Practice versus theory: Tenth-century case histories from the Islamic Middle East

Social History of Medicine

Volumn 13, Issue 2, 2000, Pages 293-306

  Álvarez Millán, Cristina ^a  

^a UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID   (Spain)

Author keywords

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya' al Razi tenth century; Eye diseases; Kitab al Mansuri; Kitab al Tajarib; Kitab al Taqsim wa al tashjir; Medieval Islamic Medicine; Middle East; Theory versus practice

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; EYE DISEASE; HISTORY; HUMAN; MANAGEMENT; MEDICINE; MIDDLE EAST; PHILOSOPHY; RELIGION;

EYE DISEASES; HISTORY, MEDIEVAL; HUMANS; ISLAM; MEDICINE; MIDDLE EAST; PHILOSOPHY, MEDICAL; PRACTICE MANAGEMENT, MEDICAL;

EID: 0037749963     PISSN: 0951631X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/shm/13.2.293     Document Type: Review

References (35)

1. M. Lonie, 'Literacy and the Development of Hippocratic Medicine', in F. Lasserre and P. Mudry (eds.), Formes de pensee dans la collection Hippocratique (Geneva, 1983), p. 145.
2. Oxford, Bodleian Library, Oriental Collections, MS. Hunt. 461, fols. 38b-50a.
3. For a description of the stylistic features and purposes of these ancient collections, see C. Alvarez-Millan, 'Graeco-Roman Case Histories and their Influence on Medieval Islamic Clinical Accounts', Social History of Medicine, 12 (1999), 19-33.
4. See J. Agrimi and C. Crisciani, Les Consilia Medicaux, Typologie des sources du moyen age occidental 69 (Brepols, 1994); P. Lain Entralgo, La historia clinica Historia y teoria del relato patografico (Barcelona, 1961), pp. 48-81.
5. See J. Agrimi and C. Crisciani, Les Consilia Medicaux, Typologie des sources du moyen age occidental 69 (Brepols, 1994); P. Lain Entralgo, La historia clinica Historia y teoria del relato patografico (Barcelona, 1961), pp. 48-81.
6. For al-Razi's life and writings, see L, Richter-Bemburg, 'Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakafiya' al-Razi (Rhazes) Medical works', Medicina nei secoli, 6 (1994), 377-99; E. Savage-Smith, 'Medicine', in R. Rashed (ed.), Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science (London, 1996), vol. III, 903-62, esp. pp. 913-19; E. Savage-Smith, 'Europe and Islam', in I. Loudon (ed.), Western Medicine: An Illustrated History (Oxford, 1995), pp. 44-45; and P,.. Kuhne Brabant, 'al-Razi', in Storia della scienza, Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, vol. II, Sez. B, Arabic Science, Part 7: Scientific Portraits (forthcoming).
7. For al-Razi's life and writings, see L, Richter-Bemburg, 'Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakafiya' al-Razi (Rhazes) Medical works', Medicina nei secoli, 6 (1994), 377-99; E. Savage-Smith, 'Medicine', in R. Rashed (ed.), Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science (London, 1996), vol. III, 903-62, esp. pp. 913-19; E. Savage-Smith, 'Europe and Islam', in I. Loudon (ed.), Western Medicine: An Illustrated History (Oxford, 1995), pp. 44-45; and P,.. Kuhne Brabant, 'al-Razi', in Storia della scienza, Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, vol. II, Sez. B, Arabic Science, Part 7: Scientific Portraits (forthcoming).
8. For al-Razi's life and writings, see L, Richter-Bemburg, 'Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakafiya' al-Razi (Rhazes) Medical works', Medicina nei secoli, 6 (1994), 377-99; E. Savage-Smith, 'Medicine', in R. Rashed (ed.), Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science (London, 1996), vol. III, 903-62, esp. pp. 913-19; E. Savage-Smith, 'Europe and Islam', in I. Loudon (ed.), Western Medicine: An Illustrated History (Oxford, 1995), pp. 44-45; and P,.. Kuhne Brabant, 'al-Razi', in Storia della scienza, Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, vol. II, Sez. B, Arabic Science, Part 7: Scientific Portraits (forthcoming).
