The period which we have just tried to analyze, and then to reconstruct, was
on the whole one of comparative rest. There was no retrogression, but the
advance of mankind, which had been so vigorously accelerated during the ninth
century through the youthful energy of Islam, was then distinctly slowed up. It
is not the first time that we thus witness a momentary quieting down of human
activity; on the contrary, we have already had occasion to observe many such
periods of fallow. e. g., the first half of the second century B. C., the second
half of the fifth, the second half of the sixth, the second half of the seventh,
the first half of the eighth. But in each case the slowing up was followed by a
new acceleration.
In other words, when we study the creative activity of the
mankind as a whole, we find that humanity behaves very much as an individual man
would do, that period of unusual achievements are generally followed by
depressions, and periods of rest and fallow by new efforts. The intellectual
progress of mankind would not be correctly represented by a constantly
increasing function, but rather by a sort of sinusoidal curve moving steadily
upward. But how do we account for human tiredness, considering that the burden
is periodically taken up by new generations? Leaving out of the question
political and other external factors which must necessarily influence human
energy, we may explain the periodical slowing up in two ways. In the first
place, the original flame of enthusiasm, which stimulates intellectual advance,
is bound to die out gradually unless new men of genius appear from time to time
to keep it alive; of course, there are no means of predicting when and where
such men will appear. In the second place, the very progress of knowledge is
certain to fill the more conservative minds with a growing anxiety, and finally
to determine an orthodox reaction. For example, in the first half of the tenth
century an intellectual reaction was led, very successfully, by al-Ash'ari. Man
kind does not go forward as a united body; on the contrary, each advance has to
be paid a protracted struggle between those who long for more light and those
who are afraid of it. The latter are far more numerous than the former, but less
intelligent, and thus bound to be beaten in the end, this accounts at once for
the sinusoidal advance and its upward tendency, or, in other words, for the
slowness, but also for the continuity of human progress.
To come back to the
second half of the tenth century, we shall see presently that it was a period of
renewed activity in almost every field; the partial fallowness of the first half
of the century was thus amply rewarded by more abundant crops and mankind was
able to make a few more leaps forward.
Cultural background: Mohammed ibn Ahmed al-Khwarizmi wrote "The Key of the Sciences."
Muslim Mathematics and astronomy: All of the creative work was done in Islam. Muslim mathematicians were so numerous that, for the sake of clarity, I must divide them into three groups - arithmeticians, algebraists, and geometers; astronomers and trigonometricians; astrologers.
Arithmeticians, algebraists, and geometers: It is well to begin this
section with a brief account of the progress of the Hindu numerals. By the
middle of the tenth century a special form of them, the so called dust (ghubar)
numerals, was already used in Muslim Spain. The eastern Arabic form was
represented in an Egyptian grafitto, dated 960-61. Mutahhar ibn Taher wrote a
number of 10 figures by their means. The earliest Latin example of these
numerals is found in a manuscript written in 976 near Logrono, in the Christian
part of Spain.
Abu Ja'far al-Khazin wrote commentaries on the tenth book of
Euclid and other works and solved al-Mahani's cubic equation. Al-Shaghani
investigated the trisection of the angle. Nazif ibn Yumn translated the tenth
book of Euclid. The great astronomer Abu-l-Wafa wrote commentaries on Euclid,
Diophantos, and al-Khwarizmi, arithmetical and geometrical treatises, and solved
a number of geometrical and algebraical problems. Abu-l-Fath improved the Arabic
translation of Apollonios's Conics and commented upon the first five books.
Al-Kuhi was especially interested in the Archimedian and Apollonian problems
leading up to higher equations and discovered some elegant solutions. which he
discussed. Al-Sijzi worked along the same lines; he made a special study of the
intersections of conics and found a geometrical means of trisecting angles.
Al-Khujandi, better known as an astronomer, proved that the sum of two cubic
numbers can not be a cubic number. Maslama ibn Ahmed composed a commercial
arithmetic and studied an amicable number. (This would confirm that he was
acquainted to the writings of the Brethren of Purity, for these were very much
interested in the theory of numbers - a natural consequence of their Neoplatonic
tendencies.)
