe chronic diseases and protracted accesses of fever from lack of strength resulting from excessive love, when he was accorded union with his beloved in a very short time, so that we were astonished thereat and realized the subordination of [human] nature to mental imaginations." We find a further allusion to this treatment in a later medical encyclopaedia to which I have already alluded, the Dhakhira-i-Khwdrazmshdhi, composed between Loves Malady in the Mathnawi %"] A.D. 1 1 1 1 and 1 1 36, and notable as the first great system of Medicine written in the Persian instead of in the Arabic language. Here also the author, Sayyid Ismail of Jurjan, after repeating the substance of Avicenna's directions, adds : " Master Abii 'Ali (i.e. Avicenna), upon whom be God's mercy, says, ' I have tried this plan and have so discovered who the beloved object was,' " and appends a fairly close translation of Avicenna's con- cluding words as to the rapid recovery of the patient when his desire is fulfilled. Rather more than a hundred years later, in the middle of the thirteenth century, the great mystical poet Jal^lu'd-Din Rumi, who may be called the Dante of Persia, made this theme the subject of the allegorical anecdote which comes at the beginning of his celebrated Mathnawi. This anecdote describes how a king while hunting saw a very beautiful girl, fell in love with her, and married her. To his great distress she forthwith sickened, nor could the physicians summoned to her bedside alleviate her malady or assuage her suffering, because, when assuring the king that they could cure her, they omitted the saving clause {istithna) *' Please God." Hence all their drugs produced the opposite effects to those intended and desired ; oxymel (sirkan- gahin) only increased her biliousness, and myrobolans {halila) desiccated instead of relaxing. Finally, in answer to the king's prayers, a '' divine physician " (tabib-i- ildhi) appears, and, after a careful examination of the patient, announces that the treatment hitherto pursued has been wholly mischievous and based on a wrong diagnosis. He then asks to be left alone with the patient and proceeds to question her about the towns where she has previously lived, since, he explains, treatment varies according to place of origin or sojourn. While 7-2 SS Arabian Medicine. Ill talking to her about her past history he keeps his finger on her pulse, but observes no sign of emotion until Samarqand is mentioned, and again later at the name of the Sar-i-pul or *' Bridge-end" quarter and the street called Ghatafar^ In short he finally discovers, in pre- cisely the way indicated by Avicenna, that she is in love with a certain goldsmith living in that quarter of Samarqand. Thereupon, having reassured her and promised her recovery, he instructs the king to send messengers to Samarqand to invite the goldsmith to his court and offer him handsome remuneration. The un- suspecting goldsmith comes blithely, flattered by the king's gracious words, fine gifts and fair promises, and on his arrival, by the ''divine physician's" instructions, is married to the girl, who in the course of six months re- covers her health and good looks. Then the physician begins to administer to the goldsmith a slow poison which causes him to become "ugly, displeasing and sallow," so that the girl wearies of him before his death, which is not long delayed, places her once more at the disposal of the king, whose bride she now becomes. Into the allegorical meaning of this outwardly immoral story I have not time to enter now, but this purely literary use of medical material indirectly borrowed from Avicenna himself appears to me to be of considerable interest. From the ** Four Discourses " I shall only cite one more anecdote, of which again Avicenna is the hero. A certain prince of the House of Buwayh was afflicted with melancholia and suffered from the delusion that he was a cow. " Every day," says the author, " he would low like a cow, causing annoyance to everyone, and ^ This actually exists. See V. Zhukovski's Pasbajihhh Ctapaio Mepba, p. 171, n. I. Avicenna cures a Melancholic 89 crying, 'Kill me, so that a good stew may be prepared from my flesh ' ; until matters reached such a pass that he would eat nothing, while the physicians were unable to do him any good." Finally Avicenna, who was at this time acting as prime minister to 'Ala u'd-Dawla ibn Kakuya, was persuaded to take the case in hand, which in spite of the pressure of public and private business, political, scientific and literary, with which he was over- whelmed, he consented to do. First of all he sent a message to the patient bidding him be of good cheer because the butcher was coming to slaughter him, whereat, we are told, the sick man rejoiced. Some time afterwards Avicenna, holding a knife in his hand, entered