Practice versus theory: Medieval Materia Medica according to the Cairo Genizah

Medical History

Volumn 51, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 507-526

  Lev, Efraim ^a   Amar, Zohar ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA   (Israel)

^b BAR ILAN UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 35648981526     PISSN: 00257273     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0025727300001782     Document Type: Review

References (151)

1. Moshe Ben Maimon (Maimonides), Regimen sanitatis, ed. Süssmann Muntner, Jerusalem, Mossad Harav Kook, 1957;
2. see also edition published in Basel and New York by S Karger, 1966; Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Kitāb al-Kullīyāt, Madrid, Instituto General Franco, 1939 (in Arabic).
3. Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), Kitāb al-Qānūn fī al-tibb, Cairo, Bulaq, 1877 (in Arabic);
4. Moshe Ben Maimon (Maimonides), The medical aphorisms of Moses Maimonides, trans. and ed. Fred Rosner and Süssmann Muntner, New York, Yeshiva University Press, 1970.
5. Martin Levey (ed.), The medical formulary or, Aqrābā dhīn of al-Kindī, Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1966;
6. Abū al-Munā al-Kūhīn al-Attār, Minhāj al-dukkān, Cairo, Bulaq, 1940 (in Arabic);
7. Sābūr ibn Sahl, Dispensatorium parvum = al-Aqrābādhīn al-şaghīr, ed. Oliver Kahl, Leiden and New York, Brill, 1994.
8. Ibn al-Baytār, Kitāb al-Jāmi 'li-mufradāt al-adwiya wa-al-Aghdhiyah, Cairo, Bulaq, 1874 (in Arabic);
9. Hakim M Said and R E Elahie (eds), āl-Biruni's book on pharmacy and materia medica, 2 vols, Karachi, Hamdard Academy, 1973;
10. M Meyerhof and G P Sobhy (ed. and trans.), The abridged version of "The book of simple drugs", of Ahmad Ibn Muhammad al- Ghāfiqī by Gregorius Abu' l-Farag (Barhebraeus), 4 vols, Cairo, El-Ettemad, 1932-1940.
11. See, for example, Ben Maimon, op. cit., note 2 above.
12. John M Riddle, 'Theory and practice in medieval medicine', Viator, 1974, 5: 157-84.
13. Cristina Alvarez-Millán, 'Graeco-Roman case histories and their influence on medieval Islamic clinical accounts', Soc. Hist. Med., 1999, 12: 19-43;
14. idem, 'Practice versus theory: tenth-century case histories from the Islamic Middle East'
15. Soc. Hist. Med., 2000, 13: 293-306.
16. The obvious example is Dioscorides' Materia medica. For an Arabic edition see, C E Dubler and E Terés (eds), La "materia médica" de Dioscorides: transmisión medieval y renacentista, 6 vols, Barcelona, Emporium, 1953-1959;
17. the classic edition is Robert T Gunther (ed.), The Greek herbal of Dioscorides, Oxford University Press, 1934;
18. for a more recent edition, see T A Osbaldeston and RPA Wood, Dioscorides: De materia medica, Johannesburg, IBIDIS, 2000.
19. Zohar Amar, The history of medicine in Jerusalem, BAR International Series 1032, Oxford, Archaeopress, 2002, p. 76.
20. Moshe Ben Maimon (Maimonides), Poisons and their antidotes, ed. Süssmann Muntner, Jerusalem, Mosad Harav Kook, 1942 (in Hebrew), p. 93;
21. Ben Maimon, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 59.
22. On substitute materials, see Said and Elahie (eds), op. cit.
23. note 4 above, vol. 2, pp. 42-4;
24. Martin Levey, Substitute drugs in early Arabic medicine, Stuttgart, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1971.
25. Stefan C Reif, A Jewish archive from Old Cairo: the history of Cambridge University's Genizah collection, Richmond, Surrey, Curzon, 2000, pp. 1-22.
26. For example, Stefan C Reif (ed.), Published material from the Cambridge Genizah Collections: a bibliography 1896-1980, Cambridge University Library Genizah Series 6, Cambridge University Press, 1988;
27. Richard Gottheil and William H Worrell, Fragments from the Cairo Genizah in the Freer Collection, London, Macmillan, 1927;
28. Geoffrey A Khan, Arabic legal and administrative documents in Cambridge Genizah collections, Cambridge University Library Genizah Series 10, Cambridge University Press, 1993;
29. B Helper, Descriptive catalogue of Genizah fragments in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, 1924;
30. Rebecca J W Jefferson and Erica C D Hunter, Published material from the Cambridge Genizah collections: a bibliography 1980-1997, Cambridge University Library Genizah Series 13, Cambridge University Press, 2004.