Astronomical and trigonometricians: At the very beginning of this
period we meet one of the best Muslim astronomers: Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, who
compiled an illustrated catalogue of stars, based upon his own observations. Ibn
al-A'lam was also a famous observer and published astronomical tables.
Al-Shaghani invented and constructed astronomical instruments. The Buwayhid
rulers, especially Sharaf al-dawla, were deeply interested in astronomy; Sharaf
built a new observatory in Bagdad. The instruments were probably made by
al-Shaghani, and the great mathematician, al-Kuhi, was the leader of the
astronomers.
The foremost of the astronomers employed by Sharaf was the
Persian Abu-l-Wafa. It is true he was once believed to be; he did not discover
the variation of the moon, but he continued in a masterly way the elaboration of
trigonometry. Taken all in all, the fame of Abu-l-Wafa is more solidly based
upon his mathematical than upon his astronomical contributions, but I placed him
here because, in those days, trigonometry was considered a branch of
astronomy.
Al-Khujandi made astronomical observations in Ray. Abu Nasr
improved the Arabic text of Menelaos's Spherics and dealt with trigonometrical
subjects. Maslama ibn Ahmed edited and revised al-Khwarizmi's astronomical
tables, and wrote a commentary on Ptolemy's Planisphere.
Astrologers: The main astrologers were al-Qabisi in Syria and Rabi ibn Zaid in Spain; the latter was a Christian, Bishop of Cordova under al-Hakam II.
The earliest scientific treatise in modern Persian (hitherto the Muslim
Persians had written in Arabic) happens to be one of the most chemical works
written by a Muslim until that time. It is really a treatise on materia medica,
but it contains abundant information upon the preparation and properties of
mineral substances. It is obvious that its author; Abu Mansour Muwaffak, was
unusually stepped in chemistry. More may be learned about the chemical knowledge
of those days, in the Eastern Caliphate, in the encyclopaedic works dealt with
in Section III.
As to the Muslim West, the medical treatise of Abu-l-Qasim
contains also various items of chemical interest; it explains the preparation of
drugs by sublimation and distillation. two important alchemic writings have been
ascribed to Maslama ibn Ahmed, but they are possibly a little later.
The subtitle of this section is a little misleading, for the many adjectives
tend to be the fact that everything was done by the Muslims alone.
Muslim
physicians were so numerous that it is necessary to divide them into groups, and
the most expedient division is, this time, a regional one. Thus I shall deal
successively with the physician who flourished in the Eastern Caliphate
(reserving a separate place for one of them who wrote in Persian), in Egypt, in
Spain, and in North Africa.
The first group is the most numerous, as we would
expect it. Ahmed al-Tabari wrote a medical treatise called Hippocratic
treatments. Ali ibn Abbas (Hally Abbas), who flourished a little later, was one
of the greatest physicians of Islam. He compiled a medical encyclopedia, "The
Royal Book", which was very valuable but superseded by Avicenna's Qanun. It
contains a number of original observations, under the patronage of
Adud-al-Dawla, a new hospital was established in Bagdad in 979. Al-Husain ibn
Ibrahim improved the Arabic text of Dioscorides. Abu Sahl al-Masihi, who was, as
his name indicates, a Christian, wrote a number of medical treatises. He shares
with al-Qumri the fame of having been one of the teacher of Avicenna, the prince
of mediaeval physicians. It is even possible that one of Abu Sahl's treatises
gave Avicenna the first idea of composing his Qanun.
Note that all of those
were Persians, but all wrote, as far as we know, in Arabic. Another Persian, Abu
Masour Muwaffak, had the idea of compiling a great medical treatise in Persian.
That treatise dealt with materia medica and contains a general outline of
pharmacological theory. Its intrinsic value is great, but it has also a
considerable extrinsic importance, because it is the oldest prose work in modern
Persian.
Two distinguished physicians of that time flourished in Egypt,
al-Tamimi and al-Baladi. The former is chiefly known because of his medical
guide (Murshid), the latter wrote a treatise on the hygiene of pregnancy and
infancy.