the sick-room, saying, "Where is this cow, that I may kill it?" The patient lowed like a cow to indicate where he was. By Avicenna's orders he was laid on the ground bound hand and foot. Avicenna then felt him all over and said, "He is too lean, and not ready to be killed ; he must be fattened." Then they offered him suitable food, of which he now partook eagerly, and gradually he gained strength, got rid of his delusion, and was completely cured. The narrator concludes, " All wise men will perceive that one cannot heal by such methods of treatm.ent save by virtue of pre-eminent intelligence, perfect science and unerring acumen." This anecdote also has been versified by Jami in his "Chain of Gold" {Silsilatu dh-Dhahab) composed in a.d. 1485, three hundred and thirty years after the " Four Discourses," but I can find no allusion to any such method of treat- ment in the article on Melancholia in the Qdnun of Avicenna. Before leaving this topic, I must refer to an anecdote given by the poet Nizdmi in his "Treasury of Secrets" [Makhzanu l-Asrdr), where suggestion is employed not QO Arabian Medicine. Ill to heal but to destroy. This story relates how the rivalry between two court physicians finally reached such a point that they challenged one another to a duel or ordeal by poison, it being agreed that each should take a poison supplied by his antagonist, of which he should then en- deavour to counteract the effects by a suitable antidote. The first prepared a poisonous draught ''the fierceness of which would have melted black stone"; his rival drained the cup and at once took an antidote which rendered it innocuous. It was now his turn, and he picked a rose from the garden, breathed an incantation over it, and bade his antagonist smell it, whereupon the latter at once fell down dead. That his death was due simply to fear and not to any poisonous or magical property of the rose is clearly indicated by the poet: '>w 0'>»- Oy^ A^ J^ OU' 0^> » •» ^ 'a>^ >*j ^^ o-^ J' ^y^ o' ^''Through this rose which the spell-breather had given him Fear overmastered the foe and he gave up the ghost. That one by treatment expelled the poison froin his body. While this one died of a rose from fear.^^ I have little doubt that suggestion played an import- ant part in Arabian Medicine, and that wider reading in Arabic and Persian books (often sadly discursive and un- systematic, and, of course, never provided with indexes) would yield a much richer harvest in this field. But the people of the East have much of the child's love of the marvellous ; they like their kings to be immensely great and powerful, their queens and princesses incomparably Miracles expected from Medicine 91 beautiful, their ministers or wazirs abnormally saga- cious, and their physicians superhumanly discerning and resourceful. This unbounded faith, which is in fact most embarrassing to one who practises medicine in the East, is sustained and extended by such sensational stories as I have cited. Rhazes did this, they will tell you, and Avicenna that, and are not you, the heir of all the ages, greater than these, nay, even than Hippocrates and Galen ? Yet the genuine case-book of Rhazes, of which, almost alone in Arabic literature, a fragment has happily been preserved to us in a Bodleian ms/ mentioned in a former lecture, altogether lacks this sensational quality, and it is to the credit of that great physician that he should have chosen to record precisely those cases which puzzled him at first or baffled him altogether. In the opening lecture of this course I explained that, while the Golden Age of Islamic or Arabian literature and science was the first century or two of the *Abbdsid Caliphate of Baghdad (i.e. from a.d. 750 onwards), a high level of culture continued to be main- tained until the awful catastrophe of the Mongol or Tartar invasion of the thirteenth century inflicted on it a blow from which it has never recovered. The Caliphate was overthrown and its metropolis sacked and laid waste in A.D. 1258, and though the surviving scholars of the younger generation carried on the sound tradition of scholarship for a while longer, there is, broadly speaking, a difference not only of degree but of kind between the literary and scientific work done before and after the thirteenth century throughout the lands of Islam. Medicine and history owed their comparative immunity to the desire of the savage conquerors for health and ^ Marsh 156, ff. 239 (^-246^. See pp. 50-53 supra. 