31. Shlomo D Goitein, A Mediterranean society: the Jewish communities of the Arab world as portrayed in the documents of the Cairo Genizah, 4 vols, Berkeley and London, University of California Press, 1967, vol. 1, p. 210;
32. 1971, vol. 2, p. 253;
33. idem, Palestinian Jewry in early Islamic and Crusader times, Jerusalem, Yad Yitshak Ben Zvi, 1980 (in Hebrew);
34. Moshe Gil, Palestine during the first Muslim period (634-1099), Tel Aviv University and the Ministry of Defense, 1983, vol. 2, pp. 195-6, 200-1 (in Hebrew);
35. idem, In the kingdom of Ishmael, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, The Bialik Institute, Jerusalem, and the Ministry of Defense, 1997, vol. 1, pp. 560-6 (in Hebrew);
36. Menahem Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068, Jerusalem, Makhon Ben-Tsevi, 1991 (in Hebrew).
37. Shlomo D Goitein, 'The medical profession in the light of the Cairo Genizah documents', Hebrew Union College Annual, 1963, 34: 177-94;
38. Goitein, A Mediterranean society, op. cit., note 14 above, vol. 2, pp. 266-7
39. discusses some prescriptions; Colin F Baker, 'Islamic and Jewish medicine in the medieval Mediterranean world: the Genizah evidence', J. R. Soc. Med., 1996, 89: 577-80;
40. P Fenton, 'The importance of the Cairo Genizah for the history of medicine', Med. Hist., 1980, 24: 347-8;
41. Albert Dietrich, Zum Drogenhandel im islamischen Ägypten, Heidelberg, Carl Winter, 1954;
42. Mark R Cohen, 'The burdensome life of a Jewish physician and communal leader: a Geniza fragment from the Alliance Israelite Universelle Collection', Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, 1993, 16: 125-36;
43. Esti Dvorjetski, 'The contribution of the Geniza to the study of the medicinal hot springs in Eretz-Israel', in Proceedings of the Twelfth World Congress of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem, 1990, vol. 2, 85-93;
44. Haskell D Isaacs, 'The impact of western medicine on Muslim physicians and their writing in the 17th century', Bull. Br. Ass. Orientalists, 1979-1980, 11: 52-57;
45. idem, 'A medieval Arab medical certificate', Med. Hist., 1991, 35: 250-7;
46. Haskell D Isaacs, with the assistance of Colin F Baker, Medical and para-medical manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah collections, Cambridge University Press, 1994.
47. Friedrich Niessen and Efraim Lev, 'Addenda to Isaacs' catalogue "Medical and para-medical manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah collection"', Hebrew Union College Annual (forthcoming).
48. Isaacs and Baker, op. cit., note 15 above.
49. Ibid., pp. viii-ix.
50. For an example of a medical formula described by Isaacs and Baker as a prescription, see ibid., pp. 86-7, T-S AS 167.36.
51. This method is explained in detail in Efraim Lev and Zohar Amar, Practical materia medica of the medieval eastern Mediterranean according to the Cairo Genizah, Leiden, Brill, 2007.
52. Taylor-Schechter Cairo Genizah Collection at Cambridge University Library: for practical prescriptions, see T-S NS 194.70; for margins of Bibles, see T-S NS 66.46 and T-S NS 279.57; for official documents, see T-S K25.212; for private letters and receipts, see T-S Ar.34.150 and T-S Ar.43.54.
53. See preliminary report in Efraim Lev, 'Work in progress: the research of medical knowledge in the Cairo Genizah-past, present and future', in Shulie Reif (ed.), The written word remains: the archive and the achievement, Cambridge, Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library, 2004, pp. 37-51.
54. Efraim Lev and Leigh Chipman, 'A fragment of a Judeo-Arabic manuscript of Sābūr Ibn Sahl al-Aqrābādhīn al-şaghīr found in the Taylor-Schechter Cairo Genizah Collection', Medieval Encounters (forthcoming).
55. 'Ali Ibn 'Īsā, Tadhkirat al-kahhālīn, Hyderabad, Da'iratu'l-Ma'arif'il-Osmania, 1964.
56. Leigh Chipman and Efraim Lev, 'Syrup from the apothecary's shop: a Genizah fragment containing one of the earliest manuscripts of Minhāj al-dukkān', Journal of Semitic Studies, 2006, 51: 137-68;
57. Daud Ibn Abī al-Bayān, al-Dustūr al-Bīmāristānī (in Arabic), in Paul Sbath, 'Le Formulaire des hôpitaux d'Ibn Abil Bayan, médecin du bimaristan Annacery au Caire au XIIIe siècle', Bulletin de l'Institut d'Egypte, 1932-1933, 15: 9-78.