Medical activity in Muslim Spain, was almost of the same level as
that which obtained in the Eastern Caliphate; in some respects it was even
superior. One of the most distinguished of the Spanish physicians, however, was
not a Muslim, but a Jew, the great Hasdia ibn Shaprut. He translated Dioscorides
into Arabic with the aid of the Greek monk Nicholas. Arib ibn Sa'd wrote a
treatise on gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics. Abu-lQasim (Abulcasis) was
the greatest Muslim surgeon; he exerted a very deep influence upon he
development of the European surgery down to the Renaissance. Ibn Juljul wrote a
commentary on Dioscorides and added a supplement to it, and he compiled a
history of the Hispano-Muslim physicians of his time.
The last Muslim
country to be considered, Tunis, nutured also a great physician, Ibn al-Jazzar
(Algizar), author of a medical vade-mecum which obtained considerable success
throughout the Middle Ages.
MUTAHHAR IBN TAHIR
Mutahhar ibn Tahir
al-Maqdisi (or al-Muqaddasi), i. e., the native or inhabitant of the Holy City.
From Jerusalem, flourished in Bust, Sijistan, c. 966. Encylcopaedist. Author of
the book of the Creation and of History (Kitab al-bad'wal-tarikh), a
summary of the knowledge of his day based not simply on Muslim, but also on
Iranian and jewish sources. He quoted as a curiosity a very large number,
4,320,000,000 (representing the duration of the world in years according to the
Hindus), in Hindu or Devanagari numerals.
Cl. Haurt:
Leveritable auteur du Libre de la creation et de lhistoire (Journal Asiatique
(9), vol. 18, 16-21, 1901. Concludind that Mutahhar was the author); Arabic
literature (284, 291, London, 1903).
ABU JA'FAR AL-KHAZIN
Alkhazin means the
treasurer or the librarian. Born in Khurasan, died between 961 and 971.
Mathematician, astronomer. Author of a commentary on the Tenth book of Euclid
and of other mathematical and astronomical writings. He solved by means of conic
sections the cubic equation which had baffled al-Mahani's efforts, the so-called
al-Mahani's equation (q. v., second half of the ninth century.)
Fihrist (p. 266, 282); Suter's translation (p. 17, 39).
NAZIF IBN YUMN
Nazif ibn Yumn (or Yaman?)
al-Qass means the priest (particularly, the Christian priest). Flourished under
the Buwayhid sultan Adud al-dawla; died c. 990. Mathematician and translator
from Greek into Arabic. He thus translated the Tenth book of Euclid. H. Suter: Mathematiker (68, 1900).
ABU-L-FATH
Abu-l-Fath Mahmud ibn Mohammed ibn
Qasim ibn Fadl al-Isfahani. From Ispahan, flourished probably c. 982. Persian
mathematician. He gave a better Arabic edition of the Conics of Apollonios and
commented on the first books.
The Conics had been translated a century before
by Hilal al-Himsi (books 1-4) and Thabit ibn Qurra (books 5-7) (see second half
of ninth century).
H. Suter: Die Mathematiker und Astronomen
der Araber (98, 1900).
AL-KUHI
Abu Sahl Wijan (or Waijan) ibn Rustam
al-Kuhi. Of Kuh, Tabaristan, flourished in Bagdad c. 988. Mathematician,
astronomer. Many mathematical and astronomical writings are ascribed to him. He
was the leader of the astronomers working in 988 at the observatory built of the
Buwayhid Sharaf al-dawla. He devoted his attention to those Archimedian and
Apollonian problems leading to equations of a higher degree than the second; He
solved some of them and discussed the conditions of solvability. These
investigations are among the best of Muslim geometry.
M.
Steinschnieder: Lettere intorno ad Alcuhi a D. Bald. Boncompagni (Roma, 1863).
Suter: Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber (75-76, 1900).
AL-SIJZI
Abu Sa'id Ahmed ibn Mohammed ibn Abd
al-Jalil al-Sijzi (short for al-Sijistani). Lived from c. 951 to c. 1024.
