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Medieval Egyptian Judaeo-Arabic Prescriptions (and the edition of three medical prescriptions)*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2008

EFRAIM LEV
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Extract

The literature on medicine in medieval Muslim countries in general and in Egypt in particular is vast and detailed. Yet study and assessment of the practical aspects of medicine in the Mediterranean society of the Middle Ages requires examination of authentic, practical medical knowledge. At present this can be extracted mainly from the prescriptions found in the Cairo Genizah; these supply a different and valuable dimension. On the importance and the potential of research into the medical aspects of the Genizah documents, mainly prescriptions, Goitein wrote in 1971 that “these prescriptions have to be examined by experts in the history of medicine”.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 2008 , pp. 449 - 464
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2008

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Footnotes

I wish to thank the Syndics of Cambridge University Library for their permission to publish the Genizah fragments.

References

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3 Goitein, S. D., A Mediterranean Society: the Jewish communities of the Arab world as portrayed in the documents of the Cairo Genizah (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1967, 1971), I, p. 210Google Scholar; II, p. 253.

4 H. D. Isaacs with the (assistance of C. F. Baker). Medical and Para-medical Manuscripts in the Cambridge Collection (Cambridge, 1994).

5 E. Lev, ‘A Catalogue of the Medical and Para-Medical Manuscripts in the Rylands Genizah Collection, together with the edition of two medical documents’ (forthcoming).

6 Personal observations.

7 Lev, E. and Amar, Z., ‘Medieval Materia Medica – Practice vs. Theory – the Case of the Cairo Genizah’, Medical History, 51 (2007), pp. 507–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 E.g., T-S Or. 1081.J.39.

9 E.g., T-S Ar.30.305.

10 T-S NS J89; T-S K25.116; T-S NS 265.62.

11 T-S AS 150.59.

12 E.g., T-S Ar.30.305; T-S AS 142.22.

13 T-S Or.1081.J.39.

14 T-S NS 281.158.

15 T-S NS 90.65.

16 T-S K25.116; T-S K25.212; T-S Ar.30.16; T-S Ar.30.305; T-S Ar.30.65; T-S Ar.43.238; T-S Ar.43.338; T-S Ar.43.47; T-S Ar.43.54; T-S Ar.43.71; T-S Ar.44.162; T-S Ar.44.181; T-S AS 148.22; T-S AS 152.34; T-S AS 155.365; T-S AS 173.3; T-S AS 214.96; T-S NS 194.70; T-S NS 218.21; T-S NS 222.34; T-S NS 223.82–83; T-S 12.33; T-S 16.291; T-S 8J14.3; T-S 8J15.20; T-S Or.1081.1.66; T-S Or.1081.J.39.

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18 T-S Ar.30.286; T-S Ar.46.97.

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22 T-S AS 119.315v.

23 T-S 13J5.1.

24 T-S Or.1080 J 7.

25 T-S 13J34.5.

26 T-S T-S 13J8.1.

27 T-S 10 J 7.8

28 T-S 13J3.4; T-S 13J14, f.25.

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30 BM Or.5566B.

31 T-S NS J422.

32 T-S NS 306.48v.

33 See in detail Lev op. cit. note 20 above.

34 T-S AS 152.131.

35 See, e.g., a letter from physician who left his practice in a small village near Cairo and tried to establish a medical career in Cairo – T-S Or. 1018 J5.

36 Goitein, op. cit. note 3 above, II, pp. 241–250.

37 T-S NS 321.34.

38 A. L. Motzkin, ‘A Thirteenth-Century Jewish Physician in Jerusalem’, Muslim World, 60 (1970): 344–349.

39 Goitein, op. cit. note 3 above, II, p. 261.

40 Goitein, op. cit. note 3 above, II, p. 265.

41 T-S NS.340.50, and few more, e.g., T-S 20.168; T-S K15.45.

42 Goitein, op. cit. note 3 above, II, p. 261.

43 Ibid.; see for examples of ‘aţţār T-S Ar.39.356r; T-S NS 340.50v.

44 H. D. Isaacs (with the assistance of C.F. Baker). op. cit. Note 4 above, p. xi.

45 See in detail Lev op. cit. note 20 above, table 1.

46 T-S Or.1080 J23.

47 T-S Or.1080 J38.

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50 Lev and Amar, op. cit. note 7 above.

51 Lev, E. and Amar, Z., Practical Materia Medica of the Medieval Eastern Mediterranean according to the Cairo Genizah (Leiden, 2007), pp. 16–17.Google Scholar

52 See in detail Lev op. cit. note 20 above, table 3.

53 Dāwud Ibn Abī al-Bayān, al-Dustūr al-Bīmāristānī (Arabic) in ‘Le Formulaire des hôpitaux d'Ibn abil Bayan, médicin du bimaristan annacery au Caire au XIIIe siècle’, P. Sbath (ed.), Bullétin de l'Institut d'Egypte, 15 (1932–33), pp. 9–78.

54 Ibn Abī Uṣaybi˓a, op. cit. note 19 above, p. 584.

55 Lev, E., Chipman, L., and Niessen, F., ‘A Hospital Handbook for the Community: Evidence for the extensive use of Ibn Abī ‘l-Bayān's al-Dustūr al-bīmāristānī by the Jewish practitioners of medieval Cairo’, Journal of Semitic Studies 53 (2008), pp. 103–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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57 Goitein, op. cit. note 3 above, II, p. 264–265.

58 T-S Ar.40.91.

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61 Ibn al-Bayan, op. cit. note 53 above, p. 59.

62 Lev and Amar, op. cit. note 51 above, pp. 48–49.

63 T-S K14.32.

64 T-S Ar.45.21.

65 T-S Or 1080 7.17.

66 Goitein, op. cit. note 3 above, II, p. 267, note 44.

67 Goitein, op. cit. note 3 above, II, p. 266, note 29.

68 E. Lev, L. Chipman and F. Niessen, ‘Chicken and chicory are good for you. A Unique Family Prescription from the Cairo Genizah (T_S NS 223. 82–83)', Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam (forthcoming).

69 Goitein, op. cit. note 3 above, II, p. 266.

70 Isaacs and Baker, op. cit. note 4 above, see indices.

71 Lev and Amar, op. cit. note 51 above, p. 47.

72 Isaacs and Baker, op. cit. note 4 above, p. xiv.

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79 Ahmed et al., op. cit. note 78 above.

80 See, e.g., T-S Ar.30.305.

81 See, e.g., T-S K25.116; T-S 8J15.20.

82 E.g., T-S Ar.46.97; T-S Ar.30.286; see also Stern, S. M., Corpus Codicum Hebraicorum Medii Aevi (Copenhagen, 1956). Part I, III, pp. 12–21.Google Scholar

83 E.g., T-S Ar.46.97; T-S Ar.30.286.

84 I intend to deal with this issue in detail in a future publication.