Chapter 10 Iraqi Physicians and the Physicians of al-Jazīrah and Diyār Bakr For the geographical area covered by Ch. 10, see EI 2 art. ‘ʿIrāḳ’ (A. Miquel et al.); EI 2 art. ‘al-D̲j̲azīra’ (M. Canard); EI 2 art. ‘Diyār Bakr’ (M. Canard et al.); for a map of the area at the time of the Umayyads and Abbasids, see HIA art. ‘The Fertile Crescent Under the Umayyad and ʿAbbāsid Caliphs’ (H. Kennedy). Alasdair Watson and Geert Jan van Gelder (poetry) 10.1 Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For al-Kindī, see EI 2 art. ‘al-Kindī’ (J. Jolivet & R. Rashed); Sezgin, GAS III , 244–247, 375–376; V , 255–259; VI , 151–155; VII , 130–134, 241–261, 326–327; IX , 232; XIII , 242–243, … etc. For more recent studies of al-Kindī’s life and works and to supplement the earlier bibliographies, see Adamson, Al-Kindī ; Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī (where on pp. lxv–lxx IAU ’s entry on al-Kindī is translated in full, based on Müller’s edition); Adamson, Studies on Plotinus and al-Kindī ; Endress & Adamson, ‘Abū Yūsuf al-Kindī’. See also: Sezgin, al-Kindī: texts and studies ; McCarthy, al-Taṣānīf al-mansūbah ilā Faylasūf al-ʿArab . [10.1.1] Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī was the Philosopher par excellence of the Arabs. Descended from Arabian chieftains, his name Properly, his name and his nasab or lineage. For an introduction to this science see Beeston, Arabic Nomenclature ; EI 2 art. ‘Nasab’ (F. Rosenthal). was Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb That is Jacob, whose kunyah would usually be ‘Father of Joseph’, with reference to the Patriarchal Prophets. ibn Isḥāq ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ ibn ʿImrān ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ashʿath ibn Qays ibn Maʿdī Karib ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Jabalah ibn ʿAdī ibn Rabīʿah ibn Muʿāwiyah al-Akbar ibn al-Ḥārith al-Aṣghar ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn al-Ḥārith al-Akbar ibn Muʿāwiyah ibn Thawr ibn Murtiʿ ibn Kindah For the nasab of Kindah, see Ibn al-Kalbī, Nasab (Ḥasan), i:136 ff., where the form Murtiʿ is specified: wa-innamā summiya Murtiʿan li-annahu kāna yurtiʿuhum arḍahum . ibn ʿUfayr ibn ʿAdī ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Murrah ibn Udad ibn Zayd ibn Yashjub ibn ʿArīb ibn Zayd ibn Kahlān ibn Sabaʾ ibn Yashjub ibn Yaʿrub ibn Qaḥṭān. For Qaḥṭān, the Biblical Joktan see Ibn al-Kalbī, Nasab (Ḥasan), i:131–135; EI 2 art. ‘Ḳaḥtān’ (A. Fischer & A.K. Irvine). [10.1.2] His father, Isḥāq ibn al-Ṣabbāḥ, Briefly mentioned along with two of his poems in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , viii:415–416. According to al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh , 3, ii:465, Isḥāq ibn al-Ṣabbāh ‘al-Ashʿathī’ was appointed to a high position in Kufa by al-Mahdī in 159/775, and this continued under al-Rashīd. For more details see Āl Khalīfah, Umarāʾ al-Kūfah , 523–525. had been Governor of Kufa An important city in southern Iraq founded in 17/638 as a garrison town. EI 2 art. ‘al-Kūfa’ (H. Djaït). for [the Caliphs] al-Mahdī Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad, third Abbasid Caliph (r. 158–169/775–785). EI 2 art. ‘al-Mahdī’ (H. Kennedy). and al-Rashīd, Hārūn ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh, fifth Abbasid Caliph (r. 170–193/786–809). EI 2 art. ‘Hārūn al-Ras̲h̲īd’ (F. Omar). and al-Ashʿath ibn Qays ibn Maʿdī Karib EI 2 art. ‘al-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲’ (H. Reckendorf); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘al-Ashʿath b. Qays al-Kindī’ (A. Bahramian & M.D. Pour); Ibn Saʿd, Ṭabaqāt , vi:13–14. had been a companion of the Prophet – God bless him and keep him – before which he had been the chieftain of all of the tribe of Kindah. On the Kindah tribe and its origins, see EI 2 art. ‘Kinda’ (I. Shahîd & A.F.L. Beeston). Al-Ashʿath’s father, Qays ibn Maʿdī Karib, Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām , v:207. had also been a chieftain of all of the tribe of Kindah. He was a man of great renown: it is he whom al-Aʿshā, that is, al-Aʿshā of the Banū Qays ibn Thaʿlabah, EI 2 art. ‘al-Aʿs̲h̲ā’ (W. Caskel). There were several other poets with this epithet which is why IAU is specific. eulogised in his four long odes, the first of which begins, ‘Upon your life, such a long time it is!’; and the second, ‘In the morning, Sumayyah departed on her camels.’; and the third, ‘Are you resolved to see Laylā’s people early in the morning?’; and the fourth, ‘Will you abandon a fair woman, or will you pay a visit?’ The opening hemistichs of four poems by al-Aʿshā Maymūn (metres: ṭawīl , kāmil , mutaqārib , mutaqārib , respectively). See al-Aʿshā’s Dīwān , 205, 150, 80, 196, respectively. [10.1.3] Qays’ own father, Maʿdī Karib ibn Muʿāwiyah Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām , vii:267. had been chieftain of the Banū l-Ḥārith al-Aṣghar ibn Muʿāwiyah in Hadramaut. EI 2 art. ‘Ḥaḍramawt’ (A.F.L. Beeston, G.R. Smith, & T.M. Johnstone). Maʿdī Karib’s father, Muʿāwiyah ibn Jabalah, Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām , vii:260. had also been a chieftain of the Banū l-Ḥārith al-Aṣghar in Hadramaut, and Muʿāwiyah ibn al-Ḥārith al-Akbar, whose father al-Ḥārith al-Akbar, and his father Thawr had all been chieftains over Maʿadd Maʿadd is the collective name for tribes of a North Arabian origin as opposed to Yemeni tribes. See EI 2 art. ‘Maʿadd’ (W. Montgomery Watt). in al-Mushaqqar, EI 2 art. ‘ al-Mus̲h̲aḳḳar’ (C.E. Bosworth). Yamama, EI 2 art. ‘al-Yamāma’ (G.R. Smith). and Bahrain. EI 2 art. ‘al-Baḥrayn’ (G. Rentz & W.E. Mulligan). , The first four paragraphs are a quote (unacknowledged by IAU ) from Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī, Ṭabaqāt (Cheikho), 51–52. Cf. Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 366–367. Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī was highly regarded by [the Caliphs] al-Maʾmūn Abū l-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh (r. 198–218/813–833), seventh Abbasid Caliph. EI 2 art. ‘al-Maʾmūn’ (M. Rekaya). and al-Muʿtaṣim, Abū Isḥāq Muḥammad ibn Hārūn al-Rashīd (r. 218–227/833–842), eighth Abbasid Caliph. EI 2 art. ‘al-Muʿtaṣim Bi ’llāh’ (C.E. Bosworth). and by al-Muʿtaṣim’s son Aḥmad. Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad. Abbasid emir and patron of al-Kindī known for his majlis or salon in Baghdad. For an early episode involving the emir, al-Kindī, and the poet Abū Tammām, see al-Ṣūlī, Life and Times of Abū Tammām , 260–263. According to al-Ṣūlī, this Aḥmad was nominated to succeed al-Muntaṣir (d. 248/862) as Caliph, but this was prevented by the intervention of Muḥammad ibn Mūsā (for whom, see below Ch. 10.1.7) because of Aḥmad’s association with al-Kindī, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā’s enemy. See al-Ṭabarī, Ṭārikh , 3, iii:1501–1503. Al-Kindī composed a number of important works as well as a great many treatises in all disciplines. For a list of al-Kindī’s works, see below Ch. 10.1.14. [10.1.4] Sulaymān ibn Ḥassān [Ibn Juljul] See his entry Ch. 13.36. says: Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī was a Basran The consensus is that he was, as above, a Kufan. See note in Ibn Juljul, Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ , 73. of noble stock whose grandfather That is, al-Ṣabbāḥ ibn ʿImrān. had been a provincial governor for the Banū Hāshim. That is, the Hashimites, descendants of Hāshim ibn ʿAbd Manāf, great-grandfather of the Prophet Muḥammad. EI 2 art. ‘Hās̲h̲im b. ʿAbd Manāf’ (W. Montgomery Watt); EI 2 art. ‘Hās̲h̲imiyya’ (B. Lewis). He settled in Basra Important city in Southern Iraq founded in the early Islamic period as a garrison town, thereafter a political and intellectual hub. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Baṣra’ (Ch. Pellat & S.H. Longrigg); EI Three , art. ‘Basra until the Mongol conquest’ (Ch. Pellat & K.H. Lang); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Baṣra’ (B.A. Ahmadian et al.). where his estates ( ḍayʿah ) were, then moved to Baghdad EI 2 art. ‘Bag̲h̲dād’ (A.A. Duri). For a map showing a plan of Baghdad in the early Abbasid period (c. 150–300/767–912), see HIA art. ‘Baghdād’ (H. Kennedy); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Baghdad’ (B.A. Ahmadian and others). where he was educated. He was learned in medicine, philosophy, arithmetic, logic, musical composition, geometry, the properties of numbers, and astronomy. Prior to him there had been no philosopher since the advent of Islam. In his compositions he followed the example of Aristotle See Ch. 4.6 producing many works in various branches of knowledge. Al-Kindī attended the ruling classes and treated them with courtesy. He translated a great many books of philosophy, clarifying their difficult passages, summarizing their complex parts and simplifying their obscure readings. Ibn Juljul, Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ , 73–74 (also quoted in Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 367). [10.1.5] Abū Maʿshar EI Three art. ‘Abū Maʿshar’ (C. Burnett); EI 2 art. ‘Abū Maʿs̲h̲ar D̲j̲aʿfar b. Muḥammad b. ʿ Umar al-Balk̲h̲ī’ (J.M. Millás); Sezgin, GAS V , 274–275; VI , 156–157; VII , 139–151. states in Shādhān’s Book of Memoranda ( K. al-Mudhākarāt li-Shādhān ) That is, Abū Saʿīd Shādhān ibn Baḥr, student of Abū Maʿshar, who authored a Book of the Secrets of the Stars ( K. Asrār al-nujūm ) which is another name for the Mudhākarāt . Arabic versions of the Mudhākarāt , Shādhān’s record of his conversations with Abū Maʿshar, are extant in manuscript form, as well as in a medieval Latin version. See Sezgin, GAS VII , 15–16 (no. 3), 147 (no. 18); Dunlop, Dialogues on Astrology ; Pingree, The Sayings of Abū Maʿshar ; Burnett, ‘Albumasar in Sadan in the Twelfth Century’. The translator (AW) consulted incomplete manuscript copies of the Mudhākarāt in the University Libraries of Oxford and Cambridge but this passage was not found. that the most proficient translators of the Islamic period were four in number: Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, See Ch. 8.29. Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī, Although Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 98, mentions that al-Kindī translated a book by Euclid on the Geography of the Inhabited parts of the Earth into Arabic, the scholarly consensus is that al-Kindī commissioned and perhaps revised translations but did not actually produce any of his own. Thābit ibn Qurrah al-Ḥarrānī, See Ch. 10.3 and ʿUmar ibn al-Farrukhān al-Ṭabarī. For al-Ṭabarī, see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 255, 273; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 241–242; Sezgin, GAS V , 226. [10.1.6] Ibn al-Nadīm of Baghdad, the bookseller known as Ibn Abī Yaʿqūb, says in his book The Catalogue ( K. al-Fihrist ): EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Nadīm’ (J.W. Fück). Abū Maʿshar, that is Jaʿfar ibn Muḥammad al-Balkhī, was, at first, a scholar of Prophetic Traditions whose house was on the west side of Baghdad, by the Khorasan Gate. He bore malice towards al-Kindī and would incite the public against him and denounce him because of his knowledge of the sciences of the Philosophers. So al-Kindī foisted someone upon him who made the idea of studying arithmetic and geometry seem appealing to him. Abū Maʿshar embarked on that but did not perfect it. Then, however, he turned to the study of judicial astrology, Lit.: The science of the judgements of the stars or judicial astrology. Abū Maʾshar is said to have studied astrology in the Khizānat al-ḥikmah , a great library in a palace on the estate of ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā al-Munajjim. See Ibn Ṭāwūs, Faraj al-mahmūm , 157 (quoting al-Tanūkhī). and al-Kindī was relieved of his malice by his study of that science for it was one of al-Kindī’s own subjects. It is said that Abū Maʿshar learned astrology after his forty-seventh year and that he showed merit and often hit the mark. For more of Abū Maʿshar’s correct predictions ( iṣābāt ), see Ibn Ṭāwūs, Faraj al-mahmūm , 157–163. [The Caliph] al-Mustaʿīn Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad, twelfth Abbasid Caliph (r. 248–252/862–866). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Mustaʿīn’ (K.V. Zetterstéen & C.E. Bosworth). had him flogged because he was correct in predicting a certain occurrence. Hence Abū Maʿshar used to say, ‘I was correct, yet I was punished.’ He was born This is an error as he was born at Balkh on 21 Ṣafar 171 [10 August 787]; see EI Three art. ‘Abū Maʿshar’ (C. Burnett). According to Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel, 277), he died at Wāsiṭ. at Wāsiṭ on Wednesday the twenty-eighth of the month of Ramaḍān in the year […] Here there are lacunae in all the manuscripts. However, Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 277; (Sayyid), 242, gives the date as 28th Ramaḍān 272 [8 March 886]. and died having passed his hundredth year. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 277. IAU omits the list of Abū Maʿshar’s writings recorded by Ibn al-Nadīm. For a major new publication see Abū Maʿshar, Great Introduction . [10.1.7] Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Yūsuf ibn Ibrāhīm, Known as Ibn al-Dāyah (b. 330/944). See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Dāya’ (F. Rosenthal). says in his Book of Fortunate Outcome ( K. Ḥusn al-ʿuqbā ), Extant and published as K. al-Mukāfaʾah wa-ḥusn al-ʿuqbā . See Ibn al-Dāyah, Mukāfaʾah . that he heard the following account from Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ ibn Aslam the Astrologer: EI 2 art. ‘Abū Kāmil S̲h̲ud̲j̲āʿ’ (W. Hartner); EI Three art. ‘Abū Kāmil Shujāʿ b. Aslam al-Miṣrī’ (G. De Young); Sezgin, GAS V , 277–281. During the time of the Caliph al-Mutawakkil, EI 2 art. ‘al-Mutawakkil ʿAlā ’llāh’ (H. Kennedy). Muḥammad and Aḥmad, the sons of Mūsā ibn Shākir, See brief entry above Ch. 9.40; EI 2 art. ‘Mūsā, Banū’ (D.R. Hill); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Banū Mūsā’ (H.M. Hamedani & J. Esots). used to plot against all those who had a reputation for advanced learning. They had already caused Sind ibn ʿAlī For Sind (or Sanad) ibn ʿAlī (d. first half of 3rd/9th cent.), see Sezgin, GAS   V , 242–243. to be sent to Baghdad Presumably from Sāmarrāʾ (Samarra), the Abbasid capital between the years 221/836 and 279/892, for which settlement see EI 2 art. ‘Sāmarrāʾ’ (A. Northedge); and Northedge, Historical Topography of Samarra . after having estranged him from al-Mutawakkil, and had plotted against al-Kindī so that al-Mutawakkil had had him flogged. They had also sent people to al-Kindī’s house to confiscate all his books and had placed them in a repository which was given the name ‘Kindiyyah’. They had been able to do this because of al-Mutawakkil’s passion for automata. EI Three art. ‘Automata’ (D. Canavas). The Caliph approached them concerning the excavation of the canal known as the Jaʿfarī canal. The Jaʿfarī canal to the north of Samarra (Surra Man Raʾā) was built to supply water to the city of al-Mutawakkiliyya, whose construction was begun in 245/859 by the caliph al-Mutawakkil. The canal can still be seen today; see Northedge, Historical Topography of Samarra, 211–214 and Fig. 93. The Banū Mūsā delegated the project to Aḥmad ibn Kathīr al-Farghānī For al-Farghānī (d. after 247/861) who was known in the Latin West as Alfraganius, see EI 2 art. ‘al-Farg̲h̲ānī’ (H. Suter & J. Vernet); EI Three art. ‘al-Farghānī’ (R. Lorch & P. Kunitzsch); Sezgin, GAS   V , 259–260. who had built the new Nilometer in Egypt. EI 2 art. ‘Miḳyās’ (J. Ruska & D.R. Hill). Al-Farghānī’s knowledge, however, was greater than his good fortune since he could never complete a work and he made an error in the mouth of the canal causing it to be dug deeper than the rest of it so that a supply of water which filled the mouth would not fill the rest of the canal. Muḥammad and Aḥmad, the two Banū Mūsā protected him, but al-Mutawakkil demanded that they be brought before him and had Sind ibn ʿAlī summoned from Baghdad. When Muḥammad and Aḥmad realized that Sind ibn ʿAlī had come they felt sure they were doomed and feared for their lives. Al-Mutawakkil summoned Sind and said to him, ‘Those two miscreants have left no foul words unsaid to me concerning you, and they have squandered a great deal of my money on this canal. Go there and examine it and inform me whether it has a defect, for I have promised myself that if what I have been told is true, I will crucify them on its banks.’ All of this was seen and heard by Muḥammad and Aḥmad. As Sind left with the two Banū Mūsā, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā said to him, ‘O Abū l-Ṭayyib, the power of the freeman dispels his grudges. This could be a reference to the great virtue of al-ʿafw ʿind al-maqdirah , meaning that when one has power over another one should forgive them. Cf. al-Ibshīhī, Mustaṭraf [B], i:53, ‘Among the most beautiful of noble traits is the forgiveness of one who has power’ ( min aḥsan al-makārim ʿafw al-muqtadir ); and ibid. i:355–372 which is a whole chapter on the virtues of forgiveness and clemency. We resort to you for the sake of our lives which are our most valuable possessions. We do not deny that we have done wrong, but confession effaces the commission, That is, the confession of wrongdoing effaces the commission of that wrongdoing. The virtually identical saying ‘sincere confession effaces the commission’ ( ḥusn al-iʿtirāf yahdim al-iqtirāf ) is attributed to ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (c. 600–640/661). See for example, shaykh Mufīd, Irshād , i:299. An English translation by I.K.A. Howard in Shaykh Mufīd, The Book of Guidance , 222, reads, ‘A good confession wipes out the act of committing wrong.’ so save us as you see fit.’ ‘I swear by God,’ Sind replied, ‘you well know my enmity and aversion for al-Kindī, but what is right is right. Do you think it was good what you did to him by taking away his books? I swear I will not speak in your favour until you return his books to him.’ Thereupon, Muḥammad ibn Mūsā had al-Kindī’s books returned to him and obtained his signature that this had been done. When a note from al-Kindī arrived confirming that he had received them to the last, Sind said, ‘I am obliged to you both for returning the man’s books to him. Accordingly I will inform you of something that has escaped your notice: the fault in the canal will remain hidden for four months due to the rising of the Tigris. EI 2 art. ‘Did̲j̲la’ (R. Hartmann & S.H. Longrigg). Now the Astrologers ( ḥussāb ) agree that the Commander of the Faithful will not live that long. I will tell him immediately that there was no error in the canal on your part so as to save your lives, and if the Astrologers are correct, the three of us will have escaped. But if they are wrong, and he lives longer until the Tigris subsides and the water disperses, then all three of us are doomed.’ Muḥammad and Aḥmad were grateful and mightily relieved to hear these words. Sind ibn ʿAlī then went to see al-Mutawakkil and said to him, ‘They did not err.’ The Tigris indeed rose, the water flowed into the canal, and the matter was concealed. Al-Mutawakkil was killed two months later, Al-Mutawakkil was assassinated in Shawwāl 247 [December 861]. and Muḥammad and Aḥmad were saved after having greatly feared what might befall them. This passage appears in Ibn al-Dāyah, Mukāfaʾah , 130–132. [10.1.8] The Judge Abū l-Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn Aḥmad ibn Ṣāʿid Abū l-Qāsim Ṣāʿid ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Taghlibī (420–462/1029–1070). Judge and author of Toledo. See EI 2 art. ‘Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī’ (G. Martinez-Gros). in the Book of the Classes of the Nations ( K. Ṭabaqāt al-umam ) says of al-Kindī when he mentions his writings and books: Among his books are those on the science of logic, and these have a general saleability amongst the public but are rarely of benefit for the sciences because they are devoid of the art of analysis without which it is not possible to know truth from falsehood in any subject. Conversely, the art of synthesis, which is what Yaʿqūb pursues in these writings of his, can only be of benefit to one who has sound prerequisite knowledge that will enable him to synthesize. However, the prerequisites for every subject can be acquired only through the art of analysis. I do not know whether it was due to ignorance of its value on his part or a desire to conceal it from the public that made Yaʿqūb refrain from this great art, but whichever it was, it is to his demerit. In addition, he authored a great number of epistles on many different sciences in which his corrupt opinions and far-fetched doctrines are evident. This passage appears in Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī, Ṭabaqāt (Cheikho), 52. A similar critique, which might be a paraphrase of Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī, can be found in Ibn al-Qiftī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 367–368. I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – would say that what Judge Ṣāʿid has said about al-Kindī is unjust and does not detract from al-Kindī’s knowledge, nor should it prevent the people from studying his books and deriving benefit from them. [10.1.9] The secretary Ibn al-Nadīm of Baghdad in his book the The Catalogue (K. al-Fihrist) says: Among al-Kindī’s students and copyists ( warrāqūn ) were Ḥasanwayh, Or Ḥusnawayh, not identified. Nifṭawayh, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad (244–323/858–935). Grammarian, lexicographer, scholar of the Qur’an and traditions, and transmitter of poetry. EI 2 art. ‘Nifṭawayh’ (O. Bencheikh). Salmawayh, See Ch. 8.20. and another of the same morphology ( wazn ). Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 376 adds ‘Raḥmawayh’ as a fourth name instead of ‘and another of the same morphology’, which may be a scribal joke. Raḥmawayh (or Zaḥmawayh) is a name of the traditionist Abū Muḥammad Zakariyyā ibn Yaḥyā ibn Ṣubayḥ al-Wāsiṭī (d. 235/849–850), but the identification is by no means certain. Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib See Ch. 10.2. was one of his students and Abū Maʿshar See above Ch. 10.1.6. also learned from him. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 255, 261. For more on al-Kindī’s circle of students and his teaching activities, see Brentjes, ‘Teaching the Sciences in Ninth-century Baghdad’. [10.1.10] Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Qutaybah For Ibn Qutaybah (213–276/828–889), see EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Ḳutayba’ (G. Lecomte). says in his book The Unique Pearls ( K. Farāʾid al-durr ): Someone recited the following verses to Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn Qutaybah’s Farāʾid al-durr is not preserved. The lines are quoted anonymously in Ibn Ṭabāṭabā, ʿIyār (ed. al-Māniʿ), 216–217, al-ʿAskarī, Dīwān al-maʿānī , i:229 (1st hemistich only), al-Tawḥīdī, Baṣāʾir , vi:200 (quoted by Abū l-ʿAynāʾ), al-Sarī al-Raffāʾ, Muḥibb , i:187. As Wadād al-Qāḍī notes in her edition of al-Baṣāʾir , a similar epigram, but with five items instead of four, is found in al-Thaʿālibī, Khāṣṣ al-khāṣṣ , 133, idem, Tawfīq , 110 (there attributed to Ibn Ṭabāṭabā). Four things from you are sweet Read, with other sources, ḥalat (note that ḥallat , as in A, is unmetrical). to four things in me, and I don’t know which one aroused my grief: Is it your face in my eye, or the taste of you ʿIyār and Baṣāʾir : ‘your saliva’ ( al-rīq ). in my mouth, or your speech in my ears, or the love for you in my heart? At which al-Kindī said, ‘By God, he has classified the matter philosophically!’ MS R adds a marginal note commenting on this poem, see AII .2.1. [10.1.11] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say, among the sayings of al-Kindī are these from his testament: 1. Let the physician be mindful of God, exalted is He, and let him not take risks, for there is nothing that will compensate for the loss of human life. 2. Just as [the physician] likes to be told that he was the cause of the patient’s wellbeing and his cure, let him fear lest he be told that that he was the cause of his destruction and his death. 3. The intelligent person believes that there is knowledge beyond the knowledge he has and so he always humbles himself to that additional knowledge. The ignorant person believes that he has reached the summit, and for that reason he is detested by the people. [10.1.12] Among al-Kindī’s words are these from his testament to his son Abū l-ʿAbbās, which I have quoted from The Book of Prolegomena ( K. al-Muqaddimāt ) of Ibn Bakhtawayh: That is, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĪsā ibn Bakhtawayh. See his entry in Ch. 10.52, where it is mentioned that the above book was composed in 420/1029–1030 and was also known by the title K. Kanz al-aṭibbāʾ . 1. My son, a father is a lord and a brother is a snare and a paternal uncle is an affliction and a maternal uncle is a calamity and a son is a distress and relatives are scorpions. In the Arabic, this saying is in rhymed prose. It is quoted by Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī (d. 429/1038) in his al-Tamthīl wa-l-muḥāḍarah , 460. 2. Saying no averts a blow, saying yes dispels blessings. Cf. Al-Thaʿālibī, al-Tamthīl wa-l-muḥāḍarah , 443. 3. Listening to songs is like severe pleurisy, This first part of this saying appears in al-Thaʿālibī, al-Tamthīl wa-l-muḥāḍarah , 443. because a person listens and becomes joyful and then spends of his money to excess and so is impoverished and becomes melancholic ( yaghtamm ) and falls ill and dies. 4. Gold coins are fevered; if you spend them they will die. Silver coins are prisoners; Or constipated ( maḥbūs ), to continue on with the medical theme from ‘fevered’. if you let them out they will flee. 5. People are at your disposal ( sukhrah ), so take of their things and preserve your own things. Al-Thaʿālibī, al-Tamthīl wa-l-muḥāḍarah , 443 has instead, ‘Deal with people as if you were a gambler (or chess player); take what is theirs and keep what is yours.’ 6. Do not accept anything from those who swear falsely, for that turns the land into a wasteland. Ar. balāqiʿ sing. balqaʿ , a place void of trees, vegetation or inhabitants. See Lane, Lexicon , i:253. The saying is also attributed to the Prophet. See, for example: al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād , vi:411; al-Bayhaqī, Sunan , x:63; al-Dhahabī, Tadhkirah , 582, where al-ghamūs for al-fājirah . I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say, if that is part of the testament of al-Kindī, it confirms what Ibn al-Nadīm of Baghdad relates about him in his book where he says that al-Kindī was a miser. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 255, ‘and he [al-Kindī] was a miser ( bakhīl )’. MS R adds some anecdotes about al-Kindī’s miserliness and ideas, see AII .2.2 and AII .2.3 [10.1.13] As an example of Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī’s poetry, shaykh Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd al-ʿAskarī the Lexicographer Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Saʿīd al-ʿAskarī (293–382/906–993). See EI 2 art. ‘al-ʿAskarī’ (J.W. Fück); EI Three art. ‘al-ʿAskarī, Abū Aḥmad’ (B. Gruendler). says in The Book of Aphorisms and Proverbs ( K. al-Ḥikam wa-l-amthāl ): This book was published in Cairo in 2006; it does not contain the poem. Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar That is, Abū l-Ḥasan Aḥmad ibn Jaʿfar ibn Mūsā ibn Yaḥyā al-Barmakī, courtier and man of letters of insalubrious appearance, known as Jaḥẓah (d. 324/936). See EI 2 art. ‘D̲j̲aḥẓa’ (Ch. Pellat). quoted the following to me, saying, Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī See Ch. 10.2. quoted the following to me, saying, Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī recited to me the following verses of his own composition: Metre: mutaqārib . See al-Sakhāwī, al-Maqāṣid al-ḥasanah , 297 (lines 1–6); Ibn ʿAsākir, Tārīkh , xxxvi:318 (also omitting line 7). The tail towers above the heads, Probably meaning that low people are raised above the virtuous. so close your eyes or bow your heads, Diminish your person, Or ‘keep a low profile’. clasp your hands, and find a place to sit on the floor of your house. Seek elevation (only) in the eyes of your Lord; find genial company today (only) in solitariness. For riches are found (only) in the hearts of men and glory is found (only) in their souls. How often one sees a rich man in trouble or a wealthy man being bankrupt, Or someone whose body is still standing, though dead, only not yet buried! If you feed your soul on what it craves, it will protect you against all that it sips. [?] Interpretation not wholly clear. The subjects of tashtahī and taḥtasī could also be ‘you’. P and S have takhtashī , which does not even rhyme. MS R adds some extra verses in margin, see AII .2.4. [10.1.14] Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī is the author of the following works: Cf. McCarthy, al-Taṣānīf al-mansūbah ilā Faylasūf al-ʿArab ; Ibn al-Nadīm Fihrist (Flügel), 255–261, (Sayyid) 2/1:184–194; See also: Rescher, Al-Kindī ; Sezgin, GAS III , 244–247, 375–376; V , 255–259; VI , 151–155; VII , 130–134, 241–261, 326–327; IX , 232; XIII , 242–243, et passim ; Adamson, Al-Kindī , 3–20; Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , xlviii–lxxv. 1. On First Philosophy, excluding physics or metaphysics ( K. al-Falsafah al-ūlā fīmā dūn al-ṭabīʿiyyāt wa-l-tawḥīd ). See Rescher, Al-Kindī , 43. For an Arabic edition and French translation, see Rashed and Jolivet, Œuvres Philosophiques et Scientifiques , II , 1–117; for English translations, see Ivry, al-Kindī’s Metaphysics ; and Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 3–57. For a study of al-Kindī’s metaphysical thought, see Adamson, Al-Kindī , 46–73. 2. On internal philosophy, abstruse logical problems, and metaphysics ( K. al-Falsafah al-dākhilah wa-l-masāʾil al-manṭiqiyyah wa-l-muʿtāṣah wa-mā fawq al-ṭabīʿiyyāt ). All the MSS read ‘and that which corresponds to the physics’ here, corrected on the basis of Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 255; (Sayyid) 2/1:184, and the dūn/fawq opposition in the use of dūn al-ṭabīʿiyyāt in the previous title no. 1. 3. On the fact that philosophy may only be attained through knowledge of the mathematical sciences ( R. fī annahu lā tunālu al-Falsafah illā bi-ʿilm al-riyāḍiyyāt ). For an overview of the mathematical sciences, see EI 2 art. ‘al-Riyāḍiyyāt’ (R. Rashed). More broadly, the subjects of the trivium and quadrivium were called ʿulūm riyāḍiyyah or taʿlīmiyyah . 4. On encouraging the study of philosophy ( K. al-Ḥathth ʿalā taʿallum al-falsafah ). 5. On the number, arrangement, and purposes of Aristotle’s books, and what is indispensable in them for attaining knowledge of philosophy ( R. fī kammiyyat kutub Arisṭūṭālīs wa-mā yuḥtāju ilayhi fī taḥṣīl ʿilm al-falsafah mimmā lā ghinā fī dhālika ʿanhu minhā wa-tartībihā wa-aghrāḍihi fīhā ). See Rescher, Al-Kindī , 43. For an English translation, see Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 279–296. 6. On Aristotle’s intention in The Categories and its subject matter ( K. fī Qaṣd Arisṭūṭālīs fī-l-Maqūlāt iyyāhā qasḍan wa-l-mawḍūʿah lahā ). Cf. Ch. 4.5.1, quoting Fārābī’s Iḥṣāʾ on the Arabic and Greek titles. 7. His larger essay on the criterion for knowledge ( Risālatuhu al-kubrā fī miqyāsihi al-ʿilmī ). 8. On the divisions of human knowledge ( K. Aqsām al-ʿilm al-insī ). 9. On the nature and divisions of knowledge ( K. fī māʾiyyat al-ʿilm wa-aqsāmihi ). 10. On the perfect justice of all of the Creator’s acts ( K. fī anna afʿāl al-Bāriʾ kullahā ʿadl lā jawr fīhā ). 11. On the nature of the infinite, and in what way it is termed infinite ( K. fī māʾiyyat al-shayʾ alladhī lā nihāyah lahu wa bi-ayy nawʿ yuqālu li-lladhī lā nihāyah lahu ). Cf. Rescher, Al-Kindī , 45. For an Arabic edition and French translation, see Rashed & Jolivet, Œuvres Philosophiques et Scientifiques , ii:149–156; For similar works in English translation, see Three Texts against the Infinity of the World , in Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 58–72; Adamson, Al-Kindī , 74–105. 12. An explanation of the impossibility of the infiniteness of the matter of the world but rather its potential for infinity ( R. fī l-ibānah annahu lā yumkinu an yakūna jirm al-ʿālam bi-lā nihāyah wa-anna dhālika inna-mā huwa bi-l-quwwah ). Cf. Rescher, Al-Kindī , 45. For similar works in English translation, see Three Texts against the Infinity of the World , in Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 58–72. 13. On the active and reactive principles in physics ( K. fī al-Fāʿilah wa-l-munfaʿilah min al-ṭabīʿiyyāt al-uwal ). 14. On the vocabulary of intellectual summaries ( K. fī ʿIbārāt al-jawāmiʿ al-fikriyyah ). 15. On problems about which he was asked regarding the utility of the mathematical sciences ( K. fī Masāʾil suʾila ʿanhā fī manfaʿat al-riyāḍiyyāt ). 16. An essay examining the claim Or ‘examining the statement of him who claims etc.’ that physical objects act with a single act made necessary by their nature ( K. fī baḥth qawl al-muddaʿī anna al-ashyāʾ al-tabīʿiyyah tafʿalu fiʿlan wāḥidan bi-ījāb al-khilqah ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 256; (Sayyid), 2/1:184 adds at this point: ‘On the first sensible things’ ( K. awāʾil al-ashyaʾ al-maḥsūsah ). 17. On skilfulness in the arts ( K. fī l-rifq fī l-ṣināʿāt ). Or on gentleness or courteousness in the arts. 18. On the etiquette of corresponding with great men of state ( R. fī rasm riqāʿ ilā l-Khulafāʾ wa-l-Wuzarāʾ ). 19. On the division of the canon ( R. fī qismat al-qānūn ). On the relationship between music and mathematics: the division of a string (monochord) to produce different consonant or dissonant intervals. See Liddell & Scott, Greek-English Lexicon : ‘ἡ κανονική (sc. τέχνη), theoretical music, in which the notes of the scale are measured acc. to the different ἁρμονίαι’. Qānūn became the name of the zither-like musical instrument that is still very popular. See Farmer, ‘The Music of Islam’. Cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 266; (Sayyid), 2/1:210, where a book on the division of the canon is also attributed to Euclid. 20. An essay explaining the intellect and its nature ( R. fī Māʾiyyat al-ʿaql wa-l-ibānah ʿanhu ). See Rescher, Al-Kindī , 44. For an English translation, see On the Intellect , in Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 93–98. 21. On the Real, Prime, and Perfect Agent, and the imperfect one which is an agent only metaphorically ( R. fī al-Fāʿil al-ḥaqq al-awwal al-tāmm wa-l-fāʿil al-nāqiṣ alladhī huwa bi-l-majāz ). See Rescher, Al-Kindī , 44. For an English translation, see On the True Agent , in Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 73–75; For an Arabic edition and French translation, see Rashed and Jolivet, Œuvres Philosophiques et Scientifiques , ii:167–172. 22. An epistle to al-Maʾmūn on cause and effect ( R. ilā l-Maʾmūn fī l-ʿillah wa-l-maʿlūl ). 23. An abridgement of Porphyry’s Isagoge ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Īsāghūjī li-Furfūriyūs ). 24. Many problems of logic and other matters, as well as philosophical definitions ( Masāʾil kathīrah fī l-manṭiq wa-ghayrihi wa-ḥudūd al-falsafah ). 25. An exhaustive introduction to logic ( K. fī l-mudkhal al-manṭiqī bi-istīfāʾ al-qawl fīhi ). 26. A brief and abridged introduction to logic ( K. fī l-mudkhal al-manṭiqī bi-ikhtiṣār wa-ījāz ). 27. On the ten categories ( R. fī l-Maqūlāt al-ʿashr ). 28. An essay explaining Ptolemy’s statement at the beginning of the Almagest regarding Aristotle’s statement in the Analytics ( R. fī l-Ibānah ʿan qawl Baṭlamiyūs fī awwal kitābihi fī l-Majisṭī ʿan qawl Arisṭūṭālīs fī Anālūṭīqā ). 29. On guarding oneself against the impostures of the Sophists ( R. fī l-Iḥtirās min khudaʿ al-Sūfisṭāʾiyyah ). 30. A brief and abridged essay on logical demonstration ( R. bi-ījāz wa-ikhtiṣār fī l-Burhān al-manṭiqī ). Also attributed to al-Fārābī for whom, see Ch. 15.01. See Rescher, Al-Kindī , 44, where title is given as Liber introductorius in artem logicae demonstrationis . An Arabic text corresponding to this work appears in the sections on logic in the Encyclopaedia of the Brethren of Purity. For Carmela Baffioni’s 2010 Arabic edition and English translation of this, see Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, On Logic , 6, and 129–200 (Arabic edition), 125–155 (English translation), where it appears as Epistle 14 entitled fī Afūdiqṭīqā ( On the Posterior Analytics ). The mediaeval Latin version was published in 1897 in Nagy, Abhandlungen , 41–64. For views on attribution, see Farmer, Liber introductorius ; Stern, ‘Notes on al-Kindi’s Treatise on Definitions.’; Baffioni, Il “ Liber introductorius ”. 31. On the five predicables that pertain to all of the categories ( R. fī al-asmāʾ al-khamsah al-lāḥiqah li-kull al-maqūlāt ). The title in Ibn al-Nadīm and Ibn al-Qifṭī reads ‘Epistle on the five voices’ ( R. Fī l-aṣwāt al-khamsah ) (Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Sayyid), 2/1:185; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 368). 32. On physics ( R. fī Samʿ al-kiyān ). 33. On the use of a tool for making summaries ( R. fī ʿamal ālah mukhrijah li-l-jawāmiʿ ). 34. An introductory epistle on arithmetic, in five parts ( R. fī al-Mudkhal ilā l-Arithmāṭīqī khams maqālāt ). 35. An epistle to Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim See above Ch. 10.1.1.5. on the use of Indian arithmetic, in four discourses ( R. ilā Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim fī kayfiyyat istiʿmāl al-ḥisāb al-hindī arbaʿ maqālāt ). 36. An essay explaining the numbers mentioned by Plato in the Republic ( R. fī l-Aʿdād allatī dhakarahā Flāṭun fī l-Siyāsah ). 37. On the order of numbers ( R. fī Taʾlīf al-aʿdād ). 38. On the unity of God with regard to number ( R. fī l-Tawḥīd min jihat al-ʿadad ). 39. On revealing what is hidden and concealed ( R. fī Istikhrāj al-khabīʾ wa-l-ḍamīr ). 40. On ornithomancy That is, divination from the behaviour of birds. and divination with regard to number ( R. fī l-zajr wa-l-faʾl min jihat al-ʿadad ). 41. On lines and multiplication using the number of grains of barley ( R. fī l-Khuṭūṭ wa-l-ḍarb bi-ʿadad al-shaʿīr ). 42. On added quantity ( R. fī l-kammiyyah al-muḍāfah ). 43. On temporal relationships ( R. fī l-nisab al-zamāniyyah ). All the MSS corrupt this title. Corrected from Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 256. 44. On arithmetical tricks and how to conceal them ( R. fī l-Ḥiyal al-ʿadadiyyah wa-ʿilm iḍmārihā ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Tajaddud), and (Sayyid), 2/1:186 adds at this point a title poorly written in the manuscripts that cannot be found in Flügel’s edition, IAU or Ibn al-Qifṭī: K. al-Dawār d-h-m-z-h . 45. On the sphericity of the world and all that is in it ( R. fī anna al-ʿālam wa-kull mā fīhi kurī al-shakl ). 46. On the demonstration of the sphericity of all the primary elements and the outermost body ( R. fī l-Ibānah ʿalā annahu laysa shayʾ min al-ʿanāṣir al-ūlā wa-l-jirm al-aqṣā ghayr kurī ). 47. On the fact that the sphere is the largest of the solid figures, and the circle is the largest of all the plane figures ( R. fī anna al-kurah aʿẓam al-ashkāl al-jirmiyyah wa-l-dāʾirah aʿẓam min jamīʿ al-ashkāl [al-basīṭah] ). 48. On spheres ( R. fī l-kuriyyāt ). 49. On determining the vertical point (zenith) of a sphere ( R. fī ʿamal al-samt ʿalā kurah ). 50. On the sphericity of the surface of the sea ( R. fī anna saṭḥ al-baḥr kurī ). 51. On flattening the sphere ( R. fī Tasṭīḥ al-kurah ). That is, drawing or projecting a three-dimensional sphere onto a two-dimensional surface. 52. On the construction and use of the ‘six rings’ ( R. fī ʿamal al-ḥalaq al-sitt wa-istiʿmālihā ). This probably refers to a ‘ringed’ celestial globe, with rings representing the horizon, the celestial equator, the ‘Arctic’ circle, the summer tropic circle, the winter tropic circle, and the ‘Antarctic’ circle. An armillary sphere, whether demonstrational or observational, would have similar rings but also additional rings representing the courses of the five planets visible to the naked eye as well as the sun and moon. An observational armillary sphere would require further rings for sighting devices. For ringed celestial globes and armillary spheres in antiquity and the early Islamic world, see Savage-Smith, Islamicate Celestial Globes , 7–21; and Lorch, ‘The astronomy of Jābir ibn Aflaḥ’. Al-Kindī’s treatise on the topic is not known to be preserved. 53. The greater discourse on (musical) composition ( Risālatuhu al-kubrā fī l-taʾlīf ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 48. 54. On the arrangement of musical notes which indicate the natures of the heavenly bodies. It resembles the treatise on (musical) composition. ( R. fī tartīb al-nagham al-dāllah ʿalā ṭabāʾiʿ al-ashkhāṣ al-ʿāliyah, wa-tushābihu al-Taʾlīf ). See previous title. 55. An introductory discourse on the art of music ( R. fī l-mudkhal ilā ṣināʿat al-mūsīqī ). 56. On rhythm ( R. fī l-Īqāʿ ). For background material and an edition and English translation, see Sawa, Rhythmic theories . 57. On the art of the poets ( R. fī khabar ṣināʿat al-shuʿarāʾ ). Possibly read ‘ khubr ’ ‘On [internal] knowledge of the art of the poets.’ MSS PRSb read khayr and other MSS are ambiguous. 58. An essay informing about the art of music ( R. fī l-ikhbār ʿan ṣināʿat al-mūsīqī ). 59. An abridged musical treatise on the composition of tones and the art of the lute, composed for Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim See above Ch. 10.1.1.5. ( Mukhtaṣar al-mūsīqī fī taʾlīf al-nagham wa-ṣanʿat al-ʿūd allafahu li-Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 47. 60. On the parts of knowledge in music ( R. fī ajzāʾ khabariyyah fī l-mūsīqī ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 47. 61. On the fact that the sighting of the new moon cannot be actually determined and can only be approximated ( R. fī anna ruʾyat al-hilāl lā tuḍbaṭu bi-l-ḥaqīqah wa-innamā l-qawl fīhi bi-l-taqrīb ). 62. On questions posed to him regarding the effects of the planets ( R. fī masāʾil suʾila ʿanhā min aḥwāl al-kawākib ). 63. An epistle answering questions of physics posed to him by Abū Maʿshar See above Ch. 10.1.6. regarding astral qualities ( R. fī Jawāb masāʾil ṭabīʿiyyah fī kayfiyyāt nujūmiyyah saʾalahu Abū Maʿshar ʿanhā ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 265; (Sayyid), 2/1:186 and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 370 add at this point the title: ‘Epistle on the rays’ incidence point’ ( R. Fī maṭraḥ al- shuʿāʿ ). 64. On the two differentia ( R. fī l-Faṣlayn ). For a full discussion of the technical uses of the term faṣl , see Tahānawī, Kashshāf  – 1, II , 1138–1140. Possibly this is a logical treatise on definitions by the differentiation of the genus and the species, or on the two types of differentiae, that is the constitutive ( faṣl muqawwim ), and divisive ( faṣl muqassim ). 65. On the zodiacal signs and planets that are associated with each and every locality ( R. fī-mā yunsabu ilayhi kull balad min al-buldān ilā burj min al-burūj wa-kawkab min al-kawākib ). 66. An epistle written when asked to explain the differences he had come across in the forms of [the horoscopes] of nativities ( R. fī-mā suʾila ʿanhu min sharḥ mā ʿaraḍa lahu min al-ikhtilāf fī ṣuwar al-mawālīd ). 67. An epistle on what has been related about the lifespans of people in ancient times and how they differ from those of the current time ( R. fī-mā ḥukiya min aʿmār al-nās fī l-zaman al-qadīm wa-khilāfihā fī hādhā l-zaman ). 68. An essay illustrating the use of indicators ( namūdārāt ) in horoscopes and the prorogator ( haylāj ) of their material and spiritual bodies and the indicator of the length of life ( kadkhudhāh ) ( R. fī taṣḥīḥ ʿamal namūdārāt al-mawālīd wa-l-haylāj wa-l-kadkhudāh ). For this complex astrological terminology, see al-Qabīṣī, Introduction to Astrology , 109–117; Samsó & Berrani, ‘World Astrology’; Yano & Viladrich, ‘ Tasyīr Computation’; al-Khwārazmī, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm , 230–231. 69. An essay explaining the cause of the retrograde motion of planets ( R. fī īḍāḥ ʿillat rujūʿ al-kawākib ). 70. An essay explaining that the differences found in the heavenly bodies is not caused by the primary qualities ( R. fī l-ibānah anna al-ikhtilāf alladhī fī l-ashkhāṣ al-ʿāliyah laysa ʿillat al-kayfiyyāt al-uwal ). Only in MS B, that is only in Version 1 of the book. The four primary qualities of hot, cold, wet, and dry were thought to give rise to the four elements from which the sublunar world was made. The supralunar world of the heavenly bodies, however, was said to be made from an ethereal fifth element or quintessence . 71. On the apparent speed of the motion of the planets when they are on the horizon, and their deceleration as they rise ( R. fī surʿat mā yurā min ḥarakat al-kawākib idhā kānat fī l-ufuq wa-ibṭāʾihā kullamā ʿalat ). 72. On rays ( R. fī l-shuʿāʿāt ). For an English translation, see Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 217–244. For a study and (Latin) translation, see Ottaviani, De radiis . See also Travaglia, Magic, Causality and Intentionality . 73. On the difference between the prorogation MS A reads al-shayr , the rest of our MSS read al-sayr . Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 257; (Sayyid), 2/1:186 reads (correctly) al-tasyīr . Tasyīr is a technique first used by Ptolemy employing prorogation calculations for predicting length of life by calculating an arc separating two celestial bodies at a given time and viewed from a particular locality on Earth. For further discussion of tasyir , see Samsó & Berrani, ‘World Astrology’; Yano & Viladrich, ‘ Tasyīr Computation’. For translation of this title based on Ibn Nadīm’s version, and an explanation of the term tasyīr , see also Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , liii, lxxiii n. 15. and use of rays ( R. fī faṣl mā bayna al-tasyīr wa-ʿamal al-shuʿāʿ ). 74. On the causes of the irregularities of the stellar positions ( R. fī ʿilal al-awḍāʿ al-nujūmiyyah ). 75. An essay relating to the celestial bodies designated auspicious and inauspicious ( Risālatuhu al-mansūbah ilā l-ashkhāṣ al-ʿāliyah al-musammāh saʿādah wa-naḥāsah ). 76. On the effectiveness attributed to the celestial bodies indicative of rain ( R. fī l-quwā l-mansūbah ilā l-ashkhāṣ al-ʿāliyah al-dāllah ʿalā l-maṭar ). For background to al-Kindī’s work on meteorology, see Bos & Burnett, Scientific Weather Forecasting in the Middle Ages , where a Hebrew version and English translation of this treatise may be found on pp. 202–242, and 243–262 respectively. 77. On the causes of atmospheric phenomena ( R. fī ʿilal aḥdāth al-jaww ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 46. For an Arabic version and English translation of a similar work on atmospheric phenomena taken from al-Kindī’s Forty Chapters , see Bos & Burnett, Scientific Weather Forecasting in the Middle Ages , 395–402. 78. On what causes certain places to be virtually devoid of rain ( R. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā yakūnu baʿḍ al-mawāḍiʿ lā takādu tumṭir ). 79. An epistle to his pupil Zarnab on the secrets of the stars and notes on the principles of procedures ( R. ilā Zarnab tilmīdhihi fī asrār al-nujūm wa-taʿlīm mabādiʾ al-aʿmāl ). 80. On the cause of the halo effects observed in the sun and the moon and the planets and the luminaries, that is the two luminaries ( R. fī l-ʿillah allatī turā min al-hālāt li-l-shams wa-l-qamar wa-l-kawākib wa-l-aḍwāʾ al-nayyirah aʿnī l-nayyirayn ). For a gloss on the two luminaries ( nayyirān ), see al-Khwārazmī, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm , 228. They are usually the sun and the moon, in which case they have been mentioned twice in this title. 81. An epistle apologizing for his own death before reaching the term of a natural life which is one hundred and twenty years ( R. fī iʿtidhārihi ʿan mawtihi dūna kamālihi li-sinī l-ṭabīʿah allatī hiya miʾah wa-ʿishrūn sanah ). 82. A discourse on the ‘live coals’ ( Kalām fī l-jamarāt ) Jamrah , pl. jamarāt/jimār , can refer, inter alia , to live coals, carbuncles (red garnet gemstones), geothermic heat, or pebbles thrown during the hajj pilgrimage. Al-Bīrūnī writes that it was thought that on the 7th, 14th, and 21st of the month of February, three hot coals, each one greater than the first, would ‘fall’ or be removed signifying the end of the cold season. He goes on to mention some explanations for this. See al-Bīrūnī, al-Āthār al-bāqiyah , 252–253. Perhaps this is the subject of al-Kindī’s discourse here. Cf. al-Qazwīnī, ʿAjāʾib (Wüstenfeld), 76–77. 83. On the stars ( R. fī l-nujūm ). 84. On the purposes of the books of Euclid ( R. fī aghrāḍ kutub Uqlīdis ). For Euclid in general, see Sezgin, GAS V , 83–120. For this title, see GAS , V , 105. 85. One revising the books of Euclid ( R. fī iṣlāḥ kutub Uqlīdis ). MS A conflates these titles (84 and 85) and notes that further examination is needed ( yaḥtāju ilā naẓar ). Not in Sezgin, GAS . 86. On different [theories] of optics ( R. fī ikhtilāf al-manāẓir ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 47. For a study and French translations of several of al-Kindī’s works on optics, see Rashed and Jolivet, Œuvres Philosophiques et Scientifiques , vol.  I . 87. On constructing a [geometric] figure with two medians ( R. fī ʿamal shakl al-mutawassiṭayn ). 88. On approximating the arc which a chord of a circle subtends ( R. fī taqrīb watar al-dāʾirah ). 89. On approximating the arc which a chord of a ninth subtends ( R. fī taqrīb watar al-tusʿ ). 90. On the mensuration of a vaulted hall ( R. fī misāḥat aywān ). For aywān (also īwān ), see EI 2 art. ‘Īwān’ (O. Grabar). Given the evident interest in curves and various geometrical problems in the subsequent titles, the term aywān (or īwān ) has here been translated as ‘vaulted hall’, as in the expression ‘ īwān Kisrā ’, referring to the famous vaulted hall at Ctesiphon (see e.g. al-Buḥturī’s poem on it or and al-Thaʿālibī’s Thimār al-qulūb , 180–182). 91. On the division and construction of triangles and squares ( R. fī taqsīm al-muthallath wa-l-murabbaʿ wa-ʿamalihimā ). 92. On constructing a circle equal [in area] to the surface of a given cylinder ( R. fī kayfiyyat ʿamal dāʾirah musāwiyah li-saṭḥ usṭuwānah mafrūḍah ). 93. A geometrical epistle on the rising and setting of the stars ( R. fī shurūq al-kawākib wa-ghurūbihā bi-l-handasah ). 94. On dividing a circle into three [equal] parts ( R. fī qismat al-dāʾirah thalāthat aqsām ). 95. An essay revising books fourteen and fifteen of Euclid’s Elements ( R. fī iṣlāḥ al-maqālatayn al-rābiʿah ʿashar wa-l-khāmisah ʿashar min kitāb Uqlīdis ). See Sezgin, GAS V , 105. Books 14 and 15 are now generally considered to be non-Euclidean and attributed to Hypsicles and Isidorus of Miletus respectively. See Heath, Euclid’s Elements , iii:512–520. 96. On geometrical proofs based on astronomical calculation s ( R. fī l-barāhīn al-misāḥiyyah li-mā yaʿriḍu min al-ḥisābāt al-falakiyyah ). 97. An essay correcting Hypsicles’ discourse On Ascensions ( R. fī taṣḥīḥ qawl Isiqalāwus fī-l-maṭāliʿ ). All our MSS read Isiqalāwus. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 266, reads Ibsiqalāwus (Ibsiqalāʾus) and mentions his Book of Ascensions ( Kitāb al-Maṭāliʿ ). See Sezgin, GAS V , 145. For a MS not mentioned in GAS , see MS British Library IO Islamic 1249, fols. 111 v –116 r (18th cent.), where also Isiqalāwus. 98. On the reversal of views in a mirror ( R. fī ikhtilāf manāẓir al-mirʾāh ). For a study of this subject, see Rashed & Jolivet, Œuvres Philosophiques et Scientifiques , vol.  I . 99. On the geometrical construction of the astrolabe ( R. fī ṣanʿat al-aṣṭurlāb bi-l-handasah ). 100. On determining the meridian line and the direction of Mecca using geometry ( R. fī istikhrāj khaṭṭ niṣf al-nahār wa-samt al-qiblah bi-l-handasah ). 101. On the geometrical construction of sundials ( R. fī ʿamal al-rukhāmah bi-l-handasah ). 102. On the fact that clocks constructed on a metal plate erected on a surface parallel to the horizon are the best of all ( R. fī anna ʿamal al-sāʿāt ʿala ṣafīḥah tunṣabu ʿalā l-saṭḥ al-muwāzī li-l-ufuq khayr min ghayrihā ). Cf. Rescher, Al-Kindī , 48. 103. On the geometrical construction of clocks upon a hemisphere ( R. fī istikhrāj al-sāʿāt ʿalā niṣf kurah bi-l-handasah ). 104. On omens ( R. fī l-sawāniḥ ). See Lane, Lexicon , 1442. Also a title of a Persian work by Aḥmad al-Ghazzālī (d. 1126), translated as ‘inspiration from the world of pure spirits’. 105. Questions on the surveying of rivers and the like ( Masāʾil fī misāḥat al-anhār wa-ghayrihā ). 106. On temporal relations ( R. fī l-nisab al-zamāniyyah ). Cf. above Ch. 10.1.11, nos. 43, 212. 107. A discourse on number ( Kalām fī l-ʿadad ). 108. A discourse on burning mirrors ( Kalām fī l-marāyā allatī tuḥriqu ). For a study and French translation of related texts, see Rashed & Jolivet, Œuvres Philosophiques et Scientifiques , II , 97–160. 109. On the impossibility of the existence of a geometry for the outermost heavenly sphere which causes the other heavenly spheres to revolve ( R. fī imtināʿ wujūd misāḥah li-l-falak al-aqṣā al-mudīr MS S, Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 258: al-mudabbir ; i.e. ‘which governs the other spheres.’ li-l-aflāk ). 110. On the fact that the nature of the heavenly spheres differs from the natures of the four elements and is a fifth nature ( R. fī anna ṭabīʿat al-falak mukhālifah li-ṭabāʾiʿ al-ʿanāṣir al-arbaʿah wa-annahu ṭabīʿah khāmisah ). Cf. Rescher, Al-Kindī , 45, and title 70 above; Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 187–193. 111. On the manifestations of the celestial sphere ( R. fī ẓāhiriyyāt al-falak ). 112. On the outermost world ( R. fī l-ʿālam al-aqṣā ). 113. On the fact that the outermost body prostrates itself to its Creator ( R. fī sujūd al-jirm al-aqṣā li-Bāriʾihi ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 45; English translation in Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 173–186; French translation in Rashed &Jolivet, Œuvres Philosophiques et Scientifiques , II , 173–204. This treatise was apparently written for Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim. 114. An essay in refutation of the Manichaeans regarding the ten problems of the positions of the spheres ( R. fī l-radd ʿalā l-Manāniyyah fī l-ʿashr masāʾil fī mawḍūʿāt al-falak ). 115. On forms ( R. fī l-ṣuwar ). Or possibly on constellations ( ṣuwar al-kawākib ). 116. On the fact that it is impossible for the body of the world to be infinite ( R. fī annahu lā yumkinu an yakūna jirm al-ʿālam bi-lā-nihāyah ). Cf. Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 58–72. 117. On celestial optics ( R. fī l-manāẓir al-falakiyyah ). 118. On the impossibility of the outermost body being subject to change ( R. fī imtināʿ al-jirm al-aqṣā min al-istiḥālah ). 119. On Ptolemy’s astronomical art ( R. fī ṣināʿat Baṭlamiyūs al-falakiyyah ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 45. 120. On the finiteness of the body of the world ( R. fī tanāhī jirm al-ʿālam ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 45. Cf. Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 58–72. 121. On the quiddity of the celestial sphere and the concomitant azure colour which is experienced in the sky ( R. fī māʾiyyat al-falak wa-l-lawn al-lāzim al-lāzawardī al-maḥsūs min jihat al-samāʾ ). Cf. Rescher, Al-Kindī , 47; English translation in Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 139–143; for an English translation with Arabic edition, see Spies, ‘Al-Kindī’s treatise on the cause of the blue colour of the sky’. 122. On the quiddity of the body which, by its nature, acts as a substrate for colours derived from the four elements ( R. fī māʾiyyat al-jirm al-ḥāmil bi-ṭibāʿihi li-l-alwān min al-ʿanāṣir al-arbaʿah ). English translation in Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 136–139. 123. On the demonstration of the existence of a veiling body and the nature of light and darkness ( R. fī l-burhān ʿalā l-jism al-sātir wa-māʾiyyat al-aḍwāʾ wa-l-aẓlām ). 124. On data ( R. fī l-muʿṭayāt ). That is, the Δεδομένα ( Dedomena ) of Euclid. See Sezgin, GAS V , 116, 258. 125. On the arrangement of the heavenly spheres ( R. fī tarkīb al-aflāk ). 126. On the bodies which descend from a height and how some precede others ( R. fī l-ajrām al-hābiṭah min al-ʿuluww wa-sabq baʿḍihā baʿḍan ). 127. On the use of the instrument named the ‘compiler’ ( R. fī l-ʿamal bi-l-ālah al-musammāh al-jāmiʿah ). 128. On the quality of the retrograde motion of the planets ( R. fī kayfiyyat rujūʿ al-kawākib al-mutaḥayyirah ). MS B (Version 1) adds the title: ‘On the fact that there is no way to attain knowledge of Philosophy without knowledge of the mathematical sciences’ ( R. fī annahu lā sabīl ilā l-tafalsuf illā bi-ʿilm al-riyāḍiyyāt ). Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 372 adds at this point the title: On spiritual medicine ( K. al-Ṭibb al-rūḥānī ). 129. On Hippocratic medicine ( R. fī l-ṭibb al-Buqrāṭī ). 130. On lethal foods and drugs ( R. fī l-ghidhāʾ wa-l-dawāʾ al-muhlik ). 131. On vapours that cleanse the air of pestilence ( R. fī l-abkhirah al-muṣliḥah li-l-jaww min al-awbāʾ ). 132. On the drugs that cure painful flatulence ( R. fī l-adwiyah al-mushfiyah min al-rawāʾiḥ al-muʾdhiyah ). 133. On the method of purging with drugs and drawing out the humours ( R. fī kayfiyyat is′hāl al-adwiyah wa-injidhāb al-akhlāṭ ). 134. On the cause of expectoration of blood ( R. fī ʿillat nafth al-dam ). 135. On the regimen for healthy people ( R. fī tadbīr al-aṣiḥḥāʾ ). 136. On the treatment of poisons ( R. fī ashfiyat al-sumūm ). 137. On the causes of crises in acute diseases ( R. fī ʿillat al-baḥārīn li-l-amrāḍ al-ḥāddah ). 138. An essay identifying the principal organ of the human body and explaining intelligence ( R. fī tabyīn al-ʿuḍw al-raʾīs min jism al-insān wa-l-ibānah ʿan al-albāb ). 139. On the qualities of the brain ( R. fī kayfiyyat al-dimāgh ). 140. On the cause of leprosy and its treatment ( R. fī ʿillat al-judhām wa-ashfiyatihi ). 141. On treating those bitten by rabid dogs ( R. fī ʿilāj man ʿaḍḍahu al-kalb al-kalib ). 142. On the symptoms occuring due to phlegm and the cause of sudden death ( R. fī l-aʿrāḍ al-ḥādithah min al-balgham wa-ʿillat mawt al-fajʾah ). 143. On the pains of the stomach and of gout ( R. fī wajaʿ al-miʿdah wa-l-niqris ). 144. An epistle addressed to a man who complained to him of a disease in his belly and hands ( R. ilā rajul fī ʿillah shakāhā ilayhi fī baṭnihi wa-yadihi ). 145. On the types of fevers ( R. fī aqsām al-ḥummayāt ). 146. On treating sclerosis of the spleen evident from melancholic symptoms ( R. fī ʿilāj al-ṭiḥāl al-jāsī min al-aʿrāḍ al-sawdāwiyyah ). 147. On the bodies of animals when they decompose ( R. fī ajsād al-ḥayawān idhā fasadat ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Sayyid), 2/1:190 and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 372 add the title: ‘Epistle on the extent to which the art of medicine is useful’ ( R. Fī qadr manfaʿat ṣināʿat al-ṭibb ). 148. On regulating food ( R. fī tadbīr al-aṭʿimah ). 149. On making food without using foodstuffs ( R. fī ṣanʿat aṭʿimah min ghayr ʿanāṣirihā ). 150. On life ( R. fī l-ḥayāh ). 151. On tried and tested drugs ( K. al-Adwiyah al-mumtaḥanah ). 152. The medical formulary ( K. al-Aqrābādhīn ). 153. On the difference between insanity caused by satanic interferences and that caused by dyscrasia ( R. fī l-farq bayna al-junūn al-ʿāriḍ min mass al-shayāṭīn wa-bayna mā yakūnu min fasād al-akhlāṭ ). 154. On physiognomy ( R. fī l-firāsah ). 155. An essay explaining the cause of lethal hot winds known generally as pestilential disease ( R. fī īḍāḥ al-ʿillah fī l-samāʾim al-qātilah al-samāʾiyyah wa-huwa ʿalā l-maqāl al-muṭlaq al-wabāʾ ). 156. On the method for dispelling sorrows ( R. fī l-ḥīlah li-dafʿ al-aḥzān ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 45. For an introduction and English translation, see Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 245–266. 157. A summary of Galen’s Simple Drugs ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb al-Adwiyah al-mufradah li-Jālīnūs ). 158. An essay demonstrating the utility of medicine when the art of astronomy is used in conjunction with its indicators ( R. fī l-ibānah ʿan manfaʿat al-ṭibb idhā kānat ṣināʿat al-nujūm maqrūnah bi-dalāʾilihā ). 159. On speech impediments ( R. fī l-luthghah ). For an edition and Italian translation, see Celentano, Due scritti medici di al-Kindī , 37–52. 160. On prognosis by deduction via the heavenly bodies, arranged by questions ( R. fī taqdīm al-maʿrifah bi-l-istidlāl bi-l-ashkhāṣ al-ʿāliyah ʿalā l-masāʾil ). 161. An introductory essay on [stellar] judgements, arranged by questions ( R. fī mudkhal al-aḥkām ʿalā l-masāʾil ). 162–164. First, second, and third epistles on the art of [stellar] judgements using divisions ( Risālatuhu al-ūlā wa-l-thāniyah wa-l-thālithah ilā ṣināʿat al-aḥkām bi-taqāsīm ). 165. An essay foretelling the extent of the dominion of the Arabs, which is his epistle on the conjunction of the two inauspicious planets [i.e., Saturn and Mars] in the house of Cancer ( R. fī l-ikhbār ʿan kammiyyat mulk al-ʿArab wa-hiya risālatuhu fī iqtirān al-naḥisayn fī burj al-saraṭān ). Rescher, Al-Kindī , 45. 166. On the extent of the utility of favourable times ( R. fī qadr manfaʿat al-ikhtiyārāt ). 167. On the extent of the utility of the art of [stellar] judgements and on who deserves to be called an ‘astrologer’ ( R. fī qadr manfaʿat ṣināʿat al-aḥkām wa-man al-rajul al-musammā munajjiman bi-istiḥqāq ). 168. An abridged epistle on the limits of nativities ( Risālatuhu al-mukhtaṣarah fī ḥudūd al-mawālīd ). 169. On adjusting the years of nativities ( R. fī taḥwīl sinī l-mawālīd ). 170. On deducing events from solar eclipses ( R. fī l-istidlāl bi-l-kusūfāt ʿalā l-ḥawādith ). 171. An essay in refutation of the Manichaeans ( R. fī l-radd ʿalā l-Manāniyyah ). 172. An essay in refutation of the dualists ( R. fī l-radd ʿalā l-Thanawiyyah ). 173. An essay on guarding against the deception of the Sophists ( R. fī l-iḥtirās min khudʿ al-Sūfisṭāʾiyyah ). 174. An essay invalidating the questions of the heretics ( R. fī naqḍ masāʾil al-Mulḥidīn ). 175. An essay affirming the Messengers of God, upon whom be peace ( R. fī tathbīt al-Rusul ʿalayhim al-salām ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Sayyid), 2/1:190 adds the title: ‘Epistle on the true, first and complete agent and the secondary agent [referred to] metaphorically’ ( R. Fī l-fāʿil al-ḥaqq wa-l-awwal wa-l-tamm wa-l-fāʿil al-thānī bi-l-majāz ); whilst Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 372 reads: ‘Treatise on the confirmation of the true and first agent and the secondary agent [referred to] metaphorically’ ( R. Fī ithbāt al-fāʿil al-ḥaqq wa-l-awwal wa-l-fāʿil al-thānī bi-l-majāz ). 176. On human capacity to act and when this occurs ( R. fī l-istiṭāʿah wa-zamān kawnihā ). 177. An essay in refutation of those who state that bodies in the atmosphere have periods of stasis ( R. fī l-radd ʿalā man zaʿama anna li-l-ajrām fī huwiyyatihā fī l-jaww tawaqqufāt ). 178. On the error of those who state that between natural and accidental motion there is stasis ( R. fī buṭlān qawl man zaʿama anna bayna al-ḥarakah al-ṭabīʿiyyah wa-l-ʿaraḍiyyah sukūnan ). 179. On the incorrectness of the assumption that bodies when they first come into being are neither in motion nor static ( R. fī anna al-jism fī awwal ibdāʿihi lā-sākin wa-lā-mutaḥarrik ẓann bāṭil ). 180. On divine unity with exegetical material ( R. fī l-tawḥīd bi-tafsīrāt ). 181. On the error of those who state that particles (atoms) are indivisible ( R. fī buṭlān qawl man zaʿama anna juzʾan lā yatajazzaʾu ). 182. On the elements of bodies ( R. fī jawāhir al-ajsām ). 183. On the components of bodies ( R. fī awāʾil al-jism ). 184. On the diversity of religions regarding the unity of God and that they agree upon divine unity but all of them go against each other ( R. fī iftirāq al-milal fī l-tawḥīd wa-annahum mujmiʿūn ʿalā l-tawḥīd wa-kull qad khālafa ṣāḥibahu ). 185. On incarnation ( R. fī l-mutajassid ). Cf. McCarthy, al-Taṣānīf al-mansūbah ilā Faylasūf al-ʿArab , 30 no. 162: ‘possibly a polemic against Christians’ [and their doctrine of the incarnation]; Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 259, (Sayyid), 2/1:191 read: ‘On glorifying [God]’ ( R. fī l-Tamjīd ). 186. On demonstration ( R. fī l-burhān ). 187. A theological discourse with Ibn al-Rāwandī Ibn al-Rāwandī, that is Abū l-Husayn Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā ibn Isḥāq ibn al-Rāwandī (3rd–4th/9th–10th cent.), was a rationalist known for his heretical views. See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Rāwandī or al-Rēwendī’ (P. Kraus & G. Vagda); Stroumsa, Freethinkers of Medieval Islam . ( Kalām lahu maʿ Ibn al-Rāwandī fī l-tawḥīd ). 188. A discourse of his in which he refuted a certain theologian ( Kalām radda bihi ʿalā baʿḍ al-mutakallimīn ). 189. On the nature of that for which infinity is impossible, and that which may be said to be infinite, and in what way that may be said ( R. fī māʾiyyat mā lam yumkin lā-nihāyah lahu wa-mā alladhī yuqālu lā-nihāyah lahu wa-bi-ayy nawʿ yuqālu dhālik ). 190. An epistle to Muḥammad ibn al-Jahm Muḥammad ibn al-Jahm al-Barmakī (fl. 3rd/9th cent.), Muʿtazilite and high-ranking official under the Caliphs al-Maʾmūn and al-Muʿtaṣim, known as a philosopher. See EI 2 art. ‘Muḥammad b. al-D̲j̲ahm’ (G. Lecomte). explaining the unity of God, mighty and majestic is He, and on the finitude of the matter of the universe ( R. ilā Muḥammad ibn al-Jahm fī l-ibānah ʿan waḥdāniyyat Allāh ʿazza wa-jall wa-ʿan tanāhī jirm al-kull ). 191. On declaring others to be unbelievers or misguided ( R. fī l-ikfār wa-l-taḍlīl ). 