92 Arabian Medicine, III fame, and in the next lecture I shall have to speak of at least one writer who flourished even as late as the fourteenth century. Of course from that time to the present day there has been no lack of medical literature of a sort: some idea of the number of medical works composed in Persian alone may be gathered from Adolf Fonahn's Zur Quellenkunde der Persischen Medizin, published at Leipzig in 1910. The author of this excellent and painstaking book enumerates over 400 Persian works (very few of which have been published) dealing entirely or partly with medical subjects, and adds a very useful bibliography^ and short bio- graphical notices of 25 of the most notable Persian physicians' and writers on Medicine who flourished from the end of the tenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century, excluding, however, such men as Rhazes, ** Haly Abbas " and Avicenna who, though Persian by race, wrote in Arabic. This vernacular medical literature of Persia remains almost unexplored, nor could it, as a rule, be explored with advantage until a much more thorough examination of the older Arabic literature has been effected. A thorough knowledge of the contents of the Hdwi or **Continens," xh^ Kitdbu l- Maliki or ''Liber Regius" and the QdnUn of Avicenna would be necessary in order to decide whether any sub- stantial addition to, or modification of, these classics was effected by the later writers. Of one great Persian system of Medicine, compiled in the twelfth century, the Dhakhira-i-Khwdrazrnshdhi, which good fortune has rendered accessible to me in several manuscripts, I pro- pose to speak in the next lecture. Only two other Persian medical works have hitherto, so far as I know, attracted much attention in Europe— Abii Mansur ^ PP- 135-140- ' pp. 129-134. Introduction of Western Medicine to the East 93 Muwafifaq of Herat's Materia Medica, composed about A.D. 950, and the illustrated Anatomy of Mansur ibn Muhammad, composed in a.d. 1396. The oldest known Persian manuscript in Europe, copied by the poet Asadi in A.D. 1055, is the unique original of the former, and was produced at Vienna by Dr F. R. Seligmann in 1859 in a most beautiful and artistic edition on which excellent work has been done by Abdul-Chalig Achun- dow, Dr Paul Horn and Professor Jolly. The anatomical diagrams contained in the latter have especially attracted the attention of Dr Karl Sudhoff, who published them from the India Office ms. in Studien zur Geschichte der Medizin^y and who has suggested that they represent an ancient tradition going back, perhaps, even to the Alexandrian School. Of this work I have recently ac- quired two Mss. in which some of the illustrations show variations which may prove of interest. Before concluding this lecture I may add a few words about the introduction of modern European Medicine into the Muslim East, where the old system, which we call Arabian and the Muslims Greek {Tibb-i- Yilndni\ still maintains itself, while slowly giving ground, especially in Persia and India. When I was at Tihrdn in 1887 Dr Tholozon, physician to His late Majesty Ndsiru'd-Din Shdh, kindly enabled me to at- tend the meetings of the Majlis-i-Sihhat, or Council of Public Health, in the Persian capital, and a majority of the physicians present at that time knew no medicine but that of Avicenna. Since that time a good many young Persians (though far fewer than one would wish) have come to Europe to study, but even in the middle of the nineteenth century much was being done by such men as Dr Polak., the Austrian, and Dr Schlimmer, the ^ Heft 4, Leipzig, 1908. 94 Arabian Medicine. Ill Dutchman, who went out to Persia to organize the new Polytechnic and MiUtary Colleges. Dr Schlimmer's Terminologie Mddico-Pharmaceutique et Anthropolo- gique Frangaise- Per sane ^ lithographed at Tihrdn in 1874, is, indeed, invaluable to students of Oriental Medicine by reason of the mass of information it con- tains and the careful identifications of the Persian names of plants, drugs and diseases. One of the earliest books printed in Persia with movable types was a treatise on inoculation for small-pox (which I have not seen) pub- lished at Tabriz in 1825^ This very same year marks the introduction of modern medical science into Egypt by Clot Bey and other French scientists invited thither by the Khedive Muhammad *Ali, and the establishment of the hospital at Abu Za'bal near Heliopolis, which was transferred a year later to its present site at Qasru'l-'Ayni. Egyptian students had been sent to Italy in 18 13 and 18 16 and to England in 18 18 to study military and naval science, ship-building, printing and mechanics, but the first medical students seem to have been sent to Paris, no doubt at the instigation of Clot Bey, in 1826. An excellent account of this latest revival of science (an-Nahdatu l-Akhira, as it is called in Arabic) is given by that indefatigable writer the late Jurji Zayddn, a Christian Syrian domiciled in Egypt, in his History of Arabic Literature'^, published in Cairo in 1911-14. To speak of it in detail would lead me too far from my subject, but two points connected with its history have a