17 - Medicine among Medieval Jews

Summary

During the Middle Ages, Jews participated in the medical systems of the Muslim and Christian milieus in which they lived. As a result, the theoretical basis and actual practice of Jewish medicine were largely shaped by the medical traditions of their host societies. This process began around the eighth century, when Jews participated from the very beginning in the translation, transmission, and appropriation of Greek science and philosophy by the Arabs. Arabic language and culture provided the Jews from Persia to the Iberian Peninsula with a common cultural and sociopolitical background that contributed to their cohesion.

With a few exceptions, it was not until the second half of the twelfth century, in the Christian lands of the western Mediterranean, that medical and scientific texts were written in Hebrew. This turning point occurred as part of the encounter between two distinct Jewish cultures, when Jews from al-Andalus who had moved to the northern Iberian Peninsula and the south of France – where the Jewish cultural language was Hebrew – transmitted to their coreligionists the wealth of Greco-Arabic knowledge of which they had been previously unaware.