Mathematician who made a special study of the intersections of conic sections
and circles. He replaced the old kinematical trisection of an angle by a purely
geometric solution (intersection of a circle and an equilateral
hyperbola.)
Suter: Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der
Araber (80-81, 224, 1900).
ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-SUFI
Abu-l-Husan Abd
al-Rahman ibn Omar al-Fufi al-Razi. Born in Ray 903, died 986. One of the
greatest Muslim astronomers. Friend and teacher of the Buwayhid sultan Adud
al-dawla. His main work is the "Book of the Fixed Stars" illustrated with
figures "Kitab al-kawakib al-thabita al-musawwar", one of the three masterpieces
of Muslim observational astronomy (the two others being due to Ibn Yunus, first
half of the eleventh century, and Ulugh Beg, first half of the fifteenth
century).
Fihrist (284). Suter: Die Mathematiker und
Astronomen der Araber (62, 1900).
IBN AL-A'LAM
Abu-l-Qasim Ali ibn al-Husain
al-Alawi, al-Sharif al-Hisaini. Flourished at the Buwayhid court under Adud
al-dawla (q. v.,); died at Bagdad in 985. Muslim astronomer. The accuracy of his
observations was praised; he compiled astronomical tables which obtained much
favor during at least two centuries.
H. Suter: Die
Mathematiker der Araber (62, 1900).
AL-SAGHANI
Abu Hamid Ahmed ibn Mohammed
al-Saghani al-Asturlabi, i. e., the astrolabe maker of Saghan, near Merv,
flourished in Bagdad, died 990. Mathematician, astronomer, inventor and maker of
instruments. He worked in Sharaf al-dawla's observatory and, perhaps,
constructed the instruments which were used there. Trisection of the
angle.
Suter: Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber (p.
65, 1900).
ABU-L-WAFA
Abu-l-Wafa Mohammed ibn Mohammed
ibn Yahya ibn Isma'il ibn al-Abbas al-Buzjani. Born in Buzjan, Quhistan, in 940,
flourished in Bagdad, where he died at 997 or 998. Astronomer and one of the
greatest Muslim mathematicians. One of the last Arabic translators and
commentators of Greek works. He wrote commentaries on Euclid, Diophantos, and
al-Khwarizimi (all lost); astronomical tables (zij al-wadih) of which we have
possibly a later adaptation; a practical arithmetic; "the complete book" (Kitab
al-kamil), probably a simplified version of the Almagest. The book of applied
geometry (Kitab al handasa) is probably in its present form, the work of a
disciple.
His astronomical knowledge was hardly superior to Ptolemy's. He
did not discover the variation, the third inequality of the moon. He simply
spoke of the second eviction, the Ptolematic, essentially different from the
variation discovered by Tycho Brahe.
Solution of the geometrical problems
with one opening of the compass. Construction of a square equivalent to other
squares. Regular polyhedra (based on Pappos). Approximative construction of
regular heptagon (taking for its side half the side of the equilateral triangle
inscribed in the same circle). Constructions of parabola by points. Geometrical
solution of
AL-KHUJANDI
Abu Muhamid Hamid ibn al-Khidr
al-Khujandi. Of Khujanda, on the jax artes, or Sir Daria, Transoxania, died c.
1000. Astronomer, mathematicain. He made astronomical observations, including a
determination of the obliquity of the ecliptic, in Ray in 994. He proved
(impefectly) that the sum of two cubic numbers cannot be a cubic number> He
may be the discoverer of the sine theorem relative to spherical
triangles.
Suter : Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der
Araber (74, 213, 1900).
ABU NASR
Abu Nasr Mansur ibn Ali ibn Iraq.
Teacher of al-Bairuni; still active in 1007. Muslim mathematician and
astronomer; one of three to whom the discovery of the sine theorem relative to
spherical triangles is ascribed. He gave in 1007-8 an improved edition of
Menelaos's Spherica. Various other writings on trigonometry are ascribed to
him.
H. Suter : Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der Araber
(81, 255, Leipzig, 1900).
