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Manuscript/Mixed Material al-Insān fī al-ṭibb Majmūʻ fī ʻilm al-ṭibb / Majmūʻ fī ʻilm al-ṭibb al-insānī / الإنسان في الطب

About this Item

Title

  • al-Insān fī al-ṭibb

Other Title

  • Majmūʻ fī ʻilm al-ṭibb
  • Majmūʻ fī ʻilm al-ṭibb al-insānī
  • الإنسان في الطب

Summary

  • Text is a treatise on the human body and how to maintain good health. It explains that the body is composed of chemical elements, and deals with medication, nutrition, and diseases of various parts of the body.
  • This anonymous manuscript can be dated to between the second half of the 18th century and the first years of the 19th century, thanks to a watermark impressed in the paper, which is of English or Dutch origin. The manuscript is likely a copy of an earlier work. The text is partly a treatise on the human body and how to maintain good health. It explains that the body is composed of chemical elements, and deals with medication, nutrition, and diseases of various parts of the body. Besides such practical considerations, the work discusses questions of physics and general physiology. The theoretical framework is typical of medieval Islamic physiology, in which the human being is seen as a compound made up of jasad jismānī (the material body) and nafs ruḥānī (the spiritual soul). The Aristotelian theory of the four elements, the basic constituents of the sublunary world, is explained in great detail and is linked to traditional ideas regarding the four humors (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood) in the human body. This work also touches on other philosophical questions relating to the characteristic features of humans. It includes a discussion of the three faculties--animal, vegetable, and mineral--embodied in human beings. The author quotes Al-qanūn fī al-ṭibb (The canon of medicine) by Abū 'Alī al-Ḥusayn ibn 'Abd Allāh ibn Sīnā (980-1037), commonly known as Avicenna, one of the most widely read medical texts of the Middle Ages. Surprisingly, he also refers to Balīnas, the Arabic name under which original and pseudo-epigraphic works by Apollonius of Tyana (first century) circulated. This work provides a vivid summary and a fair overview on the physiological and physical concepts that informed medieval Arabic medical theory and practice. World Digital Library.

Created / Published

  • [17--]

Headings

  • -  Manuscripts, Arabic--Washington (D.C.)
  • -  Medicine, Arab
  • -  Nutrition--Early works to 1800

Notes

  • -  Binding: Modern cardboard, with leather spine.
  • -  Fol. 1a-30a; fol. 30b-31b blank.
  • -  Library of Congress. Arabic manuscript, SM-56.
  • -  Ms.
  • -  Naskhī script; 25 lines in written area, 18 x 7 cm.
  • -  Paper: yellowed cream, with watermarks, in moderate condition; termite damage near spine; damage from iron gall ink (cf. fol. 21). Red on title page, text in black with some rubricated words. Text framed by single red line; headings written in red in broad margins. Some diacritical marks. Marginal notes in later hand in violet pencil fol. 5a. Catchwords on rectos.
  • -  Watermark on paper is post horn on shield with crown above, manufactured either in England or the Lowlands in the last half of the 18th century or the very early 19th century.
  • -  Fihris al-makhṭūṭāt al-ʻArabīyah fi Maktabat al-Kūnghris, 43.
  • -  Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress website.
  • -  Arabic.
  • -  Incipit: بإسم الله الرحمن الرحيم وبه استعين الحمد لله رب العالمين و أشهد أن لا اله إلا الله . . . أما بعد فهذا مجموع في علم الطب نافع إن شاء الله تعالي . . . .

Medium

  • 29 leaves (25 lines), bound : paper ; 22 x 13 cm.

Call Number/Physical Location

  • R128.3 .I57 1700z

Digital Id

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2008427051

Online Format

  • pdf
  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

IIIF Presentation Manifest

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

al-Insān fī al-ṭibb. [17, 1700] Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/2008427051/.

APA citation style:

(1700) al-Insān fī al-ṭibb. [17] [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2008427051/.

MLA citation style:

al-Insān fī al-ṭibb. [17, 1700] Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2008427051/>.