192. On the fact that the human soul is a simple, imperishable substance which has agency over bodies ( R. fī anna al-nafs jawhar basīṭ ghayr dāthir muʾaththir fī l-ajsām ). 193. On what the soul recalls from when it was in the intelligible world before its existence in the sensory world ( R. fī-mā li-l-nafs dhikruhu wa-hiya fī ʿālam al-ʿaql qabla kawnihā fī ʿālam al-ḥiss ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 259; (Sayyid), 2/1:191 and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 373 add the title: ‘On the quiddity of man and its governing organ’ ( R. Fī māʾiyyat al-insān wa-l-ʿaḍww al-raʾīs minhu ). 194. On how the philosophers reached consensus about the symbols of love ( R. fī khabar ijtimāʿ al-falāsifah ʿalā l-rumūz al-ʿishqiyyah ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 259; (Sayyid), 2/1:191 and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 373 add the title: ‘On that which is remembered by the soul from when it was created in the rational world before its creation in the sensible world’ ( R. Fīmā li-l-nafs dhikrihi wa-hiya fī ʿālam al-ʿaql qabla kawnihā fī l-ʿālam al-ḥass ). 195. On the causes of sleep and visions, and commandments given to the soul ( R. fī ʿillat al-nawm wa-l-ruʾyā wa-mā tuʾmaru bihi al-nafs ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 259, (Sayyid), 2/1:191: ‘ and what is intimated to the soul ’ ( wa-mā turmazu bihi l-nafs ). 196. On the fact that human needs are intellectually permissible for them before they are prohibited ( R. fī anna mā bi-l-insān ilayhi ḥājah mubāḥ lahu fī l-ʿaql qabla an yuḥẓara ). 197. The greater treatise on governance ( Risālatuhu al-kubrā fī l-siyāsah ). 198. On facilitating the paths to virtue ( R. fī tas′hīl subul al-faḍāʾil ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 259, (Sayyid) 2/1:191 and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 374 add the title: ‘On dispelling sorrows’ ( R. Fī dafʿ al-aḥzān ). 199. On public governance ( R. fī siyāsat al-ʿāmmah ). 200. On ethics ( R. fī l-akhlāq ). 201. An essay encouraging virtue ( R. fī l-tanbīh ʿalā l-faḍāʾil ). 202. On anecdotes of the philosophers ( R. fī nawādir al-falāsifah ). 203. On the virtue of Socrates ( R. fī khabar faḍīlat Suqrāṭ ). 204. On the sayings of Socrates ( R. fī alfāẓ Suqrāṭ ). 205. On a dialogue which took place between Socrates and Aeschines ( R. fī muḥāwarah jarat bayna Suqrāṭ wa-Arsiwās ). cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 259, (Sayyid) 2/1:191: Arshījānus ; McCarthy, al-Taṣānīf al-mansūbah ilā Faylasūf al-ʿArab , quotes Flügel’s notes (ii:31 n. 76) where he proposes Aeschinus rather than Archigenes (Arshījānus). McCarthy gives other possibilities such as Arcesilaus or Archilaus. Cf. Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , lvii. 206. On the circumstances of the death of Socrates ( R. fī khabar mawt Suqrāṭ ). 207. On what took place between Socrates and the Ḥarrānians ( R. fī-mā jarā bayna Suqrāṭ wa-l-Ḥarrāniyyīn ). This work seems to have been an abridgement of Plato’s Apology of Socrates , in which the ‘Ḥarranians’ would be the Athenians; see Gutas, ‘Tradition arabe’, 851; and Endress, ‘Building the Library of Arabic Philosophy’, 333. 208. On the scope Or possibly simply On the Intellect . cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 259, (Sayyid) iii:192: fī khabar al-ʿaql . of the intellect ( R. fī ḥayyiz al-ʿaql ). 209. On the active proximate cause of generation and corruption in entities subject to corruption ( R. ʿan al-ʿillah al-fāʿilah al-qarībah li-l-kawn wa-l-fasād fī l-kāʾināt al-fāsidāt ). 210. On the cause of the opinion that fire, water, air, and earth are elements common to all entities subject to corruption, and that they, and other things, may be transformed one into the other ( R. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā qīla inna al-nār wa-l-hawāʾ wa-l-māʾ wa-l-arḍ ʿanāṣir tajmāʿu al-kāʾinah al-fāsidah wa-hiya wa-ghayruhā yastaḥīlu baʿḍuhā ilā baʿḍ ). 211. On the passage of time during which the powers of the four prime qualities are made manifest ( R. fī ikhtilāf al-azminah allatī taẓharu fīhā quwā l-kayfiyyāt al-arbaʿ al-ūlā ). 212. On temporal relations ( R. fī l-nisab al-zamāniyyah ). Cf. above Ch. 10.1.11 nos. 43, 119. This title occurs only in MS B, that is Version 1. 213. On the cause of the change in the year ( R. fī ʿillat ikhtilāf al-sanah ). 214. On the nature of time, the nature of eternity, moments in time and the present ( R. fī māʾiyyat al-zamān wa-māʾiyyat al-dahr wa-l-ḥīn wa-l-waqt ). 215. On what causes the higher reaches of the atmosphere to be cold and those nearer to the earth to be warm ( R. fī l-ʿillah allatī lahā yabrudu aʿlā l-jaww wa-yaskhanu mā qaruba min al-arḍ ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 260; (Sayyid), 2/1:192 adds the title: ‘On atmospheric phenomena’ ( R. Fī aḥdāth al-jaww ). 216. On the phenomenon which appears in the atmosphere and is called a star ( R. fī l-athar alladhī yaẓharu fī l-jaww wa-yusammā kawkaban ). This and the following two titles are on comets. MSS APSRB : On the Anwāʾ which appear in the atmosphere and is [sic] called a star ( R. fī l-anwāʾ allatī taẓharu fī l-jaww wa-tusammā kawkaban ). Corrected from Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 260, (Sayyid) 2/1:192, and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 374: On the phenomenon which appears in the atmosphere and is called a star ( fī l-athar alladhī yaẓharu fī l-jaww wa-yusammā kawkaban ). 217. On the star which appears and is observed for some days before it disappears ( R. fī l-kawkab alladhī ẓahara wa-raṣdihi ayyāman ḥattā idmaḥall ). 218. On comets ( R. fī l-kawkab dhī l-dhuʾābah ). 219. On the cause of the cold that arises towards the end of winter during the period called the ‘Days of the Old Woman’ ( R. fī l-ʿillah al-ḥādith bihā al-bard fī ākhar al-shitāʾ fī l-ibbān al-musammā ayyām al-ʿajūz ). 220. On the cause of the existence of fog and what brings it about ( R. fī ʿillat kawn al-ḍabāb wa-l-asbāb al-muḥdithah lahu ). 221. On the great phenomenon that was observed in the year 222 of the Hijrah [836–837] ( R. fī-mā ruṣida min al-athar al-ʿaẓīm fī sanat ithnatayn wa-ʿishrīn wa-miʾatayn li-l-hijrah ). The comet now known as Halley’s Comet came within an exceptionally close proximity to the earth in the year 837 and was observed in Iraq. See Cook, ‘A Survey of Muslim Material on Comets and Meteors’. 222. On supralunar phenomena ( R. fī l-āthār al-ʿulwiyyah ). 223. An epistle to his son Aḥmad on the differing inhabited areas of the terrestrial sphere, in which he explains the book On Habitations of Theodosius ( R. ilā ibnihi Aḥmad fī ikhtilāf mawāḍiʿ min kurat al-arḍ wa-hādhihi al-risālah sharaḥa fī-hā Kitāb al-Masākin li-Thāwdhūsiyūs ). Theodosius lived in the 2nd/1st cent. BC ; see Brill’s New Pauly , art. ‘Theodosius  I [ I  1]’ (M. Folkerts). For an edition of Qusṭā ibn Lūqā’s Arabic and Gerard of Cremona’s Medieval Latin versions of Theodosius’ book, see Theodosius, De habitationibus . For a short review, see Rashed, Theodosius’s On Habitations . 224. On the cause of winds inside the earth which bring about many earthquakes and sinkholes ( R. fī ʿillat ḥudūth al-riyāḥ fī bāṭin al-arḍ al-muḥdithah kathīr al-zalāzil wa-l-khusūf ). The word khusūf is often used to refer to a lunar eclipse. However, it is more likely to refer here to the idea of the ground caving in or giving way. Cf. the phrase khasafa bihi al-arḍ . 225. On the differing times of the year and their progress through four different seasons ( R. fī ʿillat ikhtilāf al-azmān fī l-sanah wa-intiqālihā bi-arbaʿat fuṣūl mukhtalifah ). 226. On determining the azimuth ( R. fī ʿamal al-samt ). 227. On the distances between the climes ( R. fī abʿād masāfāt al-aqālīm ). 228. On habitations ( R. fī l-masākin ). 229. The greater treatise on the inhabited zone ( Risālatuhu al-kubrā fī l-rubʿ al-maskūn ). 230. On accounts of the dimensions of bodies ( R. fī akhbār abʿād al-ajrām ). 231. On determining the distance between the centre of the moon and the earth ( R. fī istikhrāj buʿd markaz al-qamar min al-arḍ ). 232. On how he constructed an instrument for determining the distances of [celestial] bodies ( R. fī istikhrāj ālah ʿamilahā yastakhriju bihā abʿād al-ajrām ). 233. On how he constructed an instrument for determining the distance of visible objects ( R. fī ʿamal ālah yuʿrafu bihā buʿd al-muʿāyanāt ). 234. On determining the distance of mountain peaks ( R. fī maʿrifat abʿād qulal al-jibāl ). 235. An epistle on metaphysics addressed to Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Khurāsānī Not identified. explaining the finiteness of the world ( R. ilā Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Khurāsānī fī-mā baʿd al-tabīʿah wa-īḍāḥ tanāhī jirm al-ʿālam ). 236. On the secrets of prognostication ( R. fī asrār taqdimat al-maʿrifah ). 237. On the prognostication of events ( R. fī taqdimat al-maʿrifah bi-l-aḥdāth ). 238. On prognostication ( R. fī taqdimat al-khabar ). 239. On prognostication ( R. fī taqdimat al-akhbār ). 240. On prognostication through the indications of heavenly bodies ( R. fī taqdimat al-maʿrifah fī l-istidlāl bi-l-ashkhāṣ al-samāwiyyah ). 241. On types of gems and their simulacra ( R. fī anwāʿ al-jawāhir wa-l-ashbāh ). 242. An essay describing stones and gems and their sources, and those of good and bad quality and their values ( R. fī naʿt al-ḥijārah wa-l-jawāhir wa-maʿādinihā wa-jayyidihā wa-radīʾihā wa-athmānihā ). 243. On making panes of glass ( R. fī talwīḥ al-zujāj ). 244. On dyes used for colouring ( R. fī-mā yaṣbugh fa-yuʿṭī lawnan ). 245. On kinds of sharp implements and swords and the best kind of these and where they may be obtained ( R. fī anwāʿ al-ḥadīd wa-l-suyūf wa-jayyidihā wa-mawāḍiʿ intisābihā ). See Arabic edition, English translation and commentary in al-Kindī, Risālah fī jawāhir al-suyūf . 246. An epistle addressed to Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim bi-Allāh See above Ch. 10.1.3. on what may be put on sharp implements and swords so that they do not become blunt or dull ( R. ilā Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim bi-Allāh fī-mā yuṭraḥ ʿalā l-ḥadīd wa-l-suyūf ḥattā lā tatathallama wa-lā takill ). 247. On the domestic bird ( R. fī l-ṭāʾir al-insī ). 248. On breeding doves (?) ( R. fī tamzīj al-ḥamām ). Or perhaps more plausibly (but out of context with the preceding and succeeding entries) On oiling in the baths ( R. fī tamrīkh al-ḥammām ). Cf. McCarthy, al-Taṣānīf al-mansūbah ilā Faylasūf al-ʿArab , 37, no. 214. Casiri ( Bibliotheca Arabico-Hispana Escurialensis , i:356) translated De columbarun mistione, sive coitu ( R. fī tamzīj al-ḥamām ). 249. On incubating eggs (?) ( R. fī l-ṭarḥ ʿalā l-bayḍ ). 250. On types of date palm and their best varieties ( R. fī anwāʿ al-nakhl wa-karāʾimihi ). Cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 261, (Sayyid) 2/1:193: On bees ( al-naḥl ) and their best varieties . 251. On the manufacture of whistling kettles ( R. fī ʿamal al-qumqum al-ṣayyāḥ ). The example of the ‘whistling (or shrieking)’ kettle or boiler also found its way into medieval philosophical texts to demonstrate how sounds occur, or to prove or disprove rarefaction ( takhalkhul ). See, for example, Abū Rashīd al-Nīsābūrī, al-Masāʾil , 155–156; Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī, Sharḥ Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq , 211–213. 252. On perfumes and their types ( R. fī l-ʿiṭr wa-anwāʿihi ). 253. On the chemistry of perfumes ( R. fī kīmiyāʾ al-ʿiṭr ). 254. On names in riddles ( R. fī al-asmāʾ al-muʿammāh ). 255. An epistle warning against the ruses of the alchemists ( R. fī l-tanbīh ʿalā khudaʿ al-kīmīyāʾiyyīn ). 256. On the doubled images perceived in water ( R. fī l-atharayn al-maḥsūsayn fī l-māʾ ). 257. On the ebb and flow of the sea ( R. fī l-madd wa-l-jazr ). 258. On the fundaments of mechanics ( R. fī arkān al-ḥiyal ). Thus in Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 261, (Sayyid) 2/1:193. Our MSS read ‘On horses for riding ( arkāb al-khayl )’ (?). Ibn al-Qifṭī ends al-Kindī’s book-lists with the title: ‘On horses and veterinary science’; see below note to title no. 270. 259. His large treatise on bodies that sink in water ( Risālatuhu al-kabīrah fī l-ajrām al-ghāʾiṣah fī l-māʾ ). 260. On falling bodies ( R. fī l-ajrām al-hābiṭah ). 261. On the construction of burning mirrors ( R. fī ʿamal al-marāyā al-muḥriqah ). 262. On burning mirrors ( R. fī suʿār al-mirʾāh ). 263. On verbal expression, in three parts ( R. fī l-lafẓ wa-hiya thalāthat ajzāʾ awwal wa-thānin wa-thālith ). 264. On vermin, illustrated in an ingenious Ar. ʿuṭāridī ‘mercurial’. manner ( R. fī l-ḥasharāt muṣawwar ʿuṭāridī ). 265. An epistle in answer to fourteen questions on natural philosophy put to him by a contemporary ( R. fī jawāb arbaʿ ʿasharah masʾalah saʿalahu ʿanhā baʿḍ ikhwānihi ṭabīʿiyyāt ). 266. An epistle in answer to three questions he was asked ( R. fī jawāb thalāth masāʾil suʾila ʿanhā ). 267. On the story of someone who became a philosopher through being silent ( R. fī qiṣṣat al-mutafalsif bi-l-sukūt ). 268. On the cause of thunder and lightning, and snow and hail, and thunderbolts and rain ( R. fī ʿillat al-raʿd wa-l-barq wa-l-thalj wa-l-barad wa-l-ṣawāʿiq wa-l-maṭar ). 269. An essay showing the falsity and trickery of those who claim to manufacture gold and silver ( R. fī buṭlān daʿwā l-muddaʿīn ṣanʿat al-dhahab wa-l-fiḍḍah wa-khudaʿihim ). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 261; (Sayyid), 2/1:194 adds the title: ‘On loyalty ( R. Fī l-wafāʾ )’. 270. An essay showing that the differences of the heavenly bodies is not caused by the primary qualities, as is the case for things subject to generation and corruption, but is caused by the wisdom of the Creator of the Universe, mighty and majestic is He ( R. fī l-ibānah ann al-ikhtilāf alladhī fī l-ashkhāṣ al-ʿāliyah laysa ʿillat al-kayfiyyāt al-ūlā ka-mā hiya ʿillat dhālik fī llatī taḥt al-kawn wa-l-fasād wa-lākinna ʿillat dhālik ḥikmat mubdiʿ al-kull ʿazza wa-jall ). Al-Kindī’s book-list in Ibn al-Nadīm ends with this title. Ibn al-Qiftī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 376 adds a further title with which his book-list ends: ‘On horses and veterinary science’ ( R. Fī l-khayl wa-l-bayṭarah ). 271. On removing stains from clothes and suchlike ( R. fī qalʿ al-āthār min al-thiyāb wa-ghayrihā ). 272. An epistle to Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh For his entry see above Ch. 8.26. on the soul and its faculties ( R. ilā Yūḥannā ibn Māsawayh fī l-nafs wa-afʿālihā ). 273. On the triquetrum or parallactical instrument ( R. fī dhāt al-shuʿbatayn ). 274. On sensory knowledge ( R. fī ʿilm al-ḥawāss ). 275. On rhetoric ( R. fī ṣifat al-balāghah ). 276. On the utility of stellar judgements ( R. fī qadr al-manfaʿah bi-aḥkām al-nujūm ). 277. A discourse on the First Cause ( Kalām fī al-mubdiʿ al-awwal ). 278. On the manufacture of inks and inkpads ( R. fī ṣanʿat al-aḥbār wa-l-liyaq ). 279. An epistle to one of his contemporaries on the philosophers’ secrets regarding platonic solids ( R. ilā baʿḍ ikhwānihi fī rumūz al-falāsifah fī l-mujassamāt ). 280. On the constituents of inks ( R. fī ʿanāṣir al-aḥbār ). 281. On the five substances ( K. fī l-jawāhir al-khamsah ). See Rescher, Al-Kindī , 43; for an introduction and English translation (from the medieval Latin version, as the Arabic original is not extant), see Adamson & Pormann, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī , 312–321. 282. An epistle addressed to Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim See above Ch. 10.1.3. on the fact that Almighty God answers the prayers of those who pray to Him ( R. ilā Aḥmad ibn al-Muʿtaṣim fī taḥrīr ijābat al-duʿāʾ min Allāh ʿazza wa-jalla li-man daʿā bihi ). 283. On the celestial sphere and the stars and why the zodiac is divided into twelve divisions, and on them being designated auspicious and inauspicious, and on the zodiacal houses and their lords and their definitions, using clear geometrical demonstration ( R. fī al-falak wa-l-nujūm wa-lima qusimat dāʾirat falak al-burūj ʿalā ithnay ʿashr qisman wa-fī tasmiyatihim al-suʿūd wa-l-nuḥūs wa-buyūtihim wa-ashrāfihā wa-ḥudūdihā bi-l-burhān al-handasī al-ẓāhir ). MS R adds a marginal note: ‘The author left here an additional blank page, perhaps with the hope of adding other works that he had not mentioned.’ 10.2 Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. The fullest study in English is Rosenthal, Aḥmad b. aṭ-Tayyib as-Saraḫsî . See also: EI 2 art. ‘al-Sarak̲h̲sī’ (F. Rosenthal); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Aḥmad b. al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī’ (M. Navali, T. Binesh & J. Qasemi); Sezgin, GAS III , 259, V , 263, VI , 162–163, VII , 137, IX , 233. [10.2.1] Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Marwān ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī This nisbah is ‘of Sarakhs’, a town of northern Khorasan, see EI 2 art. ‘Sarak̲h̲s’ (C.E. Bosworth). was amongst those who were associated with Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī See previous biography, Ch. 10.1. as disciples, and with whom they studied and from whom they took knowledge. For more on al-Kindī’s circle of students and his teaching activities, see Brentjes, ‘Teaching the Sciences in Ninth-century Baghdad’; Biesterfeldt et al. ‘The Beginnings of Islamic Philosophy in the Tradition of al-Kindī’. Al-Sarakhsī was a master of a great many of the sciences of the Ancients and the Arabs, According to al-Khwārazmī writing in the last quarter of the 4th/10th century, the Arabic sciences are law ( fiqh ), theology ( kalām ), Arabic grammar ( naḥw ), secretaryship ( kitābah ), poetry and prosody ( shiʿr, ʿarūḍ ); the non-Arabic sciences being philosophy, logic, medicine, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, mechanics ( ḥiyal ), and alchemy. See al-Khwārazmī, Mafātīḥ al-ʿulūm , 5–6; EI 2 art. ‘ʿIlm’ (Ed.). and was knowledgeable and talented, eloquent, wrote beautifully, Cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 261, (Sayyid), 2/1:195, the text of which seems to better reflect IAU ’s Version 1, which does not have the following section on Hadith. and was singular in his knowledge of grammar and poetry. He was fine company, MS Sb: He was a fine poet. a good raconteur, and a rake and a wit. He had also learned prophetic traditions and transmitted some of them. [10.2.2.1] For example, Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī narrated, saying: ʿAmr ibn Muḥammad al-Nāqid See al-Dhahabī, Mīzān al-iʿtidāl , narrator no. 6442. related to me, saying: Sulaymān ibn ʿUbayd Allāh That is Abū Ayyūb Sulaymān ibn ʿUbayd Allāh al-Raqqī. See al-Bukhārī, al-Tārīkh al-kabīr , narrator no. 1843. informed me, from Baqiyyah ibn al-Walīd, See al-Dhahabī, Mīzān al-iʿtidāl , narrator no. ‮‭1250‬‬‎. from Muʿāwiyah ibn Yaḥyā, See al-Dhahabī, Mīzān al-iʿtidāl , narrator no. 8636. from ʿImrān the Short, See al-Dhahabī, Mīzān al-iʿtidāl , narrator no. ‮‭6313‬‬‎. from Anas ibn Mālik, Abū Ḥamzah Anas ibn Mālik (d. 93/712), a well-known companion and life-long servant of the Prophet and prolific source of traditions. See EI 2 art. ‘Anas b. Mālik’ (A.J. Wensinck & J. Robson); EI Three art. ‘Anas b. Mālik’ (G.H.A. Juynboll). who said: The Messenger of God, may God’s blessing and salutation be upon him, said: ‘When men suffice themselves with men and women suffice themselves with women then may destruction be upon them.’ For longer versions of this tradition, see al-Bayhaqī, al-Jāmiʿ li-shuʿab al-īmān , vii: 328, traditions nos. 5084, 5085, and 5086. [10.2.2.2] Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib also relates, from Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥārith, from Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Madāʾinī, See al-Dhahabī, Mīzān al-iʿtidāl , narrator no.‮‭5921‬‬‎. from ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak, See al-Dhahabī, Siyar , viii:379. from ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Abī Sālim, from Makḥūl, Makḥūl (d. 112–116/730–734). who said: The Prophet, may God’s blessing and salutation be upon him, said: ‘The most severely tormented of people on the Day of Resurrection are those who curse a prophet, the companions of a prophet, or the paragons ( Aʾimmah ) That is, Imams, or leaders of the Muslim community, and probably refers here to the Caliphs; see EI 2 art. ‘Imāma’ (W. Madelung). of the Muslims.’ [10.2.3.1] During the time of the Caliph al-Muʿtaḍid, That is, Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥah (r. 279–289/892–902), the sixteenth Abbasid Caliph and son of al-Muwaffaq; EI 2 art. ‘al-Muʿtaḍid Bi’llāh’ (H. Kennedy). Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib took charge of the government inspectorate ( ḥisbah ) For the ḥisbah and the office of the Muḥtasib , see EI 2 art. ‘Ḥisba’ (Cl. Cahen, M. Talbi, R. Mantran, A.K.S. Lambton & A.S. Bazmee Ansari). in Baghdad, having first been a teacher to al-Muʿtaḍid then his boon companion ( nadīm ) and one of his elect. The Caliph used to confide his secrets in him and ask his counsel in affairs of state. Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib, however, was more knowledgeable than he was intelligent, and it was his closeness to al-Muʿtaḍid that was the cause of the Caliph having him put to death, for the Caliph had confided in him a secret relating to al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh EI 2 art. ‘Wahb’ (C.E. Bosworth). and Badr, EI 2 art. ‘Badr al-Muʿtaḍidī’ (Ch. Pellat). the servant of al-Muʿtaḍid, but he divulged it and made it public through al-Qāsim’s [now famous] deception of him. For a comprehensive discussion of the possible causes of al-Sarakhsī’s downfall, see Rosenthal, Aḥmad b. aṭ-Tayyib as-Saraḫsî , 25–39. Al-Muʿtaḍid handed him over to al-Qāsim and Badr who confiscated his property and put him in prison ( maṭāmīr ). Ar. maṭāmīr (sing. maṭmūrah ): an underground storehouse for grain etc., prison. Cf. En. Mattamore. EI 2 art. ‘Maṭmūra’ (Ch. Pellat). Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , vii:5, says Aḥmad was beaten and taken to al-Muṭbaq, that is the main prison just outside the inner wall, on the southern side of the old round city of Baghdad. See Le Strange, Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate , 27, where, al-Maṭbaq. At the time when al-Muʿtaḍid went out to the conquest of Amida Ar. Āmid. Principal city of Diyarbakr, see EI 2 art. ‘Diyār Bakr’ (M. Canard, Cl. Cahen, Mükrimin H. Yinanç & J. Sourdel-Thomine). Al-Muʿtaḍid retook Amida in 286/899. and to fight Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Shaykh, EI 2 art. ‘ʿĪsā b. al-S̲h̲ayk̲h̲’ (M. Canard); EI 2 art. ‘S̲h̲aybān’ (Th. Bianquis). a group of Kharijites EI 2 art. ‘K̲h̲ārid̲j̲ites’ (G. Levi Della Vida); Encycl. Qurʾān art. ‘Khārijī’ (E. Francesca). and others escaped from prison but were captured by Muʾnis al-Faḥl the chief of police ( ṣāḥib al-shurṭah ) and al-Muʿtaḍid’s representative in the cities. Muʾnis al-Faḥl (the Stallion) also known as al-Khāzin (the Treasurer) served as a commander to a number of Abbasid Caliphs and died in 301/914. EI 2 art. ‘Muʾnis al-Faḥl’ (C.E. Bosworth). Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib remained where he was hoping that he would be saved by this but his remaining there was in fact the cause of his death. [10.2.3.2] Al-Muʿtaḍid ordered al-Qāsim to make a list of a group of people who should be put to death so that his mind could be relieved of them. Al-Qāsim did so and al-Muʿtaḍid signed their death warrants. Al-Qāsim subsequently added the name of Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib to the list and he was executed. Al-Muʿtaḍid enquired about him and al-Qāsim mentioned that he had been killed and brought out the warrant which the Caliph did not question. And so Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib went after having reached the heights of the heavens That is, achieved a lofty station with the Caliph and great renown. in the year […] There appears to be a lacuna here with the date ommitted. Cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 261–262, (Sayyid), 2/1:196; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 78. [10.2.3.3] Al-Muʿtaḍid’s arrest of Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib was in the year 283/896, and his death was in the month of Muḥarram of the year 286 [January–February 899]. [10.2.4] Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī wrote the following books: Cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 262, (Sayyid), 2/1:196–197; Rosenthal, Aḥmad b. aṭ-Tayyib as-Saraḫsî , 40–126; Sezgin, GAS III , 259, V , 263, VI , 162–163, VII , 137, IX , 233. See also: Moosa, ‘A new source on Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarak̲h̲sī’; Rosenthal, ‘Istanbul Materials for Al-Kindî and As-Saraḫsî.’ 1. An abridgement of Porphyry’s Isagoge ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Īsāghūjī li-Furfūriyūs ). This title is not mentioned by Ibn al-Nadīm. 2. An abridgement of The Categories ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Qāṭīghūriyās ). 3. An abridgement of On Interpretation ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Bārīmīniyās ). 4. An abridgement of The Prior Analytics ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Anūlūṭīqā al-Ūlā ). 5. An abridgement of The Posterior Analytics ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Anūlūṭīqā al-Thāniyah ). 6. The book of the soul ( K. al-Nafs ). 7. The large book of counterfeits and the art of government regulation ( K. al-Aghshāsh wa-ṣināʿat al-ḥisbah al-kabīr ). 8. The small book of counterfeit crafts and government inspection ( K. Ghishsh al-ṣināʿāt wa-l-ḥisbah al-ṣaghīr ). 9. The book of the recreation of the souls ( K. Nuzhat al-nufūs ). This was not published under his name. An alternative reading is bi-asrihi ‘it was not published as a complete work’; cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 262; (Sayyid), 2/1:197. 10. The book of entertainments and diversions and recreation for the absent-minded thinker: On singing and singers, boon companionship and conviviality, and all types of stories and anecdotes ( K. al-Lahw wa-l-malāhī wa-nuzhat al-mufakkir al-sāhī fī l-ghināʾ wa-l-mughannīn wa-l-munādamah wa-l-mujālasah wa-anwāʿ al-akhbār wa-l-mulaḥ ). This he composed for the Caliph. In this book of his, Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib says that he composed it having passed his sixty-first year. 11. The minor book on governance ( K. al-Siyāsah al-ṣaghīr ). 12. An introduction to astrology ( K. al-Mudkhal ilā ṣināʿat al-nujūm ). 13. The large book of music ( K. al-Mūsīqī al-kabīr ). In two discourses. It has no equal. 14. The small book of music ( K. al-Mūsīqī al-ṣaghīr ). 15. The book of routes and realms ( K. al-Masālik wa-l-mamālik ). 16. The book of arithmetic: on numbers and on reduction and balancing [i.e., algebra] ( K. al-Arithmāṭīqī fī l-aʿdād wa-l-jabr wa-l-muqābalah ). 17. An introduction to the art of medicine ( K. al-Mudkhal ilā ṣināʿat al-ṭibb ), in which he criticises Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq. For Ḥunayn, see entries in Ch. 8.29, and Ch. 9.2. 18. The book of questions ( K. al-Masāʾil ). 19. The book of the merits of Baghdad and its History ( K. Faḍāʾil Baghdādh wa-akhbārihā ). 20. The book of cookery ( K. al-Ṭabīkh ), composed according to the months and the days of the week, written for al-Muʿtaḍid. 21. Provisions for the traveller and the service of kings ( K. Zād al-musāfir wa-khidmat al-mulūk ). 22. A section from the book of the etiquette of kings ( M. min K. Adab al-mulūk ). For a discussion of a possible extant portion of this work, see Rosenthal, ‘As-Sarakhsī (?) on the Appropriate Behavior for Kings.’ 23. An introduction to the science of music ( K. al-Mudkhal ilā ʿilm al-mūsīqī ). 24. The book of companions and conviviality ( K. al-Julasāʾ wa-l-mujālasah ). 25. A treatise in answer to what he was asked about by Thābit ibn Qurrah ( R. fī jawāb Thābit ibn Qurrah fī-mā saʾala ʿanhu ). 26. On mild leprous conditions and freckles ( M. fī l-Bahaq wa-l-kalaf ). The tile in Ibn al-Naḍīm and Ibn al-Qifṭī is: On spots, and freckles ( M. fī l-Bahaq wa-l-kalaf ) ( Fihrist (Sayyid), 2/1:197; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 78). 27. On the Sceptics and their quaint beliefs ( R . fī l-Shākkīn wa-ṭarāʾif iʿtiqādihim ). Cf. title in the Fihrist (Sayyid), 2/1:197: On the poor [Flügel: ascetics] and the singular beliefs of the common people ( R. Fī l-masākin [Flügel: al-sālikīn ] wa-ṭarīf iʿtiqād al-ʿāmmah ). 28. The book of the benefits of mountains ( K. Manfaʿat al-jibāl ). 29. A treatise on the doctrines of the Sabians ( R . fī waṣf madhāhib al-Ṣābiʾīn ). 30. A book demonstrating that created things at the time of their creation are neither moving nor static ( K. fī ann al-mubdaʿāt fī ḥāl al-ibdāʿ lā mutaḥarrikah wa-lā sākinah ). The book-lists in Ibn al-Nadīm and Ibn al-Qifṭī end with this title. 31. On the nature of sleep and dreams ( K. fī māhiyyat al-nawm wa-l-ruʾyā ). 32. On the intellect ( K. fī l-ʿaql ). 33. On the oneness of God – the Exalted ( K. fī waḥdāniyyat Allāh taʿālā ). For a translation of a debate involving Ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarakhsī in which the unity of God is discussed, see Moosa, ‘A new source on Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Sarak̲h̲sī’, 22–24. 34. On the precepts of Pythagoras See Ch. 4.3.5 ( mawāʿiẓ ). ( K. fī waṣāyā Fīthāghūras ). 35. On the sayings of Socrates See Ch. 4.4 ( K. fī alfāẓ Suqrāṭ ). 36. On passionate love ( K. fī l-ʿishq ). See Rosenthal, ‘As-Saraḫsî on Love.’ 37. On the coldness of the ‘days of the old woman’ ( K. fī bard ayyām al-ʿajūz ). Five or seven days towards the end of winter, see e.g. Lane, Lexicon , 1961. 38. On the formation of fog ( K. fī kawn al-ḍabāb ). 39. On divination ( K. fī l-faʾl ). 40. On Grandmasters’ chess ( K . fī shaṭranj al-ʿāliyah ). 41. On ethics ( K. fī adab al-nafs ), written for al-Muʿtaḍid. 42. On the difference between Arabic grammar and [Greek] logic ( K. fī l-farq bayna naḥw al-ʿArab wa-l-manṭiq ). 43. A book demonstrating that the principles of philosophy are hierarchical ( K. fī anna arkān al-falsafah baʿḍuhā ʿalā baʿḍ ). This is entitled the Book of Completion ( K. al-Istīfāʾ ). 44. On atmospheric phenomena ( K. fī aḥdāth al-jaww ). 45. The refutation of Galen Perhaps the In primum movens immotum , Ch. 5.1.37 no. 125, on Aristotle’s Metaphysics , which attracted the refutation of Alexander of Aphrodisias (translation and edition of the Arabic version in Rescher & Marmura, Refutation of Galen ), and perhaps specifically in reference to the notion of ‘primary place’ in the Physics . On Primary Place ( K. al-Radd ʿalā Jālīnūs fī al-maḥall al-awwal ). 46. An epistle addressed to Ibn Thawābah Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Thawābah ibn Yūnus (d. 277/890–891). An orthodox jurist opposed to geometry. Patron of Ibn al-Rūmī. See Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 130; (Sayyid), 1/2:402. ( R. ilā Ibn Thawābah ). 47. On dyes that darken the hair and the like ( R. fī l-khiḍābāt al-musawwidah li-l-shaʿr wa-ghayr dhālik ). 48. A book demonstrating that particles are infinitely divisible ( K. fī ann al-juzʾ yanqasim ilā mā lā nihāyah lahu ). 49. On ethics ( K. fī akhlāq al-nafs ). 50. The human mode of life ( K. Sīrat al-insān ). 51. A book written to one of his friends on the general principles of the art of dialectics according to the doctrines of Aristotle Probably the Topics ; see Ch. 4.6.5.1. ( K. ilā baʿḍ ikhwānihi fī l-qawānīn al-ʿāmmah al-ūlā fī l-ṣināʿah al-diyāliqṭīqiyyah ay al-jadaliyyah ʿalā madhhab Arisṭū ). 52. An abridgement of Aristotle’s Sophistical Refutations See Ch. 4.6.13.1 no. 34; cf. Ch. 4.6.4.3 and Ch. 5.1. ( Ikhtiṣār K. Sūfisṭīqā li-Arisṭū ). 53. The book of songstresses ( K. al-Qiyān ). MS R adds the marginal annotation: ‘The author left a blank space of approximately a page’. 10.3 Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Qurrah al-Ḥarrānī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Rashed (ed.), Thābit ibn Qurra , published in 2009 provides the best introduction and supplement to earlier bio-bibliographies such as: EI 2 art. ‘T̲h̲ābit b. Ḳurra’ (R. Rashed & R. Morelon); Sezgin, GAS III , 260–263, V , 264–272, VI , 163–170, VII , 151–152, 269–271. See also: Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy , art. ‘Thābit ibn Qurra’ (D.C. Reisman). [10.3.1] Thābit ibn Qurrah was one of the Sabians EI 2 art. ‘Ṣābiʾ’ (F.C. de Blois). who lived at Ḥarrān. EI 2 art. ‘Ḥarrān’ (G. Fehérvári); Pingree, ‘The Ṣābians of Ḥarrān and the Classical Tradition’. It is said that the Sabians are related to Ṣāb, that is Ṭāṭ the son of the prophet Idrīs, EI 2 art. ‘Idrīs’ (G. Vajda). A prophetic figure mentioned in the Qur’an, and variously identified with the Biblical Enoch, Elijah, and even Hermes. It is said that the name Idrīs is derived from the Arabic root d-r-s , to study books, and that he discovered various arts such as writing and sewing, and that God taught him astrology, arithmetic, and astronomy. See, for example: al-Ṭabrisī, Majmaʿ al-bayān , vi:329. may salutations be upon him. Cf. Bayḍāwī, Niẓām al-Tawārīkh , 9, where the author notes that Methuselah had a son named Ṣābī from whom the Sabians take their name. [10.3.2.1] This particular Thābit is Thābit ibn Qurrah ibn Marwān ibn Thābit ibn Karāyā ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Karāyā ibn Marīnūs MS A also gives Mārīnāsūs. ibn Sālābūnūs. [10.3.2.2] Thābit ibn Qurrah was a money-changer at Ḥarrān. Then Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir (d. 259/873), eldest of the Banū Mūsā, great patrons and sponsors of intellectual endeavour in 3rd/9th century Baghdad, as well as being scholars in their own right. See brief entry above Ch. 9.40; Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Banū Mūsā’ (H.M. Hamedani and J. Esots); EI 2 art. ‘Mūsā, Banū’ (D.R. Hill). took him as a companion when he left the Byzantine lands because he thought him to be eloquent. [10.3.2.3] It is said that Thābit was introduced to Muḥammad ibn Mūsā and was educated in his house and that Muḥammad ibn Mūsā felt obliged towards Thābit so he presented him to the Caliph al-Muʿtaḍid That is, Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥah (r. 279–289/892–902), the sixteenth Abbasid Caliph and son of al-Muwaffaq; see EI 2 art. ‘al-Muʿtaḍid Bi’llāh’ (H. Kennedy). and facilitated his association with the astrologers. Thābit was the first of the Sabians to attain a high rank in Baghdad and at the Caliph’s court. Subsections 10.3.2.1 to 10.3.2.3 above are from Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 272; (Sayyid), 2/1:227–228, with slight differences and omissions. For the influence of the Sabians, see Richter-Bernburg, ‘Thābit ibn Qurra and Ibrāhīm ibn Zahrūn’. See also a useful genealogical table of Sabian families in EI 2 art. ‘Ṣābiʾ’ (F.C. de Blois). [10.3.3] In his day no other was the equal of Thābit ibn Qurrah in the art of medicine nor in any other branch of philosophy. He authored many works known for their good quality, and in addition, a great many of his descendants and relatives rivalled him in their fine output and skill in the sciences. [10.3.4] Thābit also made some fine observations of the sun which he undertook in Baghdad and collected in a book in which he explained his ideas regarding the solar year, his observations of the locus of the sun’s apogee, the length of the solar year, Cf. Thābit ibn Qurrah, Three treatises . See book-list below at 10.14 no. 65. the extent of the sun’s movement, and the form of the sun’s equation. This paragraph is found in Ṣāʿid al-Andalusī, Tabaqāt (Cheikho), 37. The sun’s equation ( taʿdīl al-shams ) is the solar equation – that is, the equation, or correction, applied to the mean position to derive the true position. It is the Arabic equivalent of the Latin technical term aequatio . [10.3.5] He was a good translator into Arabic and used beautiful expressions, and had superb knowledge of Syriac and of other languages. [10.3.6] Thābit ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah See below, Ch. 10.5. says: When al-Muwaffaq That is, Abū Aḥmad Ṭalḥah ibn Jaʿfar (d. 278/891), son of the tenth Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 232–247/847–861) and governing regent at the time of his brother the (nominal) Caliph al-Muʿtamid (256–279/870–892). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muwaffaḳ’ (H. Kennedy). became displeased with his son Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Allāh he kept him under arrest in the house of Ismāʿīl ibn Bulbul Abū Ṣaqr Ismāʿīl ibn Bulbul al-Wazīr (d. 278/892), vizier to Caliph al-Muʿtamid and regent al-Muwaffaq; EI 2 art. ‘Ismāʿīl b. Bulbul’ (D. Sourdel). where Aḥmad al-Ḥājib [the Chamberlain] Possibly Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn al-Furāt (d. 312/924), who had recently entered the service of Ibn Bulbul. was put in charge of him. Al-Muʿtaḍid was placed under house arrest in the year 275/889. Ismāʿīl ibn Bulbul approached Thābit ibn Qurrah so that he might visit Abū l-ʿAbbās [al-Muʿtaḍid] and keep him company. ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aslam remained constantly with Abū l-ʿAbbās who enjoyed Thābit ibn Qurrah’s company immensely. Thābit used to visit him in his confinement three times every day and converse with him and console him and teach him about the lives of the philosophers and about geometry and astronomy and the like. Abū l-ʿAbbās was struck with Thābit and his situation became pleasant because of him. When he emerged from house arrest he said to Badr, his servant, See EI 2 art. ‘Badr al-Muʿtaḍidī’ (Ch. Pellat). ‘Badr, after you, which man has benefitted me most?’ Badr said: ‘Who would it be, master?’ He replied: ‘Thābit ibn Qurrah.’ When Abū l-ʿAbbās [al-Muʿtaḍid] became Caliph he endowed Thābit with great estates, and he often used to let him sit with him in the presence of the élite and the commoners alike; and the emir Badr and the vizier would remain standing while Thābit would be sitting next to the Caliph. [10.3.7] Abū Isḥāq the Sabian scribe See EI 2 art. ‘Ṣābiʾ’ (F.C. de Blois). says: Thābit was once walking with al-Muʿtaḍid in al-Firdaws, which was a garden in the Caliph’s palace intended for exercise, For the palaces of al-Muʿtaḍid, including Firdaws, see Le Strange, Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate , 250–252, (where Firdûs). when al-Muʿtaḍid leant on the arm of Thābit and they walked together. Suddenly, al-Muʿtaḍid forcefully wrested his arm from Thābit’s arm at which Thābit took fright as al-Muʿtaḍid was very fearsome. When al-Muʿtaḍid wrested his arm from Thābit’s arm, he said: O Abū l-Ḥasan, (in private he would use his agnomen ( kunyah ) and in public his given name), I absent-mindedly put my arm on your arm and leant upon it and this is not right, for the learned ( ʿulamāʾ ) should be uppermost and none should be higher than they. Cf. similar anecdotes in al-Bayhaqī, Tatimmah , 6–7; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ (1993) , v:2332 (web-pagination). [10.3.8] Transcribed from the Book of Metonyms ( K. al-Kināyāt ) of the Judge Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Jurjānī, Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Jurjānī (d. 482/1089), Judge and teacher at Basra. For scant details of his life see al-Jurjānī, Kināyāt , 7–11. See also GAL , I , 288, S. I , 505. The full title of the book is The Metonyms of the Lettered and the Allusions of the Eloquent ( K. Kināyāt al-udabāʾ wa-ishārāt al-bulaghāʾ ). who said: Abū l-Ḥasan Hilāl ibn al-Muḥassin ibn Ibrāhīm See EI Three art. ‘Hilāl al-Ṣābiʾ’ (L. Osti). related to me, saying: My grandfather Abū Isḥāq the Sabian EI 2 art. ‘Ṣābiʾ’ (F.C. de Blois). related to me, saying: My paternal uncle Abū l-Ḥusayn Thābit ibn Ibrāhīm EI 2 art. ‘Ṣābiʾ’ (F.C. de Blois). related to me, saying: Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsā al-Nawbakhtī Prominent Imamite scholar and translator (d. 300–310/912–922); see EI 2 art. ‘al-Nawbak̲h̲tī’ (J.L. Kraemer). For the family Nawbakht, see EI 2 art. ‘Nawbak̲h̲t’ (L. Massignon). related to me, saying: I asked Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Qurrah a certain question in public and he declined to answer it in the presence of others. I was still young and he dissuaded me from getting an answer, so I said quoting the following lines: Metre: ṭawīl . The lines are by Majnūn Laylā; see al-Iṣfahānī, Aghānī , ii:49, 73, Majnūn Laylā, Dīwān , 89–90. O, why is it that Laylā is not seen at my bedside at night, and that no bird brings her to me? The bird is an auspicious omen auguring her coming. Indeed, the speechless birds, if they stirred, would bring me Laylā; but there is nobody who stirs up the birds. Auguries are derived from the way birds fly after they have been stirred. The next day I met him in the street and walked with him. He answered my question fully, and said: ‘You stirred up the birds, Abū Muḥammad!’ I was ashamed and I apologised to him, saying: ‘Master, I swear I was not referring to you with these verses.’ This entire anecdote including the verses is to be found in al-Jurjānī, Kināyāt , 323. [10.3.9] With regard to Thābit’s wonderful medical treatments, Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Sinān See below, Ch. 10.5. relates: One of my ancestors related to me that one day when my grandfather Thābit ibn Qurrah was passing by a shop on his way to the palace of the Caliph he heard a shrieking and wailing. He said: ‘The butcher who had this shop has died!?’ Amazed at his words, the people said, ‘Yes master, by God, suddenly last night!’ Thābit said: ‘He has not died. Take me to him.’ They took him to the house and he asked the women to stop slapping themselves and shrieking and asked them instead to prepare some food suitable for a convalescent. Then he indicated to one of the servants to strike the butcher on his ankles with a cane, while he put his hand on his pulse point. The boy continued to strike his ankles until Thābit told him to stop. Then he called for a cup and brought out from his sleeve a handkerchief containing a drug which he mixed with a little water in the cup. When he opened the butcher’s mouth for him to drink the butcher swallowed the drug. At this, shouts and yells to the effect that the physician had revived the dead man rang out in the house and in the street. Thābit barred the doors and made them secure. The butcher opened his eyes and Thābit fed him the convalescent food, sat him up and sat beside him for a time. When the Caliph’s men came calling for him he left with them and there was a great tumult and people were all about him running to and fro until he entered the Caliph’s palace. When he came before the Caliph, the Caliph said to him: ‘Thābit, what is this Christ-like act of yours I am hearing about?’ He said: ‘Master, I used to pass by this butcher and noticed him slicing up liver, pouring salt on it and eating it. At first I was disgusted at this, then I realised that he would suffer a stroke Saktah , according to Ibn Hindū (d. 423/1032) ‘occurs when there is loss of sensation and movement caused by an excess of blood or a cold thick humour filing the ventricles of the brain, thus preventing the passage of the psychic pneuma and causing the person to look as though he is asleep, although he is not’; Ibn Hindū, Miftāḥ (Tibi), 71. so I began to observe him and when I knew what would be his fate I compounded a drug for the stroke which I kept with me at all times. When I passed by today and heard the shrieks and I asked whether the butcher had died, the people said yes, he died suddenly last night. I knew then that he had suffered the stroke. When I went to him I found he had no pulse so I struck his ankles until the movement of his pulse returned and I made him drink the drug and then he opened his eyes. Afterwards I fed him a light dish. Tonight he will eat a loaf of bread and some francolin ( durrāj ), A small bird of the partridge family. and tomorrow he will emerge from his house.’ For several other anecdotes relating to Thābit ibn Qurrah, see Dunlop, Ṣiwān al-ḥikmah , 251–254. [10.3.10] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that Thābit ibn Qurrah’s birth was in the year 211 [826] at Ḥarrān, and he died on Thursday the twenty-sixth of Ṣafar in the year 288 [19th February 901] at the age of seventy-seven [lunar] years. [10.3.11] Thābit ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah See below, Ch. 10.5. said: There was a firm friendship between Abū Aḥmad Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā al-Munajjim al-Nadīm Abū Aḥmad Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā al-Munajjim al-Nadīm (241–300/855–912), was a close companion to both al-Muwaffaq and al-Muʿtaḍid. See EI 2 art. ‘Munad̲j̲d̲j̲im’ (M. Fleischhammer). and my grandfather Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Qurrah, may the mercy of God be upon him. When my grandfather died in the year 288/901, Abū Aḥmad elegized him in these verses: Metre: ṭawīl . See Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 122 (lines 1–4, 6, 8–10); al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , x:466 (lines 1, 3, 6, 17–18); Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:227 (lines 3, 6, 8, 11–14, 16, 19). Ah, everything but God is mortal. Someone who has gone to foreign parts may be expected to return, but he who has died is gone for ever. I see that those who have gone from us, after having pitched their tents with us, are like travellers who lodge on earth, coming in the evening and spending the night. We announce the death of all the philosophical sciences: their light was extinguished when they said, ‘Thābit is dead!’ Those who practise them are dismayed because of losing him; with him a firm ( thābit ) cornerstone of science has gone. Whenever they went astray they would be guided on their path by someone expert in giving a decisive judgement, unearthing the truth. When death came to him his medical knowledge did not avail, nothing that could speak nor anything dumb of what he possessed. The suddenness of his demise did not let him enjoy wealth; Many a livelihood arrives and is lost. If it were possible for death to be dispelled, brave protectors would have defended him against it, Trusted friends, who loved him sincerely; but there is no one who can turn what God decrees. Abū Ḥasan, do not go far! An old formula in elegies. All of us are in shock because of your death, crushed by grief. Can I ever hope that the truth about any uncertainty will be revealed, now that your body is buried and your voice silenced? Your fine exposition would dispel blindness; when you were speaking every loquacious person was silent. It was as if you, when asked a question, were scooping from a sea (of knowledge), and, if asked to begin speaking, were hewing from a rock. Not a single person would seek me in matters of knowledge who poured out the vessel of knowledge, after your death. So many loving friends have benefited from you, while people other than you who tried to surpass you would stumble. I am surprised that on an Earth who made you disappear there would not forever be established ( li-yathbuta ) a Thābit like you. You refined yourself so that nobody could hate you; when death murdered you there was no who gloated. You excelled to the point that there was no one who could deny your merit except a slandering liar. Gone is the beacon of science, who was sufficient; now none remain but erring, blundering people. [10.3.12] One of the students of Thābit ibn Qurrah was ʿĪsā ibn Usayd al-Naṣrānī. Abū Mūsā ʿĪsā ibn Usayd al-Naṣrānī (the Christian). Mentioned in Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 272; (Tajaddud), 332, where Usayyid, whilst Sayyid edition reads Usayd (2/1:229). A rare manuscript in the British Library dated 639/1242 contains part of these Questions and also gives the form of the name as ‘Usayyid’; see BL Add MS  7473, fols. 12 v –16 v . Cureton, Catalogus , ii:205, reads ‘Asad’. Thābit used to give him precedence and honour him. ʿĪsā ibn Usayd translated from Syriac to Arabic under the tutelage of Thābit and a book of his is extant named The Book of Thābit’s Answers to the Questions of ʿĪsā ibn Usayd ( Jawābāt Thābit li-Masāʾil ʿĪsā ibn Usayd ). This paragraph from Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 272; (Sayyid), 2/1:229. Part of this treatise is still extant and has been edited. See book-list below, Ch. 10.13 no. 85. [10.3.13] Among the sayings of Thābit ibn Qurrah are: 1. There is nothing more harmful for the older man than to have a skilful cook and a beautiful young servant girl since he will take an excess of food and become ill, and will engage in sexual intercourse to excess and become senile. This saying is also found in Bayhaqī, Tatimmah , 7. 2. The repose of the body is in minimum food, and the repose of the soul is in having few sins, the repose of the heart is in having few concerns, and the repose of the tongue is in keeping speech to a minimum. [10.3.14] Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Qurrah al-Ḥarrānī wrote the following books: Cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Sayyid), 228. See Sezgin, GAS III , 260–263, V , 264–272, VI , 163–170, VII , 151–152, 269–271; Ullmann, Medizin , 123–124; Rashed (ed.), Thābit ibn Qurra ; Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales i:139–673; Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie ; Morelon, ‘Le Corpus Des Manuscrits Arabes Des Oeuvres D’ astronomie de Thābit b. Qurra’; Sezgin, The Banu Musa and Thabit ibn Qurra: texts and studies ; Savage-Smith, NCAM  – 1 , entries 24, 25 (two Galenic summaries), and 119, a treatise on therapeutics The Meadow: On Medicine ( K. al-Rawḍah fī l-Ṭibb ). 1. On the causes of the formation of mountains ( K. fī sabab kawn al-jibāl ). 2. Medical questions ( Masāʾiluhu al-ṭibbiyyah ). 3. On the pulse ( K. fī l-nabḍ ). 4. On joint pain and gout ( K. fī wajaʿ al-mafāṣil wa-l-niqris ). 5. A summary of [Aristotle’s] On Interpretation [ De interpretatione ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb Bārīmīniyās ). 6. A summary of [Aristotle’s] Prior Analytics [ Analytica priora ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb Anūlūṭīqā al-ūlā ). 7. An abridgement of logic ( Ikhtiṣār al-manṭiq ). 8. Rarities preserved from [Aristotle’s] Topics [ Topica ] ( Nawādir maḥfūẓah min Ṭūbīqā ). 9. On the reason for the salinity of seawater ( K. fī l-sabab alladhī min ajlihi juʿilat miyāh al-baḥr māliḥatan ). 10. An abridgement of [Aristotle’s] Metaphysics [ Metaphysica ] ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Mā baʿd al-Ṭabīʿah ). Apparently written for the vizier Abū l-Ḥasan al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh. For Arabic text, English translation, and commentary, see Rashed, Thābit ibn Qurra , 715–776. 11. The author’s questions promoting study of the sciences ( Masāʾiluhu al-mushawwiqah ilā l-ʿulūm ). 12. On the fallacies of the Sophists ( K. fī aghālīṭ al-Sufisṭāʾiyyīn ). 13. On the order of the sciences ( K. fī marātib al-ʿulūm ). 14. A refutation of those who say that the soul is a temperament ( K. fī l-radd ʿalā man qāla inn al-nafs mizāj ). 15. A summary of Galen’s book On Simple Drugs [ De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis et facultatibus ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb al-Adwiyah al-mufradah li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 78. 16. A summary of Galen’s book On Black Bile [ De atra bile ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb al-Mirrah al-sawdāʾ li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 31. 17. A summary of Galen’s On Bad Mixture [ De inaequali intemperie ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb Sūʾ al-mizāj li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 58. 18. A summary of Galen’s book On Acute Diseases [ De acutorum victu ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb al-Amrāḍ al-ḥāddah li-Jālīnūs ). See Ch. 5.1.37 no. 78 and note. 19. A summary of Galen’s book On Abundance [ De plenitudine ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb al-Kathrah [= M. fī l-imtilāʾ ] li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 53. For this variant title, see Ch. 5.1.37.1, Ch. 14.22.4.4 no. 44.26, and Ch. 14.25.9 no. 45. 20. A summary of Galen’s book On the Anatomy of the Womb [ De uteri dissectione ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb Tashrīḥ al-raḥim li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 16. 21. A summary of Galen’s book On Births at Seven Months [ De septimestri partu ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb Jālīnūs fī l-mawlūdīn li-sabʿat ashhur ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 323. See Weisser, ‘Die hippokratische Lehre von den Siebenmonatskindern bei Galen und Tābit ibn Qurra ’, and, by the same author and including Arabic text, ‘Thābit ibn Qurra’s epitome of Galen’s book on seven-month children’; also: Denooz, Transmission de l’ art médical de la Grèce à l’ Islam . 22. A summary of Galen’s opinions from his book promoting the art of medicine ( Jawāmiʿ mā qālahu Jālīnūs fī kitābihi fī tashrīf ṣināʿat al-ṭibb ). Probably Ars medica : Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 7; perhaps the Adhortatio , Fichtner no. 1, and see Ch. 5.1.37 no. 110 with note. 23. On types of diseases ( Kitāb Aṣnāf al-amrāḍ ). 24. A book explaining The Almagest ( K. Tas′hīl al-Majisṭī ). For Arabic text and French translation, see Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie , 1–17. 25. An introduction to The Almagest ( K. al-Mudkhal ilā l-Majisṭī ). 26. An extensive book explaining The Almagest ( Kitāb kabīr fī tas′hīl al-Majisṭī ). Unfinished, but it is his finest book on the subject. 27. On the pauses in the stasis which occurs between the two opposing movements of the arteries ( K. fī l-waqafāt allatī fī l-sukūn alladhī bayna ḥarakatay al-sharayān al-mutaḍāddatayn ). In two chapters. He composed this book in Syriac as he alludes in it to a refutation of al-Kindī. A student of his known as ʿĪsā ibn Usayd al-Naṣrānī translated it into Arabic which Thābit revised. Others have mentioned that the translator of this book was Ḥubaysh ibn al-Ḥasan al-Aʿsam See his entry Ch. 9.4. but this is an error. Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥusayn ibn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm known as Ibn al-Kurnayb refuted this book after Thābit’s death, but what he said is of no benefit or avail. After Thābit had composed this book he sent it to Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn who approved of it immensely and wrote in his own hand on the last page commending Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit and praying for him and applauding him. 28. A summary of Galen’s book On Phlebotomy [ De venae sectione ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb al-Faṣd li-Jālīnūs ). The K. al-Faṣd was a conflation of three works, Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , nos. 71, 72, 73. Cf. Ch. 5.1.37 title no. 71 with note. 29. A summary of Galen’s Commentary on Hippocates’ Book of Airs and Waters and Countries [ In Hippocratis de aere aquis licis librum commentarii ] ( Jawāmiʿ tafsīr Jālīnūs li-kitāb Ibuqrāṭ fī l-ahwiyah wa-l-miyāh wa-l-buldān ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 382. 30. On joint pain and gout ( K. fī wajaʿ al-mafāṣil wa-l-niqris ). In one chapter. 31. On using the celestial globe ( K. fī l-ʿamal bi-l-kurah ). The placement of a treatise on the celestial globe amongst medical items is curious and suggests it is an error. 32. On the stones which occur in the kidneys and the bladder ( K. fī l-ḥaṣā al-mutawallid fī l-kulā wa-l-mathānah ). 33. On the whiteness appearing on the body ( K. fī l-bayāḍ alladhī yaẓharu fī l-badan ). 34. On how the physician should question patients ( K. fī musāʾalat al-ṭabīb li-l-marīḍ ). 35. On different types of poor constitution ( K. fī sūʾ al-mizāj al-mukhtalif ). 36. On the regimen for acute diseases ( K. fī tadbīr al-amrāḍ al-ḥāddah ). 37. On smallpox and measles ( R. fī l-judarī wa-l-ḥaṣbah ). 38. An abridgement of Galen’s Small Book of the Pulse [ De pulsibus ad tirones ] ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb al-Nabḍ al-ṣaghīr li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 61. 39. On cylindrical sections and their planes ( K. fī qiṭʿ al-usṭuwānah wa-basīṭihā ). For Arabic text, French translation, and study, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales I , 458–674. See also: Karpova & Rosenfeld, ‘The treatise of Thābit ibn Qurra on sections of a cylinder, and on its surface’. 40. On music ( K. fī l-mūsīqī ). 41. An epistle to ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā al-Munajjim [the astrologer] on chapters on the science of music which he ordered him to set down ( R. ilā ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā al-Munajjim fī-mā amara bi-ithbātihi min abwāb ʿilm al-mūsīqī ). 42. An epistle to one of his contemporaries in answer to his questions on music ( R. ilā baʿḍ ikhwānihi fī jawāb mā saʾalahu ʿanhu min umūr al-mūsīqī ). 43. On transversals ( K. fī aʿmāl wa-masāʾil idhā waqaʿa khaṭṭ mustaqīm ʿalā khaṭṭayn ). Cf. Text and French translation in Rashed, Thābit ibn Qurra , 64–73. 44. Another treatise on transversals ( Maqālah ukhrā fī dhālik ). 45. On right-angled triangles ( K. fī l-muthallath al-qāʾim al-zawāyā ). 46. On amicable numbers ( K. fī l-aʿdād al-mutaḥābbah ). For an Arabic edition and French translation and study, See Rashed, Thabit ibn Qurra , 77–151. See also: Hogendijk, ‘Amicable numbers’; Brentjes, ‘Notes on Thābit ibn Qurrah and his rule for amicable numbers’. 47. On the sector figure ( K. fī l-shakl al-qiṭāʿ ). For a study and French translation, see Rashed, Thābit ibn Qurra , 335–390, together with a Latin version, 537–597. See also: Lorch, Risālat fī al-šakl al-qiṭāʿ , and Lorch, On the sector-figure . 48. On the movement of the spheres ( K. fī ḥarakat al-falak ). 49. A compendium of his known as The Treasure House . This he composed for his son Sinān ibn Thābit ( Kunnāshuhu al-maʿrūf bi-l-Dhakhīrah ). For an Arabic edition published in 1998, see Thābit ibn Qurrah, al-Dhakhīrah . 50. His answer to a letter from Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib ( Jawābuhu li-risālat Aḥmad ibn al-Ṭayyib ilayhi ). That is, al-Sarakhsī, see previous entry Ch. 10.2. 51. On dealing with figures of syllogism ( K. fī l-taṣarruf fī ashkāl al-qiyās ). 52. On the composition of the spheres and their nature, number, and the number of the movements of their directions, the stars therein and the extent of their courses and the directions towards which they move ( K. fī tarkīb al-aflāk wa-khilqatihā wa-ʿadadihā wa-ʿadad ḥarakāt al-jihāt lahā wa-l-kawākib fī-hā wa-mablagh sayrihā wa-l-jihāt allatī tataḥarraku ilayhā ). For Arabic text and French translation, see Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie , 18–25. 53. A summary of The [Book of] the Inhabited World ( K. fī jawāmiʿ al-Maskūnah ). 54. On the balance ( K. fī l-qarasṭiyūn ). For Arabic text, French translation, and commentary, see Jaouiche, Le Livre du Qarasṭūn ; See also: Bancel, ‘Le traité sur la théorie du levier’ d’ al-Muẓaffar al-Isfizārī: une réécriture du Kitāb fī al-qarasṭūn de Thābit ibn Qurra ? 55. On the religion of the Sabians and their beliefs ( R. fī madhhab al-Ṣābiʾīn wa-diyānātihim ). 56. On the division of the earth ( K. fī qismat al-arḍ ). 57. On astronomy ( K. fī l-hayʾah ). 58. On ethics ( K. fī l-akhlāq ). 59. On the introductory matters in [the Elements of] Euclid ( K. fī muqaddimāt Iqlīdis ). 60. On Euclid’s [geometrical] figures ( K. fī ashkāl Iqlīdis ). Cf. Sesiano, ‘Un Complément de Ṯābit Ibn Qurra Au Peri Diaireseōn d’ Euclide’. 61. On the figures of the Almagest ( K. fī ashkāl al-Majisṭī ). 62. On solving geometrical problems ( K. fī istikhrāj al-masāʾil al-handasiyyah ). 63. On calculating the visibility of the new moon using sines ( K. ḥisāb ruʾyat al-hilāl bi-l-juyūb ). All MSS read: bi-l-janūb , except A which is partially undotted and could rather be read as bi-l-juyūb (using sines) which is more likely given the liberal use of sines in the calculations. For parallel Arabic text and French translation, see Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie , 93–112. 64. On the visibility of the new moon using astronomical tables ( K. ruʾyat al-ahillah min al-jadāwil ). For Arabic text and French translation, see Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie , 113–116. 65. On the solar year ( R. fī sanat al-shams ). For Arabic text and French translation, see Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie , 26–67. 66. On the proof attributed to Socrates ( R. fī l-ḥujjah al-mansūbah ilā Suqrāṭ ). 67. On the slow, medium, and fast speed of the movement of the sphere of the Zodiac according to its position in relation to the external sphere ( K. fī ibṭāʾ al-ḥarakah fī falak al-burūj wa-surʿatihā wa-tawassuṭihā bi-ḥasab al-mawḍiʿ alladhī yakūnu fīhi min al-falak al-khārij al-markaz ). For Arabic text and French translation, see Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie , 68–82. 68. An answer to a question about the Hippocratics and how many they numbered ( Jawāb mā suʾila ʿanhu ʿan al-Buqrāṭiyyīn wa-kam mablagh ʿadadihim ). 69. On constructing a solid figure of fourteen sides surrounded by a given sphere. ( M. fī ʿamal shakl mujassam dhī arbaʿ ʿashrah qāʿidah tuḥīṭu bihi kurah maʿlūmah ). Text and French translation in Rashed, Thābit ibn Qurra , 317–331. See also: Thābit ibn Qurrah, Three treatises . 70. On the yellowness which occurs in the body, its types, causes, and treatment ( M. fī l-ṣufrah al-ʿāriḍah li-l-badan wa-ʿadad aṣnāfihā wa-asbābihā wa-ʿilājihā ). 71. On joint pain ( M. fī wajaʿ al-mafāṣil ). 72. A treatise describing the generation of the foetus ( M. fī ṣifat kawn al-janīn ). 73. On knowledge of the calendar obtained by use of the verified astronomical tables ( K. fī ʿilm mā fī l-taqwīm bi-l-mumtaḥan ). 74. On shadows ( K. fī l-aẓlāl ). 75. A book describing the disc [of the sun] ( K. fī waṣf al-qurṣ ). 76. On regimen for health ( K. fī tadbīr al-ṣiḥḥah ). 77. On the craft of astrology ( K. fī miḥnat ḥisāb al-nujūm ). 78. On the explanation of [Ptolemy’s] Tetrabiblos ( K. fī tafsīr al-arbaʿah ). 79. On choosing the best time for impregnation ( R. fī ikhtiyār waqt li-suqūṭ al-nuṭfah ). 80. A summary of Galen’s Great Book of the Pulse [ Megapulsus ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb al-Nabḍ al-kabīr li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 63–66. 81. The Book of the Élite ( K. al-Khāṣṣah ). On promoting the art of medicine and the hierarchy of its proponents and to support the less well-versed amongst them with people and information showing that the art of medicine is the most illustrious of arts. This was written for the vizier Abū l-Qāsim ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Sulaymān. Died 288/901, member of a family of viziers and high officials; see e.g. EI 2 , ‘Wahb, Banū’ (C.E. Bosworth). In Version 1 this entry ends with this title. 82. On the correct course to be followed to attain knowledge of geometrical concepts ( R. fī kayfa yanbaghī an yuslaka ilā nayl al-maṭlūb min al-maʿānī al-handasiyyah ). 83. On atmospheric phenomena observed by the Banū Mūsā and Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Qurrah ( Dhikr āthār ẓaharat fī l-jaww wa-aḥwāl kānat fī l-hawāʾ mimmā raṣadahu Banū Mūsā wa-Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Qurrah ). 84. An abridgement of Galen’s book On the Properties of Foods [ De alimentorum facultatibus ] ( Ikhtiṣār kitāb Jālīnūs fī quwā l-aghdhiyah ). In three chapters. Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 38. 85. Thabit ibn Qurrah’s answers to questions posed by ʿĪsā ibn Usayd ( Masāʾil ʿĪsā ibn Usayd li-Thābit ibn Qurrah wa-ajwibatuhā li-Thābit ). For Arabic text, French translation, and commentary on a certain question on infinite beings, see Rashed, Thābit ibn Qurra , 619–673. 86. On Vision and the Faculty of Sight: on knowledge of the eye and its diseases and treatments ( K. al-Baṣar wa-l-baṣīrah fī ʿilm al-ʿayn wa-ʿilalihā wa-mudāwātihā ). For an Arabic edition published in 1991, see Thābit ibn Qurrah, al-Baṣar wa-l-baṣīrah . See also Prüfer & Meyerhof, ‘Die angebliche Augenheilkunde des Thabit b. Qurra’, where it is argued that since this treatise as preserved today cites al-Rāzī (see Ch. 11.5), it cannot have been by Thābit ibn Qurrah and is in fact a shameless plagiarism of the treatise by ʿAmmār al-Mawṣilī (see Ch. 14.17). 87. An introduction to the book of Euclid ( al-Mudkhal ilā Kitāb Iqlīdis ). It is of the utmost good quality. 88. An introduction to logic ( K. al-Mudkhal ilā l-manṭiq ). 89. An abridgement of Galen’s book On the Method of Healing [ Methodi medendi libri XIV ] ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Ḥīlat al-burʾ li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 69. 90. An exposition of [Aristotle’s] Physics [ Physicae Auscultationes = Physica ] ( Sharḥ al-Samāʿ al-ṭabīʿī ). He died before completing it. 91. On squares and their diagonals ( K. fī l-murabbaʿ wa-quṭrihi ). 92. On the phenomena and indicators of the moon’s eclipse ( K. fī-mā yaẓharu fī l-qamar min āthār al-kusūf wa-ʿalāmātihi ). 93. On the cause of eclipses of the sun and the moon ( K. fī ʿillat kusūf al-shams wa-khusūf al-qamar ). He wrote most of it but died before completing it. 94. A book written for his son Sinān ibn Thābit encouraging him to gain knowledge of medicine and philosophy ( K. ilā Ibnihi Sinān fī l-ḥathth ʿalā taʿallum al-ṭibb wa-l-ḥikmah ). 95. Answers to two letters sent to him by Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir on the subject of time ( Jawābān ʿan kitābay Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Shākir ilayhi fī amr al-zamān ). 