certain bearing on the revival of Greek learning in the East in the eighth century, which I dealt with in my first lecture last year. I spoke there of the ^ See E. G. Browne's Press and Poetry of Modern Persia (Cam- bridge, 1 9 14), p. 7- 2 TaWikhu Addbi H-Lughati H-'Arabiyya, vol. iv, pp. 24 ^Z seqq. Modern Egyptian Translators into Arabic 95 prejudice against dissection ; and it is interesting to note that Clot Bey s struggles against this same prejudice brought him within measurable distance of assassina- tion'. I also observed that while some Greek books were translated directly into Arabic for the Caliphs of Baghdad, in many cases there was an intermediate translation into Syriac. So in the ''latest revival," which took place at Cairo a thousand years later, we learn ^ that one of the most skilful translators, Hunayn or Yuhannd 'Anhuri (whom we may well entitle the second yunayn or Johannitius), "was weak in French but well grounded in Italian, from which he used to translate into Arabic. So when the book was written in French it was first translated for him into Italian, from which he translated it into Arabic." Whether made directly or indirectly from the original, the first Arabic transla- tion before it went to press commonly passed through the hands of an editor or ''corrector" (quite distinct from the reader of the press) who was a good Arabic scholar, knowing something of the science in question and its terminology, but ignorant of any European language, and who gave the book a proper literary form. A similar procedure, according to Dr Lucien Leclerc, characterized the translation of Arabic scientific books into Latin in the Middle Agesl How aptly does Abu 1-'Ala al-Ma'arri liken time to a long poem, in which the rhyme, metre and rhythm never vary, though the same rhyming word is never repeated. ^ See his Apergu general sur PEgypte, vol. \\, p. 415 (Paris, 1840). ^ p. 190 of Zaydan's work mentioned in the last note but one. ^ Histoire de la Medecine Arabe^ vol. ii, pp. 344 and 345. 96 Arabian Medicine. Ill "Z^/V Z??V, ^/ 54» 57-64, 66, 67, 68, 78 n., 81, 84-89, 91, 92, 93, 98, 103, 109, 113, 123, 124 'Aw^sim (Asia Minor), 108 ' Awfi, Muhammad — (author of an im- mense collection of stories in Persian entitled Jawdmi^'uH-Hikdydt wa Lawdmi'u'r-Riwdydt, xiii), 75, 78-79 'Azimu'd-Din Ahmad {Catalogue of the Arabic Medical Works in the Oriental Public Library at Bankipore, Cal- cutta, 1 9 10), 114 Baalbek (Ba'labakk, in Syria), 27 Babak (heresiarch, ix), 38 Badr, Battle of — (vii), 1 1 Baghdad (capital of 'Abbasid Caliphs from middle of eighth to thirteenth centuries), 2, 5, 6, 14, 17, 19, 23, 25, 38, 40, 45» 54, 66, 74, 77, 91, 95, 104, 105, 114 Balkh, 58 Index 129 Bankipore Oriental Public Library, 114 Bar Hebraeus (xiii), 100-10 1 Barmecides [Al-i-Barmak, viii-ix), 57 Basra, 27, 104, 108 Bdtiniyya ("Esoterics"), 115 Ibn Batuta (Arab traveller, xiv), loi Ibnu'l-Ba)rtir (of Malaga, botanist), 98 Baytu'l-Hikmai (" House of Wisdom," the Royal Library at Baghdad, ix), 5 Bedouin. See Arabs, primitive Berlin library, 49, 61 n., 66. Bernard (treasurer of Count Foulques of Anjou, xii), 71 Berthelot {Hist, de la Chimie au Moyen Age\ 15 Beth Lapat, 20. See Jundi Sdbdr Bevan, Prof. A. A. — , vii, 17 n. Blmdristan (hospital) of Jundi-Sabur, 23 ; of Baghdad, 45, 46, 54 ; of Cairo, 101-2 Bfra (Aramaic or Syriac name), 8 -Bininf, Abii Rayh^n — (astronomer and chronologist, x-xi), 6 Bistam (in N.E. Persia), 75 Bodleian Library, 48, 49, 67, 91, 114 Boswellia thurifera {Kundur), 51, 52 Brescia, 48 British Museum, 26, 28, 49, 61, 66, 114 Brock elmann {Gesch. d. Arab. Liil.), 3, 54, 60, 72 Budge, Dr E. Wallis — , 19, 22. Buhdr (sea-sickness), 35 Bukhara, 58, 82 -Bukhari (traditionist, author of the Sahih)^ 12 Bukht-Yishu' (family which produced several notable physicians, viii-xi), 23. See also Jibra'fl, Jiirjis Burhdn-i-Qdti*' (Persian lexicon), 78 n. Burton, Sir Richard — (" Arabian Nights"), 32 n. Bury, Professor — , 18 Burzuya (physician of Khusraw Anu- sharw^ the Sasanian> vi), 2 1 Ibn Butlan (Arab physician, xi), 72-3 Buwayhid (or Daylamite) dynasty (x- xi), 45, 53i 88. See also 'Adudu'd- Dawla Byzantines, 21, 67 Caesar, 4 Caesarea {Qaysariyya), 108 Caesarean section, 79 Cairo, 94, 95, 101-102 Calcutta, 114 Caliphate {Khildjat), 4 Caliphs {Khalifa^ pi. Khulafd), the Four Orthodox, 9 ; Umayyad — , 9, 1 4, 15, 16, 19; 'Abbasid — , see *Abbdsid Caliphs, supra Cambridge University Library, 48, 99 Cancer {Sarafdn), 43 Capillary system adumbrated in tenth century by 'All ibnu'I-' Abbas, 124 Cardiac Drugs, Avicenna's work on — , 61 Carra de Vaux, Baron — , 1 1 7 n. Caspian Sea, 37, 85 Catarrh, 35, 43 Catholic Press, Beyrout, loi Cautery, 12 Chahdr Maqdla (" Four Discourses," by Nizami-i-'Arudi of Samarqand, xii), 50, 59 n., 62-64, 75 n., 79-8o, 84-85, 88-89, 99, 118 Chaldaea (Sawdd), 27 Channing (translation and text of -Razi's De Pestilentid)^ 47 Charrae (ffarrdn), 27 China, 106, 109 Chosroes, 4, 11, 20. See Khusraw Christian physicians eminent in early Muslim times, 2, 8, 17-18, 21, 24, 26, 27> 38. 