58. See also Efraim Lev, Leigh Chipman, and Friedrich Niessen, 'A hospital handbook for the community: evidence for the extensive use of Ibn Abī 'l-Bayān's al-Dustūr albīmāristānī by the Jewish practitioners of medieval Cairo', Journal of Semitic Studies (forthcoming).
59. T-S Ar.21.112; T-S Ar.44.51.
60. Corpus codicum hebraicorum medii aevi, part 1: Maimonidis commentarius in Mischnam, ed. Solomon D Sassoon, Copenhagen, Munksgaard, 1956, vol. 3, pp. 12-17.
61. David H Baneth, 'A doctor's library in Egypt at the time of Maimonides', Tarbiz, 1961, 30: 171-85; Miriam Frenkel, 'Book lists from the Genizah as a source for the culture and social history of the Jews in Mediterranean society', in Mordechai Friedman (ed.), A century of Genizah research, Te'uda XV, Tel Aviv University, 1999 (in Hebrew);
62. Shlomo D Goitein, 'Maimonides' life in the light of the Geniza documents', Peraqim, 1966, 4: 29-42.
63. Leigh Chipman, 'Minhāj al-dukkān by Abū al-Mūna al-Kūhīn al-'Attar: aspects of pharmacy and pharmacists in Mamluk Cairo', unpublished PhD Dissertation, Jerusalem, The Hebrew University, 2005);
64. Max Meyerhoff, 'Arabic medicine among the Jews of Yemen', Edot, 1948, 3: 27-32 (in Hebrew); Chipman and Lev, op. cit., note 25 above.
65. The full list of fragments will be given in detail in a future publication.
66. For ophthalmology, see T-S K14.32; for gynaecology, see T-S Ar.45.21; for dentistry, see T-S Or. 1080.7.17.
67. T-S Ar.46.97; T-S Ar.30.286.
68. T-S 10J20.5; Shlomo D Goitein, 'A new autograph by Maimonides and a letter to him from his sister Miriam', Tarbiz, 1963, 32: 32.
69. This will be discussed in detail in a future publication by Efraim Lev and Leigh Chipman.
70. For example, T-S Ar.30.305.
71. T-S AS 155.365.
72. T-S Ar.34.305.
73. Examples of these are: for identical copies, T-S Ar.42.67 and T-S NS 297.17; prescriptions with changes, T-S Ar.41.81; from famous books, T-S Ar.30.65, T-S Ar.39.274 and T-S Ar.41.71.
74. For example, T-S NS 194.70.
75. For the complete list of the identified prescriptions, including information on each one of them, see Lev and Amar, op. cit., note 20 above, Appendix 5.
76. For stoutness, see Goitein, A Mediterranean society, op. cit., note 14 above, vol. 2, p. 581 n.3, regarding MS D.W. Amram, f. 2v (held in the library of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia);
77. the other prescription is in T-S Ar.30.65, see Goitein, ibid., p. 267.
78. Isaacs and Baker, op. cit., note 15 above, see indices.
79. See T-S Ar.30.65; T-S Ar.39.274; T-S Ar.41.71, for formulas copied from Abū al-Munā al-Kūhūn al-'Attar, op. cit., note 3 above;
80. see T-S Ar.42.67; T-S NS 297.17; T-S Ar.41.81; T-S Ar.41.81, for formulas copied from al-Bayān
81. see Sbath, op. cit., note 25 above.
82. T-S Ar.30.274, discussed in Goitein, A Mediterranean society, op. cit., note 14 above, vol. 2, p. 268.
83. T-S Ar.30.165.
84. For rows with written quantities, see T-S Ar.35.229 and T-S Ar.43.315; for columns, see T-S Ar.30.274 and T-S Ar.39.450; for varying sized paper, see T-S Ar.39.487.
85. For quantities in Arabic words, see T-S AS 179.56; for quantities in Hebrew script, see T-S Ar.43.315; for Coptic numerals, see T-S Ar.39.487.
86. T-S Ar.54.19.
87. For the complete list of identified prescriptions, including information on each one, see Lev and Amar, op. cit., note 20 above, Appendix 5.