MASLAMA IBN AHMED
Abu-l-Qasim Maslam ibn Ahmed
al-Majriti. Of Madrid, flourished in Cordova, died in or before 1007.
Astronomer, mathematician, occulist. The earliest Hispano-Muslim scientist of
any importance. He edited and corrected the astronomical tables of al-Khwarizmi,
replacing the Persian by the Arabic chronology. He wrote a treatise on the
astrolabe (translated into Latin by Joan. Hispalensis); a commentary on
Ptolemy's Planisphaerium translated by Rudolph of Bruges (q. v., first half of
twelfth century); a commercial arithmetic (al-mu'amalat); a book on the
generation of animals (?). He may have introduced into Spain the writings of the
Prethren Purity, or else this was done later by one of his disciples,
al-Karmani. He spoke of the erotic power of amicable numbers (220, 284). Two
alchemic writings, the "Sage's step" (Rutbat al-hakim) and the "Aim of the
Wise", (Ghayat al-hakim), are ascribed to him. The second is well known in the
Latin translation made in 1252 by order of King Alfonso under the title
Picatrix; the original Arabic text dates probably from the middle of the
eleventh century.
Ibn Khaldun: Prolegmenes. F. Wustenfeld:
Geschichte der arabischen Aerzte (61, 1840).
AL-QABISI
Abu-l-Saqr Abd al-Aziz ibn Uthman
ibn Ali al-Qabisi. Pupil of al-Imrani (q. v. , first half of tenth
century) in Mosul; after the latter's death in 955-56 he was patronized by the
Hamdanid sultan Sayf al-dawla, who died in 966-67. Famous Muslim astrologer. His
main writings are his introduction to the art of astrology (al-madkhal ila
sina'at (ahkam) al-nujum) and treatise on the conjunctions of planets; both
were translated into Latin by Joannes Hispalensis (first half of twelfth
century). He, or his patron Sayf al-dawla, wrote a poem on the
rainbow.
H. Suter : Die Mathematiker und Astronomen der
Araber (60, 1900; Nachtrag, 165, 1902).
RABI IBN ZAID
Rabi ibn Zaid al-Usquf. Meaning
the bishop (from the Greek). He was Bishop of Cordova and Elvira under al-Hakam
II. Flourished at Cordova c. 961. Spanish Christian writing n Arabic. He coposed
various astronological treatises and dedicated to Hakam II a calendar (Kitab
al-anwa', liber anoe) entitled "The Division of times and the Good of
bodies."
Suter : Mathematiker (96, 212, 1900).
See notes on Abu-l-Qasim
ALI IBN ABBAS
Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi, that
is, the Magian, which means that he, or his father was of the Zoroastrian faith.
Latin name: Ali Abbas or Hall Abbas. Born in Ahwaz, southwestern Persia;
flourished under thw Buwayhid Adud al-dawla; died in 994. One of the three
greatest physicians of the Eastern Caliphate. He wrote for Adud aldawla a
medical encyclopedia called "the Royal Book" (Kitab al-Maliki, Liber
regius, regalis dispositio; also called Kamil al-sana 'a al-tibbiya),
which is more systematic and consice than Razi's Hawi, but more practical than
Avicenna'a Qanun, by which it was superseded. The Maliki is divided into 20
discourses, of which the first half deal with theory and the other with the
practice of medicine. the best parts of it are those devoted to dietetics and to
materia medica. Rudimentary conception of the capillary system. Interesting
clinical observations. Proof of the motions of the womb during parturition (the
child does not come out; it is pushed out).
Wustenfeld:
Geschichte der arabischen Aerzte (59, 1840).
AL-HUSAIN IBN IBRAHIM
Al Husain ibn Ibrahim
ibn al-Hasan ibn Khurshid al-Tabari al-Natili. Flourished c. 900-91. Translator
from Greek into Arabic. He dedicated, in 990-91, an improved translation of
Dioscorides to the Prince Abu Ali al-Samjuri.
C.
Brockelmann: Arabische Litteratur (189, 207).
