Lot 163
  • 163

Two medical works in one volume: Mahmud ibn ‘Umar Jaghmini (d.1344), Kitab Qanunchah fi al-tibb ('The Little Canon on Medicine'); Abu al-Fadl Dawud ibn Abi al-Bayan al-Isra’ili (d. circa 1240 AD), Dustur al-adwiyah al-musta’malah fi al-bimaristanat ('The Register of Remedies used in Hospitals'), Egypt or Syria, Mamluk, dated 723 AH/1323 AD

Estimate
30,000 - 50,000 GBP
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Description

  • Ink on paper, bound leather
Arabic manuscript on paper, 79 leaves plus 2 flyleaves, approximately 18 lines to the page, written in fairly loose naskh script in black ink, keywords in second work picked out in larger text, various marginal glosses throughout, composite brown morocco binding decorated with interlocking geometric and stellar motifs 

Condition

In generally good overall condition, binding worn and repaired, opening pages with various losses to leaf edges with associated repair, some water stains, pages generally clean, as viewed.
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Catalogue Note

The first of the works in the present volume is also known as Khulasat al-Qanun fi al-tibb, 'The Epitome of the Canon on Medicine'. According to Emilie Savage-Smith “this is a popular and extremely short abridgement in ten chapters of the Qanun of Ibn Sina, which the epitomizer, Jaghmini, disingenuously claims to have taken directly from the writings of the ancient writers such as Hippocrates, Galen and Hunayn ibn Ishaq rather from Ibn Sina.” (see Savage-Smith 2011, p.306-7, no.86).

The text is divided into ten chapters (maqalat), and each maqalah is divided into fasls dealing with topics such as the anatomy of the body, the pulse, the diseases of the heart and the chest, apparent symptoms and the use of foodstuff and beverages as remedies. For a detailed table of contents for the treatise, see N. Serikoff, Arabic Medical Manuscripts of the Wellcome Library – A Descriptive Catalogue of the Haddad Collection, Leiden, 2005, pp.183-8, no.427. See also C. Brockelmann, GAL, I. 457 (598) and S. I. 826. The present manuscript represents a very early copy of this work, written during the lifetime of the author.

The author of the second work, Abu al-Fadl Dawud ibn Abi al-Bayan al-Isra’ili, was a twelfth/thirteenth-century Jewish physician working in Cairo. He was known to have been extremely skillful, and became chief professor at the Al-Nasiri hospital. As well as having a great many students, he was also the personal physician of Sultan al-Malik al-'Adil Abu Bakr ibn Ayyub (d.1218 AD). There is an earlier copy of the second work in the present volume in a majmu’a dated 19 Muharram 640 AH/19 July 1242 AD in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. According to Emilie Savage-Smith this copy may be the oldest preserved copy. She states that "this small formula for medicaments used in Syro-Egyptian and Iraqi hospitals is divided into twelve chapters (babs) in which the remedies are discussed by type. The twelve chapters are titled:

1. fi al-ma’ajin wa al-itrifulat, on electuaries / confections and those containing myrobalan.
2. fi al-jawarishnat, on stomachics.
3. fi al-hubub wa al-iyarajat wa al-matbukhat, on pills, a special class of compound remedy, and on decoctions.
4. fi al-aqras wa al-safufat, on pastilles and powders.
5. fi al-ashribah wa al-la’uqat wa al-rubub wa al-murabbayat, on beverages, confections, syrups, and cooked fruits.
6. fi al-gharaghir wa al-su’utat, on gargles and powders.
7. fi al-akhal wa-al-shiyafat, on eye medicines and collyria.
8. fi al-huqan wa al-fata’il wa al-farzajat, on enemas, suppositories and pessaries.
9. fi al-atliyah wa al-dimadat, on plasters and dressing.
10. fi al-adhan wa al-natulat, on oils and warm compresses.
11. fi adwiyah al-fam wa-al-sanunat, on drugs for the mouth and toothpowders.
12. fi adwiyah al-nawasir wa-al-marahim wa al-khurajat, on drugs for fistulas, on creams, and on [drugs for] skin eruptions" (see E. Savage-Smith, op.cit., pp.711-14, Entry No.209).

For another copy of this work in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, see A. Arberry, A Handlist of the Arabic Manuscripts, volume VI, Dublin, 1963, p.163, no.4987 (1). For other copies see Brockelmann, GAL, I. 491 (647) no.30.1, and GAL S, I. 896.