66, 100; — for the most part ignorant in time of Crusades, 70-72 ; — of Byzantium amazed at Arabian love of learning, 67 ; — of St John the Baptist, 27; see also -Mughtasila, Sabaeans Chrysorrhoas, John of Damascus so called, 15 Chwolson {Ssabier und Ssabtsmus)y 27 Chyle {ITayMs), 121 "Civitas Hippocratica," 23, 68 Clot Bey, 94-95, 102 Coccyx {'us* us), 34 Colic {qulunj)y 43, 48, 59 Colocynth, 78 I30 Arabian Medicine '•Complexions," or "Temperaments" {MizdJ, pi. Amzija), 119 Constantinople, 67, 107 Constantinus Africanus, 68 " Continens" of Rhazes. See -Hawi of Cordova [Qurtuba), 97, 106 Correspondences, 1 1 5-1 1 7 Cowley, Dr — , 49 Crises, 43 Crusaders, 68-72 Ctesias, 22 Ctesiphon (-Mada'in), 14 Cupping {kijdma), 12, 43 Damascus, 9, 14, 100, 102 Ddnish-7idma-i-'Alai (by Avicenna), 60 and n. Dante, 87 Daphne oleoides (Mezereon), 77 Darwinism foreshadowed, 118-119 Date-palm, fecundation of — , 13 " Daughters of the Elements" {Bandtu'l- ArMn)y the four Humours so called, 121 Derenbourg, M. Hartwig — , 69 Dhakhira-i-Khwdrazmshdhi (Persian "Thesaurus" of Medicine, xii), 6-7, 81, 86-87, 92, 98-99, 109-111 Dieterici, 118 Diocletian, era of — , 18 Dioscorides, 28, 67, 74 n., 98 Dissection, 36-37. See also Ana- tomy Dragon's Blood {damuU-akhawayn)^ 51-52 Dropsy {istisqd), 36, 43; — cured, 72-73, 75-78 Duban the physician, 25 Duwdr (Vertigo), 35 Edessa, 21, 114 Egypt, 14, I7-I9> 30. 94-95, 97> 98. 100-103, 109 Egyptians, 9, 17-19, 22, 36, 94-95 'Et 47, 55, 63, 68, 81, 91 Hira, 10, 24 Homer, 24 Horn, Dr Paul — , 93 Hospital, regular attendance at — re- commended by 'All ibnu'l- 'Abbas, 56. See also Bimaristan Hubaysh (pupil of Hunayn ibn Ishaq, q.v.), 16 Humours, the four — {-Akkldt-arba^a), 119-122 Hunayn ibn Ishaq ("Johannitius," trans- lator from Greek into Syriac or Arabic), 24-26, 39 132 Arabian Medicine Abu'l-Husn (owner of the slave-girl Tawaddud), 31 Hyrcania, 85, 98. See Jurjdn Hyrtl, Dr — i^Das Arabische und Hebrdische in der Anatomie), 34 l&dptirira (Yathrib, -Madfna), 9 Ibrahim ibn Thdbit ibn Qurra (ix-x), 27 Ab\i Ibrahim {kunya)^ 8 "Ilixi" (Latin corruption of al-Hshq^ "love"), 85. See also Alhasch, supra India, 21, 105, 109 India Office Library, 93 Indian science, 2, 9, 39, 42, 65 Inoculation for small-pox, 94 Abu 'Isa {kunya), 8 'Isa ibn Hakam (medical writer, vii), 16 *Isa ibn Shahla (pupil of Jurjis ibn Bukht-YishuS viii), 23 'Isa ibn Yahya (pupil of Hunayn), 25 Isfandiyar (legendary Persian hero), 11 Ishaq ibn Hunayn, 54 Isma'il ibn 'Abbad, entitled Sdhib, 39; Sayyid Zaynu'd-Din — of Jurjan (xii, author of the Dhakhira-i-Khwdra- zmshahf, q.v.), 81, 87, 98, 99 Isma'ili sect, 58, 115 Istisqd (dropsy), 36 Italy, Egyptian students in — in 181 3 and 1816, 94 Jabir ibn Hayyan ("Geber"), 15. See also Alchemy Jacobite Christians, 17 Jdhiliyyat (pagan days of the Arabs before Islam), 9. See also Arabs, character of primitive — -Jahiz (author of Kitdbu' l-Bukhald), 7 Jaldlu'd-Din Rumi (Persian mystical poet, xiii), 87; — (son of "Rashid the physician " and governor of Asia Minor, xiii-xiv), 105 Jalap ijulldb), 41 /dma-i-ghtik (water-weed), 74 J^mi (Persian poet, xv), 84, 89 -Jdmi'' (by -Razi), 48 Jamna (river in India), 105 Jarfr (Arab poet of Umayyad period), 1 7 Jawdmi^u' l-Hikdydt (Persian collection of stories by Muhammad 'Awfi, xiii), 78-79 Ibnu'l-Jazzar (physician of Qayruwan), 97 Jerusalem captured by Crusaders, 69 Jews as contributors to Muslim learning, 2, 7, 8, 38, 66 Jibri'fl ibn Bukht-Yishu' (d. 830), 23, 57; — ibn 'Ubaydu'llah, of the same family (d. 1006), 23 Johannitius. See Hunayn John the Grammarian {-Nakwi, Philo- ponus, vi or vii) , 17-18; — of Damas- cus (called Chrysorrhoas, vii), 15 Jolly, Professor — , 93 /ubdl (hypothetical word to denote mountain-sickness), 36 /udkdm (elephantiasis), 35 Jul-i-Wazagh ("frogs' cloth," a kind of water- weed), 74 n. Ibn Juljul (Spanish physician, x), 97 Julldb (jalap), 41 Jundi Sabur or Shapur (Gunde Shapur, the great medical school of Sasanian and early Muslim times), 8, ii, 19-24, 34. 54. 76, 114 Jurjan (Gurg^n, Hyrcania), 59, 84, 87, 98 Jurjis ibn Bukht-Yishu', 23-4 Justinian, the Emperor — , 1 1 ■Kdfi (of -R^i), 48 Kalila and Dimna, Book of — , 21 Kdmilu^s-Sind'at (or -Kitab-Maliki, "Liber Regius," of 'AH ibnu'l- 'Abbds-Majdsi, q.v.), 49 n., 109, 123-124 "Karabitus" (misreading for Farrd- niiis, ippeviTLS, frensy), 113 Ibn Khaldun (historian, xiv), 7, 13-14, 96 Khalid ibn Yazid (Umayyad prince devoted to Alchemy, vii), 15, 19 Ibn Khallik^n (biographer, xiii), 100 -Khitat (of -Maqrizi, xv), 101-102 Khiva (Khwarazm), 59, 81, 98 Khuffi-i-'AWi (Manual of Medicine by Zaynu'd-Din Isma'il of Jurjan, xii), 99 Index 133 Khumdr (wine-headache), 36 Khurasan, 45, 75, 84 Khusraw (Chosroes, Kisra) Anushar- w^n or Nushirwan (Sasanian king of Persia, vi), 11, 20, 21 Khuzistan, 19 Khwarazm, 59, 81, 98 King's College, Cambridge, 48 Kisrd ("Chosroes"), 11, 20. See Khusraw Kitab -Bukhald ("Book of Misers," by -Jahiz), 7; — -Faraj ba^d -Shidda ("Relief after Distress," by -Tan- ukhi), 50, 73-78; Hawi.