AL-QUMRI
Abu Masur al-Hasan ibn Nuh al-Qumri.
From Qum in Jibal. Flourished probably at Bagdad, about the end of the tenth
century, and the begining of the eleventh. Muslim Physician. Teacher of
Avicenna. He wrote a treatise on medicine, largely based upon al-Razi, called
the book of life and death (Kitab Ghina wa mana'), divided into three
parts (internal diseases, external diseases, fevers).
C.
Brockelmann: Arabische Litteratur (vol. 1, 239, 1808).
ABU SAHL AL-MASIHI
Abu Sahl Isa ibn Yahya
al-Masihi al-Jurjani, i. e., the Christian, from Jurjan, east of the Caspian
Sea; died at the age of fourty in 999-1000. Christian physician writing in
Arabic. Teacher of Avicenna. He wrote an encyclopaedic treatise on medicine in a
hundred chapters (al-Kutub al-mi'a fi-l-sana'a al-tibbiya), which is one
of the earliest Arabic works of its kind and may have been in some respects the
model of the Qanun. He wrote a various smaller treatises: on measles, on the
plague, on the pulse, demonstration of God's wisdom as evidenced in the creation
of man, etc.
C. Brockelmann: Arabische Litteratur (vol. 1,
138, 1898).
ABU MANSUR MUWAFFAK
Abu Mansur Muwaffak ibn
Ali al-Harawi. Flourished in Herat under the Samanid prince Mansur I ibn Nuh,
who ruled from 961 to 976. Persian pharmacologist. He was apparently the first
to think of compiling a treatise on materia medica in Persian; he travelled
extensively in Persia and India to obtain necessary information. He wrote
between 968 and 977, the "Book of the Remedies" (Kitab al-abnyia 'an Haqa'iq
al-adwiya), which is the oldest pose work in modern Persian. It deals with 585
remedies (of which 466 are derived from plants, 75 from minerals, 44 from
animals), classified into four groups according to their action. Outline of a
general pharmacological theory. Abu mansur distinguished between sodium
carbonate (natrun) and potassium carbonate (qli); he had some knowledge abot
arsenious oxide, cupric oxide, silicic acid, antimony; he knew the toxilogical
effects of copper and lead compounds, the depilatory vertue of quicklime, the
composition of plaster of Paris and its surgical use.
E. G.
Browne: Arabian Medicine (92, Cambridge, 1921).
AL-TAMIMI
Abu Abdallah Muhammed ibn Ahmed ibn
Sa'id al-Tamimi al-Muqaddasi (meaning, the native or the inhabitant of the Holly
City). Born in Jerusalen; he moved, c. 970, to Egypt and was still living there
in 980. Palastinian physician. He made pharmaceutical experiments and wrote
various medical works, chiefly on materia medica. His main work is a guide
(Murshid) on materia medica, which contains valuable information on plants,
minerals, etc. Kitab al-murshid ila jawahir al-aghdhiya wa
quwa-lmufradat; guide toward (the understanding of) the substances of
food-stuffs and (of) the simple drugs.
C. Brockelmann:
Arabische Litteratur (vol. 1, 237, 1898).
AL-BALADI
Ahmed ibn Mohammed ibn Yahya
al-Baladi. Flourished in Egypt under the Wazir Ya'qub ibn Kils, who died in
990-91. Egyptian physician. Author of a treatise on the hygiene of pregnant
women and the babies (Kitab Tadbir al-habala wal-atfal).
C. Brockelmann: Arabische Litteratur (vol. 1, 237, 1898).
HASDAI IBN SHAPRUT
Alias shaprut, Shafrut,
Bashrut, Shaprot. Abu Yusuf Isaac ibn Izra. Born c. 915 at Jaen, Andalus;
flourished at Cordova at the court of Abd al-Rahman III; died in 970 or 990 at
Cordova. Hispano-Jewish physician, translator of Greek into Arabic, Patron of
science. Physician to the caliph. He discovered a panacea called al-faruq (the
best).
