Lot 15
  • 15

Abu ‘Abdullah Sharaf-al-Zaman Muhammad Ibn Yusuf al-‘Ilaqi (d.1068 AD), Kitab al-Khulasah min kuliyyat al-qanun (an abridgement of the 'Book of Canons of Medicine'), copied by Abu al-Ma’ali Ibn Abi’l-Karam Ibn Abi Sahl al-Nusrani, dated 688 AH/1289 AD

Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Black ink on polished paper with leather binding and ropework borders
Arabic manuscript on polished paper, 123 leaves plus 7 flyleaves, 11 lines to the page, written in black ink, catchwords, later leather binding with gilt ropework borders

Condition

In good overall condition, some mild waterstaining and occasional paper repairs, pages generally clean, later binding, as viewed.
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Catalogue Note

Abu 'Abdullah al-'Ilaqi came from Bakharz, Khurasan and was active in Balkh. He was a pupil of Ibn Sina. Al-‘Ilaqi wrote an epitome of the first 'Book of Canons of Medicine' which was known under various titles: Kitab al-Fusul al-‘Ilaqiyya ('The Aphorisms of ‘Ilaqi'), and Kitab al-Asbab wa’l ‘alamat ('The Book of Causes and Symptoms'). Two copies of these works are in the Wellcome Library, see A. Iskandar, A Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Science, London, 1967, pp.83-84, WMS. Or.157 and 32. See also Brockelmann: GAL, I, 485; S, I, 887.

Ibn Sina (d.1037 AD), known as Avicenna in the west, can be regarded as the most influential writer in the history of medicine. Such was the utility of his Qanun that, from its origins in the early eleventh century in western Iran, it was used all over the Middle East and Europe as the standard medical textbook for a period of seven centuries. It was translated in its entirety into Latin by Gerard of Cremona between 1150-87 AD and a total of eighty-seven translations were subsequently made. It formed the basis of medical teaching at all European universities and appears in the oldest known syllabus of teaching, that of the Medical School of Montpellier in 1309 AD.

The secret of the Qanun's long popularity lay both in Ibn Sina's clear and lucid description and diagnosis, and in the fact that he gathered together, in one work, the myriad and scattered doctrines of Hippocrates, Galen, Aristotle, the other ancients and previous Oriental physicians. Essentially, it was the most complete encyclopaedic corpus of medieval medical knowledge. The Qanun contains around a million words and is divided into five books. The present manuscript represents an abridgment of the colossal work, and an early copy, dated just over two hundred years after the author's death.