^.z;.; — •Mabda waH-Ma^dd (by Avicenna, xi), 84; — -Maliki (the "Liber Regius" of 'All ibnu'l-'Abbas-Ma- jiisi, x), 47, 49 n., 53-57, d^, 92, 120; see also Kamilu's-Sina'at, supra; — -Mansuri (by -Razf, x), 45, 48, 56; — -Tanbih wd'l-Ishrdf (Mas'udf), 117 and n. de Koning, Dr P. — , 3, 47, 55, 122 Krehl, L. — , 18 von Kremer, Baron Alfred — , 14, 57, 96 n. Kiifa, 76 Kunndsh (of 'Isa ibn Hakam), 16 Lagarde, 7 Lahore, Oriental College, 104 Lane, Edward — , 32, loi n., 102 LatdHf-i-Rashidlyya (medical work by Mahmud ibn Ilyas, xiv), 107 Latin translations from Arabic, 2, 4, 6, 15, 26-27, 28, 34, 95, 113 " Latino- Barbari," 4, 24, 32, 35, dd^ 113 Laurel -spurge, 77 Layard, 19 n. Lebanon, 69 Leclerc, Dr L. — {Histoire de laMidecine Arabe), 3, 11, 17, 18, 26, 72, 95, 98 Leech swallowed, 74-75 Zie;««a (water- weed), 74 n. Lepers (segregated by -Walfd in a.d. 707), 16-17 Leprosy, 12, 43 Leyden, 6r n. " Liber Almansoris," 45, 48, 75. See also -Kitab-Mansuri " Liber Regius." See Kamilu's- Sina'at and -Kitab-Maliki Lippert, Dr Julius — , 100. See also -Qifti (author of the Tdrikhu'l- Hukamd) Litharge (murddsang), 120 Livre d^ Avertisseme7tt{Kitdbu^t- Tanbih of -Mas'udi), 117 and n. Locusts as food, 77-78, 81 Love as a malady, 85-88 Lupus, 43 Lyons, 53, 109 -Ma'arri, Abu'l-'Ala — (Arabic poet, xi), 95-96 Macnaghten (ed. oi A If Lay la or "Ara- bian Nights"), 32 n. Mddharyun or Mdzaryun (Mezereon, Daphne oleoides), 77-78 -Madfna (the ancient Yathrib), 4, 9 Madira (a kind of broth), 75 Madkhal (-Razi's " Introduction" to the Practice of Medicine, x), 48 Magian (or Zoroastrian, q.v?\, 2, 53 Ibn Mahdi (physician, xiv), 107 Abu Mahir Musa ibn Sayyar (teacher of 'All ibnu'l-'Abbas-Majiisi, x), 53-54 Mahmiid, Sultan — of Ghazna (x-xi), 59, 84; — ibn Ilyas (physician, xiv), 105, 107 Maimonides (Musa ibn Maymun, xii), 97 Majlis-i-Sihhat (" Council of Health " at Tihran, xix), 93 Majma^iiU-Fusahd (anthology of Per- sian poets, xix), 61 -Majusi ("Haly Abbas," physician, x). See 'All ibnu'l- 'Abbas — Makhzanti' l-Asrdr (Persian poem by Nizami of Ganja, xii), 89-90 Makhzum (Arab tribe), 16 Malabathi-um {sddhaj-i-hindl), 108 Malaga, 98 -Ma'mun ('Abbasid Caliph, ix), 5 Manchu (writing), 22 Manes (Mani) the heresiarch (iv), 20 Manna, 12 -Mansiir ('Abbasid Caliph, viii), 5, 23; 134 Arabian Medicine (John of Damascus so named), 15; Qala'un -Malik — (xiii), 101-102 ; — ibn Ishaq ibn Ahmad (governor of Ray and patron of -Razf, x), 45, 75 n., 82 ; — ibn Muhammad (Persian anatomist, xiv), 93 Abu Mansiir Muwaffaq of Herat (author of oldest Persian Materia Medica, x) , 93 Maqdlafi KhalqCl-Insdn (Arabic work on Embryology, etc., by Sa'fd ibn Hibatu'Uah, xi), 125 -Maqrfzi (author of -Khitat, g.v.), 101-102 Maragha (in N.W. Persia), 101 Mara'il (Syriac name), 8 Margoliouth, Professor D. S. — , 49, 100 Mdristdn (for Btmdristdn, hospital), 23, 46, 101-102 Ibn Masawayh, Yuhann£ — (" Mes- sues," ix), 8, 24, 25, 37, 39 -Mas'udi (Arab geographer and his- torian, x), 117 Mathnawi (Persian poem, xiv), 87-88 Mazdayasnian (Zoroastrian) , 22 Mazyar (Persian patriot and rebel, ix), 38 Measles (-Razi on — ), 47 Mecca, 4 Melancholia, 85, 88-89 Merv, 37, 83, 88 n. Mesopotamia, 97 "Messues," 8. See Ibn Masawayh, supra Mezereon {Daphne oleoides), 77 and 78n. Michael de Capella, 53 Migraine (hemicrania, shaqtqa), 12, 35 Millipede {hazdr-pdy), 79 Missing link, 1 18-119 Mizdj {^\. Amzija). See " Complexions" Mongols (Tatars, Tartars), 4, 6, 91, 100, loi, 103; letters of the — , 22 Monte Casino, 68 Moore, Sir Norman — , vii, i, 125 Mu^allim-i-thdni (the "Second Great Teacher"), title of Avicenna, q.v. Mu'^wiya (Umayyad Caliph, vii), 15, 16 Mubadh (Zoroastrian priest), 79 Mughtasila (Sabaeans, so-called "Chris- tians of St John the Baptist "), 27 Muhammad the Prophet (vi-vii), 4, 9, II, 21; — ibn -Nili (xiv), 104; — Abarquhi (xiv), 104 ; — 'AH (Khedive of Egypt), 94; Shaykh — Mahdi (xix), 36; Mfrza — ibn 'Abdu'l- Wahhdb (xix-xx), 11 n., 80, 84; — Shaft' (Professor at Oriental College, Lahore), 104 Multan, 105 -Muluki, -Kitdb — (by -Razf, not to be confounded with al-KitdbuU-Maliki, the "Liber Regius" of 'All ibnu'l -•Abbas-Majiisf), 48 Munaytira, Castle of — in Syria, 69 Munich Library, 48, 114 -Muqtadi ('Abb^sid Caliph, xi), 125 -Muqtadir ('Abbasid Caliph, x), 40 Musa ibn Maymun, 97. See Maimo- nides Mustashfd (hospital), 102 Mutakharrij (graduate), 40 -Mutanabbf (Arabic poet, x), 30-31 -Mu'tasim ('Abbasid Caliph, ix), 37 -Mutawakkil ('Abbasid Caliph, ix), 38, 66 -MuHazila (sect), 5 Myrobolan (halila), 87 Nadr ibn -Harith (vii), 1 1 and n. -Nahdatu^l-akhira (the "latest revival" of learning in the East), 94 and n. Ndma-i-Ddttishwardn (the " Book of Learned Men," xix), 36 Nasiru'd-Dfn Shah (xix), 36, 93 Nasnds (a wild man, the missing link between apes and men), 119 Natures, the Four — {-fabd'i^-arba'), 116 Nawddir (quaint and rare anecdotes), 73 "Neguegidi" (Latin corruption of -nawdjidh), 34 Neo-Piatonists, 11, 21 Nestorian Christians, 21, 22 Neuburger, Dr Max — , vi, 3, 47, 66 Nigella sativa (fennel-flower), 1 2 Nightmare, 42 Nizami of Ganja (Persian poet, author of the Khamsa or "Five Treasures," Index 135 xii), 89-90; i-*Arudi of Samarqand (author of the Chahdr Maqalaj^.z'.), 50. 63, 79 Noldeke, Professor Th. — , ■20 n., 2311. " Nose-death," 125 "Nuaged,"34.See"Neguegidi,"i'«/ra Nubia, apes from — , 37 Nilh ibn Mansiir (Samanid king, a.d. 976-997), 58 "Number of All Things" {'Adadu kulli shay'), 32 Numbers, mystical significance of — , 32, 115 Nur-i-'' Uthmdniyya Library (Constanti- nople), 107 Nuru'd-Din, 102 Oils, aromatic vegetable — , 104-105, 107, io8 Ophthalmia, 12 Oribasius, 28, 33, 55 Oxus {Amu, J'ayhun), 82, 83, 105 Oxymel {sirkangaMn), 41, 87 Pagel, 3, ()(> Pahlawi inscriptions, 20 Pain, noun of—, 4, 5, 35 Palpitation, 42 "Paradise of Wisdom." See Firdaw- su'1-Hikmat, supra Paralysis, 43 Paris, 94 Paris, Matthew — (xiii), 6 Pashm-i-ghuk ("frogs' wool," a kind of water- weed), 74 Paul of Aegina, 28, 33, 55 Persian influences on, and contributions to, "Arabian" learning, 2, 5, 7, 9, 14, 65 ; — Empire, 10 Peste, Pestihntid, de — (by -Razi), 47 Pestilence, 12 Petrograd, 48 0aA:6s [Ilerba Lentis Palustris), 74 n. Phlebotomy, 41, 43 p€viTis, 113 Plague, 43 Playfair, Ernest — (translator of Prof. Max Neuburger's Gesck. d. Medizin), 47 n. Pleurisy, 12, 43, 56, 78 Pocock's ed. of the Mukhtasaru'd- Z'«z£>a/ of Bar Hebraeus, loi Pognon, H. — {Une Version Syriaque des Aphorismes d' Hippocrate) , 21, and n. , 28-29 Poison, duel by — , 90; varieties of — , III Polak, Dr — , 93 Press and Poetry of Modern Persia, by E. G. Browne, 94 n. Prognostics, 26 Prolegomena {-Muqaddama) of Ibn Khaldun, 7 "Prophetic Medicine," 12-13 Psychotherapeusis, 81-84 Ptolemy, 118 Pulse (nabd), 42, 43, 60, 85-88 Pyelitis, 53 Qabus ibn Washmgir (xi), 59 Qala'iin (xiii), loi Qdnun (of Avicenna), 4, 13, 27, 34, 47, 54, 61-63, 66, 78 n., 81, 85, 89, 92, 98, 109, 113, 122, 123 ^^'«2^w^^a (abridgment of above), 13 Qaren (Persian noble house), 38 Abu'l-Qasim, 97. See Zahrawi Qasru'l-'Aynl hospital (Cairo), 94 Qayruwan, 97, 106 -Qiftl (Jam^u'd-Din Abu'l-Hasan 'All ibn Yiisuf — , xiii, author of the TarikhuU-Hukanid), 3, 10, 17, 18, 23 n., 24, 37, 38, 40, 46, 48, 53, 54, 57, 60, 100 Qinnasrln, 108 Quatremere, Etiehne — {Hist, des Mongols), 103 Quicksilver employed by -Razi in a case of intussusception, 78 Qur'dn, 7,11, 12, 13, 32, 58, 106, 108, 115 Qusta ibn Luq^ (of Baalbek, d. a.d. 923)* 27 Qutbu'd-Dln of Shir^ (xiv), 105 Rabban (." our teacher," " our master"), 37-38 Rab'-i-Rashidi (quarter of Tabriz, xiv), 103, 104, 106, 108-109 136 Arabian Medicine Ragha (ancient name of Ray), 44 Rashidabad (quarter of Tabriz), 109 Rashidu'd-Din Fadlu'llah ("Rashid the Physician," xiii-xiv), 103-109 ; — Abu Haliqa, 85 n. Ravvlinson, Sir H. R. — , 19 n. Ray (Ragha of the Avesta, situated near to the modern Tihran), 44, 45, 75 n. -Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zak- ariyya of Ray, hence called -Razl (Rhazes of medieval Europe, x), 32, 38, 44-53. 55. 62, 66, 67, 68, 74-75, 78, 82-84, 91, 92, 98, 113-114 "Rectification" {Isldh) of the Qdnun of Avicenna denounced, 63 Renascence, 2-3 Rhazes. See -Razi, supra Rheumatism, 43, 48, 81, 82-84 Rieu, Dr Ch. — , 60 n. Rocco = Arabic Rukka, 65 n. Roman Empire, 10 Ross, Sir E. Denison — ,114 Rudaba (mother of Rustam), 79 Rufus of Ephesus, 28, 33 Ibn Rushd ("Averroes"), 97 Rustam, 11, 79 Sabaeans, 27, 66 Sa'du'd-Din (governor in Asia Minor, xiv), 108 -Sahih (Collection of Traditions) of -Bukhari, 12 Sahl, called Rabban (father of 'Ali ibn Rabban of Tabaristdn, q.v), 37 Sa'id, the Q^di — , 44 Sa'id ibn Hibatu'llah, Abu'l-Hasan — (Court-physician to the Caliph -Muq- tadf, xi), 125 St Bartholomew's Hospital, 125 Saladdin, 97, 102 Salerno, 68 Salfbd (Syrian name), 8 Sam^nid dynasty, 58, 84 Samarqand, 9, 79, 88, 107 Sanwarta (a Syriac vi^ord of Persian origin, meaning primarily a helmet, and then a headache involving the whole head), 35 Sar-i-Pul ("Bridge-end" in Samar- qand), 88 Sarbat, or Sarnab (name of Indian physician, supposed contemporary of Aristotle), 79 Sdsanian dynasty (iii-vii), 14, 19, 22. See also Khusraw Anxisharwdn, Jundi Sabiir, etc. Schindler, Sir Albert Houtum , J03 Schlimmer's Termmologie Midico-Phar- maceutique etc., 