A manuscript of Dioscorides having been presented in 948-49 to Abd
al-Rahman III by the emperor Constantinos VII, Hasdai undertook to translate it
with the assistance of the Greek monk Nicholas. This monk had been sent to
Cordova by the emperor upon the caliph's request, in 951.
He wrote a Hebrew
letter to the King of the Khazars discribing Andalus. He was a great patron of
jewish science and it was partly due to his initiative and activity that the
intellectual center of Israel was finally transfered from academies of Babylonia
to Spain.
Article by Rabbi Meyer Kayserling in Jewish
encyclopaedia, vol. 6, 248, 1904.
ARIB IBN SA'D
Arib ibn Sa'd al-Khatib (the
secretary) al-Qurtubi. Flourished at Cordova at the court of Abd al-Rahman IIi
and al-Hakim II, who died in 976. Hispano-Mislim historian and physician.
Originally Christian. He wrote a chronicle of Muslim Spain and Afric some time
between 961-976. This chronicle was extensively used by Ibn al-Idhari (q. v.,
second half of thirteenth century). He wrote also a treatise on gynaecology,
hygiene of pregnant women and infants, and on obstetric (Khalq al-janin,
Creation of the embryo, in 964-65), and a calender (Kitab
al-anwa').
C. Brockelmann: Arabische Litteratur (vol. 1,
236, 1898).
ABU-L-QASIM
Latin names: Abulcasis, Albucasis,
Alsaharavius. Khalaf ibn Abbas al-Zahrawi, from Zahra, near Cordova, where he
flourished and died c. 1013. The greatest Muslim surgeon. Physician to al-Hakam
II (961 to 976). His great medical encyclopedia in 30 sections, al-Tasrif
(Vade-mecum) contains interesting methods of preparing drugs by sublimation
and distillation. but its most important part is the surgical, in three books,
largely based upon Paulos Aegineta. Great importance attached to cauterization
and styptics. Parts of the surgery are devoted to obstetrics and to the surgical
treatment of the eyes, ears, and teeth. This work was illustrated with views of
the surgical instruments. It was early translated into Latin (by Gherardo
Cremonese), Provencal and Hebrew. Muslim prejudices against surgery stifled
Abu-l-Qasim's fame in Islam, but in the Christian world his prestigue was soon
immense.
Wustenfled: Geschichte der Arabischen Aerschen (p.
85, 1840).
IBN JULJUL
Abu Da'ud Suliman ibn Hasan ibn
Juljul. Physician to the Spanish Umayyad Hisham II, Mu'aiyad billah, caliph from
976 to 1009. Hispano-Muslim physician. He wrote, at Cordova, in 982, a
commentary on Dioscorides, and later a supplement to it, and a history of the
physicians and philosophers of his time in Spain (Ta'rikh al-atibba
wal-falasifa), often quoted by Ibn abi Usaibi'a (q. v., first half of the
thirteenth century).
The aim of the commentary was to determine the drugs
dealt with by Dioscorides; the supplement was a list of drugs not mentioned by
Dioscorides. As to the origin of these Dioscoridian studies, see my notes on
Hasidai ibn Shaprut. It would seem that Ibn Juljul and others assisted in the
translation of Dioscorides into Arabic.
C. Brockelmann:
Arabische Litteratur (t. 1, 237, 1898).
IBN AL-JAZZAR
In Latin: Algizar, AlJazirah.
Abu Ja'far Ahmed ibn Ibrahim Ibn Abi Khalid Ibn alJazzar. Flourished in
Qairawan, Tunis, died in 1009, being more than 80 years old. Physician. Pupil of
Ishaq al-Isra'ili (q. v., first half of the tenth century). Of his many
writings, the most important because of its enormous popularity, was his
"Traveller's Provision" (Zad al-Musafir) which was translated into Latin
by Constantinus Africanus, into Greek by Synesios, and into Hebrew - the titles
of these translations being: Viaticum pergrinantis; Zedat
al-Derachim. It contains remarkable descriptions of smallpox and measles. He
wrote also on the coryza, on the cuases of plague in Egypt, etc.
C. Brockelmann: Arabische Litteratur (vol. 1, 238, 1898).