96. On the mensuration of plane figures and other planes and figures ( K. fī misāḥat al-ashkāl al-musaṭṭaḥah wa-sāʾir al-busuṭ wa-l-ashkāl ). Arabic text and French translation in Rashed, Thābit ibn Qurra , 173–209. 97. A book demonstrating that weights suspended separately from a single pillar have the same effect as when the weight is combined into a single weight and fixed equally to the entire pillar ( K. fī anna sabīl al-athqāl allatī tuʿallaq ʿalā ʿāmūd wāḥid munfaṣilatan hiya sabīluhā idhā juʿilat thaqalan wāḥidan mathbūtan fī jamīʿ al-ʿamūd ʿalā tasāwin ). 98. On the nature and influence of the planets ( K. fī ṭabāʾiʿ al-kawākib wa-taʾthīrātihā ). 99. A short book on the principles of ethics ( Mukhtaṣar fī l-uṣūl min ʿilm al-akhlāq ). 100. On sundials ( K. fī ālāt al-sāʿāt allatī tusammā rukhāmāt ). For Arabic text and French translation, see Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie , 130–168; Cf. Wiedemann & Frank, Sonnenuhren . See also: Thābit ibn Qurrah, Three treatises . 101. A book explaining the means – mentioned by Ptolemy – by which his [Ptolemy’s] predecessors derived the periodical courses of the moon ( K. fī īḍāḥ al-wajh alladhī dhakara Baṭlamiyūs anna bihi istakhraj man taqaddamahu masīrāt al-qamar al-dawriyyah wa-hiya al-mustawiyah ). For Arabic text and French translation, see Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie , 83–92. 102. A book describing equilibrium and disequilibrium and its conditions ( K. fī ṣifat istiwāʾ al-wazn wa-ikhtilāfihi wa-sharāʾiṭ dhālik ). 103. A summary of Nicomachus’ book On Arithmetic ( Jawāmiʿ kitāb Niqūmākhus fī l-arithmāṭīqī ). In two chapters. 104. Designs for automata ( Ashkāl lahu fī l-ḥiyal ). See Abattouy, Greek mechanics in Arabic context . 105. A summary of the first book of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos ( Jawāmiʿ al-maqālah al-ūlā min al-arbaʿ li-Baṭlamiyūs ). 106. Answers to questions put to him by Abū Sahl al-Nawbakhtī ( Jawābuhu ʿan masāʾil saʾalahu ʿanhā Abū Sahl al-Nawbakhtī ). 107. On regular conic sections ( K. fī qiṭʿ al-makhrūṭ al-mukāfiʾ ). For Arabic text, French translation, and study, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales I , 151–271. 108. On the mensuration of regular solids ( K. fī misāḥat al-ajsām al-mukāfiʾah ). For Arabic text, French translation, and study, see Rashed, Mathématiques infinitésimales I , 272–457. 109. On the stages in studying the sciences ( K. fī marātib qirāʾat al-ʿulūm ). 110. An abridgement of Galen’s book On Critical Days [ De diebus decretoriis ] ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Ayyām al-buḥrān li-Jālīnūs ). In three discourses. Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 68. 111. An abridgement of Galen’s Elements [ De elementis ] ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb al-Usṭuqussāt li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 8. 112. On the types of lines over which the shadow of the gnomon passes ( K. fī ashkāl al-khuṭūṭ allatī yamurru ʿalayhā ẓill al-miqyās ). For Arabic text and French translation, see Morelon, Oeuvres d’ astronomie , 117–129. 113. On geometry ( M. fī al-handasah ). Composed for Ismāʿīl ibn Bulbul. 114. A summary of Galen’s book On Purgatives [ De purgantium medicamentorum facultate ] ( Jawāmiʿ kitāb Jālīnūs fī l-adwiyah al-munaqqiyah ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 75. 115. A summary of Galen’s book On the Affected Parts [ De locis affectis ] ( Jawāmiʿ Kitāb al-Aʿḍāʾ al-ālimah li-Jālīnūs ). Fichtner, Corpus Galenicum , no. 60. 116. On latitudes ( K. fī l-ʿurūḍ ). 117. On things Theon neglected to mention in calculating solar and lunar eclipses ( K. fī-mā aghfalahu Thāwun fī ḥisāb kusūf al-shams wa-l-qamar ). 118. An essay on calculating solar and lunar eclipses ( M. fī ḥisāb kusūf al-shams wa-l-qamar ). 119. On the rising and setting of the stars ( Kitāb fī-l-anwāʾ ). 120. The extant parts of his book on the soul ( Mā wujida min kitābihi fī l-nafs ). 121. A treatise examining the subject of the soul ( M. fī l-naẓar fī amr al-nafs ). 122. On the method of attaining virtue ( K. fī l-ṭarīq ilā iktisāb al-faḍīlah ). 123. On ratios ( K. fī l-nisbah al-muʾallafah ). For Arabic text, French translation, and study, see Rashed, Thābit ibn Qurra , 391–535. 124. A treatise on magic number grids ( R. fī l-ʿadad al-wafq ). 125. A treatise on striking fire by means of two stones ( R. fī tawallud al-nār bayna ḥajarayn ). 126. On how to use verified tables and the translation of his supplement to the work of Ḥubaysh on verified tables ( K. fī l-ʿamal bi-l-mumtaḥan wa-tarjamatihi mā istadrakahu ʿalā Ḥubaysh fī l-mumtaḥan ). 127. On the mensuration of intersecting lines ( K. fī misāḥat qiṭʿ al-khuṭūṭ ). 128. On the musical pipe ( K. fī ālat al-zamr ). 129. A number of books in Arabic and Syriac on astronomical observations ( Kutub ʿiddah lahu fī al-arṣād ʿarabī wa-suryānī ). 130. On the anatomy of a certain bird ( K. fī tashrīḥ baʿḍ al-ṭuyūr ). I think it is the snowy egret ( mālik al-ḥazīn ). 131. On the classification of drugs ( K. fī ajnās mā tanqasim bihi al-adwiyah ). In Syriac. 132. On the classification of drugs ( K. fī ajnās mā tanqasim ilayhi al-adwiyah ). In Syriac. 133. On the types of weights used for drugs ( K. fī ajnās mā tūzan bihi al-adwiyah ). In Syriac. 134. On the alphabet and syntax of the Syriac language ( K. fī hijāʾ al-suryānī wa-iʿrābihi ). 135. On verifying problems of algebra using geometrical demonstrative proofs ( M. fī taṣḥīḥ masāʾil al-jabr bi-l-barāhīn al-handasiyyah ). For Arabic text, French translation, and study, see Rashed, Thābit ibn Qurra , 153–169. 136. A book correcting the first discourse of Apollonius’ book on intersecting proportions ( Iṣlāḥuhu li-l-maqālah al-ūlā min kitāb Abulūniyūs fī qiṭʿ al-nisab al-maḥdūdah ). In two sections; to the first of which Thābit made fine corrections and explained and clarified and commented upon. The second section was not corrected by him and is unintelligible. 137. A short book on astrology ( Mukhtaṣar fī ʿilm al-nujūm ). 138. A short book on geometry ( Mukhtaṣar fī ʿilm al-handasah ). 139. Answers to questions posed to him by al-Muʿtaḍid ( Jawābāt ʿan masāʾil saʾalahu ʿanhā al-Muʿtaḍid ). 140. On governance ( K. fī l-siyāsah ). This was found amongst his writings and translated into Arabic. 141. An answer about the reason for the difference between the astronomical tables of Ptolemy and the verified tables ( Jawāb lahu ʿan sabab al-khilāf bayna zīj Baṭlamiyūs wa-bayn al-mumtaḥan ). 142. Answers to a number of questions posed to him by Sind ibn ʿAlī ( Jawābāt lahu ʿan ʿiddat masāʾil saʿala ʿanhā Sind ibn ʿAlī ). 143. A treatise explaining the allusions in Plato’s Republic ( R. fī ḥall rumūz Kitāb al-Siyāsah li-Aflāṭūn ). 144. An abridgement of [Aristotle’s] Categories [ Categoriae ] ( Ikhtiṣār al-Qāṭīghūriyās ). Among the extant books of Thābit ibn Qurrah al-Ḥarrānī al-Ṣābiʾ in Syriac about his religion are: 145. On rites, and rules, and laws ( R. fī l-rusūm wa-l-furūḍ wa-l-sunan ). 146. On shrouding and interring the dead ( R. fī takfīn al-mawtā wa-dafnihim ). 147. On the doctrines of the Sabians ( R. fī iʿtiqād al-Ṣābiʾīn ). 148. On ritual purity and impurity ( R. fī l-ṭahārah wa-l-najāsah ). 149. On the reason people speak in riddles ( R. fī l-sabab alladhī li-ajlihi alghaz al-nās fī kalāmihim ). 150. On animals fit and unfit for sacrifice ( R. fī-mā yaṣluḥu min al-ḥayawān li-l-ḍaḥāyā wa-mā lā yaṣluḥ ). 151. On the times of religious devotions ( R. fī awqāt al-ʿibādāt ). 152. On the order of reciting the liturgy during prayer ( R. fī tartīb al-qiraʾah fī l-ṣalāh ). 153. Prayers of supplication to God – mighty and glorious is He ( Ṣalawāt al-ibtihāl ilā Allāh – ʿazza wa-jall ). 10.4 Abū Saʿīd Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For Sinān ibn Thābit, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 190; Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 302; (Sayyid), 2/1:313; Sezgin, GAS III , 260 passim . [10.4.1] Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah followed on from his father in his interest in the sciences and his devotion to them and in his mastery of the art of medicine. His aptitude for astronomy was extensive. He was in the service of the Caliphs al-Muqtadir bi-Allāh Abū l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn al-Muʿtaḍid. Abbasid Caliph (r. 295–320/908–932). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muḳtadir.’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). and al-Qāhir 19th Abbasid Caliph (r. 320/932–322/934). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Ḳāhir’ (D. Sourdel). and also served al-Rāḍī bi-Allāh 20th Abbasid Caliph (r. 322/934–329/940). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Rāḍī Bi ʾllah’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). as a physician. [10.4.2] The scribe Ibn al-Nadīm of Baghdad says in The Catalogue ( K. al-Fihrist ) Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 302; (Sayyid), 2/1:313. that the Caliph al-Qāhir bi-Allāh urged Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah to convert to Islam whereupon he fled to Khorasan for fear of the Caliph. Subsequently, however, he did convert, and returned to Baghdad a Muslim, where he died. Ibn al-Qifṭī has instead of this sentence: ‘but he strongly refused. Then al-Qāhir threatened him and Sinān, fearing him and the severity of his strength, entered Islam and settled for a time. Then he witnessed something from al-Qāhir that frightened him and he fled to Khorasan etc’. In the MSS of Version 3 (AR) Ibn al-Qifṭī has been used to improve the text, without respecting the quote from the Fihrist . [10.4.3] His death, which was caused by the disease known as al-dharab , One of several terms for chronic or uncontrollable diarrhoea. Ar. al-dhirb (Lane, Lexicon , i:959): a certain disease of the liver, slow of cure. Ar. al-dharab (Lane  I , 959): an incurable disease because of which the stomach does not digest food; diarrhoea. occurred on the eve of Friday the 1st of Dhū l-Qaʿdah in the year 331 [7 July 943]. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 302; (Sayyid), 2/1, 313 gives the beginning of Dhū l-Ḥijjah of the same year [6 August 943]. [10.4.4.1] Thābit ibn Sinān says in his chronicle: For a thorough analysis of this text, see Pormann, ‘Islamic Hospitals’. I remember that the vizier ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Jarrāḥ EI Three art. ‘ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā b. Dāʾūd b. al-Jarrāḥ’ (Maaike L.M. van Berkel). once sent a note to my father Sinān ibn Thābit in the days when ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā had been given charge of the offices of state and the administration of the realm by al-Muqtadir bi-Allāh during the time of the viziership of Ḥāmid ibn al-ʿAbbās. EI 2 art. ‘Ḥāmid’ (L. Massignon). This was in a year when great many diseases were raging, and at that time my father was in charge of the hospitals in Baghdad and elsewhere. In the note ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā said: I have been thinking – may God extend your life – of the state of those who are in the prisons and that, because of their great number and the harshness of their abodes, they must be susceptible to diseases while they are prevented from acting to their own benefit or from seeking advice from physicians about their symptoms. It is necessary then that physicians be assigned to them who will visit them every day and that drugs and sherbets be brought to them. The physicians should go around all the prisons treating the patients there and alleviating their illnesses with the requisite drugs and sherbets. I also suggest that convalescent meals be provided for those who require them. This my father did for the rest of his life. [10.4.4.2] He received another note which said: I have been thinking of those people who live in the provinces Ar. Sawād . See EI 2 art. ‘Sawād’ (H.H. Schaeder). and that there must be ill people there who are not overseen by any physician since the provinces are empty of physicians. Proceed – may God extend your life – and send physicians and a chest of medicines and sherbets to circulate in the provinces and stay in every locality as long as is required and treat any patients there before moving to the next place. My father did this until his colleagues reached Sūrā A town in southern Iraq situated between al-Madāʾin and al-Ḥīrah. See Gil, Jews in Islamic Countries , 507. the majority of whose population were Jews. He wrote to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā informing him of the receipt of a letter from his colleagues in the provinces in which they mentioned the many sick people and that most of those people living near Nahr al-Malik The ‘king’s canal’. Yāqūt ( Muʿjam al-Buldān (Beirut 1995), v:324) says that it is an expansive district at Baghdad beyond Nahr ʿĪsā and it is said to comprise of 360 villages – one for each day of the year. It is said that the first to excavate it was Solomon or perhaps Alexander. Others say that it was Afqūrshāh. were Jews and that his colleagues ask permission to remain with them and treat them but that he did not know how to answer them since he had no knowledge of the vizier’s view on the Jews. My father also informed the vizier that the policy of the hospital was to treat Muslim and non-Muslim alike and he asked him to lay down a rule for him in this matter for him to act upon. The vizier replied saying: ‘I have understood your letter – may God honour you – and there is no disagreement among us that medical treatment of Dhimmis and animals is something correct. However, it should be proposed and acted upon accordingly that humans should be treated before animals and Muslims before Dhimmis. And if after treating the Muslims there is anything left over it should be used for the next group. So act – may God honour you – according to this and write to your colleagues to this effect. And advise them to travel in the villages and places in which there are many epidemics and raging diseases, and if they cannot find people to guard them on their journey then they should cease to travel until the way becomes safe, and if they do this then they will not be attacked, God willing. [10.4.5] Thābit ibn Sinān says: The expenses for Badr al-Muʿtaḍidī’s See EI 2 art. ‘Badr al-Muʿtaḍidī’ (Ch. Pellat). hospital came from the inviolable funds from the endowment of Shujāʿ the mother of al-Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Mutawakkil ʿAlā ’llāh’ (H. Kennedy). This endowment was administered by Abū Ṣaqr Wahb ibn Muḥammad al-Kalwadhānī Identification uncertain. Perhaps a relative of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Kalwadhānī (active early 4th/10th cent.), vizier to al-Muqtadir, see EI 2 art. ‘Wahb’ (C.E. Bosworth). and a portion of it was given over to the Banū Hāshim and another portion for the expenses of the hospital. Abū Ṣaqr used to further the cause of the Banū Hāshim out of fear of them and delay the expenses of the hospital and place it in difficult straits. So my father wrote to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā complaining of this state of affairs and informing him of the hardship which the patients were subjected to and of the lack of coal and provisions and coverings and the like which was insufficient to meet their needs. The vizier wrote to Abū Ṣaqr on the reverse of my father’s letter saying: ‘You – may God honour you – must come to know of what he has mentioned and which is very serious. You are in particular responsible and I do not think that you are free from blame. You have also quoted me saying something about the Hāshimites which I will not repeat here and how the vicissitudes of circumstances caused the increase or decrease in the funds and their availability or lack. This situation must be rectified and you should take from the funds and give a portion to the hospital. Indeed it should have priority over other things because of the incapacity of those who seek refuge there and the great benefit therein. So inform me then – may God honour you – what is the reason for the lack of funds and the delay in the expenses of the hospital all these consecutive months, and particularly at this time with the winter and the severe cold. You must contrive by all means to ease their situation and hasten to it so that those patients and invalids in the hospital may find some warmth from covers and clothes and coal and they should be provided with rations and given treatment and attention. Answer me telling me what you have done in this matter and discharge this action for me so that I have reason to excuse you, and you must show great concern for the hospital, God willing.’ [10.4.6] Thābit ibn Sinān said: On the first day of Muḥarram in the year three hundred and six [14th June 918], my father Sinān ibn Thābit opened the hospital of the Queen Mother That is, Shaghab, the mother of al-Muqtadir. See EI 1 art. ‘al-Muḳtadir’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). which he arranged for her at Sūq Yaḥyā. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), iii:284. This market on the east bank in Baghdad was named after Yaḥyā ibn Khālid al-Barmakī, for whom see EI 2 art. ‘al-Barāmika’ (D. Sourdel). He remained there and directed the physicians and took in the patients. He had built it by the Tigris and expended six hundred dinars monthly on it. Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 195 adds at this point: ‘provided [i.e. the six-hundred dinars] by Yūsuf ibn Yaḥyā al-Munajjim (the Astrologer), because Sinān did not contribute to the hospitals’ expenses.’ On Abū l-Qāsim Yūsuf ibn Yaḥyā, member of the Munajjim family, see EI 2 art. ‘Munad̲j̲d̲j̲im [8]’ (M. Fleischhammer). In the same year my father advised al-Muqtadir bi-Allāh to arrange for a hospital in his name and this he did and it was arranged for him at the Damascus gate. He named it the Muqtadirī hospital and spent on it of his own money two hundred dinars every month. [10.4.7] Thābit ibn Sinān continues: In the year 319 [931–932], al-Muqtadir became aware that a commoner had died due to an error from a physician. He gave orders to Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn Baṭḥāʾ Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Baṭḥaʾ ibn ʿAlī ibn Masqalah al-Tamīmī (d. 332/943) was muḥtasib in Baghdad, see al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād , vii:100 (no. 3165). His name is wrongly given in Ibn al-Qifṭī as ‘Abū Baṭīḥah al-muḥtasib ’ (Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 191). that all the practising physicians be prevented from working except for those my father, Sinān ibn Thābit, had examined and written a note in his own hand stating to what extent he was allowed to practise the art. So they went to my father and he examined them and gave permission to each one of them to practise as was appropriate in the art. In the area of Baghdad they numbered some eight hundred and sixty men not including those who were exempt from examination due to them being known to be advanced in the art or those who were in the service of the Ruler. [10.4.8] Thābit ibn Sinān also says: When al-Rāḍī bi-Allāh died, the governor Abū l-Ḥasan Bajkam The correct form of this name is Bäčkäm. See EI 2 art. ‘Bad̲j̲kam’ (M. Canard). summoned my father Sinān ibn Thābit and asked him to come over to him in Wāsiṭ. This was something he had not sought from him during the time of al-Rāḍī bi-Allāh because of his service of him. So my father went over to the governor who honoured him and rewarded him and said to him: Sinān ibn Thābit’s speech is quoted by Miskawayh in Tajārib al-umam , i:417–418 (tr. iv: 462–463). I wish to rely upon you to take care of my body and examine it and look to its wellbeing, and in another matter which is more important than the matter of my body, and that is the matter of my character, and this because of my confidence in your intellect and virtue and religion and your friendship. I am troubled at being overcome by excessive anger and wrath to the extent that I come to regret the beating and killing when my anger subsides. I request that you watch what I do and if you come across a defect then do not shy away from telling me the truth about it or mentioning it to me and alerting me to it and then guiding me to treat it so that it passes from me. My father said: ‘I hear and I obey what the governor has ordered! I will do this, but let the governor listen now to the general cure for what he dislikes in himself until the details come in time. Know, O governor, that you are such that the hand of no creature is above your hand and that you are the possessor of all that you wish and are able to do anything any time you want to. No creature is disposed to prevent you from this or come between you and what you desire whenever you want it. When you want something you attain it whenever you wish and no affair you seek escapes you. Know also that anger and wrath and fury cause an intoxication in a person which is much more severe than that of wine. And just as a person when drunk on wine may do things he does not realise he is doing and does not remember them when he sobers up and regrets them when he is told about them and is ashamed of them, the same is the case when he is drunk with fury and wrath, nay it is worse. So whenever anger arises in you and you sense that it has begun to make you drunk, and before it becomes severe and strong and grave and you lose control, then tell yourself to postpone punishment until the next day knowing full well that what you wish to do now you will certainly be able to do tomorrow. It is said that whoever does not fear a missed opportunity will become clement. If you do this and you pass the night and your boiling anger subsides as it must necessarily do and you sober up from your drunken state which the anger has caused – and it is said that the person’s vision is most correct when night has passed and day has come – so when you sober up then contemplate the matter which has angered you, and give the command of God, mighty and majestic is He, priority, and fear of Him and avoid being exposed to His displeasure. And do not alleviate your wrath by falling into sin, for it is said that whoever offends his Lord has not alleviated his wrath. And remember God’s power over you and that you are in need of His mercy and help in times of hardship, which are times when you can neither help nor harm yourself and when no creature can help you and no-one but He, mighty and majestic is He, can remove what has come upon you. Know, also, that humans are prone to errors and mistakes and you, like them, will err and make mistakes even though no-one would dare to agree with you on this. And just as you would like God to forgive you, others hope for your kindness and forgiveness. Think of what kind of night a miscreant has spent in anxiety for fear of you and his expected punishment and your power, and recognise the extent of his joy and relief at your pardon and the extent of the reward you will gain. And remember the words of God, exalted is he: « And let them pardon and forgive. Would you not like God to forgive you? And God is most forgiving, merciful ». Q al-Nūr 24:22. And if forgiveness is possible for what has angered you and it would be enough to censure and blame and rebuke and threaten when a misdemeanour occurs then do not go beyond this, and pardon and forgive for it is better for you and closer to God, exalted is He. And God, glory be to Him, says: « And for you to pardon is closer to piety ». Q al-Baqarah 2:237. And neither the miscreant nor anyone else will think that you are incapable of correcting him or punishing him or that you had no power to do so. And if there is no possibility of forgiveness then punish according to the crime and do not go beyond this lest you denigrate the religion and corrupt your affairs and besmirch your reputation. This will be difficult to adopt for the first time and the second and the third, then it will become a habit and a trait and will be easy for you.’ Bajkam approved of this and promised to do it and his conduct continued to improve while my father would alert him bit by bit to what he disliked in his character and actions and would teach him how to remove it, until his character became gentle and he refrained from rushing to kill or inflict severe punishments. And he considered the advice to employ justice and equity and take away oppression and tyranny to be sweet and good and correct and would act in accordance, for it was clear to him that justice is much more profitable for the Sultan than injustice and that by it he could gain this world and the next, and that the wares of injustice, even though they might be great and immediate, are quick to decay and vanish and disappear and are annihilated and there is no blessing in them and they cause events which you will consider criminal. Then they result in the destruction of this world and the next. But the wares of justice grow and increase and endure and continue and there are blessings in them and they result in the wellbeing and flourishing of the world and attainment and success in the afterlife and a good reputation for all time. This became clear to him and he recognised its correctness and began to put it into practice. And he built a guest house at Wāsiṭ at the time of the famine, and a hospital in Baghdad to treat and nurse the poor and he provided funds for all of this. And he provided for the public and treated them kindly and justly and equitably and beneficently and he saw good results except that his life did not last long and he was killed shortly after – and God’s command will come to pass. [10.4.9] The following books were written by Abū Saʿīd Sinān ibn Thābit as transmitted by Abū ʿAlī al-Muḥassin ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Hilāl al-Ṣābiʾ: See Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 190; Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 302; (Sayyid), 2/1:313; Sezgin, GAS III , 260 passim . 1. A History of the Kings of the Syrians ( R. fī tārīkh mulūk al-suryāniyyīn ). 2. Epistle on the Meridian ( R. fī l-istiwāʾ ). 3. Epistle on Canopus ( R. fī suhayl ). 4. Epistle to Bajkam ( R. ilā Bajkam ). 5. Epistle to Ibn Rāʾiq ( R. ilā Ibn Rāʾiq ). Muḥammad ibn Rāʾiq (d. 330/942). Governor and chief emir for the Abbasids. See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Rāʾiḳ’ (D. Sourdel). 6. Letter to Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, may God show him mercy ( R. ilā Abī l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ). 7. Official and Personal Correspondence ( al-rasāʾil al-sulṭāniyyāt wa-l-ikhwāniyyāt ). 8. The biography, comprising several parts and known as The Book of the Salvific ( K. al-Nājī ), which he composed for ʿAḍud al-Dawlah and Tāj al-Millah containing the king’s great deeds and those of Daylam and their lineages, origins, and ancestors. 9. Epistle on astrology (or astronomy) ( R. fī al-Nujūm ). 10. Epistle explaining the doctrines of the Sabians ( R. fī sharḥ madhhab al-Ṣābiʾīn ). 11. Epistle on dividing Fridays according to the seven planets ( R. fī qismat ayyām al-jumʿah ʿalā l-kawākib al-sabʿah ), which he wrote for Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Hilāl See EI 1 art. ‘al-Ṣābiʾ’ (F. Krenkow). and another man. 12. Epistle on the difference between the epistolographer and the poet ( R. fī l-farq bayn al-mutarassil wa-l-shāʿir ). 13. Epistle on the history of his fathers, forefathers, and ancestors ( R. fī akhbār ābāʾihī wa-ajdādihī wa-salafihī ). 14. Sinān translated the Nomoi of Hermes into Arabic. Sinān also translated the texts and prayers used by the Sabians in their worship. 15. Revision of Plato’s book on the elements of geometry, to which Sinān added a great deal. 16. Treatise that Sinān sent to the ruler ʿAḍud al-Dawlah on geometrical forms composed of straight lines contained within or about a circle ( M. fī l-ashkāl dhawāt al-khuṭūṭ al-mustaqīmah allatī taqaʿ fī l-dāʾirah wa-ʿalayhā ). 17. Derivation of a great many geometrical questions ( Istikhrājuhū li-l-shayʾ al-kathīr min al-masāʾil al-handasiyyah ). 18. Revision of Abū Sahl al-Kūhī’s Mathematician and astronomer of the 4th/10th century. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Kūhī’ (J. Vernet). style in all of his books, which Abū Sahl had asked him to do. 19. Revision and correction of part of Archimedes’ work on triangles that had been translated from Syriac to Arabic by Yūsuf al-Qass ( Iṣlāḥuhū wa-tahdhībuhū li-shayʾ naqalahū min kitāb Yūsuf al-Qass min al-suryānī ilā l-ʿarabī min kitāb Arshimīdis fī l-muthallathāt ). 10.5 Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For Thābit ibn Sinān, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 109 et passim ; Sezgin, GAS III , 260, where he is identified as the uncle of Thābit ibn Qurrah. [10.5.1] Thābit ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah was a physician of merit who followed his father in the art of medicine. In the chronicle he wrote in which he mentions the occurrences and events which took place during the time of al-Muqtadir bi-Allāh Abū l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn al-Muʿtaḍid. Abbasid Caliph (r. 295–320/908–932). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muḳtadir.’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). until the time of al-Ṭāʾiʿ li-Allāh he says that he and his father were in the service of al-Rāḍī bi-Allāh. Subsequently, he says of himself that he served as physician to al-Muttaqī the son of al-Muqtadir bi-Allāh, and also served al-Mustakfī bi-Allāh and al-Muṭīʿ li-Allāh. [10.5.2] He says: In the year three hundred and thirteen, the vizier al-Khāqānī Abū l-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Khāqānī (d. 314/926–927), who served al-Muqtadir bi-Allāh as vizier for 18 months until he was dismissed in Ramaḍān 313/November 925. See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn K̲h̲āḳān’ (D. Sourdel). placed me in charge of the hospital provided by Ibn al-Furāt Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Furāt (d. 312/924). Several times vizier to al-Muqtadir. See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Furāt’ (D. Sourdel). in al-Mufaḍḍal lane. Darb al-Mufaḍḍāl. A location in East Baghdad, called after al-Mufaḍḍal ibn Zimām, mawlā (client) of al-Mahdī (Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān , ed. Beirut, 1995, ii:448). [10.5.3] He also says in his chronicle: When Abū ʿAlī ibn Muqlah Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Muqlah (d. 328/940). See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Muḳla’ (D. Sourdel). was handed over to the vizier Abū ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĪsā Abū ʿAlī ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿĪsā ibn Dāwūd ibn al-Jarrāḥ (fl. 325/936). Brother of the vizier ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā and sometime vizier of al-Rāḍī and al-Muttaqī. See EI 2 art. ‘ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā’ (H. Bowen); EI Three art. ‘ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā b. Dāʾūd b. al-Jarrāḥ’ (Maaike L.M. van Berkel). by al-Rāḍī bi-Allāh in the year three hundred and twenty-four, he took him to his house on Thursday after three nights of Jumādā I had passed [29 March 936]. Abū ʿAlī ibn Muqlah was beaten with whips Ar. miqraʿah, pl. maqāriʿ : a whip: anything with which one beats; a cudgel. (Lane, Lexicon , Supp. 2987). in the house of the vizier ʿAbd al-Raḥmān and his signature was taken for the amount of one million dinars. The one charged with this was Bunān, the chief of the guards of the palace halls ( al-Ḥujariyyah ). For mention of the Turkish slaves of the Caliphs and al-Ḥujariyyah , see EI 2 art. ‘G̲h̲ulām’ (Halil İnalcık). Then he was handed over to Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Khaṣībī The vizier Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Khaṣīb (d. AH  328/940). See EI 2 , ‘al-K̲h̲aṣībī’ (D. Sourdel). and put in the hands of Mākird Mākird the Daylamite, one of the Sājiyyah regiment of slave troops? and the chief. Al-Khaṣībī gave over questioning of him to Abū l-Qāsim ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Iskāfī who was known as Abū Thughrah, and gave responsibility for making demands for money to al-Dastuwānī at whose hands Ibn Muqlah experienced terrible abominations and hangings and beatings and rackings. Ar. dahaq : torture in general, particularly severe pressure using a type of vice. The rack. What I personally witnessed of this was when Abū l-ʿAbbās al-Khaṣībī charged me one day with visiting Ibn Muqlah to examine him for a complaint. He also said that should Ibn Muqlah require bloodletting then it should be done by someone in my presence. So I visited him and I found him stretched out on a threadbare mat with a filthy pillow under his head and naked except for an undergarment. And I saw that his body from his head to the tips of his toes was all the colour of an aubergine and none of it had been spared. And I saw that he was extremely short of breath because al-Dastuwānī had hit Dahaqa is an uncommon verb. It can be used for ‘to put in stocks’ where the feet are held secure, but that seems odd for a person’s chest. It can also mean ‘to hit or strike’, which seems better in this context. his chest. I told al-Khaṣībī that he was in dire need of bloodletting and he said to me: ‘He must be subjected to hard demands so what shall we do with him?’ I said: ‘I don’t know except that if he is left without bloodletting he will die and if blood is let and he is subject again to abominations then he will expire.’ So al-Khaṣībī said to Abū l-Qāsim ibn Abī Thughrah al-Iskāfī: ‘Go to him and tell him that if he thinks that he will find some respite if his blood is let then he thinks mistakenly. Let his blood but he must remember that the demands will continue.’ Then he said to me: ‘I would like you to go with him.’ But I asked to be excused from this but he refused so I went in with al-Iskāfī and he delivered the message in my presence. Ibn Muqlah said: ‘If this is the case then I don’t wish to undergo bloodletting while I stand before God.’ So we returned to al-Khaṣībī and told him what he had said. He said to me: ‘What can you do and what is your opinion?’ I said: ‘I think that his blood should be let and he should be given respite.’ He said: ‘Make it so!’ So I returned to Ibn Muqlah and his blood was let in my presence and he was given respite for the day and his situation became more bearable but he expected the abominations to continue the next day and was terrified out of his wits. Then it so happened that on that day al-Khaṣībī had cause to go into hiding and Ibn Muqlah remained in respite and no-one made any demands of him and he was unexpectedly relieved of his enemy. He returned to his senses and then Ibn Qarābah Ibn Qarābah is Abū Bakr ibn Qarābah; see the long note on him by al-Shāljī in al-Tanūkhī, Nishwār al-muḥāḍarah , viii:106 (in a passage told by Ibn Muqlah himself). He is mentioned in various sources, such as al-Ṣūlī’s Awrāq , Miskawayh’s Tajārib , always as Ibn Qarābah. came to him and gave a guarantee for what he owed and he took charge of him. Prior to this Ibn Muqlah had handed over to al-Khaṣībī some fifty thousand dinars, and just men had been made to swear that he had sold his estates and those of his sons and all his personal effects to the State. [10.5.4] In another place in this book of his Thābit ibn Sinān says: When Ibn Muqlah’s hand was cut off, al-Rāḍī bi-Allāh summoned me at the end of the day and commanded me to enter in upon Ibn Muqlah and treat him. So I went to him on the day his hand was cut. I found him to be confined in the cell which was in the arbour court with the door locked. I entered and found him sitting on the base of one of the pillars of the cell and his colour was as grey as the lead he was sitting on. He had become very weak and was in a state of utmost anguish at the throbbing ache in his arm. I saw in the cell that a dome of canvas had been erected for him upon which were two arches of canvas in which there was a prayer mat, and cushions of Ṭabaristān. About the prayer mat there were many dishes of fine fruits. When he saw me he wept and bemoaned his state and what had befallen him and the throbbing pain he was experiencing. I found that his forearm had become severely swollen and that on the cut there was a rough, dark blue cloth of Qarduwān Qarduwānī : related to an unidentified place called Qarduwān. See al-Samʿānī, Ansāb , iv:469. Not mentioned by Yāqūt. bound with a hempen rope. I addressed him as was necessary and calmed him and untied the rope and removed the cloth under which I found, upon the cut, animal dung. So I ordered that the dung be removed from it and it was removed. Then, I found that the top of his forearm above the cut The text reads asfal al-qaṭʿ (below the cut), but the English makes better sense as ‘above the cut’, the hand having been severed at the wrist. had been bound with hempen rope and that it had immersed itself into his arm because of the swelling and his forearm had begun to turn black. So I told him that the rope would be untied and that, in place of the dung, camphor would be put and that his forearm would be anointed with sandalwood and rosewater and camphor. He said: ‘Master, do what you think fit.’ Then the servant who was with me said: ‘I need to ask permission of our master for this.’ And he went in to ask permission. When he came out he had with him a large chest filled with camphor and he said: ‘Our master has given his permission for you to do as you see fit and he commands that you treat him kindly and provide care for him and remain with him until God grants him wellbeing.’ So I untied the rope and emptied the chest on the place of the cut and anointed his forearm. And so he lived and found relief and the shock subsided. I asked him whether he had eaten and he said: ‘How can I stomach food?’ So I arranged for food to be brought and it was brought but he refused to eat so I was gentle with him and fed him morsels with my own hand and he ate about twenty dirhams of bread and about the same amount in meat of pullets. Then he swore he couldn’t swallow another thing. And he drank some cold water and his spirit revived and so I left and the door was locked upon him and he remained alone. In the morning a black servant was permitted to enter and serve him and was confined with him. I went back and forth to see him for many days and he became afflicted with gout in his left leg so I let his blood. He used to be in pain from his right hand which was cut off and from his left leg and would not sleep at night because of the severity of the pain. Then he regained his health and whenever I visited him he would begin by asking about his son Abū l-Ḥasan, and when I told him he was well he became most calm. Then he would mourn for his own self and weep for the loss of his hand and would say: ‘With my hand I served the caliphate three times for three Caliphs, and with it I wrote out the Qur’an twice, Abū ʿAlī ibn Muqlah was also renowned for his calligraphy. and it is cut off like the hand of a thief! Do you remember when you said to me: “You are experiencing the last of the calamity and relief is near?” ’ I said: ‘Indeed.’ He said: ‘You see what has befallen me!’ I said: ‘Nothing remains after this. Now you should expect relief, for you have been treated as none of your peers have been treated. This is the end of the adversity and after the end there is nothing but relief of the burdens.’ He said: ‘Don’t, for this trial has attached itself to me such as to take me from one situation to the next until it leads me to perdition just as the hectic fever attaches itself to the members of the body and does not leave the sufferer until it leads him to his death.’ Then he quoted this verse: Metre: wāfir . A line by Abū Yaʿqūb al-Khuraymī (d. 214/829), see Ibn al-Jarrāḥ, Waraqah , 111; Ibn Qutaybah, Shiʿr , 855; al-Iṣfahānī, Aghānī , xvi:401; etc. Whenever part of you has died, lament another part! For one part of a thing is closely related to another. And it was as he said. And when Bajkam closed in on Baghdad, Ibn Muqlah was moved from that place to somewhere even more concealed and no-one had any news of him and I was prevented from seeing him. Then his tongue was cut out and he remained in confinement for a long time. Then he was overcome by uncontrollable diarrhoea Dharab , one of several terms for chronic or uncontrollable diarrhoea. and he had no-one to treat him or serve him until I heard that he was drawing up water for himself with his left hand and pulling the well-rope with his left hand and holding it in his mouth and his state was utterly wretched until such a time as he died.’ [10.5.5] The aforementioned Thābit ibn Sinān was the maternal uncle of Hilāl ibn al-Muḥassin ibn Ibrāhīm the Sabian, the eloquent writer. Thābit ibn Sinān wrote the book of chronicles in which he mentions the occurrences and events which took place during his time which was from the year two hundred and ninety-five [907–908] until his death. I have found it in his own hand and he demonstrates his merit therein. Thābit ibn Sinān died in one of the months of the year 363 [973–974]. Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 110, on the authority of Thābit ibn Sinān’s nephew Hilāl ibn al-Muḥassin, gives the date of the eve of Wednesday 11th of Dhū l-Qaʿdah in the year 365 [11 June 976]. 10.6 Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. See Sezgin, GAS IV , 292–295 etc. Cf. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 272; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 57–59. See also: Rāshid, Ibrāhīm Ibn Sinān . Ibrāhīm ibn Sinān was accomplished in the philosophical disciplines, excelled in the medical art, and was the leading scholar of his age. He was a fine writer Ibn Sinān’s most important extant works are in geometry and mathematics. As well as references in GAS , for some published epistles, see Ibn Sinān, Rasāʾil . See also: Hogendijk, Arabic traces of lost works of Apollonius . and a man of abundant intelligence. He was born in the year 296/908, and died on a Sunday in the middle of al-Muḥarram in the year 335 [16 August 946] in Baghdad. The illness from which he died was a swelling ( waram ) of the liver. 10.7 Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Zahrūn al-Ḥarrānī This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. There are brief mentions in Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 56; EI 2 art. ‘Ṣābiʾ’ (F.C. de Blois). Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Zahrūn al-Ḥarrānī was a well-known physician with vast knowledge of the art of medicine. He was a fine practitioner and a good therapist. He died in Baghdad on the eve of Thursday with eleven nights remaining of Ṣafar in the year 309 [29 June 921]. 10.8 Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Zahrūn al-Ḥarrānī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 303; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 111. [10.8.1] Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī was a physician of merit and abundant knowledge and excelled in the medical art. He was a successful therapist and was well-versed in the secrets of medicine. Despite this, he was stingy and did not share what he was good at. [10.8.2] I quote here from the treatise of Ibn Buṭlān in his own hand on the reason the skilled physicians changed the regimen for most of those diseases that had, of old, been treated with hot medicines to a cold regimen. See 10.38 no. 7. Ibn Buṭlān says: The vizier Abū Ṭāhir ibn Baqiyyah EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Baḳiyya’ (Cl. Cahen). suffered a stroke in his house on the bank by the bridge in Baghdad. The emir ʿIzz al-Dawlah Bakhtiyār EI 2 art. ‘Bak̲h̲tiyār’ (Cl. Cahen). was present and the physicians were in agreement that he had died. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī, whom I used to accompany in those days, came forward and said, ‘O emir, if he has died then blood-letting will do him no harm, so do you permit me to let his blood?’ ‘Do so, O Abū l-Ḥasan’, the emir answered. When he opened his vein only a small amount of blood leaked from it but it increased until the blood began to flow and the vizier regained consciousness. When I was alone with him I asked him about the case but he was reticent in his words. He said, ‘It was the habit of the vizier every spring season to expel a great amount of blood from the blood-vessels of the buttocks but that this season it had ceased and when I let his blood the strength returned after it had been constricted.’ [10.8.3] ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl said: When ʿAḍud al-Dawlah, That is Abū Shujāʿ Fannā Khusraw (d. 372/983) Būyid emir. See EI 2 art. ‘ʿAḍud al-Dawla’ (H. Bowen); EI Three art. ‘ʿAḍud al-Dawla’ (J.J. Donohue). may God have mercy upon him, entered Baghdād, He entered Baghdād in Jumādā I  364/January 975. the first to meet him from amongst the physicians were Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī who was a very aged man, and Sinān If Sinān ibn Thābit (above Ch. 10.4) is meant here, then he was the older man. who was younger than Abū l-Ḥasan. They were both learned men of merit and together they used to make the rounds See Lane, Lexicon , 1363. of patients and go to the palace of the Sulṭān who used to praise them well. When Abū l-Ḥasan and Sinān entered upon ʿAḍud al-Dawlah he said, ‘Who are they?’ When he was told that they were physicians he said, ‘We are in good health and have no need of them.’ So the two left embarrassed. When they went out into the courtyard Sinān said to Abū l-Ḥasan, ‘Is it fitting that we, the two venerable men of Baghdad, should enter upon that Lion for him to pounce upon us?’ Abū l-Ḥasan said, ‘What is to be done?’ Sinān said, ‘We will return to him and I will tell him my opinion and we will see what is his reply.’ Abū l-Ḥasan said, ‘Do so.’ So they sought permission to enter and then entered. Sinān said, ‘May God prolong the life of our master the emir. The purpose of our art is the preservation of the health, not the treatment of diseases, and the king, of all people, is most in need of this.’ ʿAḍud al-Dawlah said, ‘You have spoken truly.’ Then he established for the two of them an excellent commission and they began to take turns along with his own physicians. [10.8.4] ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl said: There are many fine stories about the two of them including the story of the liver cook. By the Portico Gate in Baghdad ( Bāb al-Azaj ) See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-Buldān (Wüstenfeld), i:232. there was a man who used to fry liver and whenever the two physicians passed by he would pray for them and thank them and stand in their honour until they left. One day they passed by but did not see him so they assumed that he was otherwise occupied. The next day they inquired about him and were told that he had just died. They were astonished at this and one said to the other, “We are obliged to him and we should seek him out and see him.” So they both went to see him and after they had looked at him they consulted on letting his blood and asked his family to detain him for a single hour so that they may consider his case. They did this and brought a bloodletter who let his blood thoroughly at which thick blood emerged. As his blood continued to be let his condition was alleviated until at last the man spoke and the two physicians gave him medicine to drink and left. Three days later the man went out to his stall and this was an example of their miraculous cures. They were asked about it and said the cause was the fact that when he used to fry liver he would eat from it and his body would become full of thick blood but he did not sense this until it flowed from the veins into the blood vessels and overcame the innate heat and stifled it just as a great amount of oil stifles the wick of the lamp. When they let his blood it decreased and the heavy burden was lifted from his faculties and the heat dispersed and his body returned to health. [Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah comments]: This filling up of the body is also found with phlegm, and its causes were mentioned by Galen in his book on prohibiting burial until twenty-four hours after death. For Galen’s treatise, see Ch. 5.1.39 no. 163. [10.8.5] ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl said: Among the finest things I have heard about Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī is that he became familiar with the great Sharīf Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar, Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Yaḥyā (d. 390/1000), Raʾis al-Ṭālibiyyīn, see al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv: 244–245. may God have mercy upon him. He was a man of noble standing who had been afflicted with acute and severe shortness of breath. Abū l-Ḥasan took his pulse and indicated the medicines he should use. The Sharīf asked Abū l-Ḥasan about letting his blood but he said to him that he did not think it correct even though it might visibly alleviate the affliction. Abū l-Ḥasan left and then Abū Mūsā the physician who was known as Bug (Baqqah) came and examined his pulse and urine flask and advised bloodletting but the Sharīf said to him, ‘Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī has been with me just now and I had asked him advice about bloodletting and that he had said he did not think it appropriate.’ Baqqah said, ‘Abū l-Ḥasan knows best,’ and left. Then a certain physician of lesser rank came and said, ‘Our master should have his blood let, for he will be relieved immediately.’ And he became strongly determined to let his blood and did not move until he had done so. When he had let his blood his condition was visibly alleviated and he slept and his condition subsided and he took food and was well. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī returned to him at the end of the day and found him resting and stable. When he saw him in this condition he said to him, ‘Your blood has been let!’ The Sharīf said, ‘How could I do something you didn’t prescribe for me?’ He said, ‘This restful state is due to nothing but bloodletting.’ The Sharīf said, ‘Since you know this then why did you not let my blood?’ Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī said to him, ‘Now that our master’s blood has been let then let him be warned of the onset of a quartan fever of seventy cycles and even if Hippocrates and Galen themselves were attending him he will not be free of it until it comes to the end of its term.’ Then he called for ink and a roll of paper and prescribed his regimen for seventy bouts and passed it to him saying, ‘This is your regimen. When its term is ended then I will visit you.’ He left and it was only a few days until the fever came and remained as he had said so the Sharīf did not go against his regimen until he was cured. [10.8.6] ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl said: It is told that the Grand Chamberlain used to have a servant boy with whom he was besotted. One day the Chamberlain invited the magnates of the realm to a great banquet. While occupied with arranging the banquet the servant boy was struck with an acute fever at which the Chamberlain became very anxious and worried. He summoned Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī and said to him, ‘O Abū l-Ḥasan, I wish the boy to be in my service tomorrow. Do all you can and I will reward you for it.’ Abū l-Ḥasan said, ‘O Chamberlain, if you leave the boy to complete the days of his illness he will live. If not, then by my attending him he may undertake to serve you tomorrow, but next year on the same day he will be struck with an acute fever and no matter which physician attends to him treatment will be to no avail and he will die either in the first or second crisis. Consider which of these you prefer.’ The Chamberlain said, ‘I wish him to be in my service tomorrow and by next year it will be resolved,’ thinking that these words were refutable. Abū l-Ḥasan attended him and the next day the boy woke and began service. The Chamberlain gave Abū l-Ḥasan a fine robe and a great deal of money and honoured him to the utmost. On the same day the following year the fever returned to the boy and he remained feverish for seven days and then died. Abū l-Ḥasan’s opinion greatly affected the Chamberlain and many other people and his station became high in their eyes, and this episode was something of a miracle. [10.8.7] Hilāl ibn al-Muḥassin ibn Ibrāhīm the Sabian scribe said: Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn al-Ḥusayn al-Nawbakhtī For the Nawbakht family, see EI 2 art. ‘Nawbak̲h̲t’ (L. Massignon). related to me, saying, ‘al-Sharīf Abū l-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar ibn Yaḥyā related to me that he wished to buy an intelligent maidservant from the house of the Banū Khāqān For the Khāqān family of viziers, see EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Khāḳān’ (D. Sourdel). for eleven thousand dirhams. The broker in this was to be Abū l-Musayyab Fahd ibn Sulaymān. Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar said to Abū l-Musayyab, “I would like you to take the advice of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī after you charge him with seeing her.” So Abū l-Musayyab went to him and asked him to ride with him to the house to see the girl who was suffering from a complaint. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī saw her and took her pulse and examined her urine flask and then said to Abū l-Musayyab in private, “If last night she ate any dish of sumac, or sour grapes, or cucumbers of any sort, then buy her, but if not, then do not concern yourself with her.” So we asked about what she had eaten that night and were told that she had eaten one of the things mentioned by Abū l-Ḥasan. So he bought her, and we were astonished at this affair as were those who heard about it.’ [10.8.8] Al-Muḥassin ibn Ibrāhīm said: The sons of Abū Jaʿfar ibn al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh See EI 2 art. ‘Wahb’ (C.E. Bosworth). used to slander our uncle Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī accusing him of killing their father. I asked my father Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Hilāl about this and he said, ‘Abū Jaʿfar was my uncle Abū l-Ḥasan’s enemy and was determined to kill him on account of things he held against him, and he had already arrested him and had him imprisoned. It so happened that Abū Jaʿfar fell ill with his terminal illness and he was advised to consult Abū l-Ḥasan who was in prison. Abū Jaʿfar said, “I do not trust him and am not comfortable with him since he knows my bad opinion of him.” He relied then on another physician. Abū l-Ḥasan was visited by one of his brothers who told him about how Abū Jaʿfar was treating his illness. Abū l-Ḥasan said to him in confidence, “You know that man’s opinion of me, but as long as he continues with this treatment he will inevitably perish and we will be relieved of him sooner rather than later. Hence I would like you to prevent him from consulting me and confirm his opinion in ignoring me.” Abū Jaʿfar’s illness intensified and he went the way of all flesh ten days after al-Qāhir bi-Allāh had had him arrested.’ [10.8.9] Al-Muḥassin also said: Cf. Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamaʾ , 114. I was struck with an acute fever that came upon me suddenly. Our uncle Abū l-Ḥasan came and took my pulse for a while then he rose and said nothing. My father said to him, ‘What is your opinion of this fever, uncle?’ He said to him secretly, ‘Do not ask me about it until fifty days have passed.’ And I swear by God that the fever left me on the fifty-third day. [10.8.10] Abū ʿAlī ibn Makīkhā the Christian scribe relates, saying: Abū ʿAlī ibn Makīkhā, nicknamed Qafāʾ (‘Nape’), was the Christian treasurer of ʿAḍud al-Dawlah and Ibn Ṭāhir; see al-Tawḥīdī, Imtāʿ , 43; and Kraemer, Humanism in the Renaissance of Islam , 197. This anecdote is in Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 112–113. When ʿAḍud al-Dawlah reached The City of Peace in the year three hundred and sixty-four [975], I was summoned by Abū Manṣūr Naṣr ibn Hārūn who had arrived with ʿAḍud al-Dawlah at that time. He asked me about the physicians of Baghdad so I met with ʿAbd Yashūʿ the Catholicos and asked him about them. He said, ‘Here, there are a number who are not to be relied upon but the ones who should be referred to are Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī who is an intelligent man without peer in the medical art, and also Fayrūz Müller left a blank space in his edition (‘Lücke von mir gelassen’); in the ‘Lesarten’ he gives the readings Fīrrawz and Fahrūn (this is the reading in MS Sb). MS R and Ibn al-Qifṭī ( Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 113) give Fayrūz. Lippert mentions in footnote the lacuna in Müller and also two MSS in Berlin which give the reading Fahrūz. who is of little learning. Abū l-Ḥasan is my friend so I will send him to be of service and show him my approval of it and advise him to continue it.’ The Catholicos spoke to Abū l-Ḥasan about seeking out Abū Manṣūr Naṣr ibn Hārūn and he did so. Naṣr ibn Hārūn proposed that he visit the palace of ʿAḍud al-Dawlah and examine his condition and his regimen. Abū l-Ḥasan agreed on the condition that he should be informed of ʿAḍud al-Dawlah’s manner in eating and drinking and in his private affairs. Abū Manṣūr watched ʿAḍud al-Dawlah’s manner and Abū l-Ḥasan came to the palace and learned everything he wanted to know. Then he came back and forth to the palace for a few days and then stopped coming altogether. When the Catholicos met with him he reproached him for breaking off relations and told him that this was not approved of. Abū l-Ḥasan said, ‘There is no benefit in me going there and I don’t think it is right for me. The king has many virtuous, intelligent, and knowledgeable physicians who know his nature and regimen such that he may dispense with the service and attendance of all others.’ The Catholicos persisted and asked him the reason for this and what his excuse was. He said, ‘When the king has remained in Iraq for a year his mind will become corrupt and I would not like that to happen at my hands and when I am his physician and responsible for his regimen.’ When the Catholicos denied what I had said I argued with him and swore by God and on pain of apostasizing that what I had said was true and that he would be responsible for what he knows. The Catholicos refrained then and concealed the subject, but when ʿAḍud al-Dawlah returned to Iraq the second time, that which Abū l-Ḥasan had predicted came to pass. [10.8.11] Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī died on the eleventh of Dhū l-Qaʿdah in the year 365 of the Hijrah [11 July 976] at Baghdad. Ibn al-Qifṭī gives a different date: ‘he died in Baghdad, at the end of a Friday, when there were eleven nights remaining of the month of Shawwāl of 369 [i.e. 18 Shawwāl 369 = 12 May 980]’ ( Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 115). He was born in Raqqah on the eve of Thursday with two nights remaining of Dhū l-Qaʿdah in the year 283 [6 January 897]. [10.8.12] Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī wrote the following books: According to Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel) 303, (Sayyid), 2/1:315 and quoted in Sezgin, GAS III , 154–155, Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ḥarrānī also translated a book of [the sons of] Philagrius (fl. AD  4th cent.) into Arabic. 1. A revision of certain books from the Kunnāsh of Yūḥannā ibn Sarābiyūn. See Sezgin, GAS III , 241. 2. Answers to questions posed to him. 10.9 Ibn Waṣīf al-Ṣābiʾ This biography appears in all three versions of the book. In EI 2 art. ‘al-Waṣīfī’ (U. Sezgin), Ibn Waṣīf above is ‘reasonably identified’ with al-Waṣīfī, Ibrāhīm ibn Waṣīf Shāh. However, Ismāʿil Bāshā Bābānī (Bābānī, Hadiyyat al-ʿārifīn , i:16) gives 596/1199–1200 as death date for Ibrāhīm ibn Waṣīf Shāh the historian, for whom Brockelmann gives a date of before 606/1209, which is the date his history ends. For a biography of Aḥmad ibn Waṣīf al-Ṣābiʾ who flourished in the mid-4th/10th century, see Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:231; Ibn Juljul, Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ , 81–82; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 436–437, and 395 19 , where he is named Ibn Waṣīf al-Kaḥḥāl (the oculist); IAU mentions Ibn Waṣīf al-Ṣābiʾ again in Ch. 13.19. [10.9.1] Ibn Waṣīf al-Ṣābiʾ was a physician who was skilled in treating diseases of the eye. In his time no one was more knowledgeable, nor anyone more experienced than he was in this matter. Cf. Ibn Juljul, Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ , 81. [10.9.2] Sulaymān ibn Ḥassān – Ibn Juljul – said ‘I heard the following account from Aḥmad ibn Yūnus al-Ḥarrānī’: See Ch. 13.19. In 330/942, Aḥmad ibn Yūnus, together with his brother ʿUmar, left Andalusia for Baghdad where they worked with Ibn Waṣīf treating eye diseases. I was with Aḥmad ibn Waṣīf al-Ṣābiʾ, who had brought seven people to have their eyes couched. Among them was a man of Khorasan whom Aḥmad had bade sit before him while he inspected his eyes. He saw fluid in them, showing that couching was indicated. The man asked what the fee would be. Aḥmad named a figure, but finally agreed the sum of eighty silver dirhams with the man, who swore he had no more than that. The man having sworn, Aḥmad was convinced and embraced him, but upon raising his hand to the man’s upper arm ( ʿaḍud ), he found there a small belt containing gold dinars. ‘What is this?’ said Ibn Waṣīf. The man from Khorasan flushed. ‘Do you swear falsely by God, yet hope for your sight to be restored?’ Ibn Waṣīf said. ‘I swear by God, I will not treat you, since you tried to deceive All our MSS and Ibn Juljul, Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ , 82, give verb form I: khadaʿta rabbaka /you have deceived your Lord. Müller, i:230, and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 437 give form III : khādaʿta rabbaka/ you tried to deceive your Lord, which seems a better reading as God, presumably, cannot be deceived. Cf. Q al-Baqarah 2:9, and al-Nisāʾ 4:142. your Lord.’ The man asked him again, but Aḥmad refused and gave back the eighty silver dirhams without couching his eyes. This passage appears in Ibn Juljul, Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ , 81–82; also Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 437. 10.10 Ghālib, the Physician of al-Muʿtaḍid This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Cf. Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:232. [10.10.1] Ghālib was famed for his service to al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Allāh That is, Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥah (r. 279–289/892–902), the sixteenth Abbasid Caliph and son of al-Muwaffaq. EI 2 art. ‘al-Muʿtaḍid Bi’llāh’ (H. Kennedy). but he had previously been with al-Muwaffaq Ṭalḥah, That is, Abū Aḥmad Ṭalḥah ibn Jaʿfar (d. 278/891), son of the tenth Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 232–247/847–861) and governing regent at the time of his brother the (nominal) Caliph al-Muʿtamid (256–279/870–892). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muwaffaḳ’ (H. Kennedy). the son of al-Mutawakkil, That is, tenth Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil (r. 232–247/847–861). EI 2 art. ‘al-Mutawakkil ʿAlā ’llāh’ (H. Kennedy). whom he had served exclusively since the days of al-Mutawakkil’s caliphate. All al-Mutawakkil’s other children were suckled on the same milk as Ghālib’s, and Ghālib delighted in them. When al-Muwaffaq acceded to the caliphate, he gave Ghālib lands and money and enriched him. Ghālib was like a father to al-Muwaffaq and would sit with him at table and anoint him with perfume with his own hands. [10.10.2] Ghālib once treated al-Muwaffaq for an arrow wound in his breast. Upon his recovery, the caliph gave Ghālib a great amount of money, lands, and robes of honour, and said to his servants, ‘Whoever wishes to honour me, let him honour and reward Ghālib.’ So Masrūr Masrūr was a powerful eunuch at the Abbasid court. See EI 2 art. ‘G̲h̲ulām’ (Halil İnalcık). sent him ten thousand gold dinars and one hundred robes. The other servants did the same, with the result that Ghālib became possessed of great wealth. [10.10.3] When Ṣāʿid and ʿAbdūn were arrested, Ṣāʿid ibn Makhlad Dhū l-wizāratayn (d. 276/889), his brother ʿAbdūn, and his two sons were arrested by al-Muwaffaq on 9th Rajab 272 [20 December 885]. See al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh , iii:2109; EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Mak̲h̲lad’ (D. Sourdel). a number of Christian mamluke servant boys belonging to ʿAbdūn ʿAbdūn, unlike his brother Ṣāʿid, had not converted to Islam and remained a Christian. were taken. Those of them who converted to Islam were given a stipend and set free. Those of them who did not convert to Islam were sent to Ghālib – seventy servant boys, some tethered and others not. When they arrived with a messenger from the Chamberlain, For this office, see EI 2 art. ‘Ḥād̲j̲ib’ (D. Sourdel, C.E. Bosworth, and A.K.S. Lambton). Ghālib said, ‘What am I do to with this lot?’, and rode out immediately to al-Muwaffaq and said, ‘This lot will consume the wealth of my estates as well as my own portion!’ At this, al-Muwaffaq laughed and ordered Ismāʿīl That is, Abū Ṣaqr Ismāʿīl ibn Bulbul al-Wazīr (d. 278/892), vizier to Caliph al-Muʿtamid and regent al-Muwaffaq. EI 2 art. ‘Ismāʿīl b. Bulbul’ (D. Sourdel). to add the Ḥarasiyyāt Reading uncertain and not in Yāqūt. The MSS read al-Ḥ-r-siyyāt . Le Strange, Baghdad during the Abbasid Caliphate , 222, mentions the nisbah al-Ḥarashī after one of the caliph al-Mahdī’s generals so perhaps these estates were associated with him. to Ghālib’s holdings. The Ḥarasiyyāt were magnificent estates yielding revenues of seven thousand gold dinars, and they were given to Ghālib at the low rate of fifty thousand silver dirhams per annum. [10.10.4] After serving al-Muwaffaq Ṭalḥah, Ghālib served al-Muwaffaq’s son, al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Allāh Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad, who held the physician in high regard, esteemed him greatly and treated him generously, relying as he did upon his medical treatment. [10.10.5] Thābit ibn Sinān ibn Thābit See Ch. 10.5. is the author of the following account: Ghālib the physician, who stood high in the Caliph’s esteem, died while with al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Allāh at Amida. Ar. Āmid. Principal city of Diyarbakr, see EI 2 art. ‘Diyār Bakr’ (M. Canard, Cl. Cahen, Mükrimin H. Yinanç, and J. Sourdel-Thomine). Al-Muʿtaḍid retook Amida in 286/899. Ghālib’s son, Saʿīd, See his entry Ch. 10.11. was also with al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Allāh at Amida. Al-Muʿtaḍid enjoyed Saʿīd’s company and favoured him above all the other physicians. News of Ghālib’s death reached al-Muʿtaḍid before Saʿīd had come to know of it, so when Saʿīd entered the caliph’s presence, al-Muʿtaḍid spoke first, offering him his condolences. ‘O Saʿīd,’ he said, ‘may you live long after what has befallen you.’ Saʿīd left for his encampment, sad and grieving, whereupon al-Muʿtaḍid sent the greatest of his servants – Khafīf al-Samarqandī, Bunān al-Ruṣāṣī, and Surkhāb of the Robes – after him, and they sat with him for a long time. When the news became public, all the leading men of the caliph’s entourage, from the vizier al-Qāsim ibn ʿUbayd Allāh See EI 2 art. ‘Wahb’ (C.E. Bosworth). and Muʾnis al-Khādim, That is Muʾnis al-Khādim as opposed to Muʾnis al-Khāzin or al-Faḥl. See EI 2 art. ‘Muʾnis al-Muẓaffar’ (C. Bowen). to those of lesser rank such as the Chief Eunuchs ( Ustādhīn ), the emirs, the commanders, and the governors according to their ranks, visited Saʿīd ibn Ghālib and offered their condolences for the loss of his father. At noon al-Muʿtaḍid sent trays of food and ordered Saʿīd not to retire before he and Dānīl, the scribe of Muʾnis, and Saʿdūn, the scribe of Yānis, who were Saʿīd’s brothers-in-law, being married to his two sisters, had all eaten from it. This he did, and al-Muʿtaḍid continued to visit him every day, divert him with conversation, entertain him and send trays of food, and this for seven days. The caliph also conferred upon Saʿīd all the privileges his father had enjoyed, such as his salary and pupils, and granted him the enjoyment These were iqṭāʿāt and as such technically not the property of the beneficiary. See EI 2 art. ‘Iḳṭāʿ’ (Cl. Cahen). of his father’s lands and estates, which, with his son, he held until the end of his life. 10.11 Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Ghālib This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. Saʿīd the son of Ghālib See previous entry Ch. 10.10. was a learned and knowledgeable physician, a good therapist who was renowned for his practice of the medical art. He served al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Allāh, That is, Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Ṭalḥah (r. 279–289/892–902), the sixteenth Abbasid Caliph and son of al-Muwaffaq. EI 2 art. ‘al-Muʿtaḍid Bi’llāh’ (H. Kennedy). who favoured him and treated him generously and kindly. Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Ghālib died in Baghdad on a Sunday with six days remaining of Jumādā I in the year 307 [22 October 909]. 10.12 ʿAbdūs This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. See Sezgin, GAS , iii: 264–265; and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 251 (not followed by IAU ). [10.12.1] ʿAbdūs was a physician of renown in Baghdad. He was a fine therapist and a good practitioner, was conversant with many compound drugs, and made many fine observations and effective interventions in his practice of medicine. [10.12.2] Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī Polymath (d. 310/923) known for his monumental books of universal history and Qur’anic commentary which are extant. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Ṭabarī’ (C.E. Bosworth). says in his Chronicles : The following account is attributed to the two physicians, Dāwūd ibn Daylam See Ch. 10.15. and ʿAbdūs: Al-Muʿtaḍid’s illness was dropsy and corruption of the constitution, with a number of causes. When it had become grave and he feared for his life, he summoned us and all the other physicians and said to us, ‘You say, do you not, that if the disease is known, its remedy will be known, and when the patient is given that remedy he will become well?’ ‘Indeed,’ we replied. ‘Then,’ he said, ‘do you know my disease and its remedy, or do you not?’ ‘We know them,’ we said. ‘Then why is it,’ he said, ‘that you treat me but I do not become well.’ Suspecting that he meant to cause our downfall, we were at a loss, but ʿAbdūs said, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, we stand by what we have said in this matter, but the problem is that we do not know the amount of the parts of the disease so that we may counter them like for like with the remedy. Indeed, we proceed in this matter by guesswork, beginning with the most proximate and then the next most proximate. We will examine this matter and counter the illness with what is most effective, God the exalted willing.’ At this, he let us go, and when we were alone we decided to place him in an oven, so we heated it up and placed him in it, and when he sweated his condition was alleviated, due to the illness entering his innards. Then it spread to his heart and he died after a few days, and so we were saved from what we had feared. This particular passage was not found in the published History of al-Ṭabarī, but a very similar story is related therein of the death from dropsy of the Caliph al-Wāthiq (d. 232/847). See al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh , iii:1363. Al-Muʿtaḍid died on the eve of Tuesday with seven days remaining of the month of Rabīʿ I in the year 289 [7 March 902]. [10.12.3] ʿAbdūs is the author of The Aide-mémoire on Medicine (K. al-Tadhkirah fī l-ṭibb) . This work was often quoted in al-Rāzī’s Ḥāwī and once in al-Bīrūnī’s K. al-Ṣaydanah , see Sezgin, GAS III , 265. 10.13 Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr ibn ʿAbdūs This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr ibn ʿAbdūs, see Sezgin, GAS III , 337, where he is placed in the first half of the 11th-century. [10.13.1] Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr ibn ʿAbdūs, whose agnomen was Abū Manṣūr, was at first a bloodletter in the hospital at Baghdad, after which he occupied himself with the practice of medicine and so distinguished himself that he became one of its great proponents and prominent personalities. [10.13.2] I quote here from the treatise of al-Mukhtār ibn Ḥasan ibn Buṭlān See below Ch. 10.38. in his own hand on the reason the most skilled physicians changed the regimen for most of those diseases, such as partial paralysis, facial paralysis, and lassitude, and the like, that had, of old, been treated with hot medicines to a cold regimen, and in doing so went against the prescriptions of the ancients. Ibn Buṭlān says: The first person in Baghdad to become aware of this method and to alert others to it and treat patients accordingly and dispense with other methods was shaykh Abū Manṣūr Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr ibn ʿAbdūs the physician, may God show him mercy. He would treat patients by letting their blood, and giving them cooling and moisture-inducing remedies and would not allow patients to take food. This regimen was very successful and he became foremost of his time after having been a bloodletter in the hospital. He became the chief physician upon whom kings depended for their regimens. In the hospital, Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr ibn ʿAbdūs changed the regimen of the patients from the hot salves ( maʿājīn ) and pungent medicaments that were in use to barley water and the juice of seeds, and this method of treatment worked wonders. [10.13.3] An example of this is what was related to me [Ibn Buṭlān] at Mayyāfāriqīn A town in the northeast of Diyār Bakr. See EI 2 art. ‘Mayyāfāriḳīn’ (V. Minorsky & C. Hillenbrand). by the Chief Abū Yaḥyā the son of the vizier Abū l-Qāsim al-Maghribī, On Abū l-Qāsim al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī, known as al-Wazīr al-Maghribī and al-Kāmil Dhū l-Wizāratayn (d. 418/1027) see EI 2 art. ‘al-Mag̲h̲ribī. 4’ (P. Smoor). who said: At al-Anbār, the vizier was struck by severe colic because of which he remained in the public baths and underwent a number of enemas and drank a number of potions but did not experience any improvement. Then we sent a messenger to Ṣāʿid who, when he came and saw the vizier’s condition whereby his tongue had shrunk from thirst and from drinking hot water and sugar, and his body was inflamed because of remaining in the baths and being treated with hot electuaries and sharp enemas, he called for a cup of iced water which he gave to the vizier who at first hesitated to drink it. Then he summoned up both his desire to drink it and his reluctance to go against the physician’s orders and drank it and immediately felt better. Ṣāʿid summoned a bloodletter and let a great amount of his blood and gave him the juice of some seeds, mandrake root, Ar. luʿāb . See Lev & Amar, Materia Medica , 212. and oxymel, and transported him from the bath chamber to the courtyard. He said to him, ‘The vizier – may God prolong his well-being – will sleep after the bloodletting and will sweat. Then he will wake and will make a number of evacuations having been favoured by God with good health.’ Then he sent away the servants so that he might sleep and the vizier got into his bed having found that his condition was alleviated after the bloodletting. He slept for five hours then woke shrieking for the bed attendant. Ṣāʿid said to the bed attendant, ‘When he stops shrieking, tell him to try to go back to sleep so that he does not stop sweating.’ When the bed attendant came out from being with him he said, ‘I found that it was as if his clothes had been dyed with saffron water. He made an evacuation and then slept.’ The vizier continued in this way making evacuations a number of times until the end of the day after which he was fed a light dish and given a drink of barley water. This continued for three days until he was completely cured. After this, the vizier always used to say, ‘Blessed is he who lives in Baghdad in a shore-house and whose physician is Abū Manṣūr and whose secretary is Abū ʿAlī ibn Mawṣilāyā, The Banū Mawṣilāyā were originally a Christian family, some of whose members converted to Islam to enter the caliphal administration. The first member recorded in the sources seems to be Wahb al-Mawṣilāyā; his son, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan is presumably the one mentioned by IAU . See Van Renterghem, Les élites bagdadiennes , 231, and genealogical table 7–2 (vocalised Mawṣalāyā); and Fiey, Chrétiens syriaques , 217 (vocalised Mūṣilāyā). and to whom God grants his wishes.’ [10.13.4] I quote also from the hand of Ibn Buṭlān that Ṣāʿid the physician treated the venerable al-Murtaḍā, That is, al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā, Imami scholar (d. 436/1044). See EI 2 art. ‘al-S̲h̲arīf al-Murtaḍā’ (C. Brockelmann). may God be best pleased with him, for a scorpion sting by dressing the area with camphor whereby the pain immediately subsided. [10.13.5] I quote Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī from the autograph copy of his book The Perils of Patricians due to the Errors of Physicians , who said: The vizier ʿAlī ibn Bulbul, who was in Baghdad, had a nephew who was struck with a sanguineous apoplexy but his true condition was not discovered by any of the physicians of the city. Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr was present amongst them but remained silent until all the physicians had pronounced the patient’s death and all hope had been lost and the vizier had begun to prepare for his funeral and the people had gathered to offer condolences and the women had gathered to beat their breasts and lament. When Ṣāʿid did not leave the vizier’s chamber the vizier said to him, ‘Is something the matter?’ He said, ‘Yes, Master, and if you permit and order it then I will speak of it.’ The vizier said. ‘Come, and tell me what is on your mind.’ Ṣāʿid said, ‘This is a sanguineous apoplexy and so there would be no harm in inserting a scalpel once to see what happens. If it succeeds then we will have achieved our aim and if not then no harm will have been done.’ At this the vizier became overjoyed and went about sending away the women and assembling the necessary embrocations, warm compresses, vapours, and inhalants, employing what was necessary. Then Ṣāʿid bound the patient’s upper arm and sat him in the lap of one of those in attendance and introduced the scalpel after explaining what was to be done for his condition. The blood flowed and the house erupted with joy and the blood continued to flow to the amount of three hundred drachms. Then the patient’s eyes opened although he did not yet speak. His other arm was bound and he was given such inhalants as were necessary and his blood was let once more to the same amount as before or even more. The patient spoke and was given food and drink as necessary and he was cured and his body was restored to health. On the fourth day he rode out to the grand mosque after which he went to the Caliph’s court. And he praised Ṣāʿid and showered him with a great amount of gold dinars and silver dirhams which made Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr the physician the possessor of great wealth. The Caliph and the vizier esteemed him highly and promoted him and praised him and he became foremost of all the people of his time. [10.13.6] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say: In his book on hypochondria, Maraḍ al-marāqqiyyā , apparently a form of hypochondria. Michael Dols renders marāqiyā as ‘hypochondriac melancholia’ (Dols, Majnūn , 66). The term does not apparently occur in the recent study of Rufus of Ephesus’s treatise on melancholy (Pormann, Rufus of Ephesus ), although a hypochondriac variety of melancholy is certainly discussed. Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr mentions the terrors he saw and the fearsome things he witnessed in his time as follows: We have experienced the oppression of the times and are occupied with seeking the bare necessities and are surrounded by fear, danger, and alarm, and the disputes of Rulers, not to mention the trials of constantly moving from place to place and losing books or having them stolen as well as other fearsome things for the alleviation of which we have only hope in God, hallowed be His name. Thus he relates of the disputes between the Islamic kings in his time while the people themselves were safe and secure from murder and captivity. Had he witnessed what we have witnessed and seen what we have seen in our time from the Tatars who have annihilated God’s creatures and destroyed the land and who, whenever they come to a city, have no thought but to kill all the men therein and enslave the children and women and pillage and raze castles and cities, had he seen all this he would reckon what he has mentioned to be little and count what he has seen as being nothing in comparison. But there is no calamity that is not surpassed by a greater calamity and no event which does not lead to a graver event, and may God be praised for safety and well-being. [10.13.7] Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr composed for one of his contemporaries a work on hypochondria and its treatment ( M. fī Maraḍ al-marāqqiyyā wa-mudāwātihi ). 10.14 Daylam This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. [10.14.1] Daylam was a physician of note in Baghdad and was one of the foremost practitioners of the art of medicine. He used to visit al-Ḥasan ibn Makhlad, the vizier of al-Muʿtamid, and was in his service. [10.14.2.1] I have found in a certain chronicle that al-Muʿtamid ʿalā Allāh, that is, Aḥmad ibn al-Mutawakkil, wished to have his blood let and said to al-Ḥasan ibn Makhlad, ‘Write down the names of all the physicians who are in our service, so that I may have you reward each of them according to his merit.’ When al-Ḥasan ibn Makhlad wrote the names, he included the name of Daylam the physician, who was in his own service. Al-Muʿtamid duly signed underneath the names, authorizing the rewards. [10.14.2.2] Daylam himself continues: I was sitting in my house when the messenger from the treasury arrived with a moneybag containing one thousand gold dinars, which he handed over to me and left. I did not know the reason for this, so I rode out at once to al-Ḥasan ibn Makhlad, who was at that time the vizier, and informed him of it. ‘The Commander of the Faithful underwent bloodletting,’ he explained, ‘and he ordered me to write down the names of all the physicians, so that he might reward them. I included your name with them, and one thousand gold dinars was your due.’ 10.15 Dāwūd ibn Daylam This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. Dāwūd ibn Daylam was a distinguished physician of Baghdad who excelled as a therapist. He was in the service of al-Muʿtaḍid bi-Allāh and was favoured by him. The Caliph’s decrees used to be issued in the handwriting of Ibn Daylam, owing to the physician’s high position and the Caliph’s regard for him. He often used to visit the palaces of al-Muʿtaḍid, from whom he received many great benefits and favours. Dāwūd ibn Daylam died on Saturday the fifth of Muḥarram in the year 329 [10 October 940] in Baghdad. 10.16 Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Yaʿqūb al-Dimashqī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. A short notice about him is given in Ch. 9.36. For references, see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 298; (Sayyid), 2/1:304; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 409, and Sezgin, GAS III , 82, 85, 159, 166 (where some of Abū ʿUthmān al-Dimashqī’s translations are mentioned). Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Yaʿqūb al-Dimashqī was a physician of note in Baghdad who translated a great many books of medicine and other subjects into Arabic. He served the vizier ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā as his personal physician. Twice vizier under al-Muqtadir bi-Allāh. See EI Three art. ‘ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā b. Dāʾūd b. al-Jarrāḥ’ (Maaike L.M. van Berkel). According to Thābit ibn Sinān, the physician: See Ch. 10.3. In the year 302/924–925 Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā, the vizier, founded the hospital at al-Ḥarbiyyah Al-Ḥarbiyyah is a great and well known quarter by the Ḥarb gate in Baghdad near to the tombs of Bishr al-Ḥāfī, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and others. Named after Ḥarb ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Balkhī, also known as al-Rāwandī, one of Abū Jaʿfar al-Manṣūr’s generals. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-Buldān (Wüstenfeld), ii:234. at his own expense and placed Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Yaʿqūb al-Dimashqī as physician in charge of it and of all the other hospitals in Baghdad, and in Mecca and Medina. One of the sayings of Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Yaʿqūb al-Dimashqī is: ‘Patience is a faculty of the intellect, and the strength of one’s patience will be commensurate with the strength of one’s intellect.’ Abū ʿUthmān Saʿīd ibn Yaʿqūb al-Dimashqī is the author of the following works: 1. Questions compiled from Galen’s book On Character Traits ( Masāʾil jamaʿahā min kitāb Jālīnūs fī l-Akhlāq ). De moribus ; Fichtner no. 412. 2. A treatise on the pulse, in branch-diagram format For a discussion, with illustrations, of Galenic summaries arranged in branch-diagram ( tashjīr ) format, see Savage-Smith, ‘Galen’s Lost Ophthalmology’, 122–134. ( M. fī l-Nabḍ mushajjarah ), compiled from Galen’s Small Book of the Pulse ( K . al-Nabḍ al-ṣaghīr li-Jālīnūs ). De pulsibus ad Tirones ; Fichtner no. 61. 10.17 al-Raqqī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Bābānī, Hadiyyat al-ʿārifīn , ii:36; Kaḥḥālah, Muʿjam al-muʾallifīn , ix:279. The nisbah al-Raqqī relates to the well-known city of al-Raqqah. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Raḳḳa’ (M. Meinecke). Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn al-Khalīl al-Raqqī was eminent in the practice of the art of medicine and conversant with all its principles and branches. He was a good teacher and a fine therapist, and is the first person I know of to have commented on the medical questions of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq. For Ḥunayn and his work, see Chs. 8.29, and 9.2. He composed his commentary on that book in the year 330 [941–942]. According to ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl: This work is likely The Merits of Physicians ( K. Manāqib al-aṭibbāʾ ), which IAU and Ibn al-Qifṭī quote often. See Ch. 8.6 no. 2. It is said of al-Raqqī that he would work on his commentary only while drunk, and in this he was quite a rarity. Though I have seen the same thing in a person who used to engage in writing poetry: whenever he wished to compose a few lines, he would find some way of obtaining date-wine, Ar. nabīdh , a mildly alcoholic drink made from honey, barley, raisins, or dates fermented in water. See EI 2 art. ‘Nabīd̲h̲’ (P. Heine). which he would drink and then sit down to compose. This was because the brain tends to be cold, but when heated by the vapours of the date-wine it would be stimulated and acquire the propensity for action. Al-Raqqī is the author of a commentary on the [ Medical ] Questions of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq ( Sharḥ Masāʾil Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq ). For this work of Ḥunayn and extant commentaries, see Sezgin, GAS III , 249–251, where al-Raqqī is not mentioned. 10.18 Quwayrā This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 262; (Sayyid), 2/1:197–198 (which is virtually identical to IAU ’s version); Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 77, and Bābānī, Hadiyyat al-ʿārifīn , i:5, where his death date is given as approximately 295/907–908. IAU ’s manuscripts give the form F-w-th-r-y . Quwayrī/Quwayrā is mentioned in the cycle of Alexandria-to-Baghdad narratives (by al-Masʿūdī and al-Fārābī) as one of the pupils of the Ḥarranians who brought the Aristotelian tradition to Baghdad. See Gutas, ‘Alexandria’, 165. Quwayrā, whose given name was Ibrāhīm and whose agnomen was Abū Isḥāq, was eminent in the philosophical sciences and was among those who taught the science of logic. He was a commentator. Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnān See Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 263; (Sayyid), 2/1:201. was his student. Quwayrā’s books are disregarded and avoided because his style was vague and obscure. He is the author of the following works: 1. Commentary on the Categories , in branch-diagram format ( K. Tafsīr Qāṭīghūriyās mushajjar ). 2. On Interpretation , in branch-diagram format ( K . Bārīmīniyās mushajjar ). 3. Prior Analytics , in branch-diagram format ( K. Anūlūṭīqā al-awwal mushajjar ). 4. Posterior Analytics , in branch-diagram format ( K. Anūlūṭīqā al-thānī mushajjar ). 10.19 Ibn Karnīb This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 263; (Sayyid), 2/1:198; and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 169. Abū Aḥmad al-Ḥusayn ibn Abī al-Ḥusayn Isḥāq ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Zayd All the editions of Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ read ‘Yazīd’. al-Kātib, who was known as Ibn Karnīb, was counted amongst the theologians and was a proponent of the doctrines of the natural philosophers. He was a man of the utmost merit, possessing deep knowledge and expertise in the ancient natural sciences. Abū Aḥmad ibn Karnīb is the author of the following works: 1. Refutation of Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Qurrah’s denial of the necessity of the existence of two stases between every two equal motions ( K. al-Radd ʿalā Abī l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Qurrah fī nafyihi wujūb wujūd sukūnayn bayna kull ḥarakatayn mutasāwiyatayn ). See Sezgin, GAS III , 262. 2. Treatise on genera and species ( M. fī l-Ajnās wa-l-anwāʿ ), that is, on general matters ( al-umūr al-ʿāmmiyyah ). Or ‘universals’. 3. On determining the passage of the hours of the day by the altitude [of the sun] ( K. kayfa yuʿlam mā maḍā min al-nahār min sāʿah min qibal al-irtifāʿ ). 10.20 Abū Yaḥyā al-Marwazī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 263; (Sayyid), 2/1:200; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 435, where the name appears as ‘ al-Marwalrūzī [clearly after Marw al-Rūdh (town in Khorasan), not to be confused with Marw/Merv] wa-yuqālu lahu al-Marwazī ’ The nisbah refers firstly to Merv, and secondly to al-Marāwizah, a quarter in Baghdad contiguous with al-Ḥarbiyyah where the people of Merv used to dwell. See Yaqūt, Muʿjam al-Buldān (Wüstenfeld), iv:480, who says that the quarter was a ruin at the time of his writing. Both Ibn al-Nadīm and Ibn al-Qifṭī add right after this entry the biography of another physician named Abū Yaḥyā al-Marwazī. Abū Yaḥyā al-Marwazī was a physician of renown in the City of Peace [Baghdad] and was a philosopher of distinction. Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnān See next biography, Ch. 10.21. studied under him. He was a man of great merit. However, he was a Syrian, and all his books on logic and other subjects are in Syriac. 10.21 Mattā ibn Yūnān This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Sezgin, GAS IX , 99, 100, 229, 235–236; EI 2 art. ‘Mattā b. Yūnus’ (G. Endress); Endress, ‘Die Bagdader Aristoteliker’, 290–300; Sezgin, The School of Baghdad (4th–5th/10–11th cent.) and its achievements . Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnān al-Qunnāʾī was from Dayr Qunnā A famous Nestorian monastery on the banks of the Tigris south of Baghdad. See EI 2 art. ‘Dayr Ḳunnā’ (D. Sourdel); EI 2 art. ‘Nasṭūriyyūn’ (R. Holmberg). and was educated at the School of Mar Mārī. The school of Mar Mārī was within the monastery of Dayr Qunnā, and is thought to have been named after Saint Mari, that is, Palūṭ Bishop of Edessa (c. 200  AD ), church missionary to Mesopotamia and Persia. See Bibliotheca Orientalis iii, 2: cmxxx. For the life and works of Mar Mari, see Saint-Laurent, Missionary stories and the formation of the Syriac churches , 56–71. Mattā was a pupil of Quwayrā, See Ch. 10.18. Rūfīl, This name appears as Rufīl, Rūbīl or Rūbēl, all transcriptions of the Hebrew Reuben (‮רְאוּבֵן‬‎). On this scholar see Kraemer, Philosophy in the Renaissance of Islam , 99. He is mentioned in Ch. 15.1. Binyāmīn, Yaḥyā al-Marwazī, See Ch. 10.20. and Abū Aḥmad ibn Karnīb. See Ch. 10.19. He translated from Syriac to Arabic and was the principal logician of his time. He was a Christian and translated many books of Aristotle See Ch. 4.6. and others into Arabic. For Mattā as translator, see Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist (Flügel), 244, 248–251 (for works of Aristotle), 263–264 (biography); (Sayyid), 2/1:161–172 and 201–202 respectively; Sezgin, GAS III , 240, VII , 229; and generally, Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture ; Walzer, Greek into Arabic ; Endress, ‘Die Bagdader Aristoteliker’. Abū Bishr Mattā died in Baghdad on a Saturday the eleventh of the month of Ramaḍān in the year 328 [20 June 940]. Mattā is the author of the following works: For bibliography including extant MSS and published works, see Sezgin, GAS III , 240; EI 2 art. ‘Mattā b. Yūnus’ (G. Endress); Endress, ‘Die Bagdader Aristoteliker’. To this the following publications may be added: An Arabic version and French translation of Alexander of Aphrodisias’ Peri pronoias ; see also Ch. 4.8 (no. 12), apparently translated by Mattā into Arabic as M. fī l-ʿInāyah , see Thillet, Traité de la providence , and for an Italian translation of the same, see Fazzo & Zonta, La provvidenza ; A study of Mattā’s extant commentaries on the Physica with a useful introduction to his life is to be found in Janos, ‘Abū Bishr Mattā ibn Yūnus’s Cosmology’; For Mattā on the Poetica , see Edzard, ‘A new look at the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic versions of Aristotle’s Poetics’. For recent work on Mattā’s famous discussion with al-Sīrāfī on the relative merits of logic and grammar as related by al-Tawḥīdī, see Ouyang, ‘Literature and Thought’, and Adamson & Key, ‘Philosophy of language in the medieval Arabic tradition’. 1. Treatise on prolegomena ( M. fī l-muqaddimāt ), with which he prefaced the Book of Analytics ( K. Anūlūṭīqā ). 2. On hypothetical syllogisms ( K. al-Maqāyīs al-sharṭiyyah ). Syllogisms in which the premises are conditionals ( sharṭiyyah ) were not considered to be true syllogisms by Aristotle but were developed by his pupil Theophrastus. See, for example, Barnes, Terms and Sentences ; Speca, Hypothetical Syllogistic and Stoic logic . 3. Commentary on Porphyry’s Isagoge ( Sharḥ K . Isāghūjī li-Farfūriyūs ). For a modern English translation of the Isagoge , see Porphyry, Introduction . 10.22 Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Sezgin, GAS   I , 620; III  303–304, 349; V , 309; VII , 226, 230; VIII , 113; IX , 230, 235; EI 2 art. ‘Yaḥyā b. ʿAdī’ (G. Endress); Endress, ‘Die Bagdader Aristoteliker’, 301–324; Sezgin, The School of Baghdad (4th–5th/10–11th cent.) and its achievements . [10.22.1] Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī ibn Ḥamīd ibn Zakariyyā, the logician, was the leading scholar of his time in knowledge of the philosophical disciplines. He studied under Abū Bishr Mattā, See Ch. 10.21. Abū Naṣr al-Fārābī, See Ch. 15.1. and others, and was peerless in his age. He was a Jacobite Christian. That is, The Syrian Orthodox Church. See EI 2 art. ‘Yaʿḳūbiyyūn’ (H.G.B. Teule). He had a good knowledge of translation and translated from Syriac to Arabic. Yaḥyā wrote a great deal, and I have found a number of books written in his hand. This paragraph follows Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist (Flügel), 264; (Sayyid), 2/1:202. [10.22.2] Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm of Baghdad says in his book The Catalogue : This passage appears in Ibn al-Nadīm, al-Fihrist (Flügel), 264; (Sayyid), 2/1:202. The anecdote is also quoted in Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 361. Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī said to me one day in the stationers’ market, after I had reproached him for the amount of his copying, ‘What is it that amazes you about me now? Is it my patience, since I have made two copies in my own hand of the Qur’anic Commentary of al-Ṭabarī That is, Tafsīr al-Ṭabarī or K. Jāmiʿ al-bayān fī tafsīr al-Qurʾān . The 1903 Cairo edition of this monumental work runs to 30 volumes. For Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn Jarīr al-Ṭabarī, see EI 2 art. ‘al-Ṭabari’ (C.E. Bosworth). and sent them to the rulers of the various regions, have copied countless numbers of the books of the scholastics, and have taken it upon myself to write one hundred folios or fewer in a single day and night?’ [10.22.3] The emir Abū l-Wafāʾ al-Mubashshir ibn Fātik Fl. 5th/11th century. See Ch. 14.23; EI 2 art. ‘al-Mubas̲h̲s̲h̲ir b. Fātik’ (F. Rosenthal). says: My master, Abū l-Ḥasan, who is known as al-Āmidī, See Ch. 15.22; EI 2 art. ‘al-Āmidī’ (D. Sourdel). related to me that he had heard from Abū ʿAlī ibn Isḥāq ibn Zurʿah See Ch, 10.23. that Abū Zakariyyā Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī, when he was dying Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 363, gives the date of Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī’s death as 21 Dhū l-Qaʿdah 364 [2 August 975]. in the Church of St. Thomas at Qaṭīʿat al-Daqīq, had asked him to have the following two verses inscribed on his grave: Metre: khafīf . The lines are by ʿĪsā ibn al-wazīr ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā; see al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād (ed. Bashshār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf), xii:515; Ibn al-Jawzī, Muntaẓam , xv:30–31. They are also quoted in Ch. 14.22 (entry on Ibn al-Haytham). Many a dead man has come to life again through his knowledge, and many who are spared are already dead in their ignorance and impotence. Tārīkh Baghdād has ghayyā , ‘error’, instead of ʿiyyā . Therefore, acquire knowledge so that you may live forever; do not think a life spent in ignorance is worth anything. [10.22.4] Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī is the author of the following works: 1. A treatise refuting the arguments put forward in support of the doctrine that human acts are creations of God and acquisitions of man ( R. fī naqḍ ḥujaj kāna anfadhahā fī nuṣrat qawl al-qāʾilīn bi-ann al-afʿāl khalq li-Allāh wa-iktisāb li-l-ʿibād ). 2. A commentary on Aristotle’s Topica ( Tafsīr K. Ṭūbīqā li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). 3. A treatise on “the four investigations” ( M. fī l-buḥūth al-arbaʿah ). 4. A treatise on self conduct ( M. fī siyāsat al-nafs ). 5. A treatise on the nature, essence, and subject of the art of logic which he named “Guidance to the Path of Salvation for those who Stray” ( Hidāyah li-man tāha ilā sabīl al-najāh ). 6. A treatise on the “five requisites” of the “eight headings” ( M. fī l-maṭālib al-khamsah li-l-ruʾūs al-thamāniyah ). For an edition, English translation, and study of this treatise which has only recently come to light, see Wisnovsky, ‘Yaḥyā b. ʿAdī’s Discussion’. Cf. al-Jāḥiẓ, Ḥayawān , i:101–102, where he quotes ‘Democritus’; al-Maqrīzī, Khiṭaṭ , i:3. (Cairo edition). 7. A book on the benefits, dangers, and practice of sexual intercourse ( K. fī manāfiʿ al-bāh wa-maḍārrihi wa-jihat istiʿmālih ), written at the suggestion of the Sharīf Abū Ṭālib Nāṣir ibn Ismāʿīl the companion of his majesty who resides in Constantinople. See, Sezgin, GAS   III , 304. 10.23 Abū ʿAlī ibn Zurʿah This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 264; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 245; Sezgin, GAS III  147, 148, 351, 352; Endress, ‘Die Bagdader Aristoteliker’, 325–332. [10.23.1] Abū ʿAlī ʿĪsā ibn Isḥāq ibn Zurʿah ibn Marqus ibn Zurʿah ibn Yūḥannā, a Christian of Iraq, was a prominent scholar in the domains of logic and the philosophical sciences, and was also a good translator. Ibn Zurʿah was born in the month of Dhū l-Ḥijjah in the year 371 [May-June 982] This birth-date is obviously wrong, as can be seen from the date of composition of the last work listed below. Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 264; (Sayyid), 2/1:204; and Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 245 give the birth-date 331/942–943. in Baghdad where he grew up. He was a frequent companion and associate of Yaḥyā ibn ʿAdī. See Ch. 10.22. [10.23.2] I quote here from a manuscript of the treatise of al-Mukhtār ibn Ḥasan ibn Buṭlān, See Ch. 10.38. written in his own hand, on the reason the skilled physicians changed the regimen for most of those diseases that had, of old, been treated with hot medicines to a cold regimen, such as hemiplegia, That is, total or partial paralysis of one side of the body only. facial paralysis, lassitude and the like, and in doing so went against the prescriptions of the Ancients. Ibn Buṭlān says: The first person in Baghdad to conceive of this method and to alert others to it and treat patients accordingly, dispensing with other methods, was shaykh Abū Manṣūr Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr the physician, See Ch. 10.13. may God show him mercy. For I heard him say: The first time it occurred to me to introduce this change was in the case of the hemiplegia that struck our master Abū ʿAlī ibn Zurʿah, may God show him mercy. Abū ʿAlī was a man with an emaciated body and a sharp mind. He was loquacious and delightful company, and he constantly taught, translated, and wrote books. He loved cold, pungent, and fried foods, salt fish, and all types of cold foods prepared with mustard. Towards the end of his life he was intent on preparing a treatise on the eternity of the soul. He spent nearly a year thinking about it, remaining awake at night, intent as he was on working on it. He was also involved in trade with Byzantines, but had encountered difficulties in that connection, because he had a number of competitors, Syrian traders, who had taken him to court several times, with the result that his goods had been impounded, and he had had a number of distressing experiences. In sum, because of the combination of his inherent hot temperament, his unwholesome diet, the fatigue of his mind from writing, and his troubles with competitors and dealings with the authorities, he was stricken with an acute illness and disorder of the mind which culminated in hemiplegia, just as other patients’ illnesses may culminate in inflammations and the like. The public thought highly of him due to his learning, and the skilled physicians such as Ibn Baks, See Ch. 10.42. Ibn Kashkarāyā See Ch. 10.31. the pupil of Sinān, See Ch. 10.4. the sons of Kazūrā, and al-Ḥarrānī, came together and proposed a regimen based on that which is prescribed in the medical compendiums. I, who was unable to disagree openly with the other physicians because of their status, used to say, ‘By God they are mistaken, for this is hemiplegia resulting from an acute illness in a person of a hot constitution.’ Eventually the other physicians wearied of this regimen of theirs, and I changed it to moisture-inducing foods, whereupon his situation was a little alleviated and a cure was in sight. After a time he died in the year 448 [1056–1057] IAU ’s date is mistaken. Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al - ḥukamāʾ , 246, quotes Hilāl ibn al-Muḥassin ibn Ibrāhīm (the Sabian) as giving the date of death for Ibn Zurʿah as Friday with seven days remaining of Shaʿbān in the year 398; this day is, however, a Sunday. If we read tisaʿ , ‘nine’ instead of sabaʿ ‘seven’, which is a common scribal mistake, this would give Friday 20th of Shaʿban [6 May 1008]. of a regimen excessive in dry and cold foods, resulting in a petrifaction in the rear of the brain arising from atrabilious humours. [10.23.3] Abū ʿAlī ibn Zurʿah is the author of the following works: 1. Abridgement of Aristotle’s book On the Inhabited World ( Ikhtiṣār Kitāb Arisṭūṭālīs fī l-maʿmūr min al-arḍ ) Unclear. 2. On the aims of Aristotle’s logical books ( K. Aghrāḍ kutub Arisṭūṭālīs al-manṭiqiyyah ). 3. On the concepts of Porphyry’s Isagoge ( M. fī maʿānī Kitāb Īsāghūjī ). 4. On the concepts of a portion of book three of [Aristotle’s] On the Heavens [ De Caelo ] ( M. fī maʿānī qiṭʿah min al-maqālah al-thālithah min Kitāb al-Samāʾ ). 5. On the intellect ( M. fī l-ʿaql ). 6. On the cause of the illumination of the planets although they and the spheres which bear them are of a single substance and are non-compounded ( M. fī ʿillat istinārat al-kawākib maʿa annahā wa-l-kurāt al-ḥāmilah lahā min jawhar wāḥid basāʾiṭ ). 7. Epistle to one of his friends, written in the year 387 [997–998]. This is most likely the treatise edited by Sbath from a manuscript that presents it as: wa-lahu maqālah ʿamilahā li-baʿḍ al-yahūd fī sanat sabaʿ wa-thamānīn wa-thalāthimiʾah, wa-huwa Bishr ibn Finḥās ibn Shuʿayb al-Ḥāsib . See Sbath, Vingt traités , 19–52. I – Ibn Abī ʿUṣaybiʿah – say that in this epistle there are refutations against the Jews. I have found an epistle of Bishr ibn Bīshī, who is known as Ibn ʿAnāyā the Israelite, in which he refutes ʿĪsā ibn Isḥāq ibn Zurʿah in reply to this epistle of his. 10.24 Mūsā ibn Sayyār This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Abū Māhir Mūsā ibn Yūsuf ibn Sayyār was a physician renowned for his mastery and excellent knowledge of the art of medicine. Mūsā ibn Sayyār is the author of the following works: 1. On bloodletting ( M. fī l-Faṣd ). 2. Addenda to the ‘Boot Compendium’ of Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn ( al-Ziyādah allatī zādahā ʿalā Kunnāsh al-Khuff li-Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn ). See Ch. 8.30.6 no. 2 for Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn’s treatise. Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 317, mentions a commentary by Mūsā Ibn Sayyār on the Kunnāsh of Ibn Sarābiyūn but not of Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn. 10.25 ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 232; Sezgin, GAS III  320–322, EI 2 art. ‘ʿAlī b. al-ʿAbbās’ (C. Elgood), EI Three art. ‘ʿAlī b. al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī’ (F. Micheau). ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī Al-Majūsī’ means ‘the Zoroastrian’, which here refers to his ancestors, because he himself was a Muslim, as his name proves. was from al-Ahwāz. Town in Susiana (Khūzistān) Province, Iran. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Ahwāz’ (L. Lockhart). He was an excellent physician who distinguished himself in the practice of medicine. It was ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās who composed the famous book known as The Royal Book ( al-Kitāb al-Malakī ) for the ruler ʿAḍud al-Dawlah Fannā Khusraw ibn Rukn al-Dawlah Abī ʿAlī Ḥasan Also: al-Ḥasan . ibn Buwayh al-Daylamī. Būyid Emir (d. 372/983). See EI 2 art. ‘ʿAḍud al-Dawla’ (H. Bowen); EI Three , ‘ʿAḍud al-Dawla’ (J.J. Donohue). It is a magnificent book treating of all parts of the medical art, both the theoretical and the practical. ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī studied the medical art with Abū Māhir Mūsā ibn Sayyār See Ch. 10.24. and became a disciple of his. ʿAlī ibn al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī is the author of The Royal Book of Medicine ( K. al-Malakī fī l-ṭibb ), in twenty discourses ( maqālāt ). This book is also known as The Complete Book of the Medical Art ( K. Kāmil al-ṣināʿah al-ṭibbiyyah ). See Sezgin, GAS III , 321–322; Savage-Smith, NCAM -1 , 193–206. For the Royal Book’s influence on the Latin west, see Burnett & Jacquart, Constantine the African and ʿAlī ibn ʿAbbās al-Maǧūsī . The scribe of MS R adds in margin a quote from Barhebraeus: ‘Abū l-Faraj says: “This is an excellent book, greatly appreciated by [al-Majūsī’s] contemporaries; it continued to be studied until the appearance of Ibn Sīnā’s Canon , which gained the favor of people whilst the Royal Book was left aside.” He also says: “The Royal Book is more far-reaching in terms of practical knowledge, and the Canon more reliable for the theorerical aspects”. End [of the quote].’ (Barhebraeus, Mukhtaṣar (Beirut edn.), 175). For its influence on the Latin west, see Burnett & Jacquart, Constantine the African and ʿAlī ibn ʿAbbās al-Maǧūsī . 10.26 ʿĪsā the Physician of al-Qāhir This biography appears in Version 2 and 3 of the book. Ibn al-Qifṭī has a short entry in which the name of this physician appears as ʿĪsā ibn Yūsuf known as Ibn al-ʿAṭṭārah (‘the son of the female perfume maker’), see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 250. Al-Qāhir bi-Allāh, whose name was Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn al-Muʿtaḍid, relied implicitly on ʿĪsā, his physician, and would confide in him. ʿĪsā, the physician of al-Qāhir, died in Baghdad in the year 358/968–969, having become blind two years before his death. Thābit ibn Sinān See Ch. 10.5. says in his chronicle: ʿĪsā told me that he [ʿĪsā the physician] had been born in the middle of Jumādā I in the year 271 [November 884]. 10.27 Dāniyāl the Physician This biography appears in all three versions of the book. ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl See Ch. 8.6. The work in question is Merits of Physicians ( K. manāqib al-aṭibbāʾ ). reported: Dāniyāl the Physician was of a delicate disposition, with malformed limbs. He was a man of mediocre learning, although he had some conversance with therapeutics. He was heedless and arrogant. Dāniyāl was in the service of Muʿizz al-Dawlah ibn Buwayh. One day he visited the emir. ‘Dāniyāl,’ said the emir, and Dāniyāl replied, ‘At your service, my lord.’ ‘Is it not your opinion,’ said the emir, ‘that quince causes constipation if taken before food, but has a purgative effect if taken after food?’ ‘Indeed,’ Dāniyāl replied. ‘Well,’ said the emir, ‘when I took it after food, it bound my viscera.’ ‘This is not natural in humans!’ said Dāniyāl, whereupon Muʿizz al-Dawlah struck Dāniyāl’s chest with his hand and said to him, ‘Go, and don’t come back until you learn the etiquette of service to kings!’ Dāniyāl left, coughing up blood, and continued to do so until he died shortly afterwards. Ubayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl continues: This is an example of a fatal error on the part of the learned. There have been other such cases. Some stomachs are weak and are unable to expel their contents, but quince strengthens them and assists in expelling their contents, so that nature performs its duty. I myself have seen someone who, whenever he wished to induce vomiting, drank sweetened wine or quince oxymel and was able to vomit as he wished. ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl goes on to say: My father Jibrīl See Ch. 8.5. related that whenever the emir Abū Manṣūr Mumahhid al-Dawlah, may God show him mercy, drank a quince beverage it would purge him. The causes of these matters are well known, and this was naught but an error on Dāniyāl’s part that led to his demise. 10.28 Isḥāq ibn Shalīṭā This biography appears in Version 3 of the book. Isḥāq ibn Shalīṭā was a physician of Baghdad who was very skilled in medicine. His skill brought him advancement, until he entered the service of al-Muṭīʿ li-Allāh, whom he served exclusively. He died during al-Muṭīʿ’s lifetime. He was succeeded by Abū l-Ḥusayn ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Daḥlī. See Ch. 10.29. Isḥāq shared the medical care of al-Muṭīʿ with Thābit ibn Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah al-Ḥarrānī the Sabian. See Ch. 10.5. 10.29 Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Daḥlī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Daḥlī was a physician to the Caliph al-Muṭīʿ li-Allāh, who held him in high regard and whom he served exclusively. ʿUbayd Allāh [ibn Jibrīl] See Ch. 8.6. says, Someone in whom I have confidence related to me that Ibn al-Daḥlī was not in the least bit shy of al-Muṭīʿ, and when al-Muṭīʿ dismissed Abū Muḥammad al-Ṣilḥī, his secretary, Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn al-Daḥlī was the go-between in favour of Abū Saʿīd Wahb ibn Ibrāhīm, who in due course was appointed to the post of the Caliph’s secretary, in which he remained for a time. Later, Abū l-Ḥusayn intervened on behalf of the son-in-law of Abū Bishr al-Baqarī, and he was appointed secretary. Abū Saʿīd Wahb had remained in post until, when al-Ṭāʾiʿ became Caliph, he was arrested and was imprisoned until Bakhtiyār and ʿAḍud al-Dawlah entered Baghdad and the Caliph had fled. When the gates of the prisons were broken down, he was released. 10.30 Fannūn the Physician This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Fannūn was a prominent physician employed exclusively in the service of Bakhtiyār, who valued him greatly and honoured him. ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl See Ch. 8.6. says: One anecdote about Fannūn is the following: Once, when Bakhtiyār was suffering from ophthalmia, he said to Fannūn, ‘O Abū Naṣr! By God, you will not leave my side until my eyes are cured, and I want them to be cured in a single day.’ He wouldn’t take no for an answer. ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl continues, I have heard from Abū Naṣr himself that he said to Bakhtiyār, ‘If you wish to be cured, order the chamberlains and servants to obey my orders instead of you this day. I will take your place, and whoever disobeys my orders I will kill.’ This Bakhtiyār did. Abū Naṣr ordered a vessel full of sugar syrup to be brought, and when it came he plunged Bakhtiyār’s two hands into the syrup and then set about treating his eyes with white eye powder and other medications suitable for opthalmia. Bakhtiyār began to shout for the servants, but none of them would answer him, and Fannūn continued to treat his eyes until the end of the day, when he was cured. Fannūn was also the mediator between Bakhtiyār and the Caliph. Whenever robes of honour were to be bestowed, it was he who bestowed them. He himself had more of them than anyone else. 10.31 Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn Kashkarāyā This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Sezgin, GAS III , 309. Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn Kashkarāyā is not to be equated with Yaʿqūb al-Kashkarī (or al-Kaskarī), who worked in Baghdadi hospitals in the 920s during the reign of al-Muqtadir and who is not mentioned by IAU ; for the latter, see Pormann, ‘Islamic Hospitals’; Pormann, ‘Theory and Practice’; and Pormann, ‘Al-Kaskarī’. Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn Kashkarāyā was a knowledgeable physician who was renowned for his skill and proficiency in the art of medicine, having been known as a good practitioner. He was in the service of the emir Sayf al-Dawlah ibn Ḥamdān, but when ʿAḍud al-Dawlah built the hospital which bears his name in Baghdad, he employed Ibn Kashkarāyā in it and furthered his career. Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn Kashkarāyā was loquacious and loved to embarrass other physicians by questioning them and taking them unawares. He had a brother who was a monk. He also invented an enema which was effective in expelling afterbirths and acute disease matter. Hence he was known as the ‘Master of the Enema’. Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn Kashkarāyā studied the art of medicine with Sinān ibn Thābit ibn Qurrah On Sinān ibn Thābit see Ch. 10.4. Ibn al-Qifṭī says that he was known as ‘the student of Sinān’ ( Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 403). and was one of his greatest students. Abū l-Ḥusayn ibn Kashkarāyā is the author of the following works: 1. A medical compendium known as the Comprehensive Book ( al-Ḥāwī ). 2. Another medical compendium named after its patron. 10.32 Abū Yaʿqūb al-Ahwāzī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 436. Abū Yaʿqūb al-Ahwāzī was renowned as a practitioner of medicine with impressive methods. He was one of the physicians placed by ʿAḍud al-Dawlah in the hospital he founded in Baghdad that bears his name. Abū Yaʿqūb al-Ahwāzī is the author of a treatise on the fact that oxymel made from seeds is hotter than theriac ( M. fī anna al-sikanjubīn al-buzūrī aḥarr min al-tiryāq ). 10.33 Naẓīf al-Qass al-Rūmī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 337 (as Naẓīf al-Nafs al-Rūmī) and Barhebraeus, Mukhtaṣar , 175. Naẓīf the Roman (Melkite) Priest was an expert in languages and used to translate from Greek to Arabic. He was highly regarded in the art of medicine, and ʿAḍud al-Dawlah employed him in the hospital he founded in Baghdad. ʿAḍud al-Dawlah used to regard Naẓīf as a bad omen, but the public used to love him whenever he visited any patient. It has been related that ʿAḍud al-Dawlah once sent Naẓīf to one of his generals who had fallen ill. When Naẓīf had left, the general called for his trusted servant and sent him to ʿAḍud al-Dawlah’s chamberlain to inquire about the emir’s attitude toward him. If the emir was no longer favourably disposed toward him, he said, the servant should ask permission for him to tender his resignation and leave, for the physician’s visit had made him anxious. The chamberlain asked the servant about the reason for this, and he said, ‘I only know that Naẓīf the physician came to him and said, “Master, the emir has sent me to visit you in your illness.” ’ The chamberlain went and repeated this conversation to the emir, who laughed and ordered him to go and assure the general of his continued good will, and to explain that he had simply been concerned for him and had sent Naẓīf to visit him. Fine robes of honour were also sent out to the general. As a result, he was relieved and his anxiety left him, and for that reason he always loved Naẓīf. 10.34 Abū Saʿīd al-Yamāmī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 407, who states that al-Yamāmī died between 421/1030 and 430/1039. Abū Saʿīd al-Yamāmī was renowned for his skill, knowledge, and proficiency in the art of medicine, excelling as he did in its principles and branches. He wrote a number of admirable works. Abū Saʿīd al-Yamāmī is the author of the following: 1. Commentary on the [ Medical ] Questions of Ḥunayn ( Sharḥ Masāʾil Ḥunayn ). 2. Treatise on the examination and classification of physicians ( M. fī imtiḥān al-aṭibbāʾ wa-kayfiyyat al-tamayyuz bayna ṭabaqātihim ). 10.35 Abū l-Faraj ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Yamāmī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Abū l-Faraj ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Yamāmī was knowledgeable about the art of medicine and a distinguished scholar in the philosophical sciences. He met with the master Ibn Sīnā See Ch. 11.13. and they discussed many questions in the art of medicine and other domains. Abū l-Faraj ibn Abī Saʿīd al-Yamāmī is the author of an epistle on a medical question he had discussed with al-Shaykh al-Raʾīs Ibn Sīnā ( R. fī masʾalah ṭibbiyyah dārat baynahu wa-l-Shaykh al-Raʾīs Ibn Sīnā ). Abū l-Faraj wrote an epistle criticizing Ibn Sīnā that received a refutation from the philosopher, see Ch. 11.13, no. 23 ( Maqālah fī l-quwā al-ṭabīʿiyyah ilā Abī Saʿīd al-Yamāmī ). The name there is given in IAU ’s MSS as Abū Saʿd instead of Saʿīd. Although the name Abū Saʿīd seems to refer to his father (10.34), the addressee is clear from the title in al-Bayhaqī’s Tatimmah : R. Ilā Abī l-Faraj al-Yamāmī . For Ibn Sīnā’s refutation see Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition , 516 (GMed 10). 10.36 Abū l-Faraj Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā This biography appears in Version 2 and 3 of the book. Abū l-Faraj Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā was a physician of renown who was knowledgeable in the art of medicine and an excellent practitioner. I quote here from a manuscript of the treatise of Ibn Buṭlān, See Ch. 10.38. written in his own hand, on the reason the master physicians changed the regimen for most of those diseases that had, of old, been treated with hot medicines to a cold regimen, such as hemiplegia, facial paralysis, lassitude and the like, and in doing so went against the prescriptions of the ancients. Ibn Buṭlān says: The eminent shaykh Abū l-Faraj Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā, the physician at Anṭākiyah, this paragon of our own times who was a banner of knowledge and foremost in religion and humanitas and who wrote magnificent works, related the following account to me: A servant boy of the Emperor came to us from Constantinople. He was a Byzantine and a youth who had a poor and hot temperament, a hardening of the spleen, and a changed complexion due to a preponderance of yellow bile. His urine was red most of the time, and he had a thirst. One physician gave him a purgative, then let his blood, and then he gave him an emetic, but his condition worsened. A Byzantine physician made him enter the bath-house and smeared his entire body with a depilatory paste ( nūrah ), Nūrah as used in the bathhouse as a depilatory, is a paste containing lime and quicklime, sometimes with arsenic and other substances. See Levey, Medical Formulary , 340–341 no. 309. after which he smeared it with the honey of bees and bound his stomach with a hot bandage. The boy’s temperament intensified, his thirst became severe, and he lost his appetite and was immediately stricken with hemiplegia in his right side. He was given barley water frequently, and his lassitude was cured on the fortieth day. Then his system That is, his bowels would not move. stopped working: he was given enemas, and he passed a number of movements consisting of thick black blood. Nothing would avail him: his appetite ceased completely, and eventually he was overcome by persistent sleeplessness and died on the sixtieth day. 10.37 Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib This biography appears in all three versions of the book. See Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 223 (not followed by IAU ). [10.37.1] Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib, the philosopher, paragon, and scholar, was secretary to the Catholicos and was a distinguished Christian of Baghdad. He taught the art of medicine in the ʿAḍudī Hospital where he also treated patients. [10.37.2] I have found Abū l-Faraj’s commentary on Galen’s book written for Glaucon Ad Glauconem de methodo medendi . Fichtner no. 70. which was read back to him and authorised in his own handwriting in the ʿAḍudī Hospital on Thursday the eleventh of the month of Ramaḍān in the year 400 [28 April 1010]. Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib was a physician renowned in the art of medicine and was of great importance and station and with vast knowledge. He composed a great deal and was expert in philosophy and greatly occupied by it. He wrote commentaries on many of the philosophical books of Aristotle, and commented on many books of Hippocrates and Galen in the art of medicine. He had a great capacity for composition, and most of what is extant of his compositions were transmitted from him by way of dictation in his own words. He was a contemporary of the principal master Ibn Sīnā who used to praise Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib’s discourses on medicine. However, he used to criticize his philosophical discourses. In this regard, Ibn Sīna says in an epistle composed to refute him: Ibn Sīnā and Ibn al-Ṭayyib disliked each other, see Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition , 59–60, 62–63; and Riesman, The Making of the Avicennan Tradition , 123 n. 32. Their mutual animosity is also reported by al-Bayhaqī ( Tatimmah , 27–28), but omitted by Ibn al-Qifṭī, who simply states that Avicenna praised Ibn al-Ṭayyib ( Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 223). IAU ’s quote comes from Ibn Sīnā’s refutation of Ibn al-Ṭayyib’s On the Natural Faculties , edited in Ülken, İbn Sina risâlerei , i:66–71. I came across some medical books written by the shaykh Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib and I found them correct and satisfactory, contrary to his works on logic, natural philosophy and related topics. [10.37.3] The master Muwaffaq al-Dīn Yaʿqūb ibn Isḥāq ibn al-Quff the Christian See Ch. 15.60. related to me that two men from Persia once came to Baghdad to meet with Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib and to study with him and occupy themselves with him. When they arrived they entered Baghdad and inquired about the house of Abū l-Faraj but were told that he was in the church for prayer. They went there, entered the church and were shown a certain venerable man who was Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib. At that moment Abū l-Faraj was to be seen wearing a woollen garment, bareheaded and carrying a thurible on chains in which incense was burning. He was traversing the four corners of the church with the thurible spreading incense. The two men regarded him, conversed together in Persian and continued to stare at him in amazement to see him in such a manner and doing what he was doing, he being a great philosopher whose great reputation in philosophy and medicine had reached the remotest lands. Abū l-Faraj understood what the two men were thinking and when the prayer had ended and the people left the church, Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib also left and donned his usual clothes and his mule was given to him and he rode off with his servants about him. The two Persian men followed him to his house and informed him that they had come from Persia to seek him out so that they might find occupation with him and join his students. Abū l-Faraj summoned them to his salon and they listened to his discourses and the lessons for those who were studying with him. Then he said to them, ‘Have you never been on the pilgrimage?’ They said, ‘No.’ So he postponed allowing them to study with him until the pilgrimage season came which was quite near. When the pilgrimage was announced he said to them, ‘If you wish to study with me and for me to be your teacher then you must go to the pilgrimage. And when you return safely, God willing, you will have all the occupation you seek from me.’ They accepted and went on the pilgrimage. When the pilgrims returned the two men came to him shortly afterwards. They were bald, Presumably because shaving the head is one of the duties of the pilgrim. and emaciated because of the heat of the sun and the travelling. Abū l-Faraj asked them about the rituals of the pilgrimage and what they had done there and they gave him an idea of it. Then he said to them, ‘When you saw the pillars were you clothed only in the ‘sash’, Presumably ‘sash’ refers to the iḥrām pilgrims’ garment. and did you have stones in your hands and run and pelt them?’ When they said that they had he said, ‘This is as it should be. Religious matters are learned from tradition and not by means of the intellect.’ What he meant by this is that he only told them to go on the pilgrimage so that they would realise that the state they saw him in which amazed them is rooted in religious matters which are learned from the authorities and accepted and abided by in all nations. After this they occupied themselves with him until they distinguished themselves and became two of the greatest of his students. [10.37.4] Abū l-Khaṭṭāb Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭālib See his entry Ch. 10.60. in The Comprehensive Book of Medicine says that Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib studied with Ibn al-Khammār See Ch. 11.8. and his own students were Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Buṭlān, See Ch. 10.38. Ibn Badraj, al-Harawī, the sons of Ḥayyūn, Abū l-Faḍl Kutayfāt, See also Ch. 10.58.2. Ibn Uthrudī, ʿAbdān, Ibn Maṣūṣā, and Ibn al-ʿUlayyiq. Physicians contemporary to Abū l-Faraj were Ṣāʿid ibn ʿAbdūs, See Ch. 10.13. Ibn Tuffāḥ, Ḥasan the physician, the sons of Sinān, See Ch. 10. 3–5. al-Nātilī, with whom Ibn Sīnā studied, Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Khurshīd al-Ṭabarī al-Nātilī, editor and adaptor of the Arabic translation of Dioscorides’ Materia medica , see Ch. 11.13.2.3. ff. the principal Abū ʿAlī ibn Sīnā, See Ch. 11.13. Abū Saʿīd al-Faḍl ibn ʿĪsā al-Yamāmī, See Ch. 10.34. who, I have been told, was a student of Ibn Sīnā, ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Hilāl the scribe who I think is known as Baks, ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Kaḥḥāl, See Ch. 10.50. Abū l-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, See Sezgin, GAS III , 340. Rajāʾ the physician of Khorasan, and Zahrūn. [10.37.5] Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Ṭayyib wrote the following books: For mention of medical works, see Sezgin, GAS III , 30, 35, 38, 41, 80–85, 87, 90–91 et passim . 1. A commentary on Aristotle’s Categories ( Tafsīr K. Qāṭīghūriyās li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). 2. A commentary on Aristotle’s On Interpretation ( Tafsīr K. Bārīmīniyās li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). 3. A commentary on Aristotle’s Prior Analytics ( Tafsīr K. Anālūṭīqā al-ūlā li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). 4. A commentary on Aristotle’s Posterior Analytics ( Tafsīr K. Anālūṭīqā al-thāniyah li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). 5. A commentary on Aristotle’s Topics ( Tafsīr K. Ṭūbīqā li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). 6. A commentary on Aristotle’s Sophistic Refutations ( Tafsīr K. Sūfisṭīqā li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). 7. A commentary on Aristotle’s Rhetoric ( Tafsīr K. al-Khiṭabah li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). 8. A commentary on Aristotle’s Poetics ( Tafsīr K. al-Shiʿr li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). 9. A commentary on Aristotle’s Book of Animals ( Tafsīr K. al-Ḥayawān li-Arisṭūṭālīs ). This includes the Historia animalium and related works. see EI Three , art. ‘Aristotle and Aristotelianism’ (C. d’Ancona). 10. A commentary on Hippocrates’ Epidemics ( Tafsīr K. Abīdhīmiyā li-Buqrāṭ ). Cf. Ch. 4.1.9.1 no. 8, Ch. 5.1.37 no. 95. For the following three titles, see Ch. 4.1.9.1 nos. 4, 2, 9. 11. A commentary on Hippocrates’ Aphorisms ( Tafsīr K. al-Fuṣūl li-Buqrāṭ ). 12. A commentary on Hippocrates’ Nature of Man ( Tafsīr K. Ṭabīʿat al-insān li-Buqrāṭ ). 13. A commentary on Hippocrates’ Humours ( Tafsīr K. al-Akhlāṭ li-Buqrāṭ ). 14. A commentary on Galen’s Sects ( Tafsīr K. al-Firaq li-Jālīnūs ). For the Galen works, see Ch. 5.1.37 nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 8 (with note on On Anatomy, To Beginnners = Small Book of Anatomy , and title no. 21 Anatomical Procedures = Great Book of Anatomy ), 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 84 (with 85 for the title Regimen for Healthy People ). For the Sixteen Books and the Summaria Alexandrina (title 30), see Chs 5.2.1, 6.1.1 (John the Grammarian and others), Ch. 6.3 (Ibn Riḍwān’s account of the Sixteen in his Useful Book ). As with the list of commentaries ascribed to John in Ch. 6, the order and wording of the Galen works in titles 14–29 here reflects Ibn Riḍwān’s presentation. 15. A commentary on Galen’s Small Art ( Tafsīr K. al-Ṣināʿah al-ṣaghīrah li-Jālīnūs ). 