oxford worlds classics
ANECDOTES AND ANTIDOTES
an abridged translation of
THE BEST ACCOUNTS OF THE CLASSES OF PHYSICIANS
Ibn Abi Usaybiah was born at Damascus. The son of a physician, he studied medicine at Damascus and in 1234 he was appointed physician to a new hospital in Cairo. His only surviving work is The Best Accounts of the Classes of Physicians, which covers 1,850 years of medical practice, from the mythological beginnings of medicine with Asclepius through Greece, Rome, and India, down to the authors day. Written as much to entertain as to inform, it is not only the earliest comprehensive history of medicine but the most important and ambitious of the medieval period, incorporating accounts of over 432 physicians, their training, practice, and medical compositions, all interlaced with amusing poetry and anecdotes illustrating their life and character. The Herodotean breadth of the book reflects the geographical and cultural reach of the Islamic empire. Written by a man who was a medic and a poet, this highly readable history reflects considerable medical experience and lies at the interface of the serious medical practice of the day with societys interest in biography and gossip. He died in 1270, having created a book that is one of the most delightful productions of Classical Arabic.
Henrietta Sharp Cockrell worked as a specialist for Christies Islamic Dept in London for several years. Now freelance, her consultancy work has included contributing to the Nasser D. Khalili catalogue, Gems and Jewels of Mughal India, and assisting on the New Catalogue of Arabic Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, where she devised the Sharp Scale for quantifying paper translucency. She also worked in Kuwait for UNESCO after the Iraqi invasion and is an occasional writer for The Art Newspaper.
Contributors :Geert Jan van Gelder, fba, was Laudian Professor of Arabic, University of Oxford; Emilie Savage-Smith, fba, was Professor of the History of Islamic Science, University of Oxford; Simon Swain, fba, is Professor of Classics, University of Warwick; Ignacio Snchez is a Senior Research Fellow, Department of Classics & Ancient History, University of Warwick; N. Peter Joosse was Senior Research Fellow at Leiden University and Department of Classics & Ancient History, University of Warwick; Alasdair Watson is Bahari Curator of Persian Collections, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; Bruce Inksetter was for many years an Arabic translator with unesco; and Franak Hilloowala wrote her doctoral thesis on Ibn Ab Usaybiah. Credit for the maps goes to Daniel Burt.
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Translation Emilie Savage-Smith, Simon Swain, and Geert Jan van Gelder, with Ignacio Snchez, N. Peter Joosse, Alasdair Watson, Bruce Inksetter, and Franak Hilloowala 2020 Explanatory notes Henrietta Sharp Cockrell Introduction Geert Jan van Gelder
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First published as an Oxford Worlds Classics paperback 2020
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CONTENTS
This introduction discusses the extraordinary biographical world history of medics and medical cultureindeed, the first world history of medicine ever attemptedfrom which the present volumes selected passages are taken. This extraordinary work was written by a Syrian physician called Ibn Ab Usaybiah, who died in 1270, having created a book that is one of the most delightful productions of Classical Arabic.
Ibn Ab Usaybiah was a Muslim, a practising physician, and a man with a brilliant gift for describing fellow-doctors and the societies they served without prejudice to their religion or background. His book is somewhat Herodotean in scope: a highly readable account of over 430 physicians, featuring their lives and training as well as their medical and other works, including four autobiographies to which he had access.
The rhyming Arabic title of his book, Uyn al-anb f tabaqt al-atibb, translates as The best accounts: on the classes of physiciansa very Arabic formulation. The classes in question are the different groups and categorieschronological, geographical, ethnic, religious who were encountered by Ibn Ab Usaybiah in his tour through some 1,850 years of medics, patients, and patrons, from ancient Greece and Rome to India and the lands in between. The whole is interlaced with amusing poems and tales illustrating the characters and achievements of the authors subjects, embellished with witty aphorisms and plentiful quotations from their writings.
This is a world where science was shared between Muslims, Jews, and Christians and where physicians had their surgeries and hospitals as they do today. Our authors grandfather, father, and uncle were all well-known physicians of their generations and served in the courts of various sultans and princes, including the famous ruler Salh al-Dn (Saladin). Ibn Ab Usaybiah himself trained in ophthalmology at the renowned Nsir hospital founded in Cairo by Saladin in 1171. Indeed, his remarkable history of medicine contains our most important accounts of medical activity administered in medieval hospitals.