88. David Kaufmann Collection, Budapest, DK VIII.
89. T-S 10J17.12.
90. Dietrich, op. cit., note 15 above.
91. For more information on these areas, see Lawrence I Conrad, 'The Arab-Islamic medical tradition', in Lawrence I Conrad, Michael Neve, Vivian Nutton, Roy Porter and Andrew Wear, The western medical tradition 800 BC to AD 1800, Cambridge University Press, 1995, pp. 93-138;
92. Peter E Pormann and Emilie Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic medicine, Edinburgh University Press, 2007;
93. Emilie Savage-Smith, 'Medicine', in Roshdi Rashed (ed.), Encyclopedia of the history of Arabic science, 3 vols, London Routledge, 1996, vol. 3, pp. 903-62;
94. Mohammad Ali and J S Qadry, 'Contribution of Arabs to pharmacy', Stud. Hist. Med., 1982, 6: 43-53;
95. Sami Hamarneh, 'Development of pharmacy, ancient times to Middle Ages', Stud. Hist. Med., 1982, 6: 37-42;
96. idem, 'The rise of professional pharmacy in Islam', Med. Hist., 1962, 6: 59-63;
97. idem, 'The climax of medieval Arabic professional pharmacy', Bull. Hist. Med., 1968, 42: 450-61.
98. See Ben Maimon, op. cit., note 10 above.
99. Although we transcribed many fragments of medical books, and so did Isaacs, not all the books used by members of the community have survived, nor were all the revealed fragments transcribed. The numerical information given here is thus not final or definitive.
100. Lev and Amar, op. cit., note 20 above, ch. 5 and Appendices 1 and 2.
101. Efraim Lev, Medicinal substances of the medieval Levant, Tel-Aviv, Eretz, 2002 (in Hebrew); Efraim Lev, 'Reconstructed materia medica of the medieval and Ottoman al-Sham', J. Ethnopharmacol., 2002, 80: 167-79.
102. Moshe Ben Maimon (Maimonides), Un glossaire de matière médicale composé par Maimonide, ed. and trans. Max Meyerhof, Mémoires de l'Institut d'Egypte, vol. 41, Cairo, Institut française d'archéologie orientale, 1940.
103. Levey, op. cit., note 3 above.
104. Gunther (ed.), op. cit., note 8 above.
105. John M Riddle, 'Folk tradition and folk medicine: recognition of drugs in Classical Antiquity', in John Scarborough (ed.), Folklore and folk medicine, Madison, WI, American Institute for History of Pharmacy, 1987, pp. 33-61.
106. Information on the uses of materia medica among ethnic groups such as Yemeni or Iraqi Jews in Israel reflects minority groups dwelling far from their places of origin, therefore, the data may be incomplete by comparison with those in the country of origin.
107. Lev and Amar, op. cit., note 20 above.
108. Max Meyerhof, 'Der Bazar der Drogen und Wohlgerüche in Kairo', Archiv fur Wirtschaftsforschung im Orient (Weimar), 1918, pp. 1-40, 185-218;
109. A H Ducros, 'Essai sur le droguier populaire arabe de l'inspectorat des pharmacies du Caire', Mém. de l'Inst. Egypte, 1930, 15: 1-162;
110. J Worth Estes and Laverne Kuhnke, 'French observations of disease and drug use in late eighteenth-century Cairo', J. Hist. Med. Allied Sci., 1984, 39: 121-52.
111. Efraim Lev and Zohar Amar, 'Ethnopharmacological survey of traditional drugs sold in Israel at the end of the 20th century', J. Ethnopharmacol., 2000, 72: 191-205;
112. Efraim Lev and Zohar Amar, Ethnic medicinal substances of the land of Israel, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Yerid Hasfarim-Eretz, 2002 (in Hebrew).
113. Gisho Honda, Wataru Miki and Mitsuko Saito, Herb drugs and herbalists in Syria and North Yemen, Tokyo, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1990; Floreal Sanagustin, 'Contribution à l'étude de la matière médicale traditionnelle chez les herboristes d'Alep', Bulletin d'Etudes Orientales, 1983, 31: 65-112.
114. Efraim Lev and Zohar Amar, 'Ethnopharmacological survey of traditional drugs sold in the kingdom of Jordan', J. Ethnopharmacol., 2002, 82: 131-45.
115. M Salah Ahmed, Gisho Honda and Wataru Miki, Herb Drugs and Herbalists in the Middle East, Tokyo, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1979.
116. Yocheved Ria'ani, 'Medicinal drugs of the Yemenite Jews', MSc Thesis, School of Pharmacy, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1963 (in Hebrew).
117. Abraham Ben-Ya'akov, The traditional medicine of the Babylonian Jews, Jerusalem, Yerid Hasefarim, 1992 (in Hebrew).
118. Aref Abu-Rabia, Traditional Bedouin medicine, Tel Aviv, Ministry of Defense, 1999 (in Hebrew).
119. For a detailed list of theoretical materia medica, see Lev and Amar, op. cit., note 20 above, ch. 5, Appendices 1 and 2.