77, 93-^94 Sciatica, 43 Scorpions, oil of — , 105 Scot, Michael — , 98 Scrofula, 43 Seligmann, Dr F. R. — , 93 Sensus communis {^-hiss -mushtarik), 123 Ibn Serapion, Yuhann^ — ,55 Sergius of Ra'su'l-'Ayn (d. a.d. 536), 21 Seville, 97, 107 Shahabdd (village now occupying site of Jundf Sabiir), 19 Shdh-ndma of Firdawsi (xi), 79 Shahraziiri (author of a History of Philo- sophers), 100 Shamsu'd-Dawla of Hamadan, Amir — (patron of Avicenna), 59 Shapiir I (iii), 19-20; — II (iv), 20-21 Shaqiqa (migraine), 35 Shattu'l-'Arab, 27 -Shaykh-RaHs ("the Chief Master"), 57. See Avicenna Shayzar (in Syria), 71, 72 Shir^z, 107 Shock, 43 Silsilatu'dh-Dhahab (the "Chain of Gold," poem by Jami, xv), 84, 89 Simon, Dr Max — , 3, 28, 114, 122 Sinan ibn Thabit ibn Qurra, 27, 40-41 Sirkangabin (oxymel), 41, 87 de Slane, Baron McGuckin — (trans- lation of Ibn KJiallikan's biographies), 7, 100 Small-pox, 43, 47, 94 "Soda" (Latin transcription of Sudd\ headache), 4, 35 Sontheimer, 98 Spain, 9, 14, 97-98 Spasm, 43 Index "^Zl Spheres, the twelve — , ii8 Spirits, the three — (Natural, Animal and Psychical), 124, 125 Spurge-flax (Mezereon), 77 Steinschneider, Dr Moritz — , 47, 68 n. Stephen the Philosopher, 53 Sroixeta {ustuqussdt, elements), 121 Stone, -Razi on — , 47 Strassburg, 72 Styptic, ashes of burnt matting used as — , 12 Sudhoff, Dr Karl — , 93 Sydenham Society, 47 Syria, 14, 27, 69, loi, 104, 109 Syriac language, 6, 26, 28, 33, 35, 95, 10 1 ; — Book of Medicines (ed. and transl. by Dr E. Wallis Budge), 22 Syrian contributions to "Arabian" Science, 2, 7, 21-22, 28-29, 55» 94 Syro-Persian technical terms, 34-35 -Tabarf (Arab historian), 16, 38-39 Tabarist^n, 37, 38, 48 Tabriz, 94, 103, 104, 106, 107, 108 "Tacuini Sanitatis," 72. See Taqwl- mu's-Sihha Tafhim (manual of Astronomy by -Bfrdni, xi), 6 Tamfm, Shaykh Abu'1-Wafa — , 71 -Tanukhf (author of -Faraj ba^da *sh- Shidda, x), 50, 73, 78 Taqwimu' s-Sikha (by Ibn ButMn, d. A.D. 1063), 72 Tartars (more correctly Tatars), 4, 6. See Mongols Tawaddud the slave-girl, 31-32 Terminology, evolution of Arabic medi- cal — , 33-36 Terra sigillata (-//« -makhtutn), 51, 52, 107 Tetanus, 42, 43 Thabit ibn Qurra (ix), 27; — (physician to Usama's uncle), 69-70 Theodorus, Theodosius, 16, 20 "Thesaurus." See Dhaklra-i-Khwa- razmshahf Tholozon, Dr — , 93 Tibb -NaM (the "Prophet's Medicine"), 11-14; — -Yundni ("Greek Medi- cine"), 62, 93; Rukka ("Old Wives' Medicine"), 65 Tigris {Dijld), 37 Tihrdn, 36, 44, 93, 94 Tinnitus, 42 Toledo {Tulaytuld)^ 97> 98 Torpor, 42 Translator's methods, 26, 28-29, 95 Transoxiana ( il/ 46, 50. 54. 59n., 75"., 85 n, 100, 125 n. Ustuqussdt {(TTOixeta, elements), 121 Ibn Uthal (physician to Mu'^wiya, vii), Uyghur script, 22 Vacuum and Plenum {Khald wa Mala), 118 Valerian, the Emperor — , 20 Van Vloten, 7 n. Veh-az-Andev ("Better than Antioch"), 20. See Jundi Sabiir Vendtddd (Avesta), 22, 44 n. Verdigris [zangdr), 120 Vertigo {duwdr), 35) 4^ Vinegar as a therapeutic agent, 71, 72-73 138 Arabian Medicine Vipers, therapeutic use of — , 72-73, 81 Virchow's Archiv, 47 n., 68 n. Virtues, Natural — , 122-123 Vital Spirit, 123 Vollers, 65 n. Ibnu'l-Wafid (" Aben Guefit"), 97 Walfd (Umayyad Caliph, viii), 16 Wasserlinde (Arabic Tuklub), 7411. Wenrich, 3 Withington, E. T. — [Medical History from the earliest times), 3, 67 Wright, Dr William — , loi W^iistenfeld, Ferdinand — (author of Die Academien der Araber und ihre Lehrer, 1837, and Geschichte der Arabischen Aerzte, 1840), 3 Yddgdr ( *' the Remembrancer, "a manual of Medicine by Zaynu'd-Din Isma'fl of Jurjan, xii), 99 Yahy^ -Nahwf ("John the Grammarian," "John Philoponus," vi orvii), 17-18, 26 Yaqut (geographer and biographer, xiii), 38, 100 Yathrib ('Ici^piTrTra), 9. See -Madlna Yazfd ibn 'Abdu'l-Malik (Umayyad Caliph, viii), 30 Year amongst the Persians, by E. G. Browne, 123 n. Yuhannd. See Ibn Mdsawayh, Ibn Serapion Yusuf the physician, 24-25 Abu Za'bal (site of first modern hospital at Cairo), 94 -Zahrawi, Abu'l-Q^sim — (Moorish surgeon, x, known to medieval Europe as "Alsaharavius," *' Abulca- sis" and " Albucasis"), 97 Zahrun, family of — , 27 Abu Zakariyya (Christian kunya), 8 Zayd^n, Jurji — (Syrian writer and publicist, editor of -Hildl, xix-xx), 94. 95 n. Zaynab (woman oculist in Umayyad period), 16 Zaynu'd-Dfn Isma'fl of Jurjan, Sayyid — (Persian physician, xii), 98-100. See also Dhakhlra-i-Khwarazm- shahi Zhukovski, Valentin — , 88 n. Zohab, 19 n. Zoroastrians, 22, 53, 54, ^d, 79. See also Avesta, Magian Ibn Zuhr of Seville (Moorish physician, xii, known to medieval Europe as Avenzoar, q.v.), 97 Zukdm (catarrh), 35 Zwemer, Dr (author of Arabia, the Cradle of Isldm), 17, 65 DATE DUE JUN -5 9 35 ^J^ n fl } my; . P^ ,f,po UNIVERSITY PRODUCTS, INC. #859-5503 S40139 BOSTON COLLEGE 3 9031 01534116 7 R143 •B? Brome^ E. G, Bapst Library Boston College Chestnut Hill 67, Mass.