Lot Essay
The present lot is a handbook of medicine explaining the diseases of the human body from head to toe. Three methods of treatment for each ailment are suggested, the royal way, the easiest way and the common way. It covers an extraordinarily wide area of ailments from diseases of the skin, animal bites and digestion problems through to nervous diseases and afflictions of the spirit caused by anger and love. Each ailment is discussed in detail with reference to the types of persons vulnerable to a particular illness and the places where certain diseases are prevalent. Reference is made to other physicians.
The author of this work was still alive by the year 360/970, and reportedly translated the works of Theophrastus and Aristotle. His known works are kunnasha (a scrapbook on medicine); al-aqrabadin (a pharmacopoeia); maqala fi al judari (on smallpox); maqalah bi'an ma' al qarh abrad min ma' al-sha'ir (on the beneficial effects of barley water); kitab al-hiss wa al-mahsus (a book on sense and sensitivity). The present lot is a hitherto unrecorded work entitled minhaj al-daqiq.
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Bakus was a physician at the infirmary set up by the Buwayhid prince 'Adud al-Dawla (r. 949-982 AD) and taught at the medical college linked to the hospital. His curious surname (Bacchus?) suggests a possible European parentage. Apart from the obligatory bismallah on the opening folio there are no further references to Islam, and the book maintains a rigidly scientific style. It is interesting to speculate that Ibrahim ibn Bakus may have been a Jew or a Christian. On the final folio the author signs himself Ibrahim ibn Bakus Mutabbib (the quack), a self-denigrating phrase which encourages the likely authenticity of this book as an autograph copy.
The final flyleaf contains a note written by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d.1897 AD), the renowned Muslim scholar and revolutionary, giving the full title of the book as Minhaj al-daqiq al-hadi lil shifa' bi aqrab tariq.
For further information see Lippert, J.:Ibn al-Qiftis Tarih al-Hukma, Leipzig, 1903; Muller, A.:'Uyun al-anba fi Tabaqat al-Attibba of Ibn Abi Useibia, Selbstverlag, 1884; Ulmann, M.:Islamic Medicine, Edinburgh, 1978.
The author of this work was still alive by the year 360/970, and reportedly translated the works of Theophrastus and Aristotle. His known works are kunnasha (a scrapbook on medicine); al-aqrabadin (a pharmacopoeia); maqala fi al judari (on smallpox); maqalah bi'an ma' al qarh abrad min ma' al-sha'ir (on the beneficial effects of barley water); kitab al-hiss wa al-mahsus (a book on sense and sensitivity). The present lot is a hitherto unrecorded work entitled minhaj al-daqiq.
Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Bakus was a physician at the infirmary set up by the Buwayhid prince 'Adud al-Dawla (r. 949-982 AD) and taught at the medical college linked to the hospital. His curious surname (Bacchus?) suggests a possible European parentage. Apart from the obligatory bismallah on the opening folio there are no further references to Islam, and the book maintains a rigidly scientific style. It is interesting to speculate that Ibrahim ibn Bakus may have been a Jew or a Christian. On the final folio the author signs himself Ibrahim ibn Bakus Mutabbib (the quack), a self-denigrating phrase which encourages the likely authenticity of this book as an autograph copy.
The final flyleaf contains a note written by Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (d.1897 AD), the renowned Muslim scholar and revolutionary, giving the full title of the book as Minhaj al-daqiq al-hadi lil shifa' bi aqrab tariq.
For further information see Lippert, J.:Ibn al-Qiftis Tarih al-Hukma, Leipzig, 1903; Muller, A.:'Uyun al-anba fi Tabaqat al-Attibba of Ibn Abi Useibia, Selbstverlag, 1884; Ulmann, M.:Islamic Medicine, Edinburgh, 1978.