120. For example, Sami Hamarneh, 'Arabic texts available to practitioners of the health professions in Medieval Islam', Bulletin de l'Institute d'Egypt, 1966-1968, 48-49: 63-7.
121. See both articles by Lev and Amar, op. cit., note 65 above.
122. Lev and Amar, op. cit., note 67 above.
123. Ben Maimon, op. cit., note 10 above, p. 82;
124. Ben Maimon, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 59.
125. For works on trade in the medieval Mediterranean of particular relevance to this essay, see Eliyahu Ashtor, 'Il regno dei crociati e il commercio di Levante', in Gabriella Airaldi and Benjamin Z Kedar (eds), I Communi Italiani nel Regno Crociato di Gerusalemme. Atti del Colloquio, University of Genoa, Istituto di Medievistica, 1986, pp. 15-56;
126. Eliyahu Ashtor, 'The crusader kingdom and trade in the Levant', in Benjamin Z Kedar (ed.), The crusaders in their kingdom, Jerusalem, Yad Yitshak Ben Zvi, 1978, pp. 30-54 (in Hebrew);
127. Eliyahu Ashtor, 'Spice prices in the Near East in the 15th century', J. R. Asiatic Soc., 1976, 1: 26-41;
128. Eliyahu Ashtor, 'Levantine sugar industry in the late Middle Ages', in Abraham L Udovitch (ed.), The Islamic Middle East, 700-1900: studies in economic and social history, Princeton, Darwin Press, 1981, pp. 91-132;
129. Eliyahu Ashtor, 'European trade in the late medieval land of Israel', in Benjamin Z Kedar, Trude Dothan, Samuel Safrai (eds), Commerce in Palestine throughout the ages, Jerusalem, Yad Yitshak Ben Zvi, 1990, pp. 280-99 (in Hebrew);
130. Eliyahu Ashtor and Gabriella Cervidalli, 'Levantine alkali ashes and European industries', J. Europ. Econ. Hist., 1983, 12: 493-500;
131. Goitein, Mediterranean society, op. cit., note 14 above, mainly vol. 1, pp. 153-4, 209-22;
132. Gil, Palestine, op. cit., note 14 above;
133. Yaacov Lev (ed.), Towns and material culture in the medieval Middle East, Leiden, Brill, 2002;
134. Ben-Sasson, op. cit., note 14 above; Dietrich
135. op. cit., note 15 above;
136. Norman A Stillman, 'The eleventh century merchant house of Ibn 'Awkel', J. Econ. Soc. Hist. Orient, 1973, 16: 15-88;
137. David Jacoby, Trade, commodities and shipping in the medieval Mediterranean, Aldershot, Ashgate, 1997;
138. David Jacoby, Commercial exchange across the Mediterranean: Byzantium, the Crusader Levant, Egypt and Italy, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2005;
139. Efraim Lev, 'Trade of medical substances in the medieval and Ottoman Levant (Bilad Al-Sham)', in Yaacov Lev (ed.), Towns and material culture, pp. 159-83.
140. Goitein pointed out some of these trading sources and directions in Mediterranean society, op. cit., note 14 above, vol. 1, pp. 153-4, 209-24.
141. Efraim Lev, 'Trade of medical substances', op. cit., note 77 above.
142. Zohar Amar and Efraim Lev, 'Economic aspects of the practical medical uses and commerce of medicinal substances by the member of the Jewish community of Cairo according to Genizah medical fragments' (forthcoming).
143. al-Jāhiz, Kitāb al-Tabas bi-l-Tijāra, Cairo, 1935, pp. 25-34.
144. Gil, Palestine, op. cit., note 14 above, vol. 1, pp. 611-30;
145. Moshe Gil, 'The Radhanite merchants and the land of Radhan', J. Econ. Soc. Hist. Orient, 1974, 17: 299-328;
146. Menahem Ben-Sasson, The emergence of the local Jewish community in the Muslim world: Qayrawan, 800-1057, Jerusalem, Magnes Press, 1996, pp. 76-7 (in Hebrew).
147. Lev, Medicinal substances of the medieval Levant, op. cit., note 57 above, pp. 35, 289.
148. M Rogers, 'The Arab contribution to botany and pharmacology', Arab Affairs, 1988, 6: 71-86.
149. Goitein, Mediterranean society, op. cit., note 14 above, vol. 1, pp. 148-56, 209-24;
150. Isaacs and Baker, op. cit., note 15 above, p. xi;
151. Dietrich, op. cit., note 15 above.