9. For al-Razi's life and writings, see L, Richter-Bemburg, 'Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakafiya' al-Razi (Rhazes) Medical works', Medicina nei secoli, 6 (1994), 377-99; E. Savage-Smith, 'Medicine', in R. Rashed (ed.), Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science (London, 1996), vol. III, 903-62, esp. pp. 913-19; E. Savage-Smith, 'Europe and Islam', in I. Loudon (ed.), Western Medicine: An Illustrated History (Oxford, 1995), pp. 44-45; and P,.. Kuhne Brabant, 'al-Razi', in Storia della scienza, Instituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, vol. II, Sez. B, Arabic Science, Part 7: Scientific Portraits (forthcoming).
10. On the contents and main features of this work, see my forthcoming article, 'A1-Razi's Kitab al-Tajarib: Everyday Practice in Tenth-Century Islamic Medicine'; and for Razi's case histories in works other than the Tajarib, see Alvarez-Millan, 'Graeco-Roman Case Histories'.
11. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya' al-Razi, Kitabal-Tajarib, Istanbul, Topkapi Saray, Ahmed III, MS. 1975, fols. 47a-47b.
12. Ibid., fol. 3a.
13. Ibid., fol. 103b.
14. Ibid., fol. 59a.
15. Ibid., fols. 2a-2b.
16. Ibid., fol. 68a.
17. Ibid., fols. 8a-9b.
18. Ibid., fols. l0b-lla.
19. Ibid., fol. 49a.
20. Ibid., fols. 64a and 66b-67a respectively.
21. Ibid., fol. 63b.
22. Ibid., fol. 67b and 73b-74a.
23. It is interesting to note that no case involving rabies or bites by poisonous snakes or insects is recorded in Razi's Casebook .
24. Dracunculus medinensis or Filaria medinensis. Istanbul, Topkapi Saray, Ahmed III, MS. 1975, fol. 51a.
25. See Bennett, above, p. 290.
26. There are two cases of black vitiligo (bahaq aswad), two cases of leprosy (baras) and six cases of another ulcerative skin condition (qawabi). For a discussion of these terms, all of which were used for symptoms of leprosy, see M. Dols, 'Leprosy in Medieval Arabic Medicine', Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 34 (1979), 314-33.
27. Istanbul, Topkapi Saray, Ahmed III, MS. 1975, fols. 15b-22b.
28. In modem medicine, trachoma is considered a disease of the conjunctiva in which dense, hard-packed papillae form on the inner surface of the eyelid. Pannus consists of an invasion of the cornea by vessels from the limbus, usually being a sequela of trachoma. See E. Savage-Smith, 'Ibn al-Nafis's Perfected Book on Ophthalmology and His Treatment of Trachoma and Its Sequelae', Journal for the History of Arabic Sdence, 4 (1980), p. 149.
29. Pterygium is a triangular-shaped ingrowth of the conjunctiva onto either side of the cornea, most frequently on the nasal side; see Savage-Smith, ibid., p. 149.
30. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya' al-Razi, Al-Taqsim wa-al-tashjir: Taqsim al-ilal, edition and French translation by S. M. Hammami (Aleppo, 1992), pp. 106-35.
31. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya' al-Razi Kitab al - Mansuri, Escorial, Real Biblioteca del Monasterio, Arabic MS. 858, fols. 116b-120a.
32. See 'Ali ibn 'Isa al-Kahhal, Memorandum Book of a Tenth-Century Oculist, trans. C. A. Wood (Chicago, 1936).
33. A compound purgative remedy in which drugs of a bitter taste are mixed with aromatic drugs, the main ingredients being aloe and cinnamon; see M. Levey, Early Arabic Pharmacology (Leiden, 1973), pp. 85-6.
34. Or habb al- quqaya, laxative in the form of pastilles made of equal amounts of mastic, juice of absinthe or leaves of scammony, aloe from Socotra, and colocynth; see R. Dozy, Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1881; reprinted Beirut, 1968), II, p. 428.
35. Tryphera (Arabic trifil or atriful) is an electuary or confection made of three different types of myrobalans: black (or chebulic, halilaj), belleric (balilaj), and emblic (amlaj); see Dozy, Supplement, I, p. 28, and Levey, Early Arabic Pharmacology, p. 86.