Anecdotes and antidotes
a medieval arabic history of physicians : a new translation
Bände/Inhalt:
- Introduction - Preface of Ibn Abï Usaybi'ah - 1. The origin and first appearance of the art of medicine - 2. Physicians who perceived the rudiments of the art of medicine and initiated the practice of that art - 3. The Greek physicians descended from Asclepius - 4. Greek physicians to whom Hippocrates transmitted the art of medicine - 5. Physicians from or after the time of Galen - 6. The Alexandrian physicians, their Christian and other contemporaries - 7· Arab and other physicians of the earliest Islamic period - 8. Syriac physicians of the earl y Abbasid period - 9. Physicians who translated works on medicine and other subjects from Greek into Arabic, and their patrons - 10. Iraqi physicians and the physicians of al-Jazîrah and Diyar Bakr - 11. Physicians in the lands of the Persians - 12. Physicians of India - 13. Physicians who were prominent in the western lands and settled there - 14. Famous physicians in Egypt - 15. Famous Syrian physicians - Appendix 1: Weights and measures - Appendix 2: Gazetteer of place names - Appendix 3: Concordance of biographies with those in the full text - Appendix 4: List of sources used by Ibn Abï Usaybi'ah - Appendix 5: Illustrations and diagrams
- So wrote Syrian physician Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah, circa 1243, as he embarked on the first world history of medicine ever attempted. Many physicians served at the royal courts of their time and were firmly part of the intellectual and cultural scene, where the ability to write stylishly and entertain one's peers in both prose and verse was the basis of social credibility. The work Ibn Abi Usaybi'ah created contains over 432 biographical accounts of physicians from those of ancient Greece, such as Galen, through Avicenna and Maimonides, to the author's own colleagues of the 13th century. As such, his work includes important accounts of medical activity in medieval hospitals. Through this book, a window opens not only on to the origins of the medical profession, but also into the truly multi-cultural, multi-religious world of the medieval Middle East. Anecdotes and Antidotes is an abridged version of this world history of medicine. It comprises 103 biographies of physicians and philosophers organized geographically and chronologically, from the 4th century BC to the 13th century, and includes seminal Muslim, Christian and Jewish figures. It contains vital medical and historical information, as well as revealing the cultural values, interests and concerns of the literary and intellectual elite of the time.