16. A commentary on Galen’s Small Book of the Pulse ( Tafsīr K. al-Nabḍ al-ṣaghīr li-Jālīnūs ). 17. A commentary on Galen’s To Glaucon ( Tafsīr K. Aghlawqun li-Jālīnūs ). 18. A commentary on Galen’s Elements ( Tafsīr K. al-Usṭuqussāt li-Jālīnūs ). 19. A commentary on Galen’s Mixtures ( Tafsīr K. al-Mizāj li-Jālīnūs ). 20. A commentary on Galen’s Natural Faculties ( Tafsīr K. al-Quwā al-ṭabīʿiyyah li-Jālīnūs ). 21. A commentary on Galen’s Small Book of Anatomy ( Tafsīr K. al-Tashrīḥ al-ṣaghīr li-Jālīnūs ). 22. A commentary on Galen’s Causes and Symptoms ( Tafsīr K. al-ʿIlal wa-l-aʿrāḍ li-Jālīnūs ). 23. A commentary on Galen’s Classification of the Diseases of the Internal Parts ( Tafsīr K. Taʿarruf ʿilal al-aʿḍāʾ li-Jālīnūs ). 24. A commentary on Galen’s Great Book of the Pulse ( Tafsīr K. al-Nabḍ al-kabīr li-Jālīnūs ). 25. A commentary on Galen’s Fevers ( Tafsīr K. al-Ḥummayāt li-Jālīnūs ). 26. A commentary on Galen’s Crises ( Tafsīr K. al-Buḥrān li-Jālīnūs ). 27. A commentary on Galen’s Critical Days ( Tafsīr K. Ayyām al-buḥrān li-Jālīnūs ). 28. A commentary on Galen’s Method of Healing ( Tafsīr K. Ḥīlat al-burʾ li-Jālīnūs ). 29. A commentary on Galen’s Regimen for Healthy People ( Tafsīr K. Tadbīr al-aṣiḥḥāʾ li-Jālīnūs ). 30. Anthology of Galen’s Sixteen Books ( Thimār al-sittah ʿashr kitāban li-Jālīnūs ); this is an abridgement of the Summaries . 31. An exposition of a selection from the Medical Questions of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq ( Sharḥ thimār Masāʾil Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq ), which he dictated in the year 405 [1014–1015]. 32. Book of medical and philosophical topics and selections ( K. al-Nukat wal-thimār al-ṭibbiyyah wal-falsafiyyah ). 33. A commentary on Porphyry’s Isagoge ( Tafsīr K. Īsāghūjī li-Furfūriyūs ). 34. On the natural faculties ( M. fī l-Quwā al-ṭabīʿiyyah ). 35. On the reason that drugs exist to expel all the humours except for blood ( M. fī l-ʿillah lima juʿila li-kull khilṭ dawāʾ yastafrighuh wa-lam yujʿal li-l-dam dawāʾ yastafrighuh mithl sāʾir al-akhlāṭ ). 36. Notes about the eye ( Taʿālīq fī l-ʿayn ). 37. On dreams and distinguishing between true and false ones according to the doctrines of philosophy ( M. fī l-aḥlām wa-tafṣīl al-ṣaḥīḥ minhā min al-saqīm ʿalā madhhab al-falsafah ). 38. On diviners who inform about things lost and proving the authenticity of this by religious, medical, and philosophical means ( M. fī ʿarrāf akhbara bi-mā ḍāʿa wa-dhikr al-dalīl ʿalā ṣiḥḥatih bil-sharʿ wa-l-ṭibb wa-l-falsafah ). 39. On wine ( M. fī l-sharāb ). 40. A treatise which he dictated in answer to a question posed to him about refuting the belief in indivisible particles [atomism] ( M. amlāhā fī jawāb mā suʾila ʿanhu min ibṭāl al-iʿtiqād fī l-ajzāʾ allatī lā tanqasim ). This question was posed to him by Ẓāfir ibn Jābir al-Sukkarī. I have found the following in the handwriting of Ẓāfir ibn Jābir al-Sukkarī in a copy of this treatise saying, ‘This book is in the hand of our master the great teacher Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Barzaj the student of the master Abū l-Faraj, may God prolong his life and crush his enemies, who dictated it to him in Baghdad at the behest of Ẓāfir ibn Jābir ibn Manṣūr al-Sukkarī the physician, and this is the epitome of a book on the subject.’ 41. An exposition of Galen’s Uses of the Parts ( Sharḥ K. Manāfiʿ al-aʿḍāʾ li-Jālīnūs ). 42. A short treatise on love ( Maqālah mukhtaṣarah fī l-maḥabbah ). 43. An exposition of the Gospels ( Sharḥ al-Injīl ). 10.38 Ibn Buṭlān This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ullmann, Medizin , 157–158, 192; EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Buṭlān’ (J. Schacht); EI Three , art. ‘Ibn Buṭlān’ (H. Elkhadem); DSB , art. ‘Ibn Buṭlān’ (R. Arnaldez); Conrad, ‘Ibn Buṭlān in Bilād al-Shām ’. [10.38.1] Abū l-Ḥasan al-Mukhtār ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdūn ibn Saʿdūn ibn Buṭlān, a Christian of Baghdad, had become associated with Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib See Ch. 10.37. and became one of his students. Under his tutelage he became proficient in many books of philosophy and other topics. He also kept the company of the physician Abū l-Ḥasan Thābit ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Zahrūn al-Ḥarrānī See Ch. 10.8 above. and studied with him and benefitted from his knowledge of the art and practice of medicine. [10.38.2] Ibn Buṭlān was a contemporary of the Egyptian physician ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān, For biography, see Ch. 14.25. and the two of them exchanged extraordinary letters and shocking and astonishing writings. Neither of them would compose a book nor form any opinion without the other responding to it and exposing the folly of his opinion. I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have seen examples of their correspondence and their criticisms of one another. See Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy for texts and translations of the bitter correspondence between the two men. Ibn Buṭlān travelled from Baghdad to Egypt intending to see ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān and meet with him. He made this journey from Baghdad in the year 439 [1047–1048]. When he reached Aleppo, he settled there for a time and was treated kindly and greatly honoured by Muʿizz al-Dawlah Thimāl ibn Ṣāliḥ. [10.38.3] Ibn Buṭlān entered Fustat (Old Cairo) at the beginning of Jumādā II in the year 441 [November 1049] and remained there for three years. This was during the reign of al-Mustanṣir bi-Allāh, one of the Egyptian Caliphs. Many incidents took place between Ibn Buṭlān and Ibn Riḍwān during that time including some entertaining stories that are not without useful lessons. A great deal of it is contained in a book composed by Ibn Buṭlān after he left Egypt following his meeting with Ibn Riḍwān, who also wrote a book in reply. As IAU states below (title no. 4) and Schacht and Meyerhof point out, Ibn Buṭlān wrote the first of his epistles refuting Ibn Riḍwān while being in Cairo ( Medico-Philosophical Controversy , p. 110 n. 6). It is likely that the book referred to by IAU is Ibn Buṭlān’s Waqʿat al-aṭibbāʾ , a satire against Ibn Riḍwān from which he quotes below. Ibn Buṭlān was more eloquent, charming, and more distinguished in belles-lettres and the like than Ibn Riḍwān. This is proven by what Ibn Buṭlān includes in the epistle of his which he named The Banquet of the Physicians . Ibn Riḍwān was the better physician and was more learned in the philosophical and related disciplines. Ibn Riḍwān was swarthy in colour and and was not handsome in appearance. He composed a treatise on this subject in reply to those who had faulted him for his ugliness. He claims to demonstrate in this treatise that the physician of merit does not need to have a beautiful face. Most of Ibn Buṭlān’s criticisms of ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān were of this type. Hence, in his epistle that he named The Battle of the Physicians ( Waqʿat al-aṭibbāʾ ), Ibn Buṭlān says of Ibn Riḍwān: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:238. When his face showed itself to the midwives they turned on their heels in regret, Saying (but lowering their voices for decency’s sake), ‘Ah, if only we had left him in the womb!’ He also used to nickname Ibn Riḍwān the Crocodile of the Jinn. [10.38.4] Ibn Buṭlān journeyed from Egypt to Constantinople where he remained for a year. During this time many pestilential diseases occurred. I quote the following from what he wrote in his own hand about this matter: One of the famous calamities of our time was that which occurred when the ‘star leaving traces’ Ar. al-kawkab al-āthārī (the star leaving traces ) , apparently referring to the supernova that appeared in 1054 ( SN 1054). A similar terminology was used by Ibn Riḍwān when describing a supernova that appeared in 1006. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Nud̲j̲ūm, iii: other celestial objects’ (P. Kunitzsch); Goldstein, ‘Evidence for a suprnova’; and Velusamy, ‘Guest Stars: historical supernovae and remnants’. rose in Gemini in the year 446/1054. By the autumn of this year fourteen thousand souls were buried in the Church of St. Luke after all the other burial grounds in Constantinople had been filled. By midsummer of the year 447/1055 the Nile had not risen and most of the inhabitants of Fustat and Damascus died along with all the foreigners, except those whom God spared. The devastation then went on to Iraq and destroyed most of its inhabitants, and it suffered ruin from the blows of aggressor armies. This continued until the year 454/1062. In most of the lands people suffered from melancholic ulcers ( qurūḥ sawdāwiyyah ) and swellings of the spleen ( awrām al-ṭiḥāl ), and there was a change in the pattern of paroxysms during fevers and the normal system of crises was disturbed. Consequently the ability to predict was affected. After this, Ibn Buṭlān continues: Because this ‘star leaving traces’ rose in the sign of Gemini, which is the ascendant of Egypt, The zodiacal sign rising at the local eastern horizon was called a ‘rising sign’ or ‘ascendant’. The assignment of an ascendant to countries, cities, and even rivers can be found in an anonymous cosmography composed in Egypt between 1020 and 1050; see Rapoport & Savage-Smith, Egyptian Guide , 467, 473, 494. It is not, however, a common feature of medieval astrology. the pestilence occurred in Fustat, with the Nile failing to rise during its appearance in the year 445 [1053–1054], Here a mistake was made in that the year should have been given as 446, as in the previous paragraph; the mistake is repeated in all copies. and Ptolemy’s The reference is to the 2nd-century AD Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy and his defence of astrology, known as the Tetrabiblos (‘the four books’). See Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos , though this particular statement has not been identified in the Greek treatise. warning of woe to the people of Egypt when one of the comets The phrase al-kawākib dhawāt al-dhawāʾib (stars possessing wisps of tails) was the comon designation of both comets and meteors. That IAU earlier used the much less common term al-kawkab al-āthārī (the star leaving traces) suggests that he did not make a clear distinction between comets, meteors, and nova. The text here suggests a meteor shower in Gemini. ascends and becomes abundant in Gemini came true. When Saturn descended into the sign of Cancer, the ruin of Iraq, Mosul, and al-Jazīrah was complete, and Diyār Bakr, Diyār Rabīʿah, Diyār Muḍar, Fārs, Kirmān, the lands of the West, the Yemen, Fustat, and Syria became desolate. The kings of the earth were in disarray, and war, inflation of prices, and pestilence proliferated, and Ptolemy’s words that when there is a conjunction of Saturn and Mars in Cancer the world will be in upheaval proved true. For a study of the famine, devestation, calamity and political upheavel that spread across Iran, Iraq, and Egypt following the year 1054, see Ellenblum, The Collapse of the Eastern Mediterranean , 59–160. I quote the following also from Ibn Buṭlān’s own hand regarding what he had to say regarding the great pestilences that affected learning through the loss of scholars during his time. He says: What happened over the course of a dozen or so years was the loss of the venerable al-Murtaḍā, That is, al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā (d. 436/1044), the famous Imāmī theologian; see EI 2 art. ‘ al-S̲h̲arīf al-Murtaḍā ’ (C. Brockelmann). the shaykh Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī, Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī (d. 436/1044), the Muʿtazilite theologian; see EI 2 art. ‘Abū ’l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī’ (W. Madelung). the Jurist Abū l-Ḥasan al-Qudūrī, Abū l-Ḥasan (or al-Ḥusayn) al-Qudūrī (d. 428/1037), Ḥanafī jurist; see EI 2 art. ‘al-Ḳudūrī, Abū ’l-Ḥusayn/al-Ḥasan Aḥmad’ (M. Ben Cheneb). Chief Justice al-Māwardī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥabīb al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058), Shāfiʿī jurist; see EI 2 art. ‘al-Māwardī’ (C. Brockelmann). and Abū l-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī, Qadi Abū l-Ṭayyib Ṭāhir ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṭāhir al-Ṭabarī (d. 450/1058), Shāfiʿī jurist; see EI 2 art. ‘al-Ṭabarī’ (E. Chaumont). may God’s good pleasure be upon them. And among the proponents of the sciences of the Ancients there was Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Haytham, Ibn al-Haytham (d. c. 430/1039); see his biography in Ch. 14.22. Abū Saʿīd al-Yamāmī, See above biography 10.34. Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Samḥ, Schacht and Meyerhof suggest that this is the Andalusī astronomer Abū l-Qāsim Aṣbagh ibn al-Samḥ, on whom see Ch. 13.6. He might also be identified with the Iraqi logician and Aristotelian commentator Abū ʿAlī ibn al-Samḥ (d. 418/), whose biography can be read in Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 411. Ṣāʿid the physician, That is, Ṣāʿid ibn Bishr ibn ʿAbdūs, see above biography 10.13. and Abū l-Faraj ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ṭayyib. See above biography 10.37. Among those at the forefront in literature and writing there were ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Rabaʿī, ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā al-Rabaʿī (d. 420/1029), the Baghdadi grammarian. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Rabaʿī’ (G. Troupeau); also al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh Baghdād , xiii:463, Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xiv:78, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxi:374. Abū l-Fatḥ al-Nīsābūrī, Schacht & Meyerhof ( Medico-Philosophical Controversy , 63 n. 23) suggest that this might be identified with the scholar and littérateur Abū l-Qāsim al-Ḥasan b. Muḥammad al-Nīsābūrī (d. 406/1015–1016), on whom see EI 2 art. ‘al-Nīsābūrī’ (F. Malti-Douglas). Mihyār the poet, Mihyār b. Marzawayh al-Daylāmī (d. 428/1037), the famous Shīʿī poet; see EI 2 art. ‘Mihyār’ (Ch. Pellat). Abū l-ʿAlāʾ ibn Nazīk, Schacht & Meyerhof ( Medico-Philosophical Controversy , 63 n. 25) suggest that this might be a misspelling for ʿAbd al-Ṣamad b. Manṣūr b. al-Ḥasan Ibn Bābak (d. 416/1019), a Baghdadi poet. Abū ʿAlī ibn Mawṣilāyā, The Christian secretary of the vizier Abū al-Qāsim al-Maghribī, see above 10.13.3. the chief Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ṣābiʾī, Abū l-Ḥasan Hilāl al-Ṣābiʾ (d. 448/1056), the famous secretary and man of letters with whom Ibn Buṭlān corresponded; see EI 2 art. ‘Hilāl b. al-Muḥassin b. Ibrāhīm al-Ṣābiʾ’ (D. Sourdel). and Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī (d. 449/1058), the famous Arabic author; see EI 2 art. ‘al-Maʿarrī’ (P. Smoor). And so the lanterns of learning were snuffed out and, after their passing, the minds of men remained in darkness. [10.38.5] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that Ibn Buṭlān composed a great deal of poetry and amusing anecdotes, some of which he included in the treatise of his which he named The Banquet of the Physicians , and in other books of his. Ibn Buṭlān died without ever marrying or fathering a child. Hence he says in some of his verses: Metre: ṭawīl . If I die no one will lament my death, weeping, except my medicine class and books. [10.38.6] Ibn Buṭlān wrote the following treatises: 1. A compendium for monasteries and monks ( Kunnāsh al-adyirah wa-l-ruhbān ). See Jadon, ‘Ibn Butlān’s Medical Manual for the Use of Monks’. 2. On the purchase of servants and inspecting slaves and maidservants ( Risālah fi shirāʾ al-ʿabīd wa-taqlīb al-mamālīk wa-l-jawārī ). See Swain, Economy, Family and Society , 270–279 with bibliography. 3. A tabular guide to health ( Taqwīm al-ṣiḥḥah ) See Elkhadem, Tacuini sanitatis . 4. On drinking purgatives ( Maqālah fī shurb al-adwiyah al-mus′hilah ). 5. An essay on how nutriment enters the body, is digested, and the waste expelled, and the giving of purgatives and their composition ( Maqālah fī kayfiyyat dukhūl al-ghidhāʾ fī l-badan wa-haḍmih wa-khurūj faḍalātih wa-saqy al-adwiyah al-mus′hilah wa-tarkībihā ). 6. An essay addressed to ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān ( Maqālah ilā ʿAlī ibn Riḍwān ) when he [Ibn Buṭlān] arrived in Fustat in the year 441 [1049–1050], answering what he had written to him. This is the third treatise edited in Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy , 47–71 (Ar. Section). 7. An essay on the reason the skilled physicians changed the regimen for most of the diseases which were, of old, treated with hot medicines to a cold regimen such as hemiplegia, facial paralysis, lassitude, and the like, and by doing so went against the prescriptions of the Ancients in their compendia and medical formularies ( M. Fī ʿillat naql al-aṭibbāʾ al-maharah tadbīr akthar al-amrāḍ allatī kānat tuʿālaj qadīman bi-l-adwiyah al-ḥārrah ilā al-tadbīr al-mubarrad ka-l-fālij wa-l-laqwah wa-l-istirkhāʾ wa-ghayrihā wa-mukhālafatihim fī dhālika li-masṭūr al-qudamāʾ fī l-kanānīsh wa-l-aqrābādhīnāt ). And how they gradually brought this into practice in Iraq and its environs beginning in the year 377 [987–998] until 455 [1063–1064]. Ibn Buṭlān composed this essay in Anṭākiyah in the year 455 [1063–1064], at which time he had begun to build the hospital at Anṭākiyah. IAU quotes from this treatise several times in this chapter. 8. An essay using logical methods on objections to those who held that the hatchling is hotter than the pullet. This he composed in Cairo in the year 441 [1049–-1050]. This is the refutation of a treatise by al-Yabrūdī (Ch. 15.3, no. 1) which stirred a quarrel with Ibn Riḍwān, who was friends with al-Yabrūdī. For an edition of this treatise see Schacht & Meyerhof, Medico-Philosophical Controversy , 34–39 (Ar. section); for a study of the polemic see Conrad, Scholarship and Social Context . 9. An introduction to medicine ( K. al-Mudkhal fī l-ṭibb ). 10. The banquet of the physicians ( K. Daʿwat al-aṭibbāʾ ), Ibn Buṭlān, Daʿwat al-aṭibbāʾ (trns. Klein-Franke); Ibn Buṭlān, Daʿwat al-aṭibbāʾ (ed. Klein-Franke); Ibn Buṭlān, Daʿwat al-aṭibbāʾ (trns. Dagher & Troupeau); Ibn Buṭlān, Daʿwat al-aṭibbāʾ (trns. Sedky). which he composed for the emir Naṣr al-Dawlah Abū Naṣr Aḥmād ibn Marwān. Naṣr al-Dawlah Aḥmad ibn Marwān, the Marwānid ruler of Mayyāfāriqīn and Diyār Bakr (r. 401–453/1010–1060). I quote from Ibn Buṭlān’s own hand where he says at the end of it, ‘I, the compiler, being Yawānīs the physician known as al-Mukhtār ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdūn, at the monastery of the Munificent King Constantine on the outskirts of Constantinople, completed copying this at the end of September of the year 1365.’ As Schacht & Meyerhof ( Medico-Philosophical Controversy , 66 n. 38), this is the Seleucid Era ( Anno Graecorum ), which starts in 312/11  BC . These are his words, and according to the Islamic calendar this was in the year 450/1058. 11. The battle of the physicians ( K. Waqʿat al-aṭibbāʾ ). The text is currently being edited and studied by I. Sánchez. 12. The banquet of the priests ( K. Daʿwat al-qusūs ). Edited in Khalīfah, Daʿwat al-qusūs ; for a French translation see Ibn Buṭlān, Le banquet des prêtres . 13. An essay on treating a child suffering from [bladder or kidney] stones ( M. fī mudāwāt ṣabiyy ʿaraḍat lahū ḥaṣwah ). 10.39 al-Faḍl ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. Mentioned briefly in Sezgin, GAS III , 337, where ‘al-Tikrītī’. Yāqūt ( Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), i:861) confirms Takrīt ( bi-fatḥ al-tāʾ ) as the correct form of this well-known town between Baghdad and Mosul, while he says it is popularly pronounced Tikrīt (as indeed it still is today). Al-Faḍl ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī was very well versed in the sciences, eminent in the art of medicine, and good at treating patients. He served as physician to the emir Naṣīr al-Dawlah ibn Marwān. Al-Faḍl ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī is the author of a treatise on the names of diseases and their etymologies ( M. fī asmāʾ al-amrāḍ wa-ishtiqāqātihā ), which he wrote for one of his contemporaries, namely Yūḥannā ibn ʿAbd al-Masīḥ. See Sezgin, GAS III , 337. Yūḥannā ibn ʿAbd al-Masīḥ is the author of a medical work entitled al- Zubad al-ṭibbiyyah , which has survived (Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica , 232 no. 117). 10.40 Abū Naṣr Yaḥyā ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. Abū Naṣr Yaḥyā ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī was equal to his brother That is al-Faḍl ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī. See previous entry Ch. 10.39. in knowledge, eminence, and distinction in the art of medicine. He was still alive in the year 472 [1079–1080]. Yaḥyā ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī is the author of the following works: 1. Selections on astrology ( K. al-Ikhtiyārāt fī ʿilm al-nujūm ). 2. On coitus and the benefits and harm of sexual intercourse ( K. fī l-Bāh wa-manāfiʿ al-jimāʿ wa-maḍārrihi ). 3. Epistle (written for Kāfī l-Kufāh Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Jahīr) See Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , v:134. on the benefits and practice of exercise ( R. fī manāfiʿ al-riyāḍah wa-jihat istiʿmālihi ). A marginal note in MS R states: ‘Gloss: Abū Naṣr is also the author of The Opener [ of the Ways ] of Wisdom ( K. al-Fātiq fī l-ḥikmah ), a treatise demonstrating that man is a microcosmos ( K. fī l-bayān [sic] kawn al-insān ʿālaman ṣaghīran ), (Cf. Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Risālah no. 26: ‘fī qawl al-ḥukamāʾ inna l-insān ʿālam ṣaghīr ); the Treasure of the proficient physician ( K. Dhakhīrat al-ṭabīb al-māhir ), a treatise on why the hot medicines used by Hippocrates and Galen in their time have been abandoned today ( Maqālah fī l-sabab alladhī li-ajlihi turika fī hādha l-zamān istiʿmāl al-adwiyah al-ḥārrah allatī kāna yastaʿmiluhā Buqrāṭ wa-Jālīnūs fī zamānihim ).’ The topic of this last treatise was also treated by Ibn Butlān in a treatise from which IAU quotes several times in this chapter and elsewhere, see 10.38 no. 7. 10.41 Ibn Dīnār This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. Ibn Dīnār lived in Mayyāfāriqīn An important town in the northeast of Diyār Bakr. See EI 2 art. ‘Mayyāfāriḳīn’ (V. Minorsky & C. Hillenbrand). during the time of the emir Naṣr al-Dawlah ibn Marwān. Naṣr al-Dawlah Aḥmad ibn Marwān, (r. 401–453/1011–1061), Marwānid ruler of Diyār Bakr and Mayyāfāriqīn. See EI 2 art. ‘Naṣr al-Dawla’ (H. Bowen); Bosworth, Dynasties , 89–90. He was eminent in the art of medicine, good at treating patients, and an expert in compounding remedies. I have found a medical formulary of his which is beautifully composed and eloquent, finely chosen, and well tested. It was Ibn Dīnār who formulated the potion known as the ‘Dīnārī potion’, which is named after him. It is widely used and well-known amongst physicians and others. The potion is mentioned in this book of his in which he says that he formulated it. For the composition of the Sharāb al-Dīnārī , see Dāwūd al-Anṭākī, Tadhkirah , i:203, where the author attributes its invention to Bukhtīshūʿ (for whom see above Ch. 8.2) and says it was called dīnārī because the amount of one dinār would be administered for each dose. Ibn Dīnār is the author of a medical formulary ( al-Aqrābādhīn ). 10.42 Ibrāhīm ibn Baks (Bakūs) This biography appears in all three versions of the book. MS A: a note above the name states that according to the author’s copy ( bi-khaṭṭihi ) the correct form is Bakūs. Ibn al-Qifṭī (Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 37 15 , 107 8 ) gives the form Bakūsh and Bakūs respectively when mentioning some of his translations and also gives the nisbah al-ʿUshārī. Ibn Baks/Bakūs is mentioned as a translator in Ibn al-Nadīm, where the kunyah Abū Isḥāq is also given. See Fihrist (Flügel), 249, 251, 252; (Sayyid), 2/1:164, 167, 172. Ibrāhīm ibn Baks was expert in the science of medicine and translated many books into Arabic. For Ibrāhīm ibn Baks as translator, see Ch. 9.37. He became blind, despite which he used to practise the art of medicine according to his capacity. He used to teach medicine in the ʿAḍudī hospital after ʿAḍud al-Dawlah That is Abū Shujāʿ Fannā Khusraw (d. 372/983) Būyid emir. See EI 2 art. ‘ʿAḍud al-Dawla’ (H. Bowen). had built it, and from this he earned enough for his needs. Ibrāhīm ibn Baks is the author of the following works: 1. A medical compendium ( Kunnāsh ). 2. A medical formulary, as an appendix to the compendium ( K. al-Aqrābādhīn al-mulḥaq bi-l-Kunnāsh ). 3. On the fact that pure water MSS P and S include a gloss here quoting the lexicon of al-Jawharī, who said that al-māʾ al-qarāḥ is ‘water that is untainted by anything’. See al-Jawharī, al-Ṣiḥāḥ , 396, art. q-r-ḥ . is colder than barley water An English translation of a recipe for barley water from a 10th-century Baghdadi cookbook is given in Nasrallah, Annals , 454–455, where it is used as a basis for other cooling drinks. ( M. bi-anna al-māʾ al-qarāḥ abrad min maʾ al-shaʿīr ). 4. On smallpox ( M. fī l-judarī ). 10.43 ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Baks This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 235–236, where he is named Ibn Baksh, and the kunyah Abū l-Ḥasan is given. ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Baks was a physician of merit and renown who was learned in the art of medicine. He was also a skilled translator who translated many books into Arabic. See also Ch. 9.38 for entry on ʿAlī ibn Ibrāhīm as translator. 10.44 Qusṭā ibn Lūqā al-Baʿlabakkī This biography is found in all three versions of the book. For Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, see Sezgin, GAS III , 270, and GAS V , 285–286; Ullmann, Medizin , 126–128; EI 2 art. ‘Ḳuṣtā b. Lūḳā.’ (D.R. Hill). [10.44.1] Sulaymān ibn Ḥassān (Ibn Juljul) said: Ibn Juljul, Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ , 76. Qusṭā ibn Lūqā al-Baʿlabakkī was a Christian by faith and was a skilled physician, a man of great merit, a philosopher, and an astrologer, learned in geometry and arithmetic. He lived during the reign of al-Muqtadir bi-Allāh. Abū l-Faḍl Jaʿfar ibn al-Muʿtaḍid. Abbasid Caliph (r. 295–320/908–932). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muḳtadir.’ (K.V. Zeterstéen). [10.44.2] Ibn al-Nadīm al-Kātib of Baghdad said: Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Sayyid), 2/1:293. Qusṭā excelled in many branches of learning including medicine, philosophy, geometry, arithmetic, and music and was beyond reproach. He was eloquent in the Greek language and expressed himself well in Arabic. Qusṭā died in Armenia while in the service of a king there, and it was from there that he replied to the letter of Abū ʿĪsā ibn al-Munajjim This correspondence has been published in Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, Une correspondance islamo-chrétienne . See also Swanson, ‘A curious correspondence’; and Rashed, New evidence . about the prophethood of Muḥammad, God bless him and keep him. In Armenia he also wrote his book Paradise: On Chronology ( K. al-Firdaws fī l-taʾrīkh ). [10.44.3] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that Qusṭā translated many books of the Greeks into Arabic and that he was a good translator, eloquent in the Greek, Syriac, and Arabic tongues, and also revised many translations. He was of Greek origin and composed many epistles and books on the art of medicine and other subjects, expressed himself beautifully and was very talented. [10.44.4] ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl One of the Bukhtīshūʿ clan and contemporary of Ibn Buṭlān with whom he was an intimate. See Ch. 8.6. The work quoted by IAU is the lost The Merits of Physicians ( K. manāqib al-aṭibbāʾ ); see Ch. 8.6 title no. 2. said: Qusṭā was induced by Sanḥārīb The identity of this Armenian ruler named Sanḥārīb is uncertain; for various options, see Wilcox, ‘Qusṭā ibn Lūqā’, 101–103. to come to Armenia, where he settled. In Armenia there was Abū l-Ghiṭrīf al-Biṭrīq who was a man of learning and merit for whom Qusṭā composed many important and beneficial books of great significance, concise in expression, and on a variety of topics. There he died and was buried, and a dome was built over his tomb which was honoured as the tombs of kings and religious leaders are honoured. This paragraph did not occur in Version 1 or Version 2, where instead the following sentence was found: I [ IAU ] say, ‘He travelled to Armenia and there he died and a dome was built over his tomb which was honoured as the tombs of kings and religious leaders are honoured.’ [10.44.5] Qusṭā ibn Lūqā wrote the following books: For further information on his treatises, see Sezgin, GAS III , 270–274 and V , 285–286; Ullmann, Medizin , 126–128. 1. On the pains of gout ( K. fī Awjāʿ al-niqris ). 2. On odours and their causes ( K. fī l-Rawāʾiḥ wa-ʿilalihā ). 3. An essay in question and answer format addressed to Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Makhlad Served under al-Mutawakkil as head of the department assessing taxes for injury or death, and served as vizier to al-Muʿtamid in 885–886. See Wilcox, ‘Qusṭā ibn Lūqā’, 100. on the conditions and occasions of sexual intercourse ( R. fī Aḥwāl al-bāh wa-asbābihi ʿalā ṭarīq al-masʾalah wa-l-jawāb ). See Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, Das Buch über die Geschlechtlichkeit . 4. On contagion ( K. fī l-Iʿdāʾ ), For an edition and German translation, see Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, ‘Abhandlung über die Ansteckung’. which he composed for al-Biṭrīq, the Commander of the Faithful’s Champion. 5. A comprehensive book forming an introduction to the science of medicine ( K. jāmiʿ fī l-dukhūl ilā ʿilm al-ṭibb ), written for Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad, who was known as Ibn al-Mudabbir. One of two brothers who were courtiers, men of letters, and poets in Samarra as well as in Egypt and Syria in the ninth century; Abū Isḥāq died in 279/892; see EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Mudabbir’ (H.L. Gottschalk). 6. On date wine and its consumption at banquets ( K. fī l-Nabīdh wa-shurbihi fī l-walāʾim ). This might refer to his translation of Rufus’ On the Use of Wine ( M. Fī stiʿmāl al-shirāb ) (Ch. 10.2 no. 11), also known as K. Fī l-Nabīdh . 7. On the elements ( K. fī l-Usṭuqussāt ). 8. On insomnia ( K. fī l-Sahar ), For edition, trans., comm., see Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, ‘On Sleeplessness’. which he wrote for Abū l-Ghiṭrīf al-Biṭrīq, client of the Commander of the Faithful. 9. On thirst ( K. fī l-ʿAṭash ), which he wrote for Abū l-Ghiṭrīf, client of the Commander of the Faithful. 10. On strength and weakness (K. fī l-Quwwah wa-l-ḍaʿf ). 11. On nourishment ( K. fī l-Aghdhiyah ), arranged according to universal rules ( ʿalā ṭarīq al-qawānīn al-kulliyyah ), which he composed for the Biṭrīq al-Baṭāriqah Abū Ghānim al-ʿAbbās ibn Sunbāṭ. 12. On the pulse, knowledge of fevers, and types of critical days ( K. fī l-Nabḍ wa-maʿrifat al-ḥummayāt wa-ḍurūb al-buḥrānāt ). 13. On the cause of sudden death ( K. fī ʿIllat al-mawt fajʾatan ), which he composed for Abū l-Ḥasan Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad, secretary to the Biṭrīq al-Baṭāriqah. 14. On numbness, its types, causes, and treatment ( K. fī Maʿrifat al-khadar wa-anwāʿihi wa-ʿilalihi wa-asbābihi wa-ʿilājih ), For edition, trans. comm., see Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, On Numbness . which he composed for the Chief Judge Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad. 15. On critical days in acute diseases ( K. fī Ayyām al-buḥrān fī l-amrāḍ al-ḥāddah ). For a translation of a treatise on this topic in question-and-answer format by Qusṭā, see Cooper, ‘Rational and Empirical Medicine’. 16. On the four humours and what is common to them all ( K. fī l-Akhlāṭ al-arbaʿah wa-mā tashtariku fīh ), a compendium. 17. On the liver, its constitution and what diseases may occur in it ( K. fī l-Kabid wa-khilqatihā wa-mā yaʿriḍu fīhā min al-amrāḍ ). 18. On fans and the causes of wind ( R. fī l-Mirwaḥah wa-asbāb al-rīḥ ). 19. On the sequence of reading medical books ( K. fī Marātib qirāʾat al-kutub al-ṭibbiyyah ), which he wrote for Abū l-Ghiṭrīf al-Biṭrīq. 20. On medical regimen for travelling on the Hajj pilgrimage ( K. fī Tadbīr al-abdān fī safar al-Ḥajj ), For an edition and translation, see Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, Medical Regime . which he composed for Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Makhlad. 21. On repelling the harm of poisons ( K. fī Dafʿ ḍarar al-sumūm ). 22. Introduction to geometry in question and answer format ( K. fī l-Mudkhal ilā ʿilm al-handasah ʿalā ṭarīq al-masʾalah wa-l-jawāb ), For a translation and commentary, see Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, Introduction to Geometry . which he composed for Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā, i.e., Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Munajjim (d. 888/275), whose biography is given at Ch. 9.41. See also EI 2 art. ‘Munad̲j̲d̲j̲im’ (M. Fleischhammer); Wilcox, ‘Qusṭā ibn Lūqā’, 99. the client of the Commander of the Faithful. 23. The proper conduct of philosophers ( K. Ādāb al-falāsifah ). 24. On the difference between rational and non-rational animals ( K. fī l-Farq bayn al-ḥayawān al-nāṭiq wa-ghayr al-nāṭiq ). 25. On the generation of hair (K. fī Tawallud al-shaʿr ). 26. On the difference between the soul and the spirit ( K. fī l-Farq bayn al-nafs wa-l-rūḥ ). For an English translation, see Livingston, ‘Qusṭā ibn Lūqā’s psycho-physiological treatise’. 27. On the rational animal ( K. fī l-Ḥayawān al-nāṭiq ). 28. On the atom ( K. fī l-Juzʾ alladhī lā yatajazzaʾ ). 29. On the movement of the arteries ( K. fī Ḥarakat al-shiryān ). 30. On sleep and dreaming ( K. fī l-Nawm wa-l-ruʾyā ). 31. On the principal organ of the body ( K. fī l-ʿUḍw al-raʾīs min al-badan ). 32. On phlegm ( K. fī l-Balgham ). 33. On blood ( K. fī l-Dam ). 34. On yellow bile ( K. fī l-Mirrah al-ṣafrāʾ ). 35. On black bile ( K. fī l-Mirrah al-sawdāʾ ). 36. On the figure of the sphere and the cylinder ( K. fī Shakl al-kurah wa-l-usṭuwānah ). 37. On astronomy and the arrangement of the spheres ( K. fī l-Hayʾah wa-tarkīb al-aflāk ). 38. On calculation of linear equations by reduction and balancing [i.e. algebra] ( K. fī Ḥisāb al-talāqī ʿalā jihat al-jabr wa-l-muqābalah ). 39. On the translation of Diophantus’ treatise On Reduction and Balancing ( K. fī Tarjamat Diyūfanṭus fī l-jabr wa-l-muqābalah ). For books 4–7 of Diophantus’ 13-book Arithmētika , which are preserved in Arabic (six other books are known in Greek), see Sesiano, Diophantus ; in general, see Brill’s New Pauly art. ‘Diophantus [4] Greek Mathematician’ (M. Folkerts). 40. On the use of the celestial globe (K. fī l-ʿAmal bi-l-kurah al-nujūmiyyah ). Preserved today in two versions. A partial English translation is found in Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, ‘On Use of Celestial Globe’ and a German translation in Schnell, Die Kugel . See also Savage-Smith, Celestial Globes , 20–22, 25, 73–74, 78–81. 41. On the use of the instrument on which are inscribed the assemblage of data from which nativities are produced ( K. fī ʿAmal al-ālah allatī tursamu ʿalayhā al-jawāmiʿ wa-tuʿmalu minhā al-natāʾij ). 42. On pleasure ( K. fī l-Mutʿah ). 43. On burning mirrors ( K. fī l-Marāyā al-muḥriqah ). 44. On weights and measures ( K. fī l-Awzān wa-l-makāyīl ). 45. The book of governance ( K. al-Siyāsah ), in three chapters. 46. On the cause of the blackening of coarse linen and its change after being sprayed with water ( K. fī l-ʿIllah fī iswidād al-khaysh wa-taghayyurihi min al-rashsh ). For references and a brief description of the use of dampened khaysh for the purpose of air conditioning, see EI 2 art. ‘K̲h̲ays̲h̲.’ (Ch. Pellat). Ibn al-Nadīm, Fihrist (Flügel), 295, lists this title as The Book of the Cause of the Blackening of the Abyssinians and their Change after Being Sprayed with Water ( K. al-ʿIllah fī iswidād al-ḥabash wa-taghayyurihi min al-rashsh ); however, Tajaddud ( Fihrist , 535), and Sayyid ( Fihrist , 2/1:293) read khaysh . Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 263, lists the title as The Book of the Cause of the Blackening of the Abyssinians and others ( K. al-ʿIllah fī iswidād al-ḥabash wa-ghayrihim ). 47. On the steelyard balance ( K. fī l-Qarasṭūn ). 48. On prognosis by examining types of urine ( K. fī l-Istidlāl bi-l-naẓar ilā aṣnāf al-bawl ). 49. An introduction to logic ( K. al-Mudkhal ilā l-manṭiq ). 50. A commentary on the method of the Greeks ( K. Sharḥ madhhab al-Yūnāniyyīn ). 51. On dyeing (R. fī l-Khiḍāb ). 52. On doubts about the book of Euclid ( K. fī Shukūk Kitāb Iqlīdīs ). 53. The book of bloodletting ( K. al-Faṣd ), in ninety-one chapters composed for Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn Muḥammad, known as Ibn al-Mudabbir. 54. An introduction to the science of the stars ( K. al-Mudkhal ilā ʿilm al-nujūm ). 55. The bathhouse ( K. al-Ḥammām ). 56. Paradise : on chronology ( K. al-Firdaws fī l-taʾrīkh ). 57. On solving arithmetical problems in the third book of Euclid ( R. fī Istikhrāj masāʾil ʿadadiyyāt min al-maqālah al-thālithah min Iqlīdis ). 58. A translation of three and one-half books from the book of Diophantus on arithmetical problems ( Tafsīr thalāth maqālāt wa-niṣf min Kitāb Diyūfanṭus fī al-Masāʾil al-ʿadadiyyah ). For edition and English translation, see Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, Books  IV to VII of Diophantus’ Arithmetica ; for an edition and French translation, see Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, Les Arithmétiques . 59. On the terminology of books on logic ( K. fī ʿIbārat kutub al-manṭiq ), which is an introduction to the Isagoge . This Isagoge or ‘Introduction’ is no doubt the Εἰσαγωγή of Porphyry (d. c. 305  AD ) whose introduction to Aristotelian logic became a standard medieval textbook. For an English translation of and commentary on Porphyry’s original work, see Porphyry, Introduction . 60. On vapour ( K. fī l-Bukhār ). 61. A letter addressed to Abū ʿAlī ibn Bunān ibn al-Ḥārith, the client of the Commander of the Faithful, on questions he had posed to him regarding the reasons for the differing of people’s morals, behaviour, desires, and choices ( R. fī ʿIlal ikhtilāf al-nās fī akhlāqihim wa-siyarihim wa-shahawātihim wa-ikhtiyārātihim ). For edition and translation, see Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, ‘ Livre des caractères ’. 62. Questions on definitions according to the opinions of the philosophers ( Masāʾil fī l-Ḥudūd ʿalā raʾy al-falāsifah ). 10.45 Miskawayh This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For an up-to-date biographical and bibliographical study, see Endress, Abū ʿAlī Miskawayh . See also Sezgin, GAS III , 336, IV , 291; GAL I , 342, S  I 582; EI 2 art. ‘Miskawayh’ (M. Arkoun.); Encycl. Islamica art. ‘Abū ʿAlī Miskawayh’ (A. Emami & S. Umar). Abū ʿAlī Miskawayh served ʿAḍud al-Dawlah ibn Buwayh and died about 421/1030. Miskawayh, whose name was Abū […] Here there are lacunae in all the MSS . His name was Abū ʿAlī Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaʿqūb. was a distinguished scholar in the philosophical disciplines. He was also an expert in the art of medicine and was proficient in its fundamentals and branches. Miskawayh is the author of the following works: A number of other works were written by Miskawayh, many of which are mentioned in the references above. See also translation and study of Miskawayh’s R. fī l-Ladhdhah wa-l-ālām in Adamson, Miskawayh on Pleasure ; also Wakelnig, A philosophy reader from the circle of Miskawayh . 1. On beverages ( K. al-Ashribah ). See notice of Ibn al-Tilmīdh’s abridgement thereof at Ch. 10.64.20 no. 5. 2. On cookery ( K. al-Ṭabīkh ). Sezgin, GAS III , 336 gives the alternative title On the preparation of all kinds of food ( K. fī Tarkīb al-bājāt min al-aṭʿimah ) for this work (also favourably mentioned in Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 332), and adds two further works: On dispelling anxiety about death ( R. fī Dafʿ al-ghamm min al-mawt ); and On Simple Drugs ( K. al-Adwiyah al-mufradah ). 3. On the refinement of character ( K. Tahdhīb al-akhlāq ). For an English translation of this work, see Zurayk, The Refinement of Character . 10.46 Aḥmad ibn Abī l-Ashʿath This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Sezgin, GAS III , 301–302; V , 413; GAL I , 237; EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Abi ’l-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲’ (A. Dietrich); EI Three art. ‘Ibn Abī l-Ashʿath’ (R. Kruk); Ullmann, Medizin , 138–139; Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica , 143–145. [10.46.1] Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī l-Ashʿath was endowed with an abundant intellect and sound judgement. He loved what is good, Ar. al-khayr , referring to charity and piety in general. was very tranquil and dignified, and was well-versed in matters of religion. Aḥmad was long-lived and had a number of students and was eminent and distinguished in the philosophical disciplines with many writings to his credit on these subjects which indicate the extent of his knowledge and his high station. He authored a book on metaphysics which is of the utmost good quality. I have seen a copy of it in his own hand, may God the exalted show him mercy. Aḥmad was knowledgeable and expert in the books of Galen See Ch. 5.1. and well-versed in their secrets and commented on many of them. It was Aḥmad who gave divisions to each one of the sixteen books of Galen by sentences, chapters, and sections, and divided them such as none before him had done and thus provided a great aid to those who study the books of the eminent Galen. For it is now easy to find all that one seeks therein and his divisions are as landmarks which point to what one wishes to read and by which every section of the book, its contents, and purpose may be known. He also made divisions to many of the books of Aristotle See Ch. 4.6. and others. All of the writings of Aḥmad ibn Abī l-Ashʿath on the art of medicine and otherwise are perfect in their import and are unparalleled in their quality. [10.46.2] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – quote from the book of ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Jibrīl ibn Bukhtīshūʿ See Ch. 8.6. The work quoted is most likely The Merits of Physicians ( K. manāqib al-aṭibbāʾ ) (Ch. 8.6 no. 2). who said: Among the reports told to me about Aḥmad ibn Abī l-Ashʿath, may God show him mercy, is that at the beginning of his life he didn’t profess medicine but was a wealthy man. Then his wealth was confiscated and he was arrested. He was originally from Fārs Region in south-west Iran. See EI 2 art. ‘Fārs’ (L. Lockhart). but fled from his land and entered Mosul An important city in Northern Iraq on the west bank of the Tigris near to the ancient Nineveh. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Mawṣil’ (E. Honigmann, C.E. Bosworth & P. Sluglett). in a very bad state, naked and starving. It so happened that Nāṣir al-Dawlah ibn Ḥamdān Nāṣir al-Dawlah, Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbd Allāh (d. 357/968?), prince of the Ḥamdānid dynasty and governor of al-Mawṣil. See EI 2 art. ‘Nāṣir al-Dawla’ (H. Bowen). had a child who was sick with a case of passing blood and membrane. That is, the caul or membrane that encloses the child in the womb or part thereof. See Lane, Lexicon , vi:2247, art. gh-r-s . Whenever physicians had tried to treat him his condition had only become worse. Aḥmad made approaches until he was able to visit the boy and said to his mother, ‘I will treat him’, and began to show her the errors in the regimen prescribed by the other physicians. At this she became confident in him and so he treated the boy and he was cured. Aḥmad was rewarded and well treated and he remained in Mosul until the end of his life. He took on a number of pupils of whom his favourite and the most prominent was Abū l-Falāḥ who excelled in the art of medicine, then Muḥammad ibn Thawāb al-Mawṣilī, and Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Baladī. This last reference to Muḥammad ibn Thawāb al-Mawṣilī (see Ch. 10.47), and Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Baladī (see Ch. 10.48) appears only in Version 3, as does biography 10.47. Abū l-Falāḥ is the kunyah of Muḥammad ibn Thawāb al-Mawṣilī. [10.46.3] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that Aḥmad ibn Abī l-Ashʿath – may God show him mercy – died in the year three hundred and sixty-odd of the Hijrah [970–979]. He had a number of children of whom I found that the most renowned in the art of medicine was Muḥammad. [10.46.4] Aḥmad ibn Abī l-Ashʿath wrote the following books: According to Kruk ( EI Three ), several of these books are extant but none have been edited. See Sezgin, GAS III , 301–302; V , 413; GAL I , 237; EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Abi ’l-As̲h̲ʿat̲h̲’ (A. Dietrich); EI Three art. ‘Ibn Abī l-Ashʿath’ (R. Kruk); Ullmann, Medizin , 138–139; Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica , 143–145. 1. On simple drugs ( K. al-Adwiyah al-mufradah ), in two chapters. The reason for writing this was that a group of his students asked him to. Here are Aḥmad’s words from the beginning of the book: Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Baladī See Ch. 10.48. asked me to write this book, and previously Muḥammad ibn Thawāb See Ch. 10.47. had asked me. I have written this book for them according to their level and began it in the month of Rabīʿ I in the year 353 [March-April 964]. Aḥmad and Muḥammad are at the level of those who have passed the stage of basic learning in medicine and have entered the group of those who have a deeper understanding into what is known of this art and who branch out and use analogy and deduce new things. To those among my students who are at a similar level or those who use my books as a guide, then whoever wishes to read this book of mine and has passed the level of basic learning to the level of deep understanding then they will be the ones who will benefit from it and will attain to the knowledge therein and will be able to deduce knowledge of things which are potentially in the book but which I did not mention. They will be able to branch out from what I have mentioned and build upon it. And I say this to all people except those with unique talents which allow them to understand this and more through their rational faculties. For them the task of gaining knowledge will be made easy and what would be a lengthy process for others would be a short one for them. 2. On animals ( K. al-Hayawān ). For an overview of this book, see Kruk, Ibn Abi-l-Ashʿath’s Kitāb al-ḥayawān . 3. On metaphysics ( K. Fī l-ʿilm al-ilāhī ), in two chapters which he completed writing in Dhū l-Qaʿdah in the year 355 [October-November 966]. 4. On smallpox, measles, and a pox associated with children Ḥumayqāʾ is another form of pox, one associated with children. It is related to judarī and ḥaṣbah , which are usually renderd as smallpox and measles. It is the modern term for chicken-pox. (K. al-Judarī wal-ḥaṣbah wal-ḥumayqāʾ ), in two chapters. 5. On vertigo, and pleurisy and their treatment (K. fī l-Sarsām wal-birsām wa-mudāwātihimā ), in three chapters which he composed for his student Muḥammad ibn Thawāb al-Mawṣilī See Ch. 10.47. and dictated it to him in his own words. Muḥammad ibn Thawāb wrote it in his hand and mentioned the date of the dictation and writing as being in Rajab in the year 355 [June–July 966]. 6. On colic and its types, treatment, and beneficial drugs for it ( K. fī l-Qūlanj wa-aṣnāfihi wa-mudāwātihi wal-adwiyah al-nāfiʿah lah ), in two chapters. 7. On leprosy, and tetters and their treatment ( K. fī l-Baraṣ wa-l-bahaq wa-mudāwātihā ), in two chapters. 8. On epilepsy ( K. fī l-Ṣarʿ ). 9. Another book on epilepsy ( K. ākhar fī l-Ṣarʿ ). 10. On dropsy ( K. fī l-Istisqāʾ ). 11. On the prevalence of the blood ( K. fī Ẓuhūr al-dam ), in two chapters. 12. On melancholia ( K. fī l-Mālinkhūliyā ). 13. On the composition of drugs ( K. Tarkīb al-adwiyah ). 14. On sleep and wakefulness, a treatise ( M. fī l-Nawm wa-l-yaqẓah ). He wrote this for Aḥmad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Zayd ibn Fuḍālah al-Baladī Not identified. in answer to his question asked for him by ʿAzūr ibn al-Ṭayyib al-Baladī al-Yahūdī. Not identified. 15. On nourishment and being nourished (K. al-Ghādhī wal-mughtadhī ), in two chapters, which he completed writing at the Castle of Barqā in Armenia Not identified. in Ṣafar of the year 348 [April–May 959]. 16. On diseases of the stomach and their treatment ( K. fī Amrāḍ al-miʿdah wa-mudāwātihā ). 17. Commentary on Galen’s Sects ( Sharḥ Kitāb al-Firaq li-Jālīnūs ), See Ch. 5.1.37 no. 3. in two chapters, which he completed in Rajab in the year 342 [November– December 953]. 18. Commentary on Galen’s Fevers ( Sharḥ Kitāb al-Ḥummayāt li-Jālīnūs ). See Ch. 5.1.37 no. 17. 10.47 Muḥammad ibn Thawāb al-Mawṣilī This biography only appears in Version 3 of the book. It is found in MS A, on a paper insert, and in MS R. For references, see Sezgin, GAS III , 301, where the names Ibn al-Thallāj and Muḥammad ibn Thawāb al-Mawṣilī are treated as separate persons. It is likely that the name Abū l-Falāḥ mentioned in Ch. 10.46 as the most distinguished student of Ibn Abī l-Ashʿath is a misreading of Ibn al-Thallāj, and indeed, the form given in MS A could be read as Abū l-Falāj. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Thawāb ibn Muḥammad, known as Ibn al-Thallāj, was from Mosul. He excelled in the art of medicine and was well-versed in its theory and practice. Aḥmad ibn Abī l-Ashʿath See Ch. 10.46. was his teacher in the art of medicine, and Muḥammad ibn Thawāb was attached to him and studied under him with distinction. He copied many books in his own hand. 10.48 Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Baladī This biography appears in Version 2 and 3 of the book. For references, see Sezgin, GAS III , 318, 301; Ullmann, Medizin , 146–147. The great teacher Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā was from the city of Balad. See Yaqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), i:715–717, 721. The most likely of the many places named Balad as the nisbah for Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Baladī is the ancient city of Balad (Balaṭ) on the Tigris above Mosul (where he studied with Ibn Abī l-Ashʿath), and not, as Sezgin suggests ( GAS III , 318), the city of the same name in Persia. He was an expert in the art of medicine and was good at treating and curing patients. He was one of the greatest of the students of Aḥmad ibn Abī l-Ashʿath, See Ch. 10. 46. to whom he was attached for some years and with whom he studied with distinction. Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Baladī is the author of a treatise on regimens for childbearing women, babies, and children, the preservation of their health, and the treatment of the diseases that occur in them ( K. Tadbīr al-ḥabālā wa-l-aṭfāl wa-l-ṣibyān wa-ḥifẓ ṣiḥḥatihim wa-mudāwāt al-amrāḍ al-ʿāriḍah lahum ). He composed this work for the vizier Abū l-Faraj Yaʿqūb ibn Yūsuf, who was known as Ibn Killis, See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Killis’ (M. Canard). the vizier of al-ʿAzīz bi-Allāh See EI 2 art. ‘al-ʿAzīz Biʾllāh’ (M. Canard). in Egypt. 10.49 Ibn Qawsayn (Qūsīn) This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Ibn Qawsayn was a physician renowned in his time who was conversant with the art of medicine. He lived in Mosul and was a Jewish convert to Islam. Ibn Qawsayn is the author of a treatise in refutation of the Jews ( M. fī l-radd ʿalā l-Yahūd ). See Steinschneider, Polemische und Apologetischer Literatur , 98. 10.50 ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī al-Kaḥḥāl This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Sezgin, GAS III , 337–340; Ullmann, Medizin , 208–209, 270–271; Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica , 180; EI 2 art. ‘ʿAlī b. ʿĪsā’ (E. Mittwoch). ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī al-Kaḥḥāl was renowned for his mastery of the oculists’ art and his distinction therein. His discourses on the diseases of the eye and their treatment are exemplary, and his book, known as The Aide-mémoire for Oculists ( K. Tadhkirat al-kaḥḥālīn ), is indispensible for all those who practise the oculist’s art. It has been and continues to be favoured by people over all other books which have been composed about this art. ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā’s discourses on the practical aspects of the oculist’s art are of a better quality than his discourses on its theoretical aspects. He died in the year four hundred and […] [after 1009]. All MSS have lacunae here. ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā is the author of an aide-mémoire for oculists ( K. Tadhkirat al-kaḥḥālīn ), in three chapters. For an English translation, by Casey A. Wood, see ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā al-Kaḥḥāl, Memorandum Book . 10.51 Ibn Shibl al-Baghdādī This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. For references, see EI 2 art. ‘Ibn S̲h̲ibl’ (B. Scarcia Amoretti); see also van Gelder, The Doubts of Ibn al-Shibl al-Baghdādī ; Jubūrī, Ibn Shibl al-Baghdādī, ḥayātuhu wa-shiʿruh ; Ibn Shibl, Dīwān . [10.51.1] Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn Shibl was born and raised in Baghdad and was a philosopher and theologian of merit, a talented littérateur, and a fine poet. He died in Baghdad in the year 474 [1081–1082]. [10.51.2] Among his poetry is this fine poem on philosophy which shows the strength of his knowledge of philosophical disciplines and theological mysteries. Some attribute it to Ibn Sīnā, For Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), see Ch. 11.13. but he is not the author of it. Here is the poem: Metre: wāfir . According to IAU and Yāqūt ( Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:23) also attributed, but incorrectly, to Ibn Sīnā (one notes that Ibn al-Shibl is called Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh, like Ibn Sīnā; but al-Qifṭī, Ibn al-Jawzī and al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:11 call him Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh). The poem is also quoted in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:24–30 and Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:110–112; 12 lines in al-Nuwayrī, Nihāyat al-arab , i:34–35; 13 lines in Ibn al-Jawzī, Muntaẓam (xvi:213–214, yr. 473; quoting what he says is mā yadullu ʿalā fasād ʿaqīdatihī , ‘an indication of his corrupt belief’; the quoted passage yakfī fī bayān qubḥ ʿaqīdatihī , ‘sufficiently exposes his bad belief’); 14 lines in Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , iii:341–342; 15 lines in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:11–12. As Ibn Shākir and al-Ṣafadī observe, the beginning of the poem echoes the opening of a poem by al-Buḥturī: anātan ayyuhā l-falaku l-madāru! | a-nahbun mā taṭarrafu am jubārū? ( Dīwān , 959). On this poem see also van Gelder, The Doubts of Ibn al-Shibl al-Baghdādī . By your Lord! O revolving celestial sphere, is that course of yours your intention or by necessity? Your orbit, tell us, in what does it revolve? For we are dazzled in our understanding of you. In you we see empty space: is there another empty space than this in which you are made to revolve? Is it to you that spirits are raised, or will they perish together with their bodies? And that Milky Way, All IAU sources (A, P, S, as well as Müller, Najj̱ār, and Ridā) have dhā l-majarratu , whereas one would have expected dhī l-majarratu , as in Yāqūt; Ibn Shākir and al-Ṣafadī have fa-ṭawqun fī l-majarrati am laʾālin | hilāluka am yadun fīhā siwārū . is it waves or the glitter of a sword that blazes on a deep sea of coats of mail? In you the sun raises its beams on wings with short primaries. Is your crescent moon an arch among the stars at night, or is it a hand with a bracelet? And are they flames, those lightning flashes, or wicks of lamps on which markh and ʿafār Markh ( Cynanchum viminale ) and ʿafār (?) are trees used for striking fire by means of friction. are set ablaze? Your stars, are they inlaid gems or liquid bubbles, brought together by the abundant depths of a sea? Their points are spread at night, and folded up at day, as a loincloth is folded up. Created beings tarnish, in spite of polishing, while their edge will never tarnish. They vie in contest Tubārī (or tabārā , for tatabārā ); Yāqūt has tubādī ‘they show’. and then slink back and hide as a herd of cows hides in a covert. While the sun that rises in the east precedes them they undergo a sinking in the west. In this manner it went in the past and thus will pass long wishes and short terms, MS R glosses this verse in margin, see AII .3.1. And days – we got to know how long they last –, always sliced away by our breaths(?), Shifār is editorially glossed in Yāqūt as ‘narrow’, which does not look convincing. Perhaps it means ‘knives’ or ‘blades’, the image being that of breaths ‘cutting away’ one’s life-span. And Fate, scattering lives as a branch scatters leaves, And a world where, whenever it gives birth to a baby, wet-nurses feed it on the world’s miseries. Blind and aimless: what it tramples is mere chaff; dumb: what it wounds will not be indemnified. Thus from one day without a yesterday to a day without a tomorrow to which we are driven, And from two breaths in give-and-take the spirit of a man is dispersed in his body. Reading, with S and the editor of Yāqūt, nafasayn , ‘two breaths’ rather than nafsayn , ‘two souls’; the ‘give-and take’ would then refer to breathing out and in, alternatingly. How many souls, after having been combined with bodies, were made to fly away from where they were perched! Were they not once friendly with the body’s limbs? But so often by their proximity it turned into aversion. Yāqūt: ‘But aversion followed after that friendship’. If Adam made his sons wretched with a sin, he has no excuse for it. Knowledge of the names did no avail him, See Q al-Baqarah 2:31: « [God] taught Adam all the names [of all things] ». nor did the prostration Q al-Baqarah 2:34: « We said to the angels, “Prostrate yourselves to Adam!”, and they prostrated themselves ». or the proximity (to God). So he was expelled and made to descend and then he perished; the dust of the dust-raising winds became his undergarment. With God’s knowledge of the words in him, Meaning not wholly clear. forgiveness of his sin reached him. But after being forgiven and pardoned he is still being blamed as long as day follows night. The Enemy Satan. attained his desires from us and ignominy settled on Adam and on us. We went astray, lost, like the people of Moses, though no calf or lowing sound MS A has ḥuwār (‘young camel’) instead of khuwār , but the latter is correct not only because ḥuwār appears in line 31 but also in view of the Qur’anic parallel (see next note). led us astray. See Q al-Aʿrāf 7:148: « When he had left the people of Moses made a calf from their ornaments, a body that made a lowing sound »; also Ṭā-hā 20:88 and cf. Exodus 32. O bite, from which there is still on us a retribution and on him a shame! See Q Ṭā-hā 20:121. We are punished in (Adam’s and his children’s) loins, See Q al-Aʿrāf 7:172: « And when your Lord took from the children of Adam, from their loins, their progeny ». not yet having been born – a camel calf is sometimes slaughtered in its mother’s womb. We expect disasters and misfortunes; thereafter, we can expect (God’s) threat. Riḍā, less pessimistically, takes this as a question. We leave (this world) reluctantly, as we entered it, as a lizard leaves, expelled from his hole. So what is the favour granted to an existence where the choice is not given to those made to exist in it? They would have been blessings if for coming into being a choice had been given beforehand, or if we had been consulted. Yāqūt: ‘Our existence would have been good if we | had been given a choice beforehand, or had been consulted’ (nearly identical in al-Ṣafadī). Is this the illness for which there is no cure? Is this a fracture for which there is no mending? Everyone of subtle understanding is perplexed about it. the depth of their wound cannot be probed. When the enveloping snatches the sun away from us and a scattering snatches the stars of the night, Q al-Takwīr 81:1: « When the sun is enveloped »; al-Infiṭār 82:2: « When the stars are scattered ». And we are given another earth instead of this earth, Q Ibrāhīm 14:48: « On the day this earth will be changed into another earth ». and the heavens will be swept away by a breaking asunder, Q al-Infiṭār 82:1: « When the heaven is rent asunder ». And nursing mothers will neglect their children, Q al-Ḥajj 22:2: « Every nursing mother will neglect the child she is nursing ». in their bewilderment, and camels ten month pregnant are untended, Q al-Takwīr 81:4: « When camels ten month pregnant are untended ». And the full moon will be covered, from fright and terror, by an eclipse, Q al-Qiyāmah 75:8 « And when the moon is eclipsed ». because of the threat, and there is no last night of the month, The end of the Islamic lunar month can only be observed if the moon is visible. And the mountains are moved and become dunes of scattered sand, and the seas are made to boil, Q al-Takwīr 81:3: « When the mountains are moved »; al-Muzzammil 73:14: « When the mountains become a dune of scattered sand »; al-Takwīr 81:6: « When the seas are made to boil. » Then where is the stability of a person of insight among us, and how can we suffer being pelted with stones? The Qur’an mentions pelting with stones in connection with the satans (Q al-Mulk 67:5) but not in the context of the Last Day. How can someone with understanding comprehend what is intended with us, and how can one contemplate it? The irregular hamzah of l-ʾiʿtibārū is needed for the metre. Where has an insight disappeared that once was in us, from the brilliance of which your light was borrowed? It is not clear who is addressed with ‘your light’; if it is still the celestial sphere it is odd that it is said to have borrowed its light from an ‘insight’ ( lubb ) in the speaker. No earth has disobeyed Him, nor any heaven, so for what reason are the stars snatched away by a sweeping? Q al-Takwīr 81:2: « When the stars are swept down ». It was loyal in obedience to Him, when it was smoke, Q Fuṣṣilat 41:11: « Then He moved the sky, which was smoke »; cf. al-Dukhān 44:10–11: « When the sky will bring a visible smoke, which will envelop the people ». its … Riḍā, Yāqūt: li-qātirihī ; Najjār: li-ghāʾirihī ; MS A: li-nārihī , ‘corrected’ in margin to li-fātiratin (which is also found in L); P: li-fāyidatin . None of these gives a convincing sense. not having sparks. He determined it as seven (heavens) Q Fuṣṣilat 41:12: « He determined it as seven heavens in two days ». and the earth as a cradle; Q Ṭā-hā 20:53, al-Zukhruf 43:10: « He who made the earth a cradle for you ». He spread it out Q al-Nāziʿāt 79:30: « He spread it (viz. the earth) out ». and it was an abode for the dead. There is no ending to the elevation of what He raised, nor is there a bottom to the depth of what He anchored down under. But in all this terror there is for someone with understanding an admonition and a chiding. [10.51.3] He composed an elegy on his brother Aḥmad: Metre: khafīf . Also in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:39–45, where the brother is called Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf; 16 verses in Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , iii:340–341, 19 verses in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:12–13. Al-Ṣafadī says that ‘many people ascribe this poem to Abū l-ʿAlāʾ al-Maʿarrī, which is excusable because it is in his vein’. MS R adds two poems in margin related to this elegy, see AII .3.2 and AII .3.3; and another poem by Ibn Hānī, see AII .4. Extreme sorrow and joy is an ending (of life): a living one cannot survive after someone who died. Labīd did not die of grief for Arbad, and al-Khansāʾ was consoled for her brother. Arbad, who died struck by lightning, was the brother of the famous pre-Islamic poet Labīd (who survived until early Islamic times). Al-Khansāʾ lamented in many poems her brother Ṣakhr, who died before the coming of Islam from battle wounds (Ṣakhr is mentioned in the version of Yāqūt: wa-salat Ṣakhran-i l-fatā l-Khansāʾū ). Just as a young man decays in the dust, so sorrow and weeping after his death decay. But the dead disappear and leave a choking feeling that the living cannot swallow away. We live only between tooth and claw of dire events, ferocious lions. We make wishes, and among these wishes is a short life, but next we are maltreated with what we used to be pleased with. A man’s good health is a road towards sickness, and the road of annihilation, that is what lasts. A gloss in MS R states: ‘A wise man from the past said about his state something close to the words of al-Aṣmaʿī: “How is the condition of someone whose existence fades away, whose health decays into sickness, and whose time expires?” ’. This saying occurs in a number of adab works ascribed to different authorities. It is attributed to a Bedouin ( aʿrābī ) in Abū Aḥmad al-ʿAskarī, Maṣūn , 151; and Abū Hilāl al-ʿAskarī, Ṣināʿatayn . The most likely source of this marginal note is al-Ḥuṣrī, Zahr al-ādāb (p. 270), in which the saying is attributed to a wise man from the past ( baʿḍ al-ṣāliḥīn ) quoted by al-Aṣmaʿī. We die and live by what we feed on: the most deadly disease for the souls is a cure. What we experienced of the treachery of this world: may it not be, may there not be what it takes and gives. Its generosity returns to itself: whatever the morning gives is taken back by the evening. Would that I knew if Fate moves us on in a dream, or whether things are not endowed with reason! Reading taʿqilu ; if read tuʿqalu (as in Sb and Yāqūt), it could mean: ‘(whether things) can be understood’. From a corruption that existence reaps for the world, Wāfī : min fasādin yakūnu fī ʿālami l-kawni , ‘from a corruption that happens in the world of existence’. human souls cannot protect themselves. God curse a pleasure that harms us, procured by mothers and fathers! But for existence we would not suffer loss: being made to exist is for us an affliction. Only for a short time does the soul accompany the body, so why this sorrow, why this suffering? God has supported human minds for which the first creation serves as proof for the return, In a hereafter. Although some people claim something about the dead that skins and limbs find abhorrent. If people differ about matters than can be seen, how could hidden things be clear in the unseen? Since the day of Aḥmad i.e., the death of his brother Aḥmad. only darknesses have befallen us and no light has shone clearly. O my brother, since your death water has turned to poison, and that soft breeze to a hot sand-storm. Or ‘simoon/simoom’ ( samūm , with paronomasia with samm , ‘poison’). Copious tears have turned to fire, from the hot breaths sent up by deep sighs. I consider life a treachery, even though it is a life that pleases one’s enemies. Where are now these good traits, this prudence, where is the resolve, where the brilliance, where the splendour? How could the bliss of that shade perish so soon, and that wealth of support? Yāqūt reads al-ghināʾ (‘singing’), which is clearly inappropriate, as is al-ʿanāʾ (‘misery’, S). Read (with A) al-ghanāʾ (‘wealth, sufficiency, avail’). Where is the tongue that you used to unsheathe in a gathering where cutting swords Here apparently metaphorically for eloquent tongues. were unsheathed? How can I hope to be cured of what I suffer, when there is no cure for me but dwelling with you in earth? Where is that pleasant countenance, that pleasing speech, that modesty, that pride? The dust may have effaced your beauty, but my tears will not be effaced from the surface of my cheeks. You may have departed, but the old affection has not departed; you may have died, but praise of you has not died. I have buried half of my soul while the other half remains, full of longing, wishing to be extinct. If the hands of Doom have made him go first, those who are slow will also go to those who went before. Death reaches every living being, even though Orion may keep it hidden from him in its house. It is not clear why Orion is singled out or how it could ‘hide’ death. I wish I knew, since everything created must perish, how prophets are distinguished. The deaths of that scholar, endowed with excellent speech, and of that roaming dumb animal are alike. The earth does not smile for the loss of a sinner and heaven does not cry for a pious man. The lights of so many faces have been extinguished by the wasteland beneath the slabs of its tombs! So many full moons, so many suns, so many lofty mountains of wisdom Yāqūt: majdin (‘of glory’). have been obliterated! So many a morning has effaced the stars’ bright blaze, and then darkness reduced Yāqūt: akhfat (‘hid’). One would expect it to be followed by ḍiyāʾahū (‘its light’, referring to ‘morning’) instead of ḍiyāʾahā . their light! People come on the heels of those who have gone; the beginning of some is an ending for those who come last. Reading, with A, li-l-ākhirīna ; if read li-l-ākharīna , as in Yāqūt, it means ‘for the others.’ [10.51.4] He also said: Metre: kāmil . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:35–36; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , iii:342; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:14; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:112 (lines 1–2). The poem poses many difficulties. And it is as if in a human being there is something other than he, Taking fīhi to refer to al-insān and reading ghayruhū (with A), whereas Yāqūt has minnā ghayrahū and mutakawwinun instead of mutakawwinan . Ibn Faḍl Allāh has fīhi ʿibratun mutalawwinan ; N has fa-takawwanā . being formed, while the beauty The editor of Yāqūt thinks the line only makes sense if al-ḥusn (‘beauty’, found in all sources) is emended to al-ḥiss (‘sense perception’). in him is borrowed, Which is in charge, having been giving the power to decide, made responsible, as if it has choice. At times good fortunes direct him to the right course, and at other times destinies change his right course into error. His insight is blind but he sees after his ability to perceive cannot not regain what has escaped him. Perhaps meaning that insight is acquired only in retrospect, too late. One sees him, his heart taken out of his breast and restored in it after fate Perhaps this is the sense of al-miqdār (‘the measure’) here; cf. Muḥammad Ibn Baʿīth, in a poem: jarā l-miqdāru bi-l-qalamī (al-Ṭabarī, Tārīkh , III , iii:1388, al-Marzubānī, Muʿjam al-shuʿarāʾ , 385). has run its course. He keeps striking himself with blame in regret, when thoughts toy with him. He does not know he has fallen short in his arriving until his going explains it to him. Meaning unclear. The words for ‘arriving’ and ‘going’ are īrād and iṣdār , originally referring to arriving at a watering-place and leaving it, respectively. A line from a longer poem: Metre: wāfir . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:14. If Time afflicts a noble man it lends his friend the heart of an enemy. He also said: Metre: basīṭ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:36–37, al-Qifṭī, Muḥammadūn , 362–363; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:112. Meet the guest of worry with fortitude; you will make him depart, One would expect turḥilhu instead of turḥiluhū . Yāqūt has ḥīna atā ‘when he arrives’. for worries are guests that feed upon souls. A misfortune will not increase without (subsequently) decreasing and whenever one is in a tight spot one will be relieved. So revive your soul with distraction and it will be content with it; relief may come any moment. He also said: Metre: basīṭ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:37, al-Qifṭī, Muḥammadūn , 370. Console yourself for everything with life, for an accident may be unimportant after al-Qifṭī: ʿinda (‘when’) instead of baʿda . the substance remains. God will replace wealth that you have wasted, but there is no replacement for the soul if you waste it. He also said: Metre: khafīf . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:37, al-Qifṭī, Muḥammadūn , 370. And blame a man in proportion to his wit and beware of reverence that may turn into irreverence. So many a friend has turned into an enemy when he was blamed, and many an enemy, by means of forbearance, has become a friend. He also said: Metre: ṭawīl . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:33–34; lines 1–2 in Ibn al-Jawzī, Mud′hish , 206 without attribution. The passion for you that we experience will surely suffice you: Reading la-yakfīkumū (A, P, S, R); Yāqūt and Ibn al-Jawzī have li-yakfikumū (‘Let … suffice you!’). take it easy, act gently with us, gently! By the sacredness of my affection, may I never be consoled for the love of you, and may I never wish to be severed and freed from it! I shall rebuke a heart that wishes to be consoled for love and I shall abandon it if it does not die with passionate love for you. I have obstructed passion, my friend, until I became familiar with it; now the more it weakens me it cures me, the more it destroys me it keeps me alive. No fortitude is found, nor does yearning leave, my tears do not extinguish the flame and do not stop flowing. I fear, whenever the night lowers its curtains, that my heart Literally, ‘my liver’ (considered to be the seat of emotions). will burn and my eyes will drown. Is is proper that I am requited with harshness instead of reunion and that my eyes delight while my heart is miserable? Is this only my lot, or is it thus for every passionate lover, to be wronged and not spared, Yāqūt: yamūtu wa-lā yaḥyā (‘to die and not to live’). to thirst and not made to drink? Ask Time: perhaps Time will unite us, for I have never seen a creature persisting in one state. [10.51.5] He also said: Metre: ramal . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:39; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , iii:343; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:14. If you are distressed by my tears when they flow, then protect them; Or if you see one day a master who forgives, then be him. I cannot bear to be without those for whom one cannot be permitted to bear being without. Every sin in love I can be forgiven as long I have not betrayed my love. He also said: Metre: kāmil . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:37–38, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:112.; attributed in Ibn al-Athīr, al-Mathal al-sāʾir , ii:33 and al-Ṣafadī, Nuṣrat al-thāʾir , 224 to ‘someone from the West’ ( baʿd al-Maghāribah ); attrib. to Idrīs ibn ʿAbd Allāh Ibn al-Yamān al-Andalusī (d. 470/1077–1078) in Ibn Saʿīd, Rāyāt al-mubarrizīn , 126; idem, al-Mughrib , i:400; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , i:162; and al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , viii:328; also in Ibn Ḥijjah, Khizānah , iii:98, but emended by the editor to Ibn al-Sāʿātī; attrib. to Ibn Hāniʾ in Usāmah ibn Munqidh, al-Badīʿ , 227; al-Irbilī, Tadhkirah , 213, thinks the poet is Ibn Durayd. The glasses, that came to us empty, were heavy; but as soon as they were filled with unmixed wine They became light and almost flew up with what they contained. Thus bodies are light with their spirits. He also said: Metre: basīṭ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:38; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , iii:343; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:14–15; al-Qifṭī, Muḥammadūn , 372; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:112. They say: contentment is power, sufficiency is wealth, while the soul’s greed and avidity are ignominy and shame. You are right: but if he who is content with allaying his hunger cannot allay it, Taking sadd jūʿatihī as the subject of yuṣibhu ( pace the editor of Yāqūt, who thinks it is riḍāhu ). with what should he be content? He also said: Metre: basīṭ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:45; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , iii:343; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:15. In S and P this epigram comes after the following one. They said, when I was distressed by the death of a loved one and by my passion for him, wanting to make me forget him: There is some other one living who is quite as beautiful! I replied: But where do I find another passion quite like it? He also said: Metre: kāmil . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:37; anonymously (‘recited by Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī al-Bazzār’) in Ibn al-Jawzī, Ṣayd al-khāṭir , 127 and 349, and attrib. to this Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Bāqī in Ibn Kathīr, Bidāyah (yr 535), xii, 217. Guard your tongue and do not speak openly about three things, if you can: your secret, Instead of sirr several sources (e.g. Ṣayd al-khāṭir and Bidāyah ) have sinn (‘[your] age’), which is likely to be a corruption rather than the original version. your wealth, and your (religious) views, Since for these three you will be afflicted by another three: One who calls you an unbeliever, an envious person, and one who calls you a liar. Manuscripts GaPSb add at this point a saying similar to the first verse: ‘On this same topic but using paronomasia ( jinās ) and in prose, someone said: men do not speak about their gold ( dhahab ), their religious views ( madhhab ), and their depart ( dhahāb )’. He also said: Metre: ṭawīl . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:35. Line 4 (with three others) in al-Qifṭī, Muḥammadūn , ii:361. In despair there is one kind of relief for someone who loves, although another kind of relief is torment. I am chaste while there is passion in me, I am consoled while there is ardour in me, though my bones and skin are melting. I scorn for my concern to be being hindered by a virgin girl Yāqūt: an taṣṭāda qalbiya kāʿibun ‘for my heart to be hunted by a full-breasted girl’. with her glances, or for my thirst to be slaked by saliva. i.e., by kissing a loved one. So do not find it odd Addressing a woman; Yāqūt has tunkirū (plural, masculine). that a noble man is powerful when suffering: when predators are hungry they are feared. [10.51.6] He also said: Metre: basīṭ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:31–32 (line 10 is missing); idem, Muʿjam al-buldān , ii:508–509 (s.v. Dayr Durtā; last line missing but adding two lines after line 1); Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , iii:343–344; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:15–16; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:112 (lines 1, 3–4, 6, 12–14). In us there are feelings of longing for the monastery at Durtā; Said to be West of Baghdad (Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān , ii:508 and cf. ii:449–450). In the version of Muʿjam al-udabāʾ the monastery is said to be at Kūthā (a place not far from Baghdad on the road to Kufa, see EI 2 , s.v.). do not blame us, since blame is of no avail. May you not be far away, even if time has passed in which we enjoyed days and night of entertainment. So many youthful desires did I fulfil there, to my profit, though so many desires yet remain with me! As long as joys are in the ascendant and allow it, delight and enjoy! For life is fitful. Before the nights move on – they are borrowed, and the delight of this world are loans – Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ : minaḥu l-dunyā gharāmātū . Come, unveil the morning sun Wine, compared to a sun. in the sphere of darkness, where the zodiacal signs are always Instead of al-dahra Yāqūt (both works) has al-zuhru ‘the radiant (signs)’. drinking cups and bowls. Perhaps, when death calls us, we will die while our souls are replete. How should we divert ourselves, but for this, Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ : lawlā l-rāḥ (‘but for wine’), idem, Muʿjam al-buldān : lawlā l-kaʾs (‘but for a glass of wine’). in a time in which the living, accustomed to care, are like the dead? It The wine. went round greeting us and we matched its greeting, while it was full of fears on account of the terror of mixing; Wine was regularly mixed with water; the mixing of (feminine) wine with (masculine) water is often used for sexual metaphors. A virgin whose appearance, in going round, was hid for us; Due to the corrupt text (see note to the Arabic) the translation is very uncertain. nothing remained of its spirit save a few last breaths. It extended a canopy of lightning from the wine jugs endowing the one opposite with scintillations, As a result there appeared bracelets on the arms of the wine-pourers of gold, and cups on the throats of the drinkers. Muʿjam al-udabāʾ : fa-lāḥa fī sāqīhā khalākhilu min | tibrin wa-fī awjuhi l-nudmāni shārātu (‘As a result there appeared anklets of gold on the wine-pourer and marks on the faces of the drinking companions’). Time has written a motto For tawqīʿ (‘signature, apostille, motto’), see EI 2 s.v. ‘Tawḳīʿ’ and Gruendler, ‘ Tawqīʿ (Apostille). in a line on its page: ‘May joys never part from the drinker of wine.’ Take what will go quickly and leave what you have been promised, as a sensible man would do, for postponing is harmful. Happiness has its favourable moments that give joys; sorrows have other moments. 10.52 Ibn Bakhtawayh This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Sezgin, GAS III , 335. Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿĪsā ibn Bakhtawayh was a knowledgeable physician and lecturer from Wāsiṭ. His discourses on the art of medicine are the discourses of one who is well versed in the writings of the ancients which he had studied and of which he had knowledge. His father was also a physician. Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Bakhtawayh is the author of the following works: 1. Prolegomena ( K. al-Muqaddimāt ) which is also known as the ‘Treasure of the Physicians’ ( K. Kanz al-aṭibbāʾ ), written for his son in the year 420 [1029–1030]. See above Ch. 5.1.22 for a brief quotation from this book. The copyist of MS A also quotes this work in a marginal note glossing the word sāʿūr , see below Ch. 10.64.1. 2. Abstinence in medicine ( K. al-Zuhd fī l-ṭibb ). 3. On seeking knowledge of bloodletting ( K. al-Qaṣd ilā maʿrifat al-faṣd ). 10.53 Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid ibn al-Ḥasan This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Ullmann, Medizin , 225. Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid ibn al-Ḥasan was eminent and distinguished in the art of medicine, and was intelligent and eloquent. He lived in the city of al-Raḥbah, A town on the Euphrates in Syria, the modern al-Mayādīn, see EI 2 , ‘al-Raḥba’ (E. Honigmann & Th. Bianquis). and there he wrote the book ‘Medical persuasion’ ( K. al-Tashwīq al-ṭibbī ) in the month of Rajab in the year 464 [March-April 1072]. 10.54 Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ means the ‘abstinent scholar.’ [10.54.1] Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ – that is, Abū Saʿīd Manṣūr ibn ʿĪsā – was a Nestorian Christian whose brother, known for his virtue, was the Archbishop of Nasibis. Ar. Naṣībīn, ancient town of northern Mesopotamia, now modern-day Turkey. Zāhid al-ʿŪlama’s brother was the renowned Christian theologian Elias of Nisibis (d. 438/1046–1047), for whom see EI Three art. ‘Elias of Nisibis’ (D. Bertaina). Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ served Naṣr al-Dawlah ibn Marwān Naṣr al-Dawlah Aḥmad ibn Marwān, the Marwānid ruler of Mayyāfāriqīn and Diyār Bakr (r. 401–453/1010–1060). See also above Ch. 10.38, and 10.41. (for whom Ibn Buṭlān had composed The Banquet of the Physicians ) For Ibn Buṭlān, see above Ch. 10.38. and 10.38.6 no. 10. as his personal physician. Naṣr al-Dawlah used to respect and depend upon Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ for his skill in the art of medicine, and was kind to him. It was Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ who built the hospital at Mayyāfāriqīn. An important town in the northeast of Diyār Bakr. See EI 2 art. ‘Mayyāfāriḳīn’ (V. Minorsky, C. Hillenbrand). [10.54.2] Shaykh Sadīd al-Dīn ibn Raqīqah, the physician, For his entry, see Ch. 15.46. related to me that the hospital at Mayyāfāriqīn came to be built because a beloved daughter of Naṣr al-Dawlah became ill there. Naṣr al-Dawlah vowed to donate her weight in silver dirhams to charity if she became well, and when Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ treated her and she recovered, he advised Naṣr al-Dawlah to dedicate all the silver he was donating to the building of a hospital, which would benefit the people and earn him a great reward and a good reputation. Naṣr al-Dawlah ordered the building of the hospital and spent a great amount of money on it. He endowed it with estates that would meet its needs and fitted it out with equipment and all that was needed for it, at great expense. Hence it was unsurpassed in its quality. According to Ibn al-Azraq, Tārīkh al-Fāriqī , 123, the hospital at Mayyāfāriqīn was built in 414/1023–1024. [10.54.3] Zāhid al-ʿUlamāʾ is the author of the following works: 1. On hospitals ( K. al-Bīmāristānāt ). This work has not survived. Some fragments are quoted in Ibn al-Muṭrān, Bustān (facs.), 33, 36, 61, 63. 2. On aphorisms and questions and answers ( K. fī l-Fuṣūl wa-l-masāʾil wa-l-jawābāt ). This is in two parts: the first contains the memoranda, notebooks, papers and the like found in the author’s library and recorded by al-Ḥasan ibn Sahl. Unidentified. Clearly cannot be the famous official of the same name who served at the court of the Abbasid al-Maʾmūn and died in 236 [850–851]. The second is by way of aphorisms, questions, and answers which the author answered in the learned gatherings held in the Fāriqī hospital. 3. On dreams and visions ( K. fī l-Manāmāt wa-l-ruʾyā ). 4. On that which students of medicine should prioritize in their learning ( K. fī-mā yajibu ʿalā l-mutaʿallimīn li-ṣināʿat al-ṭibb taqdīm ʿilmih ). 5. On diseases of the eye and their treatment ( K. fī amrāḍ al-ʿayn wa-mudāwātihā ). 10.55 al-Muqbilī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Muqbilī was eminent and distinguished in the art of medicine and one of its notable proponents. Al-Muqbilī is the author of the following works: 1. On wine ( M. fī l-Sharāb ). 2. Abridgement of the [ Medical ] Questions of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq ( Talkhīṣ K. al-Masāʾil li-Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq ). For Ḥunayn and his books, see Ch. 9.2. 10.56 al-Nīlī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Sezgin, GAS III , 334, 251; Ullmann, Medizin , 206. The nisbah al-Nīlī refers not to the river Nile, but to al-Nīl, a town in Iraq near al-Ḥillah. Abū Sahl Saʿīd ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Nīlī was renowned for his eminence and knowledge in the art of medicine. Good in composition, he was well versed in literary matters and an outstanding poet as well as prose writer. Among his poems are the following: Metre: khafīf . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xi:218; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xv:240; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:239 (lines 3–4). O you whose incipient beard and cheeks and figure I would ransom with my life – and I don’t think this is much! And you who from the ‘sickness’ of your eyes Referring to the beloved’s ‘languid eyes’, deemed attractive. lends me a sickness: may I always be wasting away with it, and may you always lend it! Instead of dumtu/dumta A, S, and P have rimtu/rimta , which means the opposite, surely incorrectly. Pour me wine, and you Or ‘it’. The reading shaffa (A, S, P) does not make sense. will cure the anguish of a heart that at night, since you left, is a companion of worries. It is wine when in the cup, but as soon as it is poured inside me it changes into joy. Al-Nīlī is the author of the following works: 1. Abridgement of the [ Medical ] Questions of Ḥunayn ( Ikhtiṣār K. al-Masāʾil li-Ḥunayn ). For Ḥunayn, see Ch. 9.2. 2. Epitome of Galen’s commentary on Aphorisms , with points from the commentary of al-Rāzī ( Talkhīṣ Sharḥ Jālīnūs li-Kitāb al-Fuṣūl maʿa nukat min sharḥ al-Rāzī ). Only one copy of this treatise is recorded, and its title does not include the reference to the commentary of al-Rāzī; see Savage-Smith, NCAM -1, 6–8 Entry 2. For Galen see Ch. 5, and for al-Rāzī see Ch. 11.6. 10.57 Isḥāq ibn ʿAlī al-Ruhāwī This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. A mid- to late 3rd/9th-cent. physician, author of the Adab al-ṭabīb ( Practical Ethics of the Physician ). See Pormann & Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine , 89–91. For bibliographic references to al-Ruhāwī, see Sezgin, GAS III , 263–264, 257; Ullmann, Medizin , 223; Bürgel, Ärtzliches Leben . The nisbah al-Ruhāwī refers to al-Ruhā, the Arabic name of Edessa, now called Urfa, in modern Turkey. Isḥāq ibn ʿAlī al-Ruhāwī was a distinguished physician who was knowledgeable in the discourses of Galen For Galen, see above Ch. 5. and wrote excellent treatises on the art of medicine. Isḥāq is the author of the following works: 1. The proper conduct of the physician ( K. Adab al-ṭabīb ). For an edition and a facsimile of K. Adab al-Ṭabīb , see Ruhāwī, Adab al-ṭabīb (Riyadh edn.) and Ruhāwī, Adab al-ṭabīb (facs.). For an English translation, see Ruhāwī, Adab al-ṭabīb (Levey). 2. Compendium ( Kunnāsh ). This he compiled from the ten treatises of Galen known as The Mayāmir on Compound Remedies [ arranged ] According to the Diseases of the Bodily Parts from the Head to the Foot ( al-Mayāmir fī tarkīb al-adwiyah bi-ḥasab amrāḍ al-aʿḍāʾ min al-raʾs ilā l-qadam ). See Ch. 5.1.37, no. 79. The Arabic term Mayāmir is based on the Syriac mēmar , ‘treatise’ (not al-ṭarīq , ‘way’, as IAU glosses it when describing the work in Ch. 5). 3. Summaries ( Jawāmiʿ ). These he compiled from the four books of Galen which were arranged by the Alexandrians as the first of his books, namely, Sects ( K. al-Firaq ), The Small Art ( K. al-Ṣināʿah al-ṣaghīrah ), The Small Book of the Pulse ( K. al-Nabḍ al-ṣaghīr ), and To Glaucon ( K. Ilā Aglawqun ). See Ch. 5.1.37, nos. 3–6. He arranged these summaries according to the method of aphorisms, the first of which is placing them in alphabetical order. 10.58 Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see GAL I , 486; Ullmann, Medizin , 160–161 et passim . [10.58.1] Abū l-Ḥasan Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn was a physician who distinguished himself in the art of medicine as well as being eminent and renowned in the philosophical disciplines. He lived during the time of al-Muqtadī bi-amr Allāh Abū l-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad, 27th Abbasid caliph (r. 467–478/1075–1094). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muḳtadī’ (A. Hartmann). whom he served as physician. He also served al-Muqtadī’s son al-Mustaẓhir bi-Allāh. Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad, son of al-Muqtadī, 28th Abbasid Caliph (r. 487/1094–512/1118). [10.58.2] Abū l-Khaṭṭāb Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭālib See below Ch. 10.60. said in The Comprehensive Book of Medicine that medicine reached its peak in our age with Abū l-Ḥasan Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn who was born on the eve of Saturday the twenty-third of Jumādā I in the year 436 [16 December 1044]. He studied under Abū l-ʿAlāʾ ibn al-Tilmidh, The father of Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh, see below Ch. 10.64.1. Abū l-Faḍl Kutayfāt, See also Ch. 10.37.4. and ʿAbdān the scribe Unidentified, but not the Ismaili propagandist of the same name and laqab (d. 286/899). and composed many books on medicine, logic, philosophy, and the like. He died on the eve of Sunday the sixth of the month of Rabīʿ I in the year 495 [29 December 1101], and lived for fifty-six years, MS A contains an interlinear addition to say that these are Coptic years. leaving behind a group of students who are with us now. [10.58.3] The sage Rashīd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd ibn Yaʿqūb, the Christian, See below Ch. 14.56. related to me that Abū l-Ḥasan Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh used to take charge of treating the patients at the ʿAḍudī hospital. One day Saʿīd was at the hospital and while he was in the lunatics’ ward examining their cases and treating them, a woman approached him and asked his advice about how to treat a son of hers. He said, ‘You must make sure that he takes cooling and moistening things.’ At this one of the patients staying in the ward mocked him and said, ‘It would be proper that you give this prescription to one of your students who has studied medicine and understands some of its laws. What does this woman know of cooling and moistening things? You should prescribe something specific for her which she can rely upon.’ The man continued, ‘Not that I blame you for what you have said, for you have already done what is even more astonishing!’ When Saʿīd asked him what it was the man said, ‘You composed a short book and named it The Book of Medicine which Dispenses with all other Books . Then you composed another book on medicine, an explanatory one, which is many times the size of the first book and you named it The Book which Satisfies when the names should have been the other way round!’ Saʿīd confessed the truth of this in front of all present and said, ‘I swear to God, had I been able to swap the names of the two books I would have done so, but people have continued to publish them and each one of them has become known by the name I gave it!’ [10.58.4] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that Abū l-Ḥasan Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh was alive in the year 489 [1095–1096] because I have found his handwriting for this date on his book The Epitome for Niẓām See title 4 in book-list below. when Abū l-Barakāt See below Ch. 10.66, Awḥad al-Zamān. studied it with him. [10.58.5] Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh wrote the following books: 1. The book of medicine that dispenses with all other books ( K. al-Mughnī fī l-ṭibb ), For an Arabic edition published in 2011, see Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh, al-Mughnī . which he composed for al-Muqtadī bi-Allāh. Abū l-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad, 27th Abbasid caliph (r. 467–478/1075–1094). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muḳtadī’ (A. Hartmann). 2. On prescriptions for compounding drugs referred to in ‘The book of medicine that dispenses with all other books’ ( M. fī Ṣifāt tarākīb al-adwiyah al-muḥāl ʿalayhā fī K. al-Mughnī ). 3. The book that satisfies ( K. al-Iqnāʿ ). 4. The epitome for Niẓām ( K. al-Talkhīṣ al-Niẓāmī ). The Niẓām here is likely to be the famous statesman Niẓām al-Mulk (d. 485/1092). See EI 2 art. ‘Nizām al-Mulk’ (H. Bowen, C.E. Bosworth). 5. On the generation of the human being. ( K. Khalq al-insān ). For an Arabic edition published in 2003, see Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh, Khalq al-insān . See also Savage-Smith, NCAM -1 , 405–411, entry 100. 6. On jaundice ( K. fī l-Yaraqān ). 7. On definitions and differentia ( M. fī Dhikr al-ḥudūd wa-l-furūq ). For an Arabic edition published in 1995, see Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh, al-Ḥudūd wa-l-furūq . 8. On defining and enumerating the principles of verbal sayings ( M. fī Taḥdīd mabādiʾ al-aqāwīl al-malfūẓ bihā wa-taʿdīdihā ). 9. Answers to medical questions ( Jawābāt ʿan masāʾil ṭibbiyyah suʾila ʿanhā ). 10.59 Ibn Jazlah This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Sezgin GAS III , 246; Ullmann, Medizin , 160; EI 2 art. ‘Ibn D̲j̲azla’ (J. Vernet); al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxviii, 249–250; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 365; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , i:267–268; Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām , viii, 161–162; Graziani, Arabic medicine in the eleventh century . [10.59.1] Yaḥyā ibn ʿĪsā ibn ʿAlī MS A: Yaḥyā ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā. ibn Jazlah Al-Ṣafadī ( Wāfī , xxviii:249), and Ibn al-Qifṭī give Ibn Jazlah’s kunyah as Abū ʿAlī, whereas, Bodleian MS . Huntington 51, fol. xx, gives Abū Zakariyyā. lived during the time of al-Muqtadī bi-amr Allāh, Abū l-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad, 27th Abbasid caliph (r. 467–478/1075–1094). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muḳtadī’ (A. Hartmann). to whom he dedicated many of the books he composed. Ibn Jazlah was renowned in the theory and practice of medicine and was a student of Abū l-Ḥasan Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh. See previous entry Ch. 10.58. Ibn Jazlah also studied the literary arts and used to write in a good, proportioned script. See Moustafa & Sperl, ‘The Cosmic Script’. Indeed, I have seen a number of his own books and the books of others in his handwriting that demonstrate his merit and speak of his knowledge. Ibn Jazlah was a Christian, but then he converted to Islam and composed an epistle in refutation of the Christians that he sent to the priest Elias (Iliyyāʾ). Thomas & Roggema, Christian Muslim Relations, iii :153–154. The identity of this Elias is unknown, but he is not the famous Elias of Nisibis, who died in 1046–1047. [10.59.2] Ibn Jazlah wrote the following books: Sezgin GAS III , 246; Ullmann, Medizin , 160; Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica , 101–104; GAL I  485; NCAM -1, 573 575,595–603. 1. Regimens for Human Bodies ( K. Taqwīm al-abdān ), which he composed for al-Muqtadī bi-amr Allāh. See Graziani, Ibn Jazlah’s eleventh-century tabulated medical compendium (Ph.D thesis); Lev, An early fragment of Ibn Jazlah’s tabulated manual; Tubbs et al., Historical vignette . Arabic text published Damascus, 1915; Cairo, 2007; Tehran, 2014. It was translated into Latin by Faraj ben Salim as Tacuini aegritudinum and printed in 1532. 2. The course of explanation for what is useful to people ( K. Minhāj al-bayān fīmā yastaʿmiluhu l-insān ) which he also composed for al-Muqtadī bi-amr Allāh. For a brief discussion, see Garbutt, ‘Ibn Jazlah: The Forgotten ʿAbbāsid Gastronome’. Arabic text published Tehran, 2014. 3. The book of advice in the distillation of expressions, and useful medical canons for regimens for health and the preservation of the body ( K. al-Ishārah fī talkhīṣ al-ʿibārah wa-mā yustaʿmalu min al-qawānīn al-ṭibbiyyah fī tadbīr al-ṣiḥḥah wa-ḥifẓ al-badan ), which he epitomized from his book Regimens for Human Bodies . 4. In praise of medicine and of its conformity to the Divine Law and in refutation of those who criticise it ( R. fī Madḥ al-ṭibb wa-muwāfaqatihi l-sharʿ wa-l-radd ʿalā man ṭaʿana ʿalayh ). 5. A letter addressed to the priest Elias (Iliyyāʾ) Not identified, but not Elias of Nisibis, who died in 1046–1047. by Ibn Jazlah when he entered Islam. This was in the year 466/1074. The letter has yet to come to light. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxviii:249, says that it was transmitted by Ibn ʿAqīl (d. 513/1119), the author of the encyclopaedic K. al-Funūn , for whom see EI 2 art. ‘Ibn ʿAḳīl’ (G. Makdisi). Ibn Khallikān, who read the epistle, gives a short description, see Wafayāt , i:267–268. For a short notice, see Thomas & Roggema, Christian Muslim Relations , iii:153–154. 10.60 Abū l-Khaṭṭāb This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. For references, see also al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , i:148, quoting IAU . Abū l-Khaṭṭāb – that is, Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Abī Ṭālib – lived in Baghdad and studied the art of medicine under Abū l-Ḥasan Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh. See above Ch. 10.58. Abū l-Khaṭṭāb was distinguished in medicine and its practice. I have seen his handwriting on a book of his composition that was read back to him, and it has many grammatical errors, which goes to show that he hadn’t studied much Arabic. His dating of this was the ninth of the month of Ramaḍān in the year 500 [4 May 1107]. Abū l-Khaṭṭāb wrote The Comprehensive Book of Medicine ( K. al-Shāmil fī l-ṭibb ), which he composed in question and answer format, on medical theory and practice. It consists of sixty-three discourses ( maqālah ). 10.61 Ibn al-Wāsiṭī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see also Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:239, mostly quoting IAU . Ibn al-Wāsiṭī was physician to al-Mustaẓhir bi-Allāh, Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad, son of al-Muqtadī, 28th Abbasid Caliph (r. 487–512/1094–1118). with whom he held a high station. It so happened that Abū Saʿīd ibn al-Muʿawwaj was placed in charge of a state treasury ( dīwān ) and he took up an estate owing a debt for a village to the amount of three thousand gold dinars. He weighed out two thousand dinars from it, but remained owing one thousand dinars and asked for a year’s postponement until the returns came in. When the amount became due the crops and the fruits failed and nothing accrued to him from his estates that he was able to expend on the debt. Now his chamberlain and confidant was Muẓaffar ibn al-Dawātī, who advised that he go to Ibn al-Wāsiṭī and seek him in his house and ask him to speak to the Caliph al-Mustaẓhir bi-Allāh about postponing the debt for another year until the returns came in. When he had finished with the business of the treasury he motioned his men to leave, saying he wished to go to his house. When they had gone away, he and the chamberlain Muẓaffar ibn al-Dawātī went out and when he arrived sought permission to enter. Ibn al-Wāsiṭī emerged from his house and kissed Ibn al-Muʿawwaj’s hand and said, ‘Heavens! Who is Ibn al-Wāsiṭī that our master should come to his house?’ When he entered and sat before him, Ibn al-Muʿawwaj motioned to Muẓaffar the chamberlain and said to him, ‘Send the people away so we are alone, then return by yourself.’ When they had gone to the courtyard he said to him, ‘Make fast the door’, which he did. When Muẓaffar returned Ibn al-Muʿawwaj said to him, ‘Tell the doctor why we have come.’ So the chamberlain said to Ibn al-Wāsiṭī, ‘Our master has come to you to tell you that he has taken up an estate and owes for a village to the amount of three thousand dinars. Now he has paid two thousand of it but a thousand dinars remains owing. He has already asked the Caliph for a postponement until the harvest but nothing came to him from his estates this year. The treasury has sent people and put the pressure on, and he [our master] has already pawned the books in his house for five hundred dinars. Our master is asking you to ask the Caliph to postpone the remainder for another year until the harvest.’ Ibn al-Wāsiṭi said, ‘I hear and obey! I am at your service and will do my utmost and say what is appropriate.’ Then Ibn al-Muʿawwaj left him and in the morning, after he had finished with the treasury, he dismissed the staff as usual and said, ‘O Muẓaffar, go to him and if he has spoken to the Caliph then we will hear the answer. If he has not yet spoken to him then this will act as a reminder to him.’ Muẓaffar went to him and asked permission to enter and it was granted and Ibn al-Wāsiṭī came to the door and kissed his hand as before and said a prayer for him. When he entered and sat down, Ibn al-Wāsiṭī brought out the signature of the Caliph to the effect that he had received the five hundred dinars. Then he said, ‘Here are the books of the household which were pawned by our master. May he accept them from his servant.’ (Ibn al-Wāsiṭī had redeemed them with his own money). Muẓaffar thanked him and took the books and the Caliph’s receipt and left, but as he crossed the courtyard Ibn al-Wāsiṭī called him and brought out some towelling in which there was a silken doublet, a ministerial turban of fine linen, an undershirt of Antioch, robes from Damietta with silken waistbands, and a pouch containing fifty dinars. Ibn al-Wāsiṭī said, ‘I wish that our master favour me by wearing these clothes so that I see him wearing them. These fifty dinars are for the expenses of the bathhouse. I give the chamberlain a silken robe and twenty dinars, I give the secretary a silken robe and five dinars, and I give the groom two dinars.’ Then he said, ‘I ask our master to honour his servant by accepting this.’ The chamberlain took everything to Ibn al-Muʿawwaj and explained what had happened, and Ibn al-Muʿawwaj accepted it all from him. 10.62 Abū Ṭāhir ibn al-Barakhshī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. [10.62.1] Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Ṭāhir Aḥmad ibn al-ʿAbbās, known as Ibn al-Barakhshī, For a discussion of this nisbah , see al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah ( al-ʿIrāq ) iv, i:400–402, where it is related to Warakhshah/Farakhshah, a city near Bukhārā. was an inhabitant of Wāsiṭ See EI 2 art. ‘Wāsiṭ’ (R. Darley-Doran). and was eminent in the art of medicine and accomplished in the literary arts. I have seen things written in his own hand that demonstrate the soundness of his intellect and the extent of his merit. He lived during the time of al-Mustarshid bi-Allāh. ʿAbbāsid Caliph (r. 512–529/1118–1135). See EI 2 art. ‘al-Mustars̲h̲id’ (C. Hillenbrand). [10.62.2] Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Karīm al-Baghdādī An author of the 7th/13th century known for his Book of Cookery . related the following to me: Aḥmad ibn Badr al-Wāsiṭī told me that the physician Abū Ṭāhir Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Barakhshī was treating a patient at Wāsiṭ who had a form of dropsy. His illness became chronic and no treatment was of benefit to him and he did not keep to the prescribed diet. Abū Ṭāhir then allowed him to take whatever food and nutriment he wished and which his nature inclined towards. So the patient, unrestrained, ate whatever he felt like. One day a man selling locusts which had been boiled with water and salt passed by and the patient felt a craving for them so he summoned the man and bought some from him and ate them. This resulted in a severe laxative effect at which the physician ceased his visits. Then the patient came round after a few days and his constitution began to improve and he began to get well and eventually regained his full health despite the doctor having despaired at it ever improving. When Abū Ṭāhir learnt of his condition he visited him and asked him what he had taken and what had caused the relief. The patient said that he didn’t really know except that he had begun to get better ever since he had eaten boiled locusts. The doctor thought about this for a long time and said, ‘This is not an effect of locusts and is not one of their properties.’ Then he asked the patient about the seller of the locusts. The patient said, ‘I don’t know where he is, but if I saw him I would recognise him.’ So the doctor began to look for and inquire about everyone who sold locusts and he would bring them one after another to the patient until he recognised the one he had bought them from. The doctor said to the man. ‘Do you know the place where you caught the locusts which my patient ate?’ The man said, ‘Yes’. The doctor said, ‘Let us go there’. So they went together to the place, and there was a herb there that the locusts were grazing on. The doctor picked some of the herb and then used it to treat the patients for dropsy and cured a number of people from this illness, and this is well known in Wāsiṭ. [10.62.3] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that this is an old story and it has already been mentioned. See Ch. 1.9, where they are ‘fried locusts’. The herb which the locusts were grazing on was mezereon. Ar. Māzariyūn , a variety of Daphne mezereum L, known in English as mezereon as well as dwarf bay, flowering spurge, spurge olive, or spurge laurel; see Levey & al-Khaledy, Medical Formulary of Al-Samarqandi , 226; Ibn al-Tilmīdh, Dispensatory , nos. 27, 39, and 40, where recipes are given including mezereon specifically for the treatment of dropsy. The story was also told by the Judge al-Tanūkhī in The Book of Relief after Hardship . The following story is also found in al-Tanūkhī, Faraj , iv:210–212 and in his Nishwār al-muḥāḍarah , iii:161–163. For Abū ʿAlī al-Muḥassin ibn ʿAlī al-Tanūkhī (329–384/941–94), see EI 2 art. ‘al-Tanūk̲h̲ī’ (H. Fähndrich). For an Italian translation of al-Tanūkhi’s al-Faraj baʿd al-shiddah , see al-Tanūkhī, Il Solievo (Ghersetti); for German selections, see al-Tanūkhī, Ende gut, alles gut (Hottinger), 260–263. Abū Ṭāhir al-Barakhshī was still living in Wāsiṭ in the year 560 [1164–1165]. He was a great littérateur and had knowledge of versification and prose. Among his poems is this one he composed about a servant boy who handed him a toothpick: Metre: ṭawīl . The following three verses are quoted in al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah ( al-ʿIrāq ), iv, 1:401; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:241; al-Ghuzūlī, Maṭāliʿ , ii:64. He handed me something (slender) like his waist and (thin) like a lover, long rejected, wasting away, And said, ‘ khilālī ?’ (my toothpick / my characteristics). ‘All fine,’ I said, ‘apart from killing a lover who is wholly bi-asrihī (‘wholly’) could also be rendered as ‘by his having been captured’. perplexed about you.’ He composed this about an evil man who had gone on the Ḥajj pilgrimage from one of the villages of Wāsiṭ: Metre: sarīʿ . Al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah ( al-ʿIrāq ), iv, 1:401. When you went on pilgrimage Wāsiṭ rejoiced, as did Qūliyāthā and Murshid’s young man. Qūliyāthā (not found elsewhere) is identified in the margin of A as ‘one of the estates near Wāsiṭ’ and Fatā Murshid as ‘a person living there’. Kharīdah has Fatā Mazyad . The context rather suggests a place name (perhaps it is a corruption of e.g. Qanā Murshid, ‘Murshid Canals’). But wailing moved towards Mecca, and to the Kaaba’s Cornerstone and Black Stone. He composed this poem when he saw someone writing a letter to a friend of his and wrote at the beginning ‘the learned’: Metre: kāmil . Al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah ( al-ʿIrāq ), iv, 1:402. When noble customs and deeds are obliterated and mankind’s face has become stupid and gloomy, And when they are content with mere names without meaning, such as ‘friend’, they write to one another ‘Learned scholar!’. Najm al-Dīn Abū l-Ghanāʾim Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Muʿallim al-Hurthī The nisbah is of Hurth, the name of a village on the Jaʿfar canal near Wāsiṭ. See Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), iv:959–960, where Abū l-Ghanāʾim al-Hurthī is mentioned and his birth and death dates are given as 501 and 592 [1107–1108 and 1195–1196] respectively. See on him also Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , v:5–9, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv:165–168. the poet of Wāsiṭ wrote to Abū Ṭāhir having recovered from an illness after he had prescribed him a diet and forbidden him food: Metre: sarīʿ . May you be proud in all your wishes and may your status be raised above the Pleiades, O you who saved me from the circles of perdition, The expression ḥalaqāt al-radā is not found elsewhere and the sense of the ‘circles’ or ‘rings’ is not clear; kh.l.qāt (S, P) does not seem better. be it far from you to kill me with starvation! Then Ibn al-Barakhshī wrote in reply: Same metre and rhyme, as in the following rejoinder. I followed your decree, O noble man (may your decree always be followed!). But my fear for him about whom strange reports came to be heard Made it necessary to postpone the taking of food that day; but tomorrow you shall amend and starve again. Be patient, for it is only for a short period: Even if you tarry, a week only! Then he [Abū l-Ghanāʾim] replied to him: O learned man, who, wherever his saddle rests, lets fountains of knowledge stream: Why is it that you believe that lives can be continued, while sustenance, morning and evening, is cut off? By God, if I spend the night and my poetry will not avail me and be of no use, O excellent man, Hunger will surely strip me of shame and I shall shred your knowledge to pieces. There may be a pun with taqṭīʿ : ‘cutting to pieces’ and ‘scanning poetry’. 10.63 Ibn Ṣafiyyah This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Found also in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxiii:595–597, which is largely a paraphrase of IAU . [10.63.1] Abū Ghālib Ibn Ṣafiyyah was a Christian. [10.63.2] A certain person of Iraq said that Abū l-Muẓaffar Yūsuf al-Mustanjid bi-Allāh See EI 2 art. ‘al-Mustand̲j̲id’ (C. Hillenbrand). was a harsh, vigilant, and rash Caliph. His vizier was Abū l-Muẓaffar Yaḥyā ibn Hubayrah. See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Hubayra’ (G. Makdisi). When the vizier died, He died in the month of Jumādā I  560/March 1165. (Source EI 2 ). the Caliph appointed in his place Sharaf al-Dīn ibn al-Baladī See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Baladī’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). who followed the same course as his predecessor. Now in the realm there were some great emirs, the foremost of whom was Quṭb al-Dīn Qāymāz, See al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxiv:175. who was Armenian in origin. He had become very powerful and had risen in station until he had gained control of the land and assumed the governance of the realm and remained unopposed and without a competitor. He had married off his daughters to the great emirs of the realm, but between him and the vizier [Ibn al-Baladī] there was a quarrel. Then it happened that the Caliph fell ill and his doctor was Ibn Ṣafiyyah Abū Ghālib the Christian. The vizier Ibn al-Baladī used to warn the Caliph and cause him to fear the rise to power of Quṭb al-Dīn and his allies the emirs and when the doctor, who sought advancement with the emir Quṭb al-Dīn, came to know something of this he related the conversations to the emir and this continued for some time. When the Caliph fell ill he decided to arrest Quṭb al-Dīn and his associates, and when Ibn Ṣafiyyah learnt of this he went to Quṭb al-Dīn and informed him and said, ‘The vizier has done such-and-such, so have him for breakfast before he has you for dinner!’ Quṭb al-Dīn then began to think long and hard about the vizier’s plots. Meanwhile, the Caliph’s illness worsened and he was distracted from the plans he had made with the vizier to arrest the emirs. Quṭb al-Dīn came to the decision to kill the Caliph and then be left free to do away with the vizier and he came to the conclusion along with Ibn Ṣafiyyah the physician to prescribe hot baths for the Caliph. Ibn Ṣafiyyah visited the Caliph and advised hot baths but the Caliph, who felt himself to be a little weak, refused. Then Quṭb al-Dīn and some of his associates entered in on the Caliph and said, ‘Master, the physician has advised hot baths,’ The Caliph said, ‘We see fit to postpone them.’ Then they overturned his decision and placed him in the bathhouse which had been fired for three days and nights and barred the door for a time until he died. Quṭb al-Dīn and the emirs exhibited great grief and went to Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan the Caliph’s son and appointed him as Caliph on their own terms and pledged allegiance to him and he was given the name al-Mustaḍīʾ bi-amr Allāh. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Mustaḍī’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). Some time passed and the Caliph continued to feel resentment for what they had done. He had appointed ʿAḍud al-Dīn Abū l-Faraj ibn Raʾīs al-Ruʾasāʾ See EI 2 art. ‘ʿAḍud al-Dīn’ (Anon.). as vizier, and Ibn Ṣafiyyah, as before, continued in his service of him. Then the Caliph and his vizier began to act despotically and independently of Quṭb al-Dīn Qāymāz, and whenever Ibn Ṣafiyyah learnt of anything he would relate it to Quṭb al-Dīn as he frequented the Caliph’s palace and was not prevented from entering since he was the serving physician. One night, the Caliph summoned Ibn Ṣafiyyah and said to him, ‘Physician, there is someone I detest the look of and I wish to dismiss him but in a graceful and not disgraceful way.’ Ibn Ṣafiyyah said to him, ‘Then we will prepare for him a potion both powerful and effective which he will drink and you will be rid of him as you wish.’ Then he went and compounded a potion as he had described and brought it back at night to the Caliph who opened it, examined it, and said, ‘Physician, swallow this potion so we can test its efficacy.’ The physician recoiled from that and said, ‘Master, remember God, remember God, with regard to me!’ The Caliph said, ‘Whenever a physician oversteps his bounds and traverses his limits he will fall into the likes of this. There is no escape for you except by the sword.’ So the physician swallowed the potion which he had himself compounded and fled from perdition to perdition. Then he left the Caliph’s palace and wrote a letter to the emir Quṭb al-Dīn informing him of the events and saying to him, ‘After me it will be you!’ Then he died. As for Quṭb al-Dīn, he was determined to bring down the Caliph but God, glory be to Him, made his plot backfire. His wealth was plundered and he fled Baghdad for his life and went to al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn [Saladin] in Syria but the King refused to accept him. He returned by way of the desert to Mosul but fell ill on the way and died after reaching Mosul. al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxiii:175, gives the date of Quṭb al-Dīn’s death as 570/1174–1175. [10.63.3] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say, in contrast to this story is what was told to me by Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn al-Karīm al-Baghdādī, An author of the 7th/13th century known for his Book of Cookery . who heard it from a certain teacher of Baghdad who said: The Sultan Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd Khwārazmshāh See EI 2 art. ‘Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad b. Malik-S̲h̲āh’ (C.E. Bosworth). had come MSS . PS: read ‘had laid siege to Baghdad’. to Baghdad in the year five hundred and […] There is a lacuna here in all the MSS consulted, also in Müller. C.E. Bosworth ( EI 2 art. ‘Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd b. Muḥammad b. Malik-S̲h̲āh’) gives the date of this siege as the month of Dhū l-Qaʿdah 551/December 1156–January 1157. While in his camp on the outskirts of the city he fell ill, and the Caliph al-Muqtafī Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Mustaẓhir See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muḳtafī’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). also fell ill inside Baghdad. The Sultan sent a messenger seeking out the chief Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh, See Ch. 10. 64. who was brought to the outskirts of the city and he would treat the Sultan there and would treat the Caliph inside Baghdad. Once, the Sultan’s vizier said to him, ‘Chief, I have just been with the Sultan and I told him of your virtue, education, and excellence, and he wishes to gift you ten thousand gold dinars.’ Ibn al-Tilmīdh replied: Master, I have already been offered twelve thousand dinars from Baghdad. Will the Sultan permit me to accept them? Master, I am a mere physician and I do not go beyond the duties and obligations of physicians. I know nothing other than barley water, infusions, and the beverages of violets and lilies, and when I am removed from this I don’t know a thing. The vizier had, in his conversation, in fact said something which indicated that he was planning to do away with the Caliph, but God – glory be to Him – ordained that both the Caliph and the Sultan would recover, and they came to a truce on the Caliph’s terms. This shows the intelligence, religiosity, and trustworthiness of the Raʾīs Amīn al-Dawlah who used to say: A physician should not involve himself in the secrets of Kings and should not go beyond the aforementioned barley water, infusions, and beverages; for if he goes beyond this he will perish, and it will be the cause of his downfall. And he used to recite the following verses: Metre: khafīf . When God the Guardian makes wings grow on ants, He lets them fly to their destruction. Every human has a limit and a man’s perdition lies in overstepping the limit. MS R adds in margin a verse on the same motif, see AII .9. 10.64 Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see GAL I , 487; Sezgin, GAS III , 244, 268, 280; Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 340; EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Tilmīd̲h̲’ (M. Meyerhof). [10.64.1] Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh, namely al-Ajall Muwaffaq al-Mulk Amīn al-Dawlah These three epithets may be translated as ‘The Most Majestic, Propitious of the Realm, Trustee of the State.’ Abū l-Ḥasan Hibat Allāh ibn Abī l-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Tilmīdh, was the foremost of his age in the art of medicine and in its practice. This is indicated by what is known of his writings and his glosses on medical books, as well as the great many people I have seen who bear witness to this. He was practitioner ( sāʿūr ) The term sāʿūr , a Syriac borrowing, is glossed in the margin of MS A, quoting from Ibn Bakhtawayh’s Prolegomena (see above Ch. 10.52.1): ‘Gloss from Ibn Bakhtawayh’s Prolegomena ( K. al-Muqaddimāt ): “Theory in Syriac is thawriyā [i.e. ‮ܬܐܘܪܝܐ‬‎], and practice saʿūruthā [i.e. ‮ܘܣܥܘܪܘܬܐ‬‎]; that is why someone who [tends] the sick in the hospital is called sāʿūr , because he takes care of their treatment” ’. in the ʿAḍudī Hospital in Baghdad until his death. At the beginning of his career he had travelled to Persia Ar. bilād al-ʿajam . and remained there in service for many years. He was a calligrapher and would write in a proportioned script Ar. khaṭṭ mansūb . See Sperl & Moustafa, The Cosmic Script . of the utmost beauty and correctness. He was also expert in the Syriac and Persian tongues and deeply-versed in the Arabic language and wrote delightful poetry with fine motifs, although most of his extant poems consist of only two or three verses each and I have found only a few long poems of his. Amīn al-Dawlah also wrote many good epistles and I have seen a great volume of his, all of which contains letters and correspondence. Most of his family were secretaries, and Amīn al-Dawlah’s father, Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Ṣāʿid was a physician of merit and renown. [10.64.2] Amīn al-Dawlah and Awḥad al-Zamān Abū l-Barakāt On him, see Ch. 10.66. were both in the service of al-Mustaḍīʾ bi-amr Allāh. Abū l-Barakāt was better than Ibn al-Tilmīdh in the philosophical disciplines in which he wrote fine books, and had he written no other book than the one known as Lessons in Wisdom ( al-Muʿtabar ) A book on Metaphysics. Published several times including at Hyderabad, 1938–1939, as K. al-Muʿtabar fī l-ḥikmah ; and Beirut: Manshūrāt al-Jamal, 2012, as al-Kitāb al-Muʿtabar fī l-ḥikmah al-Ilāhiyyah . it would have been sufficient. Ibn al-Tilmīdh, however, had more insight into the art of medicine and was renowned more for it. The two hated each other and were enemies, but Ibn al-Tilmīdh was possessed of more intellect and a better nature than Abū l-Barakāt. An example of this is that Awḥad al-Zamān had written a note in which he accused Ibn al-Tilmīdh of things that the likes of him could not possibly have done. Then he bribed a servant to secretly throw the note in the path of the Caliph so that no-one would know. This in itself displays a great evil. When the Caliph found the note he took it very badly indeed at first and intended to bring down Amīn al-Dawlah. Then he came to his senses and was advised to investigate and get to the root of the matter and to get the servants to confess as to who had accused Ibn al-Tilmīdh of this act. When the Caliph did this he discovered that Awḥad al-Zamān had written the note to bring down Ibn al-Tilmīdh so he became greatly angered at him and put Awḥad al-Zamān’s life, Lit., he gifted his blood, all his wealth, and his books to Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh. all his wealth, and his books into the hands of Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh. Ibn al-Tilmīdh, however, who had such a noble nature and great charity, did not encroach upon any of this, but Awḥad al-Zamān was banished from the Caliph for this and lost his station. Among the natural Ar. maṭbūʿ , natural, as opposed to artificial ( maṣnūʿ, mutakallaf ). For a discussion of the two concepts, see Mansur Ajami, The Neckveins of Winter . verses by Amīn al-Dawlah about Awḥad al-Zamān are these: Metre: basīṭ . Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 343; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:74; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:278; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:280; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:243. We have a Jewish friend whose stupidity is apparent from his mouth when he speaks. He is wanders bewilderedly ( yatīh ) – a dog is above him in status – as if he were still wandering in the wilderness ( al-tīh ). A certain person wrote the following about Amīn al-Dawlah and Awḥad al-Zaman: Metre: wāfir . Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 346; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:75; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:280; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:243. Anonymously in IAU , it is attributed in these three sources to al-Badīʿ Hibat Allāh al-Aṣṭurlābī (the same in a marginal note in R); he contrasts Ibn al-Tilmīdh’s humility with Abū l-Barakāt’s arrogance. Abū l-Ḥasan the physician Ibn al-Tilmīdh. and his epigone, Abū l-Barakāt, are poles apart: One is in his humility among the Pleiades, the other in his haughtiness in the abyss. [10.64.3] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – quote from the manuscript of the shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī See his entry below Ch. 15.40. who relates the following about Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh: Amīn al-Dawlah was good company, of noble morals, had generosity and humanitas , produced works of renown in medicine, and came to correct conclusions. An example of this is when a woman was brought to him on a stretcher and whose family didn’t know whether she was alive or dead. It was wintertime so he ordered that she be undressed and that cold water be poured over her frequently and continuously. Then he ordered that she be carried to a warm room which had been fumigated with aloes-wood and nadd Ar. nadd , a certain type of perfume composed of aloes-wood, musk, and ambergris, or ambergris alone, used for fumigation. and she was wrapped in all kinds of furs for a while. Then she sneezed, moved, sat up, and went out walking with her family towards her house. He [ʿAbd al-Laṭīf] also said that a man weak from blood-loss and sweating blood entered upon Amīn al-Dawlah during the summertime. Amīn al-Dawlah asked his students who were fifty in number but they did not recognise the complaint. Amīn al-Dawlah told him to eat barley bread with grilled aubergine which the man did for three days and was cured. When his students asked him about the cause, Amīn al-Dawlah said that his blood had become thin and his pores had opened up, and the effect of this nutriment was to thicken the blood and condense the pores. He [ʿAbd al-Laṭīf] also said that an example of Amīn al-Dawlah’s decent character was that the back of his house used to adjoin the Niẓāmiyyah School and whenever a scholar became ill he would take him in and attend him in his illness, and when he recovered he would give him two gold dinars and send him on his way. Among that which he [ʿAbd al-Laṭīf] also related about Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh (and it seems he exaggerates in this story) was that Amīn al-Dawlah would not accept any gifts except from a caliph or sultan. A certain king whose abode was distant became chronically ill and he was told, ‘There is nothing for you except Ibn al-Tilmīdh but he does not seek out anyone.’ So the king said, ‘I will go to him.’ When he arrived he appointed palaces for himself and his servants and expended what was necessary on stipends and remained a while and the king was cured and returned to his lands. Then he sent four thousand gold dinars, four wardrobes Per. takht , Ar. pl. tukhūt . The word has a number of meanings including couch, throne, capital city, but the Persian gloss of the word to mean jāmah-dār (wardrobe) seems best here. of ʿattābī cloth, ʿAttābī cloth is said to be a silk-cotton stuff of different colours woven in the ʿAttābiyyah quarter of Baghdad, hence the name. It is the origin of the English word ‘tabby’, See Dozy, ‘ Dictionnaire détaillé ’, 110, 437; EI 2 Glossary and Index of Terms , ‘ʿattābī.’ four slaves, and four horses to Amīn al-Dawlah with a certain merchant but Amīn al-Dawlah refused to accept them saying, ‘I have taken an oath not to accept anything from anyone.’ The merchant said, ‘This is a great amount.’ He said, ‘When I swore I did not make any exceptions.’ The merchant stayed a month cajoling him but he staunchly refused. When the merchant bade him farewell he said, ‘Now I will travel and will not return to my master but I may enjoy the wealth and you may take on the obligation but not have the benefit of the wealth and no-one will know that you refused it.’ Amīn al-Dawlah said, ‘Do I not know within myself that I didn’t accept it? I myself will attain honour from this whether the people know of it or not.’ [10.64.4] Our shaykh, the Sage Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿAlī, See entry below Ch. 15.50. related to us that the shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn Asʿad ibn Ilyās ibn al-Muṭrān See entry below Ch. 15.23. related to him that his father related to him that Ismāʿīl ibn Rashīd related to him that Abū l-Faraj ibn Tūmā and Abū l-Faraj al-Masīḥī related to him, saying: Once, al-Ajall Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh was sitting with us when a woman with a young boy asked permission to enter. When she had entered and he saw the boy Amīn al-Dawlah spoke up before she could and said, ‘This boy of yours has a burning sensation when he passes urine and he passes sand’ MS A has ‘blood’ here instead of sand. The woman said, ‘Yes.’ Amīn al-Dawlah said, ‘Then he should take such-and-such a medicine.’ Then the woman left. The two narrators continue, ‘So we asked him about the sign which indicated that this was what he was suffering from and that had the problem been with the liver or the spleen then the indication would have been in concord with the boy’s colour.’ He said, ‘When the boy entered I saw that he was obsessed with his urethra and was scratching it. I also saw that his fingernails were broken, coarse and dry, so I knew that the scratching was because of the sand and that that sharp material which brings about itching and burning probably touched his fingernails when he became obsessed with his penis and so became broken and dry. This is what I concluded and it was appropriate.’ [10.64.5] Among the interesting stories associated with Amīn al-Dawlah and his fine allusions is that one day he was with al-Mustaḍīʾ bi-amr Allāh. A version of this anecdote in which the caliph is al-Muqtafī occurs in Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 341. Amīn al-Dawlah was at that time very advanced in age and when he rose to get up he leant on his knees. The Caliph said to him, ‘You have become old, O Amīn al-Dawlah!’ He said, ‘Yes, and my flasks Ar. qawārīr meaning ‘flasks’ or phials or any long-necked vessels Although the word can refer to wine flasks, the allusion for a medical man is perhaps to urine flasks. are smashed.’ The Caliph thought about what Amīn al-Dawlah had said and realised that he had only said it for a reason. So he inquired about it and was told that the Imām al-Mustanjid bi-Allāh had gifted to Amīn al-Dawlah an estate called Qawārīr which he had held tenure of for a time. Then, three years previously, the vizier had taken hold of it. The Caliph was amazed at Amīn al-Dawlah’s good manners and the fact that he hadn’t brought the matter up with him before nor set about requesting the estates. The Caliph then commanded that the estates be returned to Amīn al-Dawlah and that, in future, none of his possessions were to be encroached upon. [10.64.6] Another of the anecdotes about Amīn al-Dawlah’s rarities is that the Caliph had delegated to him the position of Chief Physician in Baghdad. When the rest of the physicians met with him so that he could examine their knowledge of the art, among those present was an old shaykh with an aura and a good demeanour and who was very tranquil and Amīn al-Dawlah honoured him. This shaykh had some experience of medical treatment but he had nothing but a superficial knowledge of the theory of the art of medicine. When his turn came Amīn al-Dawlah said to him, ‘For what reason has the shaykh not taken part in the discussions with the rest of the group so that we may see his knowledge of the art?’ The shaykh said, ‘Master, and is there anything that they have spoken of which I do not know? Indeed, I have understood more than that many times over.’ Amīn al-Dawlah said to him, ‘So with whom did you study the art?’ The shaykh said, ‘Master, when a person reaches a certain age it is more appropriate to ask him how many students he has and who is the most distinguished of them. As for my teachers, they died a long time ago.’ Amīn al-Dawlah said, ‘O Shaykh, this is something normal and it does no harm to mention it. However, we will let it pass. Tell me, what medical books have you studied?’ Amīn al-Dawlah’s intention was to assess his knowledge. The shaykh said, ‘Glory be to Almighty God, have I reached the point where youngsters are inquiring about me and asking what books I have studied! Master, one should say to the likes of me, “What books have you composed in the art of medicine and how many books and treatises have you written?” It seems I must introduce myself to you!’ Then he rose and went next to Amīn al-Dawlah and sat with him and said in secret to him, ‘Master, know that I am an old man and I am well-known for this art but I have no knowledge other than common phrases to do with medical treatment. All my life I have earned a living by the art and I have dependents. So, Master, I beg you in the name of God to let me carry on and do not expose me in front of everyone.’ Amīn al-Dawlah said, ‘On one condition, and that is that you do not treat a patient with anything you have no knowledge of and you do not prescribe bloodletting or purgatives except for common diseases.’ The shaykh said, ‘That has been my method from the start. I do not go beyond oxymel and rosewater.’ Then Amīn al-Dawlah said aloud so everyone could hear, ‘O Shaykh, excuse us, for we had not recognized you but now that we do, continue as you are and no-one will trouble you.’ Then he returned to his business with the others and said to one of them, ‘With whom did you study this art?’ And he began to examine him. The man said, ‘Master, I am one of the students of that shaykh whom you have just recognized and it is with him I studied the art of medicine.’ Amīn al-Dawlah understood what he was getting at, smiled, and carried on with the examination. [10.64.7] Amīn al-Dawlah had friends and associates who would visit him from time to time. One day, three people came to his house: an astrologer, a geometer, and a littérateur. They inquired about Amīn al-Dawlah of his servant Qanbar who told them that his Master was not at home and that he was not present at that particular time. The three left but then returned at another time and asked Qanbar about him who told them the same as he had before. The three were discerning poets, and the astrologer came forward and wrote on the wall by the door of the house: Metre: khafīf . In Ibn Ẓāfir al-Azdī, Badāʾiʿ , 226–227 the three are identified as Abū l-Faḍl al-Baghdādī, Ibn al-Dahhān al-Qurṭubī, and Ibn Ṣalāḥ, respectively. We are afflicted, in the house of the most auspicious of people, with an inauspicious thing. After which the geometer wrote: With a short person who takes a long time and a tall one who falls short. The meaning is not quite clear. Then the littérateur, who was a little indecorous, came forward and wrote: How often do you say ‘Qanbar’? Let Qanbar’s head roll! Ibn Ẓāfir has qaṭṭiʿū ‘cut to pieces!’ Then they left and when Amīn al-Dawlah came, Qanbar said to him, ‘Master, three men came here looking for you and when they didn’t find you they wrote this rajaz poem on the wall.’ When Amīn al-Dawlah had read it he said to those with him, ‘It is almost as if this first verse is in the hand of so-and-so the astrologer, and this second verse in the hand of so-and-so the geometer, and the third in the hand of so-and-so our friend, for each verse indicates something practised by its author.’ And the fact of the matter was exactly as Amīn al-Dawlah had concluded. This house of Amīn al-Dawlah’s in which he lived in Baghdad was in the Perfume Market whose gate is adjacent to the Willow Tree Gate ( Bāb al-Gharabah ) by the Caliph’s Great Palace in the street leading to the banks of the Tigris. [10.64.8] Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh said: One day I was thinking about the subject of religious sects. Then I saw a herald in a dream who was reciting to me these verses: Metre: sarīʿ . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:279–280. I am swimming in your sea, hoping that I might see in it the bottom of what I seek; But I see nothing but one wave pushing me on to another. [10.64.9] Saʿd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī Sahl al-Baghdādī al-ʿAwwād, That is the lutenist or lute-maker. who was of a great age, related to me, saying, ‘I saw Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh and met with him. He was an old shaykh of average height, a thick beard, a beautiful character, and with many rarities.’ The narrator continues, ‘He loved the art of music and was inclined towards musicians.’ [10.64.10] Sadīd al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar, That is Ibn Raqīqah, see his entry below Ch. 15.46. may God show him mercy, related to me that the Imām Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Māridīnī, For his entry, see below Ch. 10.75. who was a friend of Amīn al-Dawlah and was his companion for a time, said that al-Ajall Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh was among those who distinguished themselves in the Arabic language. A great many people would attend his classes in the art of medicine and study with him. Two grammarians would also frequent his class and they received kindnesses and attention from Amīn al-Dawlah. Whenever one or other of his students would make many grammatical errors when reading, or have a speech defect, Amīn al-Dawlah would remain silent and leave it to one of the two grammarians to read instead and he would listen and then order the student to promise to give the grammarian something for reading instead of him. [10.64.11] Amīn al-Dawlah had a son but he did not comprehend the art of medicine and was, in all respects, far removed from the station of Amīn al-Dawlah, who said of him: Metre: munsariḥ . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:281, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:245. I complain unto God about a surly companion whose soul helps him ( tusʿifuhū ) while he wrongs it ( yuʿsifuhā ). We are like sun and new moon together: the former lends the latter its light, but is eclipsed by it. Amīn al-Dawlah also used to scold his son with this verse: Metre: kāmil . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:283. And time is the most precious thing that one A has ʿunīta , Wāfī has ʿunītu . is bound to preserve, but I see that to you it is the easiest thing to waste. [10.64.12] The shaykh and Imām Raḍī al-Dīn al-Raḥbī, See his entry Ch. 15.36. the physician, may God show him mercy, related to me saying, ‘In Baghdad I met with the son of Amīn al-Dawlah and as we conversed, among that which he said was, “In the sky towards the South there is a vent into which smoke rises and from which winds descend.” And he told us many things of that ilk which go to show that he had neither any verified knowledge nor a sound disposition.’ MS P has a marginal gloss connecting this anecdote with the story about the device reported below. The script is difficult to read and the translation conjectural and incomplete: ‘The one speaking about the vent is perhaps Amīn al-Dawlah’s son, who invented the wheel to Syria mentioned below after a few lines. He (the father?) was surprised by how this land-device worked (?). But speaking about an opening in the sky is not far-fetched. His father said about him: ‘We are like the sun and new moon together: the former lends the latter its light, but is eclipsed by it’. This son [… illegible word …] sometimes [it is said] ‘it eclipses the sun’ ( yaksifu al-shams ), and sometimes ‘it obscures the sky’ ( yakhsif al-samāʾ ). The scribe made an error because this belongs to the class of things that produce eclipses.’ [10.64.13] The shaykh al-Sanī al-Baʿlabakkī, the physician, related to me, saying, ‘Three Christian physicians left us in Damascus for Baghdad. (Then he named them). When they had settled there they heard about Amīn al-Dawlah’s son and said, “His father’s reputation is great. It is fitting that we go to him and greet him and be of service to him. Then we will have met him before we travel to Syria.” So they sought his house and entered upon him and informed him that they were Christians who wished to have the honour of meeting him. Amīn al-Dawlah’s son welcomed them and bade them sit with him.’ The shaykh al-Sanī al-Baʿlabakkī related to me that it became clear to them that Amīn al-Dawlah’s son was simple-minded with weak ideas. This is because during their conversation he said, ‘They say that Syria is beautiful and Damascus is pleasant and I have decided to see them. However, I am going to construct something based on science and geometry so that when I travel there it will be a simple matter and I will experience no inconvenience.’ We said, ‘How will you construct it, Master?’ He said, ‘You know that Syria is lower than the clime of Baghdad and is below it, and this is mentioned in astronomy and the elevation of places one above the other.’ We said, ‘Yes, Master.’ He said, ‘I propose to use wooden wheels with large pulleys, above which will be planks laid out and nailed and upon which I will place all that is necessary for me. And when we set the wheels in motion they will move quickly with the pulleys in a downhill direction and will continue in this way until we reach Damascus with the least amount of effort.’ The narrators continued saying, ‘We were astounded at his heedlessness and ignorance.’ Then Amīn al-Dawlah’s son said, ‘By God, you must not leave until you be my guests and eat some food with me.’ Then he called for the attendant who brought a costly dining table upon which he spread an exquisite white cloth, Ar. ruqāq . Thin, fine, or delicate when applied to garments, cloth, or bread etc. the finest that could be, which appeared to be naṣāfī cloth of Baghdad, Ar. naṣfiyyah , pl. naṣāfī : a cloth of silk and linen. See Dozy, Supplément , ii:680. a vessel in which was vinegar, and choice endives which he placed about him. Then he said, ‘Eat, in the name of God.’ So we ate a small amount since we were not accustomed to such food. Then he stopped eating and said, ‘Servant, bring the washbasin.’ And he brought a silver washbasin and a large piece of soap from Raqqah and poured water for him while he washed his hands and lathered the soap. Then he wiped his mouth and face and beard until his eyes and face were covered with soap and he all white with lather and looking at us all the while. One of our number was someone who couldn’t restrain himself from laughing. It was too much for him and he rose and left us. Amīn al-Dawlah’s son said, ‘What is wrong with him?’ So we said, ‘Master, he is a little light-headed and this is normal for him.’ He said, ‘If he were to stay with us we would cure him.’ Then we bade him farewell and left, begging God to save us from such ignorance as his. [10.64.14] A certain man of Iraq related that Amīn al-Dawlah had a friend whose son died. He was a man of good manners and knowledge but Amīn al-Dawlah did not send his condolences. When they met later the man scolded him for not sending his condolences for his son for the sake of their friendship. But Amīn al-Dawlah said, ‘Do not blame me for this, for by God, I deserve more condolences than you since your son has died yet someone like my son is still alive.’ [10.64.15] I have found these words of Amīn al-Dawlah contained in a letter he wrote to his son, who was known as Raḍī al-Dawlah Abū Naṣr. He says: Turn your mind away from these trifles and towards attaining an understanding by which you may distinguish yourself. And avail yourself of the method I have repeatedly alerted you to and directed you to. And take the opportunity to do what is possible and understand its value and occupy yourself with thankfulness to God for it. And attain a valuable portion of knowledge such that you are confident that you have grasped it and mastered it, not merely read it and transmitted it, for all other portions are subservient to this portion and adhere to those who have attained it. Whoever seeks other portions without this one will either not find them, or, if he finds them, will not rely on them or have confidence that they will endure. And I seek refuge in God lest you choose to aspire to that which does not befit someone of high-mindedness, strength of character, and self-respect. And, as I have repeatedly advised, do not be intent on saying anything unless it is refined in both its meaning and its form of words and it is appropriate for you to say it. And you should be more intent on listening to that which is of benefit to you rather than what merely entertains you or is a source of pleasure to the naïve and the foolish – may God raise you above their station. And it is true what Plato said that virtues are bitter to drink but sweet afterwards, and vices are sweet to drink but bitter afterwards. And in the same vein, Aristotle continued, saying that vices are not sweet to drink for someone of an exalted disposition. Rather, the perception of their ugliness in his mind disturbs him so much that it spoils for him that which others think to be delightful. Similarly, a person of an exalted nature will be able to distinguish between what should be sought and what should be avoided, like a person in full health whose senses are enough for him to distinguish between what is beneficial and what is harmful. So do not choose for yourself – may God preserve you – anything that does not befit someone of your station, and overcome fanciful thoughts with the determination of the men of sound mind and aspire to this and you will be left under the control of your intellect and you will find joy within yourself and, as this continues, you will find yourself every day in a high station and on an elevated path to bliss. [10.64.16] Amīn al-Dawlah died in Baghdad on the twenty-eighth of the month of Rabīʿ I in the year 560 [12 February 1165] at the age of ninety-four years. He died as a Christian and left behind great wealth, much property, and books of peerless quality all of which was inherited by his son who lived on for a time. Amīn al-Dawlah’s son was later strangled in the courtyard of his house during the first portion of the night and his property was taken and his books were carried by twelve porters to the house of al-Majd ibn al-Ṣāḥib. Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAlī Majd al-Dīn Ibn al-Ṣāḥib, ustādh Dār al-Khilāfah (d. 583/1187); see al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:302–303, where he is described as powerful and particularly nasty, vile, stingy, wicked ( sayyiʾ al-ṭarīqah yartakibu l-maʿāṣī bakhīlan khasīs al-nafs sāqiṭ al-murūʾah madhmūm al-afʿāl ). Amīn al-Dawlah’s son had become a Muslim before his death, and it is said he was an old shaykh nearing eighty years of age. [10.64.17.1] In a letter from al-Sayyid al-Naqīb al-Kāmil ibn al-Sharīf al-Jalīl Unidentified. to Amīn al-Dawlah I found this ode in which he eulogizes the latter: Metre: wāfir . Amīn al-Dawlah, may you be preserved for bestowing benefits, despite foes and enemies, And for the favours that you spread around, whenever misfortunes and hardships come in turns. You are the man who is found, when you are called, to be generous with his possessions newly acquired and inherited, Close to his friend despite distance, affectionate, never swerving from his affection, With sound opinion and speech, someone whose mind disdains to stray from what is right. I shall thank you for the benefits you have bestowed on me, whether we were close or far apart, And praise you, since praise is due to you, for the favours done to me in every company. But can my gratitude, with the passing of time, reach the extent of my loyalty and firm belief? I called upon you when Time was refractory, but then it became easy to handle for me. I called it and it heard me, while before it was aloof to me, deaf to the caller. So many boons you have given, unmatched, without condescension For the expression bi-lā mann cf. a line by al-Najāshī al-Ḥarithī ( bi-lā mannin ʿalayka wa-lā bukhlī ; Ullman, Das Gespräch , 111–112: ‘ohne dies als eine gnädige Herablassung dir gegenüber zu betrachten, und ohne Geiz’). It can also be connected with the Qur’anic expression (ajrun) ghayru mamnūn , usually interpreted as ‘(a reward) unfailing’ (e.g. Q Fuṣṣilat 41:8). or regard; So many benefactions that have lodged in my heart, in the deepest part of which you dwell. I find the yearning feelings towards you in my heart are like the fire in the flintstone: Whenever a thought of you is kindled by it, my homeland almost ejects me because of the heat of my ardour. My riding animals yearn, and I yearn, full of longing, when a thought of a meeting enters my heart. I am eager to sleep, hoping you will visit me in a dream, but how could my eyes fall asleep? The genitive of wa-l-ruqādi , required by the rhyme, is odd; one would expect an accusative ( wāw al-maʿiyyah ) or possibly a nominative. I shall send them, The pronoun refers to the camels of line 15, but could also refer to the present poem. eliminating (i.e., crossing) the deserts ( tubīdu l-bīda ) Or, adopting the reading of Müller, Riḍā, and Najjār: ‘stirring (the dust of) the deserts’. with a fast pace, recklessly through the dark, without a leader. If the Pleiades were to go along with them as a guide, the would be bewildered and complain of lengthy lack of sleep. Turn with me towards al-Zawrāʾ as a nightly vision ( zawran ), Reading an imperative ( talaffat bī ). Al-Zawrāʾ is the name of several places, including a part of Baghdad, and it can refer to the river Tigris (Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān ). as parched camels turn to the water! And if time passes – but who could make time pass for me according to what I wish? – And a visit would be possible for me, because misfortunes, I swear, have prevented me from visiting you, Then who could help me so that camels could transport me to you, even though I were to travel by night without provisions? I say to a friend who does not know what ignorance is: Are you trying to lead me astray or to guide me on the right path? If you are friendly, consider whom you befriend, and if you are hostile, consider to whom you are hostile. If you love, you will know what it is to go to the end of things, so consider their beginnings; And let me praise a beneficent man: thereby you will know the difference between my being right and my being wrong. (Praise of) someone unique in excellence, having risen to the furthest heights, builder Reading mubnī . The metaphor is unusual. of favours, A man of wise judgements that testify for him, evident ( bawādin ) among settled people and nomads ( bawādī ). If they were compared ( qīsa ) with those of Quss, Quss ibn Sāʿidah al-Iyādī, legendary pre-Islamic orator proverbial for his eloquence. he would fall short; and we know Quss’s status in the tribe of Iyād. If you were his neighbour you would live next to a rain-cloud whose generosity Nadā also means ‘dew, moistness’; generosity is commonly compared to rain, sea, or other watery things. melts in a rainless year. Or if you ask him for help, he, a resolute man, would help you against Fate, as its enemy. He is generous with what his hands contain whenever someone calls out: Is there any generous man? He responds even before you call for his munificence and he provides for any calamity that befalls a gathering. A man of magnanimity, seldom blamed, whose enemies confirm that he confers benefits. A man with the character of good wine, mixed with cold pure water, cooled by the north wind. With the least effort he gained high honours while others floundered despite their exertions. At the race’s finish, when horses press on, the halfbred is separated from the thoroughbred. Abū l-Ḥasan, listen to me when I utter praise that is sweet, devoid of repeated motifs, Like the breaths of meadows over which the east wind has blown, after which they became scented: I call your name in it, and the rhymes are perfumed not by Suʿdā or Suʿād. Women’s names often mentioned in love poetry. I present it to you, asking your protection with your sense of justice, against the injustice of criticism. Someone like you sees how rhymes are directed to him and speaks about them with fairness. May you be rewarded with good deeds, for you are entitled to them, and may you be watered by the stars that bring the morning clouds. In ancient and popular Arab meteorology some stars and constellations were associated with rain. May you live through time, even though everything, in the course of time, comes to an end. [10.64.17.2] Al-Sharīf Abū Yaʿlā Muḥammad ibn al-Habbāriyyah al-ʿAbbāsī al-Sharīf Abū Yaʿlā Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ Ibn al-Habbāriyyah (d. 504/1110–1111 or 509/1116), see EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Habbāriyya.’ (Ch. Pellat), EAL 327 (C. Hillenbrand), al-ʿImād al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:70–140, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , i:130–132. said, in a poem in praise of al-Ajall Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh: Metre: ramal . Al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:129 (lines 1 and 3, preceded by four lines not in IAU ; said to have been written to Ibn al-Tilmīdh ‘on his illness’, presumably the poet’s). Fifteen lines (1, 3–4, 11–12, 14, 16, 21–22, 24–29) in al-Dalajī, al-Falākah , 110–111. O Sons of al-Tilmīdh, Addressing Ibn al-Tilmīdh’s family; for his brother Abū l-Faraj Yaḥyā, see the next entry, 10.65. if I gave you your due my soul would not be passionate about my own family And I would console myself about my young children with you and my waist would become heavy of … The sense of al-m.nṣ.fah is unclear. I have repudiated Kirmān Ibn al-Habbāriyyah, because of his lampoons on many leading persons, was forced to leave Baghdad for Isfahan and subsequently Isfahan for Kirmān, at an unknown date, where he died at a very advanced age, probably in 509/1115–1116. in exchange for you: you are its substitute to me, and such a noble one! The Leader of Sages, Raʾīs al-ḥukamāʾ ; Amīn al-Dawlah Ibn al-Tilmīdh is called thus in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xvi:287, and see line 28 below. whose blessing is hoped for: he is to me a heavenly garden where fruits can be plucked. My worldly affairs have prevented me from coming to ʿAmīd al-Mulk; ‘Prop of the Realm’, apparently another honorific of Amīn al-Dawlah (but above he was called Muwaffaq al-Mulk). my worldly life is unjust and unfair. If Hibat Allāh Abū l-Ḥasan, the unique one, saw me, it would be a precious gift from him, For he is the blossom of my epoch’s palm-tree, sweet to the taste, all others being inferior dates. The world, with all in it together, because of his lofty qualities acknowledges these lofty qualities. The repetition in li-ʿulāhu bi-l-ʿulā (if it is a repetion) is somewhat strange. The wishes of mankind, all of them, are scooped from the favours of his generosity, And wrapped in the mantles of his noble shade that protects from the vagaries of perdition. A sun of glory that you will never see eclipsed from the skies of noble deeds. His glory is too illustrious to be grasped by being described: he is greater than any description. He is the excuse of Fate, Reading, with AP, ʿudhr rather than ghadr (‘treachery’) as incorrectly in S, Müller, Riḍā, Najjār. Fate can use him as an excuse, as compensation for its evil; cf. Abū ʿAlī al-Manṭiqī in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xv:226: in kunta ʿudhra l-dahri fī sūʾi mā janat | jadāhu ; and al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , i:116, in a poem by the author: anta ʿudhru l-dahr yā wāḥidahu | wa-laqad aʿẓama lawlāhu jtirāmā . or rather its beneficence, while all other creatures are dry and shabby. If I could, I and all that is mine would withdraw to the corners of his house. He established, as a religion for lofty deeds, Reading dīnan fī l-maʿālī (A, P) instead of dunyā fī l-maʿālī (S) or fī dunyā l-maʿālī , ‘in the world of lofty deeds’ (Müller, Riḍā, Najjār), which is a possible and perhaps better reading. customs that are admired and considered charming. In him the world glories, that has come to spurn all others. My lord, how many sorrows have you dispelled, their gloom being lifted! And manifold favours you bestowed with a hand Paronomasia: ayādin (‘hands’, ‘favours’), yad (‘hand’). that can still be asked for boons. The literal meaning of murtashafah , ‘(to be) sipped, sucked, drained’ is, even considering the common metaphor ‘moisture = generosity’, only slighly less odd in Arabic than in English. From you there spread flashes of lightning that, when we took them as rain’s harbingers, did not disappoint. From you a benevolence was seen that makes it impossible for any tongue and lip to show due gratitude. I present this eulogy to the sons of al-Tilmīdh, since each of them is full of knowledge. Yaḥyā’s son among them, reviver of generosity, is even more munificent than those whose progeny he is; He excels in excellence all those who know him or don’t know him. He made real his father’s cognomen The kunyah (teknonym when indicating a son but often a nickname) of Yaḥyā was Abū l-Faraj ‘Father (i.e., possessor) of Relief’. by the nobility he has and the nature to which he is accustomed. They are descended from noble ancestors through Ṣāʿid, Ṣāʿid ibn Ibrāhīm (or, as in Ibn Khallikān, Ṣāʿid ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Ibrāhīm) was the father of Amīn al-Dawlah Hibat Allāh and Abū l-Faraj Yaḥyā. I would give my father in ransom for their glory: how unsullied it is! Do not compare them with all mankind, or you would compare a lion of al-Sharā Al-Sharā, said to be in Yemen, was a region proverbial for its lions. with a frizzy wolf(?). The word jaʿdafah (thus in all versions) has not been found anywhere. As Professor Manfred Ullmann points out (private communication), it appears to be a nonce word coined by the poet to suit the rhyme, based on abū jaʿdah , a nickname of the wolf. And Ibn Ibrāhīm, a deity in lofty qualities: whoever calls him human would not do him justice. Najjār records a restrained marginal manuscript comment on this rather blasphemous line: ‘There is no power and no might except through God! This is not befitting for al-Sayyid al-Sharīf in his poem of gratitude for the addressee’. O leader of sages, uncover this (poem), an opulent virgin of the daughters of thought! The poet refers to his poem, describing it, with a common metaphor, as ‘virgin’ in its originality. I have dispatched my progeny, aiming (for you), while complaining of a fate of little fairness, Having indulged in the hope of your blessing, that it may lift the enveloping calamities. So remain the one who is in charge of glory, as long as One of many similar Arabic expressions for ‘always’. a sturdy she-camel brays from exhaustion, having travelled at a trot. You all have bestowed so many former generations of blessings, the younger sister of which is now hoped for. Renew their coming, my noble lords, with resumed favours from you! [10.64.17.3] Abū Ismāʿīl al-Ṭughrāʾī Abū Ismāʿīl al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī al-Ṭughrāʾī (d. 515/1121), administrator, vizier, alchemist, and poet of the celebrated ode called Lāmiyyat al-ʿAjam ; EI 2 art. ‘al-Ṭug̲h̲rāʾī’ (F.C. de Blois), EAL , 783 (C. Hillenbrand). wrote to Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh: Metre: munsariḥ . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:279. My lord, the love for whom is to me a spirit whereby the body lives: I seek help for pain in my back; but can a back feel pain that is supported by you? Muḥammad ibn Jakkīnā Al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Ibn Jakkīnā (one also finds Jakīnā and Ḥakīnā), d. 528/1133; a poet mainly of epigrams. See al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:230–248, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xi:387–391. had fallen ill; Amīn al-Dawlah visited him. Then Ibn Jakkīnā said on him, Metre: sarīʿ . Al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:245, Ibn Ḥamdūn, Tadhkirah , iv:382, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xi:391. You came to my place and thereby my status was raised – may my soul be ransom for such a visitor! The world has never yet seen a river A metaphor for generosity, baḥr , usually ‘sea’, can also mean ‘large river’, more compatible with drinking. that moved to someone who drank from it. A certain poet in Baghdad came to Amīn al-Dawlah, complaining about his condition and asking him for a prescription. Amīn al-Dawlah wrote a suitable prescription for the illness that the man complained of. Then he handed to him a purse containing some dinars and said, ‘This will pay for a vegetarian broth ( muzawwarat zīrbāj )’. The man took it and was cured after a few days. Then he wrote to Amīn al-Dawlah: Metre: munsariḥ . Ascribed (with another line beween the two) to Ibn Jakkīnā in al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:234 and Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:71. Zīrbāj is a dish involving meat, wine-vinegar, almonds, and various condiments, see Perry, Medieval Arab Cookery , 43, 135, 472, 494–496; in this case the dish was without meat ( muzawwarah ), suitable for the sick (Perry, Medieval Arab Cookery , 443). I came to him complaining of an illness, being in need of a cure and support. I said, when he was kind to me and cured me: ‘This is a doctor on whom there is a zirbāj .’ Read zirbājū instead of the normal form zīr(a)bājū , which would not scan correctly. The sense of the expression, perhaps involving a pun, is not clear; the attempt of the editor of Wafayāt to connect it with Persian zawr-bāz or zawr-bāzū , ‘strong’ or ‘of strong arm’, is not convincing. [10.64.18] Among the sayings of Amīn al-Dawlah: Sadīd al-Dīn ibn Raqīqah See Ch. 15.46. related to me, saying, ‘Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī See Ch. 10.75. related to me, saying, Amīn al-Dawlah used to say to us’: Do not assume that you can have full experiential knowledge of most diseases, for knowledge of some of them will come to you by way of Samāwah. Samāwah: the steppe and desert land between Kufa and Syria; it was ‘crossed by important caravan routes connecting Iraq via Palmyra with Syria. See EI 2 art. ‘Samāwa’ (C.E. Bosworth). He also used to say: When you see a thorn in someone’s body half of which is protruding, do not assume that you can pull it out as it may have broken up. He also used to say: The intelligent person should choose a manner of dress such that neither the commoners envy him for it nor the élite look down on him for it. [10.64.19.1] Among the poetry of al-Ajall Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh is the following, which was recited to me by Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Khiḍr al-Ḥalabī, Also known as al-Suṭayl (d. 655/1257); poet and accountant ( ḥāsib ). See al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , i:178. who had heard it from his father, who said: Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh recited the following to me, as being his own poetry: Metre: sarīʿ . According to Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:73 and al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:283, this was addressed to Amīn al-Dawlah’s son Saʿīd. The epigram (with li-ʿAmrin instead of Saʿīdan ) is ascribed to the Muʿtazilite al-Naẓẓām (d. between 220/835 and 230/845), addressing al-Jāḥiẓ, in al-Thaʿālibī, Khāṣṣ al-khāṣṣ , 73. My love of Saʿīd is a stable substance, his love of me is an evanescent accident. My six directions Front, back, left, right, up, down. are occupied with him, while he inclines along them to someone else. He also recited to me, saying: My father recited to me, saying: The aforementioned recited to me Of the three occurrences of anshadanī (‘he recited to me’) only the last is appropriate, because the verb is not used for uttering prose. The same oddity is repeated several times. as his own poetry: Metre: mutaqārib . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:245. Attributed to ʿĪsā ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿĪsā al-Naqqāsh al-Baghdādī (d. 544/1150) in Ibn al-Jawzī, Muntaẓam , xviii:75 (yr 544); al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , iii:50; Ibn Saʿīd, Murqiṣāt , 67; Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , iii:165; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:277; and al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxiii:527–528. This epigram is also found below, in the entry on Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Naqqash (15.13), attributed to his father. When an old man finds there is some energy in him, it means that death is hiding: Don’t you see that the light of a lamp flickers brightly before it dies down? He also recited to me, saying: My father recited to me, saying: The aforementioned recited to me as his own poetry: Metre: kāmil . Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:72 (where the author adds that he has also found these lines attributed to Ibn al-Dahhān al-Mawṣilī), al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:284. Perish analogical reasoning! The case of passionate love is not conducted on the path of one’s intellect. Part of it is the persistence of longing, which in our usage Wafayāt and Wāfī have bi-zaʿmihim (‘as they assert’) instead of bi-ʿurfinā . is an accident, whereas bodies cease to exist rather than it. [10.64.19.2] He also recited to me, saying: My father recited to me, saying: The aforementioned recited to me as his own poetry, on the vizier al-Darkazīnī: Metre: rajaz . ʿImād al-Dīn Abū l-Barakāt ibn Salamah al-Darkazīnī was executed in ‮‭521‬‬‎/ 1127. For a similar epigram by Ibn al-Habbāriyyah, see al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:77–78, Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , iv:454, the last line of which, preceded by the first of the present poem, is found anonymously in al-Ṣafadī, Ghayth , ii:205. They said, ‘So-and-so has become vizier ( wazar ).’ I said, ‘O no! There’s no refuge! ( lā wazar ) A quotation from Q al-Qiyāmah 75:11; one could also interpret it as ‘O no! He cannot be a vizier!’ I swear by God, if I had been made to judge him There is a metrical irregularity in fīh(i) . I would have made him herd the cows.’ He also recited to me, saying: My father recited to me, saying: The aforementioned recited to me as his own poetry: Metre: kāmil muraffal . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:245. People said, having seen how prominent he had become despite his youth: Who is this person who oversteps his worth? I replied, He who is made to advance with the rear. Like the English, the Arabic contains an obscene innuendo. He also recited to me, saying: My father recited to me, saying: The aforementioned recited to me as his own poetry: Metre: kāmil muraffal . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:245. Attributed to Ibn al-Habbāriyyah in al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:88, Ibn al-Jawzī, Adhkiyāʾ , 184 and al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , i:131. I said to the venerable, magnanimous Sheikh, Abū l-Muẓaffar: Remember me to So-and-So-al-Dīn! Someone (a Muslim) whose ‘honorific’ name ends in al-Dīn, such as ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn or Fakhr al-Dīn. He replied: An effeminate will not use a member. An English play on words instead of the untranslatable Arabic one: al-muʾannathu lā yudhakkar can mean ‘an effeminate cannot be made to remember’ or ‘the feminine cannot be made masculine’. He also recited to me, saying: My father recited to me, saying: The aforementioned recited to me as his own poetry, a riddle on fish: Metre: mutaqārib . Al-Damīrī, Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā , ii:29. They have donned cuirasses, for fear of death, and put helmets on top of their heads; But when death came to them they perished by inhaling the pleasant soft breeze. [10.64.19.3] Among the poetry of Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh is also: Metre: mutaqārib . Drive yourself with knowledge to perfection, and you will reach happiness through its door; And do not hope for anything you have not caused yourself, for things occur only through their own causes. Also: Metre: basīṭ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:282. If there were no veil before the soul that keeps it from reaching the truth concerning all eternity, It would understand everything that is difficult to attain, even the truth about cause and effect. Also: Metre: kāmil . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:282, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:245. Knowledge is an increase for an astute man and a shortcoming for a stupid and frivolous man, Just as the day gives more light to people’s eyes but covers the eyes of bats. Also: Metre: kāmil muraffal . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:284. Attributed to al-Fārābī in al-Dalajī, Falākah , 107. With two glasses I spent my lifetime and on them I always relied: A glass filled with ink and a glass filled with wine. With one I established my wisdom and with the other I removed the worries of my breast. [10.64.19.4] Also: Metre: ṭawīl . Anonymously in Ibn Abī l-Iṣbaʿ, Taḥrīr al-taḥbīr , 512; attributed (obviously incorrectly) to Mūsā ibn ʿAlī ibn Mūsā al-Zarzārī (b. 658/1260) in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvi, 531. A version beginning tawāḍaʿ takun ka-l-najmi (‘Be humble and be like the Pleiades’) is frequently quoted on the internet. He humbles himself like the full moon that shines for the onlooker on the surfaces of water, though it is (in fact) high, Whereas those lower than he rise up to glory just as smoke rises above fire, though being lowly. Also: Metre: ṭawīl . When you are envied you are an eyesore in people’s eyes, so apply to them the kohl of humility. Kohl was used as a medicine for eye diseases as well as for adornment. Also: Metre: basīṭ . Attributed to al-amīr Sayf al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Fulayḥ al-Ẓāhirī in al-Damīrī, Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān , i:353. Do not despise an enemy who seems feeble, even though he has little force or toughness: The fly has the power to inflict a festering wound, a power of which a lion falls short. Also: Metre: basīṭ . Attributed to Ibn Hindū in al-Tawḥīdī, Imtāʿ , i, 63, to Ṭāhir ibn Muḥammad ibn Yaḥyā al-Makhzūmī al-Baṣrī in al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah , 29, to Abū Muḥammad al-Makhzūmī in al-Thaʿālibī, Khāṣṣ al-khāṣṣ , 207, to al-Makhzūmī in al-Ḥarīrī, Durrat al-ghawwāṣ , 90, anonymously (but said to be prior to Abū Tammām) in al-Khafājī, Sirr al-faṣāḥah , 72. A blemish in an ignorant, obscure person is obscured, whereas a blemish in a noble, well-known person is well known: Like the white of a fingernail, hidden by its insignificance, while its like in the black of the eye is noticed. [10.64.19.5] Also: Metre: munsariḥ . The soul of an honorable, generous man will last in him, even though his skin be touched by emaciation. A noble man is noble even though harm befall him, for there is modesty and disdain of sin in him. A scoundrel will not be led to a noble deed because such a disposition is perverted. A drop is venom if contained by the mouth of a viper, but a pearl if held by an oyster-shell. For the popular belief that pearls have their origin in raindrops, see EI 2 art. ‘luʾluʾ’ (A. Dietrich). Also: Metre: kāmil . Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamaʾ , 341; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:71; al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) ii:129; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:282; al-Khaṭīb al-Qazwīnī, al-Īḍāḥ , 580. Attributed to Abū l-Faraj al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad al-Mastūr (d. 392/1001–1002) in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , x:166. The second line is said to be a quotation from Muslim ibn al-Walīd (see his Dīwān , 338). The luxuriousness of youth was an intoxication, but I sobered up and began to live a decent life, And I sat down, anticipating extinction, Thus according to the vowelling in A, Yāqūt, and al-Qazwīnī ( al-fanāʾ ); the Dīwān has al-fināʾ , ‘(looking at) the fore-court’, which is a possible interpretation here (perhaps the ambiguity is intended). like a rider who knows the place to alight but spends the night outside the dwelling. Also: Metre: basīṭ mukhallaʿ . They said, ‘A man’s youth is treacherous, whereas grey hairs are loyal: they do not depart’. I replied, ‘You are making a far-fetched analogy: the former is beloved, the latter imposed.’ Also: Metre: kāmil . Attributed in al-Thaʿālibī (d. 429/1038), Tatimmah , 93, to Abū l-Ghawth ibn Niḥrīr al-Munayḥī, an earlier poet. And I see the defects of other people, without seeing a defect in myself, even though it is closer to me, Just as the eye reveals other faces, while its own face, though close to it, is hidden from it. Also: Metre: wāfir . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:245. Truly, it is one of the characteristics of harsh Time to be unjust to those who are already grieving, Just as you can see that one of the humours will most often pour its harm into a weak organ. [10.64.19.6] Also: Metre: rajaz . The first line only scans if one reads yuṭaffī (instead of the normal yuṭfī = yuṭfiʾu ), but the second verbal form is not in the dictionaries. One glass quenches the flame of thirst, A second helps to digest one’s food, The third helping of wine is for joy, And one’s mind is driven out by adding another cup. Also: Metre: munsariḥ . Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamaʾ , 341; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:70; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:281–282. Al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:236 quotes the second line, attributing it to Ibn Jakkīnā/Ḥakkīnā. You, who shot at me from the bow of his separation with the arrow of avoidance, the remedy for which has a high price: Be pleased with someone whose absence is absent from you, for that is a sin that carries its own punishment. If the only torment that would afflict him were being far from you, that would suffice him. Also: Metre: munsariḥ . Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:71; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:282; Ibn Abī Ḥajalah, Dīwān al-ṣabābah , 125. I reproached you, since your apparition did not visit (me, in a dream) and I was robbed of sleep, yearning for it. But then it visited me, making me happy; and it reproached me, as it is said: dreams are topsy-turvy. Also: Metre: mutaqārib . The sword of your eyelids is superior to keen swords in their sheaths: The common metaphor, in Arabic poetry, of the ‘killing’ glances of the beloved is supported by the fact that jafn means ‘sword-sheath’ as well as ‘eyelid’. The latter can kill but cannot restore souls, warding off death, Whereas your eyes, looking askance, kill me but revive me with a furtive glance, quietly. Also: Metre: kāmil . His beautiful traits are perfect, apart from his freckles, sweetly placed, adorned with a cheerful expression. They branded with these his brightly shining countenance, on purpose, so that it be known that he is a full moon. The moon (a very positive image for a man) is often described as spotted or freckled. Also: Metre: basīṭ . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:245; attributed to al-Ḥayṣ Bayṣ in al-Irbilī, Tadhkirah , 131. Do not think that the blackness of his mole is a defect of Nature, or that it was made to appear by mistake: Rather, the pen, depicting the curve of his brow, made a full stop on his cheek. The image revolves on the shape of the Arabic letter N: a curve with a dot (‮ن‬‎). [10.64.19.7] Also: Metre: mukhallaʿ al-basīṭ . Ascribed to Ibn al-Tilmīdh in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:282, but to ʿAlī ibn Wakīʿ al-Tinnīsī (d. 393/1003) in al-Thaʿālibī, Yatīmah , i:380–381 and (lines 1–2, 4) to Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn Bishr al-Ramlī in al-Thaʿālibī, Tatimmah , 45, where al-Thaʿālibī (apparently forgetting that he has already quoted them as being by Ibn Wakīʿ) adds that he has seen these lines in the Dīwān of the physician-poet Abū l-Faraj ibn Hindū (d. 420/1029). He who chided me for my love saw him, not having seen him before. He said to me, ‘If you were in love with this one, people would not blame you for being in love! Tell me, who is the other one you love, for there is no one but him that should be loved!’ And thus, unwittingly, he commanded me to love the one whom he had forbidden. Also: Metre: kāmil . Ascribed to Ibn Maṭrūḥ (d. 649/1251) in Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:262; al-Damīrī, Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān , i:128 ascribes the lines to Abū Naṣr al-Saʿdī, adding that they are also said to be by Ibn Maṭrūḥ. O you, for whose sake I have dressed in clothes of emaciation, pale-yellow, streaked with red tears: Tears are conventionally described as bloody. Take the last remnant of a soul which, if it has not yet melted in longing for you, I would banish from my ribs! Also: Metre: khafīf . You are always on my mind, in every situation: when I sleep by means of your apparition in a dream and when I wake, by remembering. My nights are long, because of your abandoning me (may it not last!) and my yearning for those short nights. Also: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:245. Attributed to al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī Abū l-Jawāʾiz al-Wāsiṭī (d. 460/1067–1068) in Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , i:350. Passion has pared me down like a penknife, and your avoidance has made me waste away so that I have become thinner than yesterday, Note that the Arabic does not seem to mean ‘thinner than I was yesterday’ (which would have been anḥala minnī amsī ), but is metaphorical. This rather odd proverb-like phrase has not been found elsewhere. I cannot be seen until I see you: dust particles are visible only when the sun is at the horizon. Also: Metre: khafīf . A gazelle ( ghazāl ), surpassing the sun ( al-ghazālah ) in beauty, with languid looks and sickly-drooping eyelids: ‘May God make you angry!’ he said, when I desired him. Would that he had said it with a friendly face! Also: Metre: basīṭ . Though you have acquired a substitute for being with me, You must not think that I will not have a substitute too! With my strength of mind, well known to you, I pre-empt the seeking of consolation by rejecting you. Also: Metre: mujtathth . There was a time when I considered a meeting with you the most precious gain. But, having found consolation, my reason’s sky is bright again. Why should I be besotted with beauty that becomes the cause of ugliness? [10.64.19.8] Also: Metre: basīṭ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:281. If a willow twig could walk as well as she can walk, bending, it would not walk modestly. On her chest are two luminous stars, carried by two columns that never approached a touching hand, The two ‘columns’ (the woman’s legs) are also the ‘cornerstones’ of the Kaaba, touched by pilgrims’ hands. The ‘sacred precinct’ ( al-ḥaram ) in the next line alludes to the holy area in Mecca of which the Kaaba is the centre. And which she preserves in the silk of her gowns. Thus we are in the profane, and the two columns in the sacred precinct. Also: Metre: basīṭ . Attributed to the poet al-Abīwardī (d. 507/1113) in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xvii:258, al-Abīwardī, Dīwān , 176. I embraced her when night’s dark veils were hanging down; then I became aware of the coolness of her jewels, shortly before dawn. So I kept them warm, fearing that they might awake her, while taking care not to melt her necklace with my hot breath. Also: Metre: khafīf . Do not think that I avoid you because I am bored of you: you do not have to fear I will forget you. Often separation is a better motive for being together, and often being together is a better motive for separation. Also: Metre: ṭawīl . My newly sprouted beard ( ʿidhār ) once was her excuse ( ʿudhr ) for being with me; now it is grey and has become her excuse for rejecting me. How strange: something that one day led to love, then changes and, the next day, leads to rejection. [10.64.19.9] Also, a riddle on clouds: Metre: rajaz . One that comes over us, but not being hostile, Dwelling in one place after another, Whose crying and laughing is all the same: A cloud is ‘laughing’ when it shows flashes of lightning, promising rain. When he cries he makes everyone on earth laugh. Also, a riddle on a balance: Metre: rajaz . Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:69, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:281, both with an extra line at the end. What is a thing that has different inclinations, Ibn al-Khallikān and al-Ṣafadī have mukhtalifu l-asmāʾī (having different names), explained ( Wafayāt , vi:70) as ‘the balance of the sun, which means astrolabe’ (which explains vs. 2), ‘the balance of speech, which is syntax’, ‘the balance of poetry, which is metre’, ‘the balance of meaning, which is logic’, and the (proper) balance or scales. However, it is unlikely that the poet thought of any but the ordinary sense of mīzān , on earth and, at the Resurrection, in heaven (see Q al-Aʿrāf 7:8, al-Anbiyāʾ 21:47, al-Raḥmān 55:7 etc.). That is just on earth and in heaven, That judges justly, without hypocrisy, Blind, but showing the right course to everyone who can see, Dumb, but not through a defect or illness, That can dispense of plain speech and hints, That answers, when called by someone who doubts, The call by raising and lowering? There is untranslatable word-play with grammar: rafʿ , khafḍ , nidāʾ mean ‘raising’, ‘lowering’, ‘call’, respectively, but also ‘nominative’, ‘genitive’, ‘vocative’. The verse added in Wafayāt and Wāfī is: ‘That is eloquent when suspended in the air’. Also, a riddle on a coat of mail: Metre: ṭawīl . A white one, whose shape is not for the white (swords) and brown (lances), Perhaps the sense is ‘a white (thing) but not a white woman to be conquered as a prize in a raid’. that has been made correct by the mutual assistance of heat and cold; One that reveals itself to us as grains, The ringlets of the mail. yet has not been in a mill, but has been subjected to hammering and filing: With this one I protected myself, and it was like the sun, by which a bright star On al-kawkab al-fard see Lane, Lexicon , 2364: either any bright star or a specific one in the constellation Hydra. is obscured. Also, a riddle on a needle: Metre: ṭawīl . One that earns a living of which another gains possession, but she receives neither praise nor a fee for it. She disperses assemblies but it is her wont to join things; she serves people but is herself served by ten. When she moves she proudly drags the hems of her trains: a trait belonging to pride, but there is no pride in her. You see all people dressing themselves in the clothes she sheds; generous to all, though she has no abundant riches. She is of a glorious family(?), Syntax and sense are unclear. The drift is apparently that needle and swords are both made of iron or steel. that is undisputable: cutting Indian swords ‘Indian’ is a stock epithet, not to be taken literally, of good quality swords already in pre-Islamic poetry. See also below, Ch. 11.19.2.6; Ch. 13.58.4.3; Ch. 13.58.4.4; Ch. 14.32.4; Ch. 14.54.15. can be traced back to its might. She has suffered from emaciation, like me, even though being abandoned does not dismay her as it dismays me. Also, a riddle on the shadow: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn Manẓūr, Surūr , 127. A thing of bodies yet not itself embodied; at times it moves, or it is still. It is completed at the moments it comes into being or perishes, but when it is alive there is a waning: When lights are clearly visible ( bānat ) it is visible to the onlooker, but when they disappear ( bānat ), it is invisible ( laysa yabīnū ). [10.64.19.10] Also, verses written on a mat: Metre: kāmil . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:245. I spread my cheek for guests; the trait of humility always belongs to any astute and clever person. My humility raised my status among them at times, and I occupied the place of honour in the session. Also, the same theme: Metre: khafīf . Many a lover’s meeting have I witnessed, and enjoyed an embrace from both lovers together. They found in me one worthy of love, a hiding-place for secrets, and one who obeys a friend. Also, on a censer: Metre: mutaqārib . If being abandoned kindles the fire of passion, then my heart is fired for a union of lovers. Ignoring the text and translating as if it read li-l-waṣl (see note to the Arabic). I divulge the secrets that I harbour, which become apparent secretly or openly. When a friend keeps my story to himself, my good fragrance can only spread it. Also, on the same: Metre: khafīf . Each fire is kindled by being abandoned but my fire is lit at a lover’s union. If am upset by being rejected, the passion subsides and love is not on my mind. Also, on the same: Metre: kāmil muraffal . Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 341. Lovers complain of ardent love when they are separated or far from each other, But I suffer worst from the fire of yearning on the days of lovers’ union. Also, on the same: Metre: munsariḥ . Many a private space, of unattainable status, have I allowed myself to be in, unveiled, While seeing me reveals to whoever looks at me the fire of a lover and the fragrance of a loved one. Also, on a washbowl for the wine-glasses: Metre: ṭawīl . For a similar epigram see below, Ch. 10.67.4.4. If you address a loved one among people then be like me and you will be considered a true friend. When they have taken from each cup all of its limpid content, I am content with the dregs they have left. [10.64.19.11] He said also: Metre: kāmil . Do not pray to God asking Him to torment someone who loves her ugly appearance with not being united with her. Also: Metre: kāmil majzūʾ muraffal . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix: ‮‭24‬‬‎6, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:284. You have slurped a lot of eggs so that your prick might stay erect for a long time. What cannot stand with the help of your own ‘eggs’ Bayḍah , ‘egg’, can also mean ‘testicle’. will not stand with the help of someone else’s eggs. Also, lampooning someone for having the evil eye: Metre: mukhallaʿ al-basīṭ . Attributed to Yūsuf ibn Durrah, known as Ibn al-Darrī (d. 545/ 1151) in Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vii:230 and al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:327. One with rounded ankle: i.e., unlucky, ill-omened; see al-Maydānī, Majmaʿ al-amthāl , ii:389 ( mudawwar al-kaʿb: yuḍrabu fī l-shuʾm ), al-Tawḥīdī, Imtāʿ , ii:163 ( qīla: mudawwar al-kaʿb, wa-fulān mashʾūm ). Since kaʿb also means ‘cube’, the expression mudawwar al-kaʿb has the same incongruent ring as, in English, ‘a square peg in a round hole’. make use of him for striking down newly planted crops or overthrowing thrones! If his eye looked at the Pleiades it would cause them to move to Ursa Major. Banāt Naʿsh can also be Ursa Minor. The Pleiades ( al-Thurayyā ) are a very favourable constellation; Ursa Major/Minor in Arabic is Banāt Naʿsh , literally ‘the daughters of the bier’. Also: Metre: basīṭ . O abode, do not find it strange that a man turns at you, after separation from his loved ones has made his tears flow! Once I knew a little moon who dwelt in you, who was my close friend for a while, my eyes seeking the places where he rises in the sky. Also: Metre: ṭawīl . A friend went far away from me; when he had gone I had love-pain that stayed, to replace the unclouded good life. Fate’s vagaries, jealous of him, snatched him away; before long they shall join me with him. Also: Metre: mukhallaʿ al-basīṭ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:281. Be not surprised about my heart’s longing for them, excuse my passion: A bow, though being lifeless, moans when arrows part from her. Also: Metre: sarīʿ . How can I delight in living in a town where the inhabitants are not those who inhabit my heart? Even if it were ‘Paradise brought near’ See Q al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:90, Qāf 50:31, and al-Takwir 81:13. I would not be pleased with it unless its Riḍwān were there. ‘Riḍwān’ is apparently the name of an absent friend. It is also the name of the guardian angel of Paradise in Islamic lore; he is not mentioned in the Qur’an but the name may be based on Q Āl ʿImrān 3:15 and other verses that mention God’s riḍwān (‘pleasure’). [10.64.19.12] Also, an elegy: Metre: kāmil . For how long will you stick to the delusion of wishes? Did you get a safe-conduct from this world of yours? Can one be pleased with a life after pleasure has gone? No, not even if one’s soul could live forever! Reading, with A, khulūda janānī (‘eternity of soul’); but perhaps one could read khulūda jinānī , ‘eternity of (Paradisial) gardens’. The sky is grieving for the loss of him, its winds being the breath of the sad sufferer, The rain its tears, and what flashes in it the fire of love-pain, and the thunder the moaning. If those who blame me for weeping tasted the pain of losing him they would scorn smiles and solace. They followed you when they performed the ritual prayer for you and you remained like the Pleiades, guiding them everywhere. You were the one placed at the front ranks, whether fighting in a campaign with worthy opponents, or when reciting the Qur’an. May you not be far! An ancient formula used in laments for the dead. A faraway one is not he who has gone away but is alive, but a far one is he who is near. Meaning, apparently, that someone who has died, though nearby, is truly far away, unlike the distant living. [10.64.19.13] Also, an elegy on the amīr Sayf al-Dawlah Ṣadaqah ibn Manṣūr ibn Dubays al-Asadī Mazyadid ruler of al-Ḥillah, who was killed in battle in 501/1108; see EI 2 art. ‘Ṣadaḳa b. Manṣūr b. Dubays’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). when he was killed: Metre: ṭawīl . Let those who used to ask you for favours weep for you, son of Manṣūr, when a bitterly cold crosswind blows, And let him remind them of those who repelled them with a frown: a man who used to meet them with a cheerful and help them. When he reached above the sky, with an ambition for which the eyes of the envious are averted and are made to water, Fate struck him, or rather struck us with his loss, just as when the full moon in the dark, on its brightest night, is eclipsed. Farewell! Our hearts will forever be wholly devoted to grief, as long as the wind blows, i.e., forever. And may the eye of the sky never cease to pour abundantly, on a grave that hides you, its dripping rain. Also, congratulating someone on receiving a robe of honour: Metre: wāfir . Though its lineages are noble and exalted, it is led as a bride to a noble, worthy equal, The word for ‘robe of honour’ ( khilʿah ) is feminine. To someone who adorns it and is adorned by it, just as do the locks and the earrings of a pretty girl. [10.64.19.14] The raʾīs Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Aflaḥ, Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Aflaḥ (d. 535/1141), kātib , poet, and critic. See al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii: 52–69, Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , iii:389–391, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xx:435–438. who had recovered from an illness, wrote to Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh: Metre: ramal . Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:73 (together with the following reply as well as two further replies in verse by Ibn Aflaḥ and Ibn al-Tilmīdh). I am hungry! Save me from this starvation! My deliverance lies in a bite of bread, even though it be coarse, of bad quality. This gloss is found in MSS APS : The word quṭāʿah means ‘coarse flour, cut from bran; when baked it is called quṭāʿah ’; compare Dozy, Supplément , s.v. Don’t say to me, ‘Wait a while!’  – I cannot wait-a-while. Today my empty stomach will not accept any intercession on behalf of hunger. Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh replied: Metre: ramal . Thus it is, guests ‘Guests’ apparently stands for ‘patients’ here. of those like me complain of famine; But I don’t think I can intercede on behalf on something harmful. Therefore be content with porridge instead: Sawīq is a kind of gruel made of wheat or barley. that is better than coarse bread. Upon my life, say as you write it, ‘I hear and obey!’ [10.64.19.15] He sent the literary anthology Discussions of the Lettered ( K. al-Muḥāḍarāt ) by al-Rāghib Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī (d. early 5th/11th century), author of works on ethics, theology, philology, and of the literary anthology Muḥāḍarat al-udabāʾ wa-muḥāwarāt al-shuʿarāʾ wa-l-bulaghāʾ . See Key, ‘Al-Rāghib al-Iṣfahānī’; Encycl. Iranica , art. ‘Rāgeb Eṣfahānī’ (Geert Jan van Gelder). as a present to the vizier Ibn Ṣadaqah, writing to him: Metre: kāmil . When it was impossible to remain in the illustrious presence of our lord the vizier al-Ṣāḥib, And I wished to be remembered in the presence of his glory, I made him remember by means of the Discussions by al-Rāghib. There is a play on words, for one could also translate ‘by means of the presentations of a desiring one’. Abū l-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl, a colleague, see below, Ch. 10.68. had addressed some worrying reproach to Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh, who in reply sent him a plain black dress ( qamīṣ ), It is said to be muṣmat , which could mean ‘plain coloured, unpatterned’ or ‘made of a single material’; the former seems more likely here. on which he had written: Metre: ṭawīl . I like you in black, dragging its train, as a preacher, ‘According to al-Māwardī (…) the k̲h̲aṭīb [“preacher”] ought preferably to wear black clothes, according to al-G̲h̲azzālī, white’ [ EI 2 art. ‘K̲h̲aṭīb’ (J. Pedersen)]. but not while mentioning my faults. He said also: Metre: ṭawīl . A book reached me that did not increase my understanding of the lordly quality and the excellence (or favour) of the one who donated it to me, So I said, since you put me to shame with its beginning: ‘Excellence must needs come to those who deserve it.’ The sense is rather obscure. It is apparently addressed to someone called Faḍl or Abū l-Faḍl; the last hemistich is also found (as a first hemistich) in a later poem by al-Qalqashandī, on Abū l-Faḍl al-Mustaʿīn, Abbasid caliph in Cairo, 808/1406–816/1414 (al-Qalqashandī, Ṣubḥ , ix:180). [10.64.19.16] He wrote to the vizier Saʿd al-Mulk Naṣīr al-Dīn, Abū l-Maḥāsin Saʿd al-Mulk, vizier of Muḥammad ibn Malik-Shāh in 496/1103 and of Malik-Shāh II in 498/1105. at the beginning of a letter: Metre: basīṭ . May your fortune be continually propitious, and the fortune of your opponent dented with humiliation! And may you never be deprived of a gift from the Merciful that again fills your abode with those who seek your favours! You are a man with wonderfully open hands, when a base man’s hands, fettered, withholds favours. His hands are generous with wealth, without being asked, and when his eloquence is asked he outstrips mankind in speech. He is not happy to seek excuses, while a miser thinks of some explanation for his stinginess. He hastens to be generous, even before being asked, thinking that giving it quickly after people have humbled themselves is in fact a delay. No wonder that when the noontime sun is eclipsed and appears again people are full of glorification Instead of tasbīḥan (implying praise of God) Najjār and Riḍā have tabjīlan , ‘veneration’. and exultation. For you are the sword of Ghiyāth al-Dīn, The Seljuq ruler Muḥammad ibn Malik-Shāh Abū Shujāʿ Ghiyāth al-Dunyā wa-l-Dīn (498/ 1105–511/1118). which he has sheathed for protection, but which turns to the enemies unsheathed. May the throne Dast is ‘place of honour’, ‘throne’, or a synonym of majlis , ‘assembly, place of gathering’ (class room, literary salon). never be without a rain when people despair, the dew Both ‘rain’ ( ghayth , an allusion to Ghiyāth al-Dīn) and ‘dew’ are common metaphors for generosity. of which may continue to be liberally given to those who seek it. For it is not fitting to be supported Translation uncertain. Musnad or misnad , ‘cushion’ perhaps has the sense in which Ibn Baṭṭūṭah uses it, referring to the ‘vizier’s’ portico in China (see Dozy, Supplément ). by any other than Saʿd [al-Mulk], even though they lend it reverence and glorification. Hail to thee forever, in pure bliss free from misfortunes, feared and hoped for! Feared by opponents, hoped for by others. [10.64.19.17] At the opening of a letter, replying to Jamāl al-Ruʾasāʾ Abū l-Fatḥ Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl ibn Ṣāʿid, Another member of the Ibn al-Tilmīdh family; he is called a kātib (state secretary) in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabā ʾ, xvi:283. he wrote: Metre: kāmil . The fragrance of the meadows’ breaths, being sickly, ‘Sickly’ is here not to be taken in a negative sense but rather as ‘languidly’. when their visitors are dew and dripping rain, The predicate comes only in the last line of the piece. On a soft, smooth ground, its face adorned and endowed by St John’s wort and oxeye, Its abundance guaranteed by a permanently staying cloud, its thirst relieved by a abundantly flowing brook, Where the sky has cried and made it laugh, just as when I cry and, in the morning, Nawār A woman’s name. laughs at me, And when the sun faces it, it shines and the light-giving (sun?) intermingles with the blossom, Following A in reading al-nawwāru wa-l-nuwwāru ; the translation of al-nawwār is uncertain. And the east wind struts proudly in the branches, and he who yearns as well as others have a desire to shed tears, And when birds sing everywhere, remembrance showing the anxieties in his (their?) breast – All this is not better than your protection, whether you are present or absent and reports bring you near. The poem is an exercise in extended enjambment of the type ‘X (…, several lines intervening) is not better than …’, one of many modelled on a famous passage by the pre-Islamic poem al-Nābighah al-Dhubyānī. [10.64.19.18] In a letter to him, Jamāl al-Mulk Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Aflāh wrote: Metre: mutaqārib . Lines 1, 2, and 5 in Ibn al-Jawzī, Muntaẓam xvii:340 (yr 533). Truly, since you left my day is all yearning, my night all moaning. Never before have I known a man like me with a body that remains and a heart that departs. Someone free of care says, seeing that my fondness for your memory does not abate: ‘Console yourself!’ Then I reply: ‘May you be struck by separation! Do you know from where the love-pain of parting comes? And how I could find consolation, while my grief is loyal and my patience treacherous?’ In reply, Amīn al-Dawlah wrote: Metre: mutaqārib . Ibn al-Jawzī, Muntaẓam , xvii:341, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:246 (lines 1, 3, 6). And, I swear by the love for you, since I parted from you, my heart is sad and my tears flow copiously. Helpful patience betrayed my expectation and the witness of my claim All versions except A have ‘my complaint’. is a fountain of tears. God, how good were those bygone days! Would that yearning could bring back the past. I keep cherishing the sincere friendship we knew and a well-kept affection will preserve it for you. I shall guard the love for you against any slanderer; the love of noble people is a precious thing. Why should it not be, since we are two hands of which you, with your excellence are the right hand! Whenever I say, ‘I shall forget you!’ passion replies, ‘Impossible! That is what will not happen.’ How could I aspire to forget while my patience is treacherous and my affection faithful? [10.64.19.19] In the opening of a letter to al-ʿAzīz Abū Naṣr ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥāmid, mustawfī l-mamālik , Abū Naṣr al-ʿAzīz Aḥmad ibn Ḥāmid ibn Muḥammad (d. 525/1130–1131), who was mustawfī (‘accountant–general’) under the Seljuq Sultan Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad ibn Malikshāh; see Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , i:188–190, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , vi:299–300. His nickname is spelled Aluh in Wafayāt and Wāfī , but metre and etymology (from Persian ālūh , ‘eagle’) require reading Āluh. he wrote: Metre: ṭawīl . By the life of your father! Whenever good things come to anybody he is praising ( ḥāmid ) Ibn Ḥāmid. It is as if they are thanking Āluh Not surprisingly this is misspelled al-ilāh (‘God’) in Müller and Riḍā, and as li-ilāh in Najjār. The ambiguity of Aluh/ ilāh and dāna ‘to owe thanks’ and ‘profess belief’ seems to be intended. with their gratitude for his lofty qualities, but there is no gratitude like that of Ibn Ṣāʿid. Ibn Ṣāʿid is Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh himself. They were informed about him and gave praise for a good deed, and I have the best testimonies for what you have been praised for. He wrote to Ibn Aflaḥ: Metre: ṭawīl . You wronged me when you decide to travel: now my worries are united by the scattering of our union. A man whose nearness makes al-Muwaffaq happy Amīn al-Dawlah’s honorific is Muwaffaq al-Mulk. yet leaves him willingly is surely not fortunate ( muwaffaq ). He wrote to Muwaffaq al-Dīn Abū Ṭāhir al-Ḥusayn ibn Muḥammad, Not identified. when he visited Sāwah A town in northern Persia; see EI 2 art. ‘Sāwa’ (V. Minorsky and C.E. Bosworth). and entered its library, which had been founded as a waqf by the latter: Metre: munsariḥ . May God make you prosper with good things, With word-play on the addressee’s name ( wuffiqta/ Muwaffaq). since you bestowed it generally on those who seek it, Muwaffaq al-Dīn! You have brought near to the people a garden that brings together choice parts of excellence more delightful than the black-eyed heavenly damsels, Alluding to Q al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:90 (« The garden will be brought near to the god-fearing ») and the several Qur’anic passages mentioning the black- or wide-eyed paradisial damsels. Where the fruits of the intellect are within reach in clusters, Q al-Ḥāqqah 69:23: « its clustered fruit within reach ». in sweet varieties. May you forever rise with every pious deed, helped with fortunate power and ability, And may God have mercy on every listener who follows my prayer with saying Amen! [10.64.20] Amīn al-Dawlah wrote the following books: 1. The Medical Formulary (al-Aqrābādhīn) in twenty chapters whose renown and circulation amongst the people is greater than his other books. For an Arabic edition, English translation, and study, see, Ibn al-Tilmīdh, Dispensatory . 2. The abridged medical formulary for hospitals ( al-Aqrābādhīn al-mūjaz al-bīmāristānī ), which is in thirteen chapters. 3. A treatise for Amīn on drugs for hospitals ( al-Maqālah al-Amīniyyah fī l-adwiyah al-bīmāristāniyyah ). 4. Selections from the Comprehensive Book of al-Rāzī ( Ikhtiyār Kitāb al-Ḥāwī li-l-Rāzī ). 5. Selections from Miskawayh’s Book of Beverages (Ikhtiyār Kitāb Miskawayh fī l-ashribah) . For Abū ʿAlī Miskawayh (d. 421/1030) see Ch. 10.45. 6. An abridgement of Galen’s commentary on Hippocrates’ Aphorisms (Ikhtiṣār Sharḥ Jālīnūs li-Kitāb al-Fuṣūl li-Buqrāṭ) . 7. An abridgement of Galen’s commentary on Hippocrates’ Prognosis (Ikhtiṣār Sharḥ Jālīnūs li-Kitāb Taqdimat al-maʿrifah li-Buqrāṭ) . 8. A completion of the Alexandrians’ summary of Galen’s Method of Healing (Tatimmat Jawāmiʿ al-Iskandarāniyyīn li-Kitāb Hīlat al-burʾ li-Jālīnūs) . 9. Commentary on the Medical Questions of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq in the form of notes ( Sharḥ Masāʾil Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq ʿalā jihat al-taʿlīq ). 10. Commentary on prophetic traditions concerning medicine ( Sharḥ Aḥādīth Nabawiyyah tashtamil ʿalā ṭibb ). 11. An abridged medical compendium ( Kunnāsh mukhtaṣar ). 12. Glosses on al-Raʾīs Ibn Sīnā’s Canon (al-Ḥawāshī ʿalā Kitāb al-Qānūn li-l-Raʾīs Ibn Sīnā) . For Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), see Ch. 11.13, and for the Canon of Medicine , see Ch. 11.13.7. no. 7. 13. Glosses on al-Masīḥī’s The Hundred [ Discourses ] ( al-Ḥawāshī ʿalā Kitāb al-Miʾah li-l-Masīḥī ). That is Abū Sahl al-Masīḥī. See Ch. 11.12, and his book-list no. 1. 14. Comments on Kitāb al-Minhāj that are also attributed to ʿAlī ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Uthrudī al-Baghdādī ( al-Taʿālīq ʿalā Kitāb al-Minhāj ). 15. On Bloodletting ( Maqālah fī l-Faṣd ). For an Arabic edition, see, Ibn al-Tilmīdh, Maqālāh fī l-Faṣd . For an Arabic edition of another treatise on bloodletting, see, Ibn al-Tilmīdh, al-Risālah al-Amīniyyah fī l-Faṣd . 16. A book of letters and correspondence ( Kitāb yashtamil ʿalā tawqīʿāt wa-murāsalāt ). 17. Comments derived from al-Masīḥī’s The Hundred [ Chapters ] ( Taʿālīq istakhrajahā min Kitāb al-Miʾah li-l-Masīḥī ). 18. Selections from Galen’s Book of Substitute Drugs (Mukhtār min Kitāb Abdāl al-adwiyah li-Jālīnūs) . 10.65 Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Tilmīdh This biography appears in all three versions of the book. [10.65.1] Abū l-Faraj ibn al-Tilmīdh, namely, al-Ajall al-Ḥakīm Muʿtamad al-Mulk These honorifics can translate as The Most Majestic, The Sage, Pillar of the Realm . Abū l-Faraj Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāʿid ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Tilmīdh, was notable for the philosophical disciplines and proficient in the medical art. He was graced with refined behaviour and erudition in which he attained the highest rank. Similarly, Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh His brother. See the preceding entry Ch. 10.65. had a group of relatives each one of whom was attached to virtue and the humanities. I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – have seen writings of Yaḥyā ibn al-Tilmīdh in his own hand that demonstrate his excellence and worthiness. He was a renowned teacher of the art of medicine and had numerous students. [10.65.2] The honourable Abū Yaʿlā Muḥammad ibn al-Habbāriyyah al-ʿAbbāsī See mention of him above, Ch. 10.64.16. said in an ode in which he eulogises the Ḥakīm Abū l-Faraj Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāʿid ibn al-Tilmīdh, Ibn al-Habbāriyyah having come to him in Iṣfāhān where he received a great amount of wealth from the emirs and notables: Metre: kāmil . And everything I acquired and amassed from them, and which I earned by means of my poetry, Was through the favour of Abū l-Faraj, the son of Ṣāʿid, who never ceased to be my proxy in gaining earnings. It was he – may I never be without his lofty qualities! – who acquired all I had hoped for: he pressed the udder’s teats and I collected the milk. Yaḥyā ibn Ṣāʿid The metre requires reading Ṣāʿidini bni , instead of the correct Ṣāʿidi bni . ibn Yaḥyā never ceased to steer deeds of generosity in my direction. My hopes that had died were revived Aḥyā , playing on the addressee’s name Yaḥyā. by a man whose habit it is to revive manliness and virtue. His liberality never ceased to quicken me when I was present, or to be my proxy in requests, when I was absent, At the court of Sayf al-Dawlah, son of Bahāʾ al-Dawlah, The Mazyadid ruler Sayf al-Dawlah Ṣadaqah ibn Manṣūr (479–501/1086–1108) was the son of Bahāʾ al-Dawlah (Manṣūr ibn Dubays, 474–479/1082–1086). The problem is that they ruled in al-Ḥillah and northern Iraq rather than Isfahan. I have not been able to identify Naṣīr al-Dīn with certainty. and likewise that of Naṣīr al-Dīn, he spoke. I wrote to him about my needs and stirred him, and I found him to be a cutting sword. The verb ‘to stir’ ( hazza ) also means ‘to brandish (a sword)’. Likewise at the court of al-Agharr The Mazyadid ruler Dubays ibn Ṣadaqah (501–529/1108–1135); cf. Bosworth, The New Islamic Dynasties , 87: ‘Dubays  II . b. Ṣadaqa I , Abu ’l-Aʿazz (al-Agharr?)’. It seems that al-Agharr is a poetic licence for Abū l-Agharr. and others I spoke to him about my circumstances. His liberality never ceased to make me thrive, Literally, ‘to plant me’. and I remained, in the world, ‘betrothed’ to his lofty qualities. Translation somewhat uncertain. The root KhṬB is prominent in this passage ( mukhāṭibā twice as rhyme-word, khaṭb , khāṭibā ), which seems to suggest that khāṭib does not again mean ‘making a speech’. And from the same ode: Do not make your friend, no, your slave-servant, son of your servant, rely on strangers! For you are better for me, because you made me used to it, than those who are in their origins related to me. May I never cease to praise you for what you have bestowed on me. always observing and practising eulogies, And may you remain a storehouse to me, may you always enjoy glory and trail its mantles, As a man trusted by the caliphate, master of sages, support of kings, Muʿtamad al-mulūk , referring to Ibn al-Tilmīdh’s honorific Muʿtamad al-Mulk, ‘Support of the Realm’. philosopher, and secretary of state. Why don’t you write to me? For your letters are a pleasure ground in beauty: one fancies them battalions on account of their sublimity, And a garden on account of their charm and subtlety, and clouds on account of their eloquent usefulness. Jest and banter as much as you can, for he is not a true man who does not jest and banter; And may people who merely add to the defects of the time give their lives for you, redeeming you from time’s calamities and vicissitudes. [10.65.3] Among the poetry of Abū l-Faraj Yaḥyā ibn al-Tilmīdh: I quote from the book The Adornment of the Age ( K. Zīnat al-dahr ) by ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf ibn Abī l-Maʿālī Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥaẓīrī, Abū l-Maʿālī Saʿd ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Qāsim (not ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf) al-Ḥaẓīrī (d. 568/1172) known as Dallāl al-Kutub (Bookbroker) wrote K. Zīnat al-dahr wa-ʿuṣrat ahl al-ʿaṣr as an appendix to Abū Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Bākharzī’s K. Dumyat al-qaṣr . See Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , ii:366–368; Ḥājjī Khalīfah, Kashf al-ẓunūn (Flügel), iii:571. who said, ‘I have found in the hand of al-Ajall al-Ḥakīm Muʿtamad al-Mulk Yaḥyā ibn al-Tilmīdh written for himself as a conundrum ( lughz ) about a needle’: Metre: wāfir . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:246–247. One with a wide open mouth in her foot – but she does not swallow any food with it. Slender in the stomach, with in her head a tongue unable to speak. She attacks with a sting that is clearly visible, and poison; The Arabic has an untranslatable pun on the word samm or summ , which means ‘poison’ as well as ‘eye of a needle’. but those who taste it will not die. She always drags behind her a captive, just as the hand of the camel-driver holds the nose-rope. He is invincible, possessing powers, Another pun: quwā means ‘powers, strengths’ and ‘strands of a rope (or thread)’. yet you can see him, gripped by her, humble and wronged. You will find him in her prison, dwelling there forever, and he does not refuse to say there. How strange: a black one in appearance, but she shows you noble, bright Literally, ‘white’. characteristics. She is naked, without any clothing, but the surplus of her train clothes mankind. He [ʿAlī ibn Yūsuf ibn Abī l-Maʿālī Saʿd ibn ʿAlī al-Ḥaẓīrī] also said, ‘I have found in his hand about a new palace built by Sayf al-Dawlah Ṣadaqah Mazyadid ruler of al-Ḥillah, who was killed in battle in 501/1108; see EI 2 art. ‘Ṣadaḳa b. Manṣūr b. Dubays’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). which caught fire on the day of its completion’: Metre: kāmil . Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 364, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:247. O builder of a glorious dwelling! May you be made to enjoy it for a long time, in order to make it loftier than Saturn. In the Ptolemaic system of celestial spheres Saturn is the last and the ‘highest’ of the seven heavenly bodies below the sphere of the fixed stars. I knew you erected it only for the sake of glory, munificence, and benevolence. So it emulated your habits and raced to receive guests with fires. Alluding to the motif, very common in traditional panegyric poetry, of hospitality and feeding guests. Also among the poetry of Abū l-Faraj Yaḥyā ibn al-Tilmīdh is this conundrum about a bow: Metre: wāfir . What is something with a crooked stature that moans and bends when excited? It has a hidden cunning Here apparently meaning that its arrows penetrate just as wine penetrates body and mind. when it stretches itself, like the cunning of wine in a glass cup. He also said: Metre: kāmil . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xx:20, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:247. Love for her clings to the heart, The vowelling of MS A and Yāqūt makes the heart the subject of the verb, which is possible but seems less appropriate. when it is empty, as a wick clings to the bowels of an oil lamp. It is forever impossible to separate the two, until the moment all shapes are sundered. He also said: Metre: mutaqārib . Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 365; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xx:20; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:247. Parting from you is to me a parting from life, so do not finish off someone sick to death! I have been attached to you like fire to its candle, so you shall not part or else it will be extinguished. He also said: Metre: sarīʿ . Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 365 (first line only), Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:247. His fragrance, when he arrived, became evident to us and it cooled the burning thirst in someone hovering about. Reading hāʾim (‘someone madly in love, or very thirsty’), as in Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ would seem better, but all other sources have ḥāʾim (‘hovering’, e.g. round about the water by reason of thirst, or around an object of desire). It revived my heart, in spite of his distance; a nightly phantom sometimes delights a dreamer. He also said criticising a singer: Metre: rajaz . We have a singer. When he sings his insipidness Literally, ‘his ice’ or ‘his snow’. In Arabic, ‘coldness’ stands for insipidness as well as lack of emotion. buries us. Thus his departing from the beat ( khurūjuhū ) See e.g. al-Iṣfahānī, Aghānī , vi:304. is our death, and our revival is his exit ( khurūjuhū ). The first time he says ‘goes out’ it means he goes out of the rhythm, and for the second time it means he goes out from our presence. 10.66 Awḥad al-Zamān [Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī] This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Awhad al-Zamān (which means ‘the Unique One of his Time’) is better known as the philosopher Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī (d. after 560/1164), see EI 2 art. ‘Abū l-Barakāt’ (S. Pines). [10.66.1] Awhad al-Zamān – that is, Abū l-Barakāt Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAlī ibn Malkā al-Baladī – was born in Balaṭ That is the ancient city of Balad (Balaṭ) on the Tigris above Mosul. See Yaqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān (Wüstenfeld), i:715–717, 721. then settled in Baghdad. He was a Jew who subsequently became a Muslim and was in the service of al-Mustanjid bi-Allāh. Abbasid caliph, r. 555–566/1160–1170. His compositions are of the utmost good quality and he had a far-reaching interest in the sciences and a great talent for them. When Abū l-Barakāt started to learn the art of medicine Abū l-Ḥasan Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn See above, Ch. 10.58. was a distinguished teacher in the art of medicine who had numerous students who would come to him every day to study with him but he would not allow a Jew to study with him at all. Abū l-Barakāt was desirous of meeting with him and learning from him and pressured him in every way but he was not able to. He used to do services for Abū l-Ḥasan Saʿīd ibn Hibat Allāh’s porter and would sit in the shaykh’s courtyard so that he could hear all that was being read with him and all the discussions which went on, and whenever he heard anything he endeavoured to understand it and internalize it. After a year or thereabouts a question arose from the teacher and his students investigated it but could not find an answer and continued to seek for a solution. When Abū-l Barakāt realized this he entered and put himself at the shaykh’s service and said, ‘Master, if you permit I will speak about this question.’ The shaykh said, ‘If you have any knowledge about it then do so.’ So Abū l-Barakāt answered with some words of Galen and said, ‘Master, this was already discussed on such-and-such a day of such-and-such a month at such and such a session and it has remained in my mind since that day.’ The shaykh was astounded at his intelligence and his keenness and inquired about the place where he had been sitting. Abū l-Barakāt told him and the shaykh said, ‘It is not lawful to refuse knowledge to a person such as this.’ And from that time on the shaykh kept him close and he became one of his greatest students. [10.66.2] A rare anecdote told about Awḥad al-Zamān’s treatment of patients occurred when a patient in Baghdad was struck with melancholia and believed that he had an amphora on his head which remained there at all times. Every time the man walked he would avoid places with low ceilings and would walk very carefully and not allow anyone to approach him lest the amphora lean or fall from his head. He remained thus afflicted for some time and experienced hardship because of it. A group of physicians treated him but to no beneficial effect. Then his case came to Awḥad al-Zamān who thought that nothing remained to cure him but illusion so he said to the man’s family, ‘When I am in my house then bring him to me.’ Then Awḥad al-Zamān ordered that one of his servants, after the patient had entered and he had begun talking with him, and upon his signal, should strike above the head of the patient and at some distance from him with a large club as if he wanted to break the amphora which the patient thought was on his head. He asked a second servant, who had made ready an amphora and taken it with him up to the roof of the house, to quickly throw the amphora he had down to the ground when he saw that servant strike above the head of the melancholic. When Awḥad al-Zamān was at home and the patient had come he began to speak to him and converse with him and reproached him for carrying the amphora. Then he signalled his servant without the patient knowing and the servant came up to him and said, ‘By God, I must break that amphora and relieve you of it!’ Then he waved his club and struck above the man’s head with it at the distance of about a cubit. At the same time, the other servant threw down the amphora from the roof which shattered into pieces with a tremendous crashing. When the patient saw what had been done to him and saw the broken amphora he gasped because they had broken it but did not doubt that it was the one that had been on his head, as he thought, and the illusion had such an effect that he was cured of that malady. For another translation of this passage, see van Gelder, ‘Antidotes and Anecdotes’, 67–68. This is a great type of treatment and a number of the ancient physicians such as Galen and others had similar cases of treatment by illusion, and I have mentioned a great deal of this in another book. [10.66.3] The shaykh Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿAlī See below, Ch. 15.50. narrated to me, saying that Muwaffaq al-Dīn Asʿad ibn Ilyās ibn al-Muṭrān narrated to him saying al-Awḥad ibn al-Taqī narrated to him, saying that his father narrated to him, saying that ʿAbd al-Wadūd al-Ṭabīb had narrated to him that Abū l-Faḍl, the pupil of Abū l-Barakāt (who was known as Awḥad al-Zamān) recounted the following: We were in the service of Awḥad al-Zamān in the ruler’s barracks. One day a man came with whitlow except that the abscess was broken and pus was flowing from it. The narrator continues, saying, ‘When Awḥad al-Zamān saw this he quickly amputated the man’s finger at the phalanx.’ We said, ‘Master, you have done an injustice to the treatment. It would have been enough to treat him with that which others treat such a case and preserve his finger’. We reproached him, but he didn’t utter a word. That day passed and on the next day another man came with exactly the same condition. Awḥad al-Zamān motioned to us to treat him and said, ‘Do with him as you see fit.’ So we treated him with that which whitlow is treated but the area expanded and the nail was lost and it spread and the first of the phalanges of the finger was lost. We tried all possible treatments and remedies, and poultices and purgatives despite which his finger was deteriorating quickly and the matter ended up with amputation, and so we understood that above every person of knowledge there is someone with greater knowledge. Cf. Q Yūsuf 12:76. The narrator said, ‘This disease was widespread during that year and a group [of physicians] were unaware of the need for amputation and so some people’s cases ended up with the loss of their hands and some with the loss of their lives.’ [10.66.4] I quote from the manuscript of the shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī See below, Ch. 15.40. in which he mentions that Ibn al-Dahhān al-Munajjim Fakhr al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī Ibn al-Dahhān al-Baghdādī (d. 580/1194), see GAL , i:392 [491–492]. said that the shaykh Abū l-Barakāt became blind at the end of his life and used to dictate the book Lessons in Wisdom (K. al-Muʿtabar) to Jamāl al-Dīn ibn Faḍlān, and ʿAlī ibn al-Dahhān al-Munajjim, and Yūsuf the father of the shaykh Muwaffaq al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Laṭīf, and al-Muhadhdhab ibn al-Naqqāsh. See below, Ch. 15.13. [10.66.5] It is also said that Awḥad al-Zamān became a Muslim when one day he attended the Caliph. All those present rose except the Chief Judge who was present but did not think he should rise with the others since Awḥad al-Zamān was a Dhimmi . One of the Ahl al-Dhimmah or non-Muslim persons living under Islamic Law and granted a protected status. See EI 2 art. ‘D̲h̲imma’ (C. Chehata), and art. ‘Ahl al-Kitāb’ (G. Vajda). Awḥad al-Zamān said, ‘O Commander of the Faithful, if the Chief Judge does not agree with the others since he believes I am not of his religion then I will enter Islam in the presence of our Master and will not let him belittle me in this way.’ Then he became a Muslim. MS R copies in the margin an alternative story of Awḥad al-Zamān’s conversion from Barhebraeus, see AII .5. [10.66.6] The shaykh Saʿd al-Dīn Abū Saʿīd ibn Abī al-Sahl al-Baghdādī al-ʿAwwād, who was, at the beginning of his life, a Jew who lived in the Jewish quarter of Baghdad near to the house of Awḥad al-Zamān whom he did not see much of but when he was a youngster he used to enter his house, told me that Awḥad al-Zamān had three daughters and did not leave behind a male child although he lived for nearly eighty years. [10.66.7] The Judge Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad, known as Ibn al-Kuraydī, told me that there was enmity between Awḥad al-Zamān and Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh. After Awḥad al-Zamān had become a Muslim, he frequently used to renounce the Jews and curse them and insult them. One day, in the chamber of one of the great and good and with a group of people present including Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh, the subject of the Jews came up and Awḥad al-Zamān said, ‘May God curse the Jews.’ At this Amīn al-Dawlah said, ‘Yes, and the sons of the Jews!’ Awḥad al-Zamān was dumbfounded and knew that Amīn al-Dawlah had alluded to him, but he did not speak. [10.66.8] Among the words of Awḥad al-Zamān: al-Ḥakīm Badr al-Dīn Abū l-ʿIzz Yūsuf ibn Makkī told me that Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ibn Habal See below, Ch. 10.81. told him: I heard Awḥad al-Zamān saying: Lusts are bricks used by souls in constructing the natural world so they may be distracted from the accompanying fatigue and exhaustion. Those souls who use them most are the most base, and those souls who use them least are the most sensitive. [10.66.9] Awḥad al-Zamān [Abū l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī] wrote the following books: 1. Lessons in Wisdom ( K. al-Muʿtabar ), which is his greatest and most renowned book, on philosophy. For studies, see Pavlov, Abu’l Barakat al-Baghdadi’s scientific philosophy , and Pavlov, Abu’l Barakat al-Baghdadi’s metaphysical philosophy . 2. On the cause of the appearance of the stars at night and their disappearance during the day ( Maqālah fī Sabab ẓuhūr al-kawākib laylan wa-khafāʾihā nahāran ), which he composed for the great Sultan Ghiyāth al-Dīn Abū Shujāʿ Muḥammad ibn Malik Shāh. 3. An epitome on anatomy ( Ikhtiṣār al-Tashrīḥ ), which he compiled from the words of Galen and abbreviated using the briefest of phrases. 4. The Medical Formulary ( K. al-Aqrābādhīn ), in three chapters. 5. On the medicament he compounded and named ‘Instant Relief’ ( Barshaʿthā ) Approximately, ‘instant relief’. For this medicine, see Dāwūd al-Anṭākī, Tadhkirah , 72. Dozy, Suppl ., vowels it as barshiʿthā . Al-Anṭākī says it is Syriac for burʾ sāʿah , ‘the cure of an hour’, which conveys the sense correctly, but it is apparently from Syriac bar-shaʿ a thā , ‘son of an hour’. ( Maqālah fī al-Dawāʾ alladhī allafahu al-musammā Barshaʿthā ), in which he deals with its recipe and explains its component drugs. 6. On another electuary he compounded and named ‘The Trustee of the Spirits’ ( Maqālah fī Maʿjūn ākhar allafahu wa-sammāhu Amīn al-Arwāḥ ). 7. On the intellect and its nature ( R. fī al-ʿAql wa-māhiyyatih ). 10.67 al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. [10.67.1] Al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī – that is, Badīʿ al-Zamān Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Aḥmad al-Baghdādī – was a sage of merit, an accomplished littérateur, a learned physician, and a philosopher-theologian deeply versed in philosophy, theology, and mathematics. He was proficient in the science of the stars and in stellar observations. Al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī was a friend of Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh, See his entry Ch. 10.64. and it is told that he met with Amīn al-Dawlah at Isfahan in the year 510 [1116–1117]. [10.67.2] Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm ibn al-Khiḍr al-Ḥalabī See above, Ch. 10.64.19. told me that al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī was unique in his time in the theory and practice of the astrolabe and in the mastery of its construction. Hence he became known for this. [10.67.3] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Naṣr’s father was from Ṭabaristan. He was known as al-Burhān al-Munajjim [the Proof and the Astrologer] and many wondrous stories are told about him, some of which I have mentioned in the book The Correct Predictions of the Astrologers (K. Iṣābāt al-munajjimīn) . Al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī also wrote good verse with fine motifs. [10.67.4.1] Among the poetry of al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī that Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥalabī recited to me and which he had heard from his father, who said that al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī recited it for him saying: Metre: kāmil . O son of those who passed away in the religion of generosity, those who stabbed the front parts of destitution: Their faces are the qiblas Qibla: the direction towards the Kaaba in Mecca, to be faced in Muslim ritual prayer. of noble deeds and their hands are the clouds of generosity and the pulpits of pens. He also reported to me ‘my father told me that [al-Aṣṭurlābī] himself said to him’: Metre: kāmil . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:275, Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:51, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:271. I present (this) to your noble gathering: but I only present what I gained from its favours: Likewise the sea is rained upon by the clouds, but they are not bestowing a true favour on it, because the rain came from its water. And he also reported from his father: Metre: sarīʿ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:275, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:108. Attributed to Ibn Jakkīnā in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xi, 388. He aimed his instruments at the sun to distinguish the lucky constellations from the unlucky ones. ‘Where stands the sun?’ I asked. The young man replied, ‘In the Bull (Taurus).’ I said, ‘The bull stands in the sun.’ Thawr (‘bull, or Taurus’) is used for a stupid, dull-witted person. And he also reported from his father: Metre: khafīf . Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:51, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:270, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:108. They said to me, ‘You fell in love with him when his cheeks were smooth. But now it is said he has grown a fine beard!’ I said, ‘A peacock chick is at its most beautiful when he has grown feathers.’ And he also reported from his father: Metre: sarīʿ . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:109 (lines 1–2). Attributed to Abū Ḥanīfah al-Astarābādī in al-ʿAbbāsī, Maʿāhid , i, 218. Did pens stumble when writing the line of his cheek-down, stretching the letters, the mole being the spot where they tripped? Or did the line become a circle when the dot became the centre of that orbit? And, since his saliva is wine, are his teeth then the pearly bubbles, neatly strung by the wine? The bubbles, caused by mixing the wine with water, are a common motif in Bacchic poetry. And he also reported from his father: Metre: ṭawīl . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:274. One with a shapely appearance, proudly showing a geometric mole, for which I die and am revived at every moment: His face encompasses the marks of prettiness; it is as if Euclid speaks of it: One would like to read (with Riḍā) kāna bihī uqlīdisu yataḥaddathū (‘of which Euclid used to speak’), but this is unmetrical and all other sources have ka-anna instead of kāna . This would require uqlīdisan , which is found only in Yāqūt; the others must be read either as uqlīdisun (a syntactical error) or uqlīdisa (a metrical error). His cheek-down is an equator and his mole a point on it, and his cheek a triangle. [10.67.4.2] My father also reported from [al-Aṣṭurlābī] that al-Qaysarānī had written to him with an ode which begins as follows: Metre: khafīf . Al-Qaysarānī is the poet Muḥammad ibn Naṣr Ibn al-Qaysarānī (d. 548/1154). Excellence expressed, through Badīʿ al-Zamān (‘the Wonder of the Age’), ideas that were difficult to the ancient Greeks. He did not follow them, when he followed them, but they missed the target in the contest. Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Naṣr Muḥammad said, that he [al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī] replied with an ode of which only these verses remain in my memory: Metre: khafīf . O master who praised me with a eulogy like pearls that exceeded the bounds for me, And which enhanced my position and my status and humbled those who hate me ( shānī ) by magnifying my state ( shānī )! But I bit my lip(?), Translation of taʿanfaqtu uncertain; no verb derived from ʿanfaqah , ‘tuft of hair between lower lip and chin’, is given in the standard dictionaries. Perhaps it means ‘to be annoyed’. The verb occurs in modern Arabic usage. that is, because of what was said about me by him with the responsive nature and gentle soul; I prepared myself to respond, but I was unable and my demon, A reference to the old belief that poets were inspired by a demon or jinnee, sometimes called shayṭān (‘devil’). fleeing, stole away, Totally suffering from poet’s block, ajbala : ‘He (a poet) experienced difficulty in diction, so that he said nothing original, nor anything in the way of repetition’ (Lane, Arabic-English Lexicon ). saying: ‘Fear God! I have no power to do what you desire!’ Do you think then that lowlands are like hills, or do you imagine that a half-breed ( hajīn ) is like a purebred ( hijān )? Or will you let a noble horse ( ṭirf ), too fast for the eye ( ṭarf ), run, when the two run together somewhere, With a donkey that cannot keep up even with an invalid cripple, if they are let loose on the morning of the race? Therefore protect my reputation; for my poetry, together with my handwriting, when they appear to someone who sees them, are two weak spots! One could also translate ‘two pudenda’. [10.67.4.3] And he said about a young man with an incipient beard whom he loved: Behave as you wish: I have made myself a heart of steel And I sat down to look at the sun’s eclipse; this is not far-fetched. Following MSS A, S, R and the Dīwān ; the editions have ‘but not from far’. In either case the sense is somewhat unclear. The point seems to be that the appearance of the beard heralds the end of the boy’s beauty, a very common motif. Also among the poetry of al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī, he said: Metre: ṭawīl . Attributed to Abū ʿAlī al-Muhandis al-Miṣrī in Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 410 and al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah ( Miṣr , ii:199), and to Amīn al-Dawlah Ibn al-Tilmīdh or Abū ʿAlī al-Muhandis al-Miṣrī in Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:72. My heart is divided in its love for several people: my passion is suspended to every young man of them. My heart is the centre and they are to it a circumference, and my passions are radii to it. And he also said: Metre: sarīʿ . There is a young gazelle, whom to love is ‘good practice’ ( sunnah ), which has made my love for him a religious duty. Sunnah can mean ‘good practice’, more specifically ‘the practice of the Prophet Muḥammad’, and as a category in Islamic law, ‘something that is strongly recommended’ but not to the point of being a religious duty ( farḍ ). I am pleased ( arḍā ) to make my cheek an earth ( arḍā ) for him to walk on, with shoes on. And he also said: Metre: basīṭ . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:275, Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:51 (who says he found them attributed to al-Badīʿ in al-Ḥaẓīrī’s Zīnat al-dahr , but elsewhere to Ibn Jakkīnā). He made me taste the ‘redness’ of Death when he clothed himself in the ‘greenness’ of beard-down. In pre-modern Arabic the word normally translated as ‘green’ ( akhḍar ) is often applied to anything dark. ‘Blackness’ has appeared in him, but ‘my flour is still being weighed’. As Ibn Khallikān explains, this is a Baghdadi saying meaning ‘my troubles are not yet at an end’ (see also Dozy, Supplément , KWR ). And he also said: Metre: mutaqārib . I fled from youths with fine beards; then I turned to scold all those who still love them. I did not cease to upbraid them ( alḥāhum ) for their love of beardless boys, until I myself was afflicted by their beards ( alḥāhum ). And he also said: Metre: sarīʿ . He is haughty to people, with his seductiveness: ‘Beware of me! I have an eloquent tongue!’ – He may be correct in his speech but his deeds are ungrammatical. And he also said: Metre: kāmil muraffal . Awake, but when asked to receive a guest he becomes one of those who sleep. You can see him among the rabble when he sees food being chewed. His grave ( ʿiẓām ) vices are evident at times when bones ( ʿiẓām ) are stripped of meat. [10.67.4.4] And he said, lampooning a bloodletter: Metre: sarīʿ . That phlebotomist has drawn his scalpel as if he has come to war. A useless bleeding, its only result being blood pouring from a puncture. If he merely walked outside on a road those indoors in the alley will die. Take him if enemies assault you and you will not need any other allies. And he also said after a great deal of snow had come to Iraq: Metre: khafīf . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:275; anonymously in Ibn al-Jawzī, Muntaẓam , xvii:197 (yr 515) and Ibn al-Athīr, Kāmil , x, 596 (yr 515); al-Ṣafadī, Nuṣrat al-thāʾir , 217. Prominent people of the time! It is no snow what we have seen in the regions of Iraq: Your injustice has covered all the land, so that the locks of even the furthest parts have whitened. And he said about a wash-basin for drinking-glasses, called jurʿa-dān : Metre: munsariḥ . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:109. In the superscript, read (with R) jurʿa-dān (Steingass, Persian-Arabic dictionary : ‘drinking-glass’), explained in Masālik as alladhī yūḍaʿu fī majālis al-kubarāʾ li-ṣabb takʿīb al-qadaḥ . Whenever I am present in a gathering I am counted as one of the utensils of joy. When I am placed in the foremost place in their sessions they spoil my pleasure with what is left in the cup. [10.67.5] Al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī wrote the following books: 1. Abridgement of the poetical works of Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥajjāj ( Ikhtiṣār Dīwān Abī ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn al-Ḥajjāj ). For an edition, see al-Asṭurlābī, Durrat al-tāj (al-Ṭāhir). Ibn al-Ḥajjāj (d. 391/1001) was a poet from Baghdad best known for his obscene and scatological poems, which were very popular. See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Ḥad̲j̲d̲j̲ād̲j̲’ (D.S. Margoliouth & Ch. Pellat). 2. Astronomical tables that he named al-Muʿrib al-Maḥmūdī , composed for the Sultan Maḥmūd Abū l-Qāsim ibn Muḥammad ( Zīj sammāhu al-Muʿrib al-Maḥmūdī ). 10.68 Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl This biography appears in all three versions of the book. [10.68.1.1] Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl Also known as Ibn al-Qaṭṭān. See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Ḳaṭṭān’ (Ch. Pellat). was a Baghdadi born and raised. He used to concern himself with the art of medicine and practise of it and was counted among those who are known for the art. He also used to be an oculist, but was, above all, a poet. He was a man of many anecdotes, was foul-tongued and authored a collection of poetry. Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl and the emir Abū l-Fawāris Saʿd ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Ṣayfī, the poet named Ḥayṣa-Bayṣa [that is ‘Pell-Mell’], See EI 2 art. ‘Ḥayṣa Bayṣa’ (J.W. Fück). He was called Saʿd ibn Muḥammad al-Tamīmī and died 574/1179. hated and reviled each other. From time to time they would call a truce but then continue as of old. Pell-Mell was so named because, once, the army in Baghdad had been preparing to leave the city to confront the Seljuk Sultan. This was in the time of al-Muqtafī li-amr Allāh, and the people were full of talk and excess activity because of this and Abū l-Fawāris said, ‘Why is it I see the people at pell-mell?’ and so he was nicknamed with this name, and the one who attached this epithet to him was Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl. Pell-Mell always sought exaggerated eloquence and obscure language in his discourses and his epistles. [10.68.1.2] An example of this is that a certain man of Iraq told me that Pell-Mell had recovered from an illness during which Abū l-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl visited him and prescribed that he eat a francolin. Pell-Mell’s servant went and bought a francolin and as he passed by the door of an emir where young Turkish boys were playing, one of the boys snatched the francolin from the servant and made off with it. The servant returned to Pell-Mell and told him what had happened so he said, ‘Bring me ink and paper.’ The boy brought them and Pell-Mell wrote, ‘Now had the one who dispossessed me of my francolin been a supple-winged eagle, contracting its wings to descend, overcome by hunger whether circling or swooping low, which soars and swoops to the ground at such a time when the soles of the feet of the camels become worn it would have been obligatory to hurry to my aid, so how about when it happened in the midst of your noblesse? With peace.’ Then he said to his servant, ‘Take it and be a good emissary in delivering it to the emir.’ So the boy went off and handed it over to his chamberlain. The emir summoned his secretary and gave him the letter and he read it and considered it in order to convey its meaning to the emir. The emir said to him, ‘What is it?’ The secretary said, ‘The import of it is that one of the emir’s boys took a francolin from the man’s servant.’ The emir said, ‘Then buy him a cage full of francolins and take them to him.’ And he did so. [10.68.1.3] Our teacher, the sage Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, See his entry Ch, 15.50. may God show him mercy, told me that Pell-Mell the poet at Baghdad wrote the following letter to Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh See his entry Ch. 10.64. asking him to send over some some eye-salve made with lead: Shiyāf ābār , the term shiyāf being a general term for any eye-salve, this one made with lead. See Dozy, Supplément i:2. I would apprise you, O learned, solicitous, skilful, precious, and experienced medic – may weal abide with you always, and may ruin stumble blindly and never find you – that I am overcome and sense in my oculi Lat. eyes. a tendling, OE . burning, stinging. neither like the slege OE . sting. of a scorpion, nor like the prick of a neeld, ME . [Shakespearian]. needle. nor yet like the slite OE . bite (of a serpent). of a nathdrack, Celtic. Anglicized from Nathair (Nathrach), snake. but rather like the scorching of gledes. OE . live coals. Hence, I, from vigilae Lat. morning (prayers). to vespers, Lat. evening (prayers). do not know the nocturnal from the diurnal, nor can I distinguish between the serenous Eng., from Lat. serene or clear (of a day). and the nubilous. Eng., from Lat. cloudy. Indeed, often I fall, legs in the air; at times I am angry and foul-tempered, at others I curl up, and sometimes I stretch out, all of this with a great sighing, and rasping of breath, and sorrow. My soul desires that I raise my voice with a cry of ‘giddy-up’ towards a to-ing and fro-ing, and such I am on Sunnandaeg, Monandaeg, Tiwesdaeg, Wodnesdaeg, Thunresdaeg, Frigedaeg, and Saeturnesdaeg. I can neither flee nor hurry, neither sirmounte nor subiugue. So send at once some lead eye-medicine to salve my disease and slake my thirst. When Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh read the letter he rose at once and took a handful of burnt lead eye-medicine and told one of his companions, ‘Take it to him quickly so we don’t have to bear reading another one of his letters.’ [10.68.1.4] Pell-Mell wrote seven notes to al-Muqtafī li-amr Allāh when he requested Baʿqūbā A place 40 miles N.E. of Baghdad, famous for its date and fruit gardens, see EI 2 art. ‘Baʿḳūba’ (S.H. Longrigg). from him: The first: Lo, herewith the heralds of affection , bearing a letter of laudation, trilled by the drover of a hope, in fulfilment of the abode . The second: I gallop As a transitive verb, to make a horse go at full speed ( OED ). the steeds of praise in the courtyards of glory, as one who gallops a dashing high horse without goad or effort, petitioning the conclusion of the matter, by your honour . The third: Also in al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdat (al-ʿIrāq) , i:364 (amidst a much larger sample of such epistles by Ḥayṣ Bayṣ). Be magnanimous, O Commander of the Faithful, by offering an abundance neither scanty nor paltry for an eloquent poetizer seeking the depths of the sea (metre), searching for the apparel of the world; for the rhyme is enchanting and the listener is virtuous and the reward is liberal . The fourth: Also in al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , i:365–366, and Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān , i:420. Both Mosul and al-Īghārān The ‘two privileges’ of lands surrounding al-Karaj and al-Burj originally afforded to Abū Dulaf al-ʿIjlī (d. between 225/840 and 228/843). See EI 2 art. ‘(al-) Karad̲j̲’ (Ed.), and art. ‘Īg̲h̲ār’ (Cl. Cahen); Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān i:420. are the fiefdoms of two Seljuk kings. Formerly they were the rewards of two poets of Ṭayyiʾ That is Abū Tammām and al-Buḥturī. According to Yāqūt ( Muʿjam al-buldān i:420), Abū Tammām was appointed as head of the postal service in Mosul. from two well - received Reading either marḍiyyayn (well-received, approved of [often by God]) or murḍiyayn (gratifying, giving satisfaction). Caliphs, one of which is al-Muʿtaṣim bi-Allāh, and the other Mutawakkil ʿalā Allāh. The highest edifice is greater and his reward is more abiding, so wherefore the withholding? The fifth: The fifth of the servants petitioning for the downpours of generosity, from the greatest sanctuary. A gift of verse: running like a fleeing she-camel in a desert to be crossed, guiding on the journey, making ease of hard ground; the best decision would be to fulfil her hopes! The sixth: Also in al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , i:364–365. Lo, beyond the lowered veil stands the loftiest of towering peaks and a bountious sea overflowing . Ar. Ayham ṭawd wa-khiḍamm yamm . According to al-Thaʿālibī, Fiqh al-lughah , 315, the word ayham is third from the ultimate in the hierarchy of words for raised ground, the next highest being qahb and highest of all khushām . The word ayham can also mean the ‘bravest of the brave’ being the ultimate word for braveness in Arabic. See al-Thaʿālibī, Fiqh al-lughah , 106. Ṭawd is also a lofty peak but only tenth from the ultimate according to al-Thaʿālibī’s hierarchy. For the verse, see al-Iṣfahānī, al-Aghānī , viii:133. Silencing when he spoke, his generosity dispelled famine, his majesty was dazzling, his power was overwhelming, his riches were given generously. May God bless him as long as the wind blows and the wormwood grows . The seventh: O Commander of the Faithful, one hundred verses of poetry, or seven notes in prose; should they be driven away from fortune as are parched camels? Nay, the origins are prophetic, the noble qualities are Abbasid, the intelligence is ingenious, and glory is a sufficient reckoner . Metre: kāmil . Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xi:205. The poet Saʿd ibn Muḥammad al-Tamīmī (d. 574/1179) was nicknamed Ḥayṣ Bayṣ (or al-Ḥayṣ Bayṣ), on account of his highfaluting diction. What can I say? Transmitters intone my poetry in pure language on the just Imam, The word imām (‘leader’) is often used for the caliph. Eloquent people approve of an ode on the most lofty patron and the most eloquent speaker, Their bodies swaying; it is as if every rhyming verse contains the vintage wine of Babel. Babel (Bābil) was associated with wine and magic. They bend, straight after the poetry and during it, wondering about generosity and who will receive it. Given, O Commanders of the Believers, that I am the Quss The legendary pre-Islamic orator Quss ibn Sāʿidah is proverbial for his eloquence. of eloquence, what is the answer to him who asks? Abū l-Qāsim ibn al-Faḍl died in the year 558/1163. The precise date of his death is given as 28 Ramadān 558 [30 August 1163]. See EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Ḳaṭṭān’ (Ch. Pellat). [10.68.2.1] Among the poetry of Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl, and from his collected poems ( dīwān shiʿrihi ), which I transmit from Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ḥalabī who said that Badīʿ al-Dīn Abū l-Fatḥ Manṣūr ibn Abī l-Qāsim ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Dāʾim al-Wāsiṭī, who was known as Ibn Sawād al-ʿAyn, told him that ‘Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl recited these verses, which he composed himself’: Metre: kāmil . Lines 1–3 are quoted anonymously by Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqā, Fakhrī , 41, to illustrate the weakness of the later Abbasid Dynasty; lines 3 and 10 in Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:60; lines 5–6, 9–10 in al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:276; lines 4–6, 9–10 in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , viii:122. We, in the Victorious Army, are a despicable gang; such a lowly gathering we are! Take our wits from our hanging together(?), It is not clear which of the several meanings of ʿaqd is intended here. in the lowliness, the stupidity, and the recklessness you can see. Takrit makes us powerless, According to Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqā this refers to a rebellion in Tikrit (or Takrit, a town some 100 miles north of Baghdad) against the Abbasids. and we, in our ignorance, march on to take Tirmidh from Sanjar! Tirmidh: a town on the Oxus river, part of the Seljuq lands in the time of the long-reigning Sultan Sanjar (r. 490–552/1097–1157). Needless to say, it was very remote from the shrunken Abbasid authority. As for al-Ḥuwayzī, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Abū l-ʿAbbās, from al-Ḥuwayzah in Khuzistan, was called ‘al-ʿAbbāsī’ as if he were a member of the Abbasid family, but it is said that the name derives from the al-ʿAbbās river from which he came (al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , viii:122). that pretender, he is a bucket(?) The word dalw , ‘bucket’ (thus in A, S, R) can mean ‘calamity’, but it is strange; perhaps it can be connected with usjilat (‘filled to the brim’) in the next line. Al-Ṣafadī has nadhlun yashūbu raqāʿatan bi-takabburī , ‘a scoundrel, mixed with depravity together with arrogance’. mixed with arrogance and ridicule. He is called Abū l-ʿAbbās, whereas he has been condemned to baseness, filled with … (?) The meaning of usjilat bi-muʿammar , found in all sources, is not clear. The editor of al-Kharīdah emends it to bi-mughammir but his explanation does not sound convincing. On the hands and feet of his father there are indelible traces of indigo and safflower. Possibly an allusion to the despised dyer’s trade. Wāfī has ‘his nails’ instead of ‘his feet’. He walks eagerly to the appartments of the singing-girls and he creeps in the prayer niche towards the pulpit. When he speaks, of things true or false, his speech is never devoid of weirdness and joking. On seeing a peashooter Birkīl (spelled firjīl in Wāfī ) is explained in Lisān al-ʿArab as ‘something childred shoot pellets with’; possibly a toy crossbow. One wonders if it could be connected with Latin virgula , ‘small rod’. he trembles with fear. Those ‘Hāshimis’ were originally from Khaybar. The Hāshimīs are the Abbasids, after their ancestor Hāshim, the uncle of the Prophet Muḥammad and grandfather of al-ʿAbbās (even though in the early days of the Abbasid movement the term Hāshimiyyah seems to have referred to a certain Abū Hāshim). Khaybar is a famous oasis some 95 miles from Medina where Jewish tribes had settled in pre-Islamic times; it seems that al-Ḥuwayzī is accused of claiming to be a true Arab while being a Jew. The claim to kinship with al-ʿAbbās is equalled in weakness only by that of ‘Abbasid’ green beans. A verse said to have been famous (Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:60). As al-Iṣfahānī explains ( Kharīdah [ʿIrāq] , ii:276) street-sellers in Baghdad would call green beans ‘Abbasid’. Al-Ḥayṣ Bayṣ advances fighting with his lance and I, with my brilliance, Translation uncertain; the verb shaʿshaʿa has several meanings (‘to mix, make shine, mix wine with water’). am the army doctor. As for the former, he cannot be feared to kill a gnat, and I cannot be hoped to cure anyone suffering from an ulcer. Taking mudabbar (vowelled thus in A) to be derived from dabarah , ‘ulcer, sore (usually of a camel)’. With my scalpel I let the blood flow, while his sword is in its sheath and will not even bother a little finger’s nail. His adversary in a battle will have a long and healthy life, while those felled by my treatment are in a bad way(?). The meaning of bi-wajhin mudbiri(n) is uncertain. [10.68.2.2] He said Manuscripts with Versions 1 and 2 read: He [Muhadhdhab al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī] also recited to me, saying that al-Badīʿ Abū l-Fatḥ al-Wāsiṭī recited to him, saying ‘The aforementioned [Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl] recited to me a poem he composed’. eulogizing Sadīd al-Dawlah Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Anbārī, the secretary for state letters ( kātib al-inshāʾ ) at Baghdād: Metre: a non-classical metre, related to the Persian dūbayt , sometimes called silsilah (see on this poem van Gelder, Sound and Sense , 125–127). Lines 1–3, 9–10, 13–14, 17–18, 26–27, 12 in al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:274–275; cf. Ibn al-Jawzī, Muntaẓam , xviii:158 (lines 1–2, 9–10, 13–14, 18, 26–27, 12); Ibn al-Athīr, Kāmil (ed. Yūsuf al-Daqqāq), ix:464 [end of yr 558] (lines 1–3, 9–10), see the translation (somewhat freer than the one offered here) in Richards (tr.), The Chronicle of Ibn al-Athīr , ii:142; the same lines in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:308–309. On Sadīd al-Dawlah Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm, known as Ibn al-Anbārī (d. 558/1162–1163), see al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iii:279–280. He was employed in the chancery for some fifty years. O woman who left me and did not care! Will union with me reign again? I do not expect, O my heart’s torment, my mind to be happy again in loving you. My eyes are weeping because of your aloofness my body, as you see, is wasting away, And my heart, as you used to know it, is foolishly in love, burning with anguish and passion. Yearning will stay in my thoughts: it will not be permitted to depart. You who have wounded the innermost of my heart with grief and the semblance of madness: Alas, there is no chance, since you robbed me of slumber, I will be able to see your phantom in a dream. If you wish, you may stop at a limit that is not granted by you in your flirtation. It will not harm you to raise my hopes of being with you, in an impossible meeting. I love you dearly, though someone else is now lucky to have you, you who kill me – what can I do? Being killed is motto, for my outward appearance, (?) if you glory in your conceitedness. This sentence, who has imposed it on me? Who has made me cheap to anyone who is dear? Those black days of my suffering for you, how much they resembled nights! Those who blamed me about you scolded me for loving you – what have I to do with them? My passion is so heart-piercing that I am distracted from thinking of anyone except you. The fire, even when its flames subside in my breast, burns (anew?) with a blaze. Sense not wholly clear (it is tempting, but metrically difficult, to derive kh.b.t from the verb khubiʾa , ‘to be hidden’). O you who enjoin me to forget her: I am the one who loves, and you the one who forgets. Saying I should give her up is right – how good it would be if it were right for me! Leave me with my flirting with a young woman who looks and makes soft sounds like a gazelle, With lustrous black eyes, whose glances are arrows more penetrating and hurtful than real ones, That inflict wounds on the heart that are incurable and will kill. Therefore have mercy on someone distressed and mortally stricken on her account, and forgive him, for … I do not understand fa-mā l-ʿidhāru khālī . It is not fitting that you should blame a lover if he is besotted with a beautiful woman. Stop and leave me with my woe in my passion, submitting to my state. If you consider this proper, leave me, for my guidance lies in erring. In obeying her, without being able to choose, through love for her my imperfection becomes correct. I have divorced, triply and irrevocably, my steadfastness, while foolish infatuation is still bound to me. Where and how could I find the fortitude to be without the beauty of the one whose equal is far to seek? I have not achieved anything with her except the frills of the impossible. How often did she shrink back ( nakalat ) after a pledge, so that my heart was punished ( fī nikāl ) for it! How often did her deceit delude me on the plain, while thirsting for pure water! The image suggests that the beloved is compared to a fata morgana in the desert. Why was she not true, like a liberal person from the most noble kin and family, At this point there is a transition from the conventional amatory introduction to the panegyric. Hoping to receive, in his proximity, blessings casting wide protecting shadows? The abundant rain that pours from his hands is not like the abundant rain that flows in his actions. Those who have a refuge on the heights of Sadīd al-Dawlah, with his freely given generosity, Will not expect Fate to have its will with them in wronging them. … See note to the Arabic text. The hand of success gives him to drink as much pure cold water as he wishes, In an abode blessed with gifts for a time of dearth, where rain-clouds open their spouts. I cry from it for help, when I am distressed with hardship, to the most compassionate of masters. In the munificence of his hands I have a guarantor, at a time of want, of a stipend for those who depend on me. He looks only after my wellbeing if he sees me in adverse circumstances. He never ceases – never ceases from nature – to give generously, without minding. He is not surprised by the blame of someone telling him not to defend his lofty status with money; For lordly qualities are all gathered in the house of the distributor of gifts. He who meets Muḥammad Sadīd al-Dawlah. with a ode of praise ( madḥ ) praises ( yamdaḥhu ) him for the best of qualities. Passion for a young, big-hipped woman or something greater than it(?) is like flaws; Translation uncertain. There is a play, in this and the preceding line, on two different meanings of khilāl . S lacks this rather odd line. But generosity from the hand of a magnanimous man is one of the best virtues of men. My lord! This is the call of one who seeks your protection appeals to you on account of his incurable disease: Most generous benefactor, on whom I rely in giving me my desires, Take care of my tribulations; perhaps your bounty will cure and heal my wound. So often an evil creditor has put me in the position, when he stood confronting me, Of a bankrupt Jew from Hatra, Identified in an editorial note in Riḍā as the ancient town of Hatra, near Mosul. This is, however, usually spelled al-Ḥaḍr in Arabic. Haṭrā, as here, is spelled Hāṭrā ( sic , with overlong syllable) in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān and said to be a place near Samarra where most inhabitants were Jews. Yāqūt adds: ‘Even today they say in Baghdad: “It is as if you are one of the Jews of Hāṭrā!” ’. in the grip of a tax-collector among the emigrants. I was unable to escape from him except through your substantial payments. See Dozy, Supplément ( ṢḤḤ ): yuʿṭī l-māl ṣaḥāḥan ; but the adjective thiqāl proves that here it should be ṣiḥāḥ (as vowelled also in A). The custom in rectifying my destitution is my asking for a repetition of the same! To extol you, as long as you live, is my habit, spelled with -ol (not -ort), to sooth my conscience. The Arabic has ‘ taqrīẓ … with ẓ ’, intending ‘not taqrīḍ ’, i.e., ‘not “finding fault” or “cutting” ’. The letters ẓ and ḍ , though different phonemes, were (and are) regularly pronounced identically, resulting in frequent confusion. A note (left margin) in MS R explains: ‘ Taqrīẓ , with ẓ , means praising a person when he is alive; taqrīḍ , with ḍ , is either praise or blame.’ I do not cure eyes As IAU says at the beginning of his entry on Ibn al-Qaṭṭān, ‘he was also an oculist, though poetry dominated’. with lampoons, but my occupation is phlebotomy on your hands. I make your honour fat and leave your purse chronically lean. If one treats a constitution in this manner, skilfully, as good as perfectly, Then the benefit, if it comes to him spontaneously, arrives at him as legal livelihood. O best of people from whom one may hope to receive, for whom my camel-saddles are loaded with poems of praise: My mind has not done you justice, since it has evidently become tired. If I praise you I demonstrate my inability properly to describe someone of sublime loftiness. Your qualities in their glory surpass in number the grains of sand. The long spears of al-Khaṭṭ are shorter than your ‘spears’ at the time of battle. There is an untranslatable play on khaṭṭ , ‘handwriting’, and al-Khaṭṭ, a place in eastern Arabia proverbial for its spears, often called khaṭṭī after it. The ‘spears’ of the chancery official Sadīd al-Dawlah are his pens. How many a pen ( yarāʾ ) in your hand, of extensive reach, has frightened ( rāʿa ) spears! Since yarāʿ can also mean ‘coward’ and rāʿa is also ‘to fear’, an alternative translation, though syntactically more awkward, is possible: ‘Many a coward feared, through you, the “spears” in your hand …’ Your pens are deadly arrows and their ink Reading al-niqsu (‘ink’), with A, is better than al-naqshu (‘picture, engraving’, S), even though this is not impossible. is like arrow-tips. The tribes of Thuʿal and al-Qārah attest one can be proud of them at a time of strife. Both tribes were famous as archers (see e.g. al-Thaʿālibī, Thimār al-qulūb , 120, al-Baghdādī, Khizānat al-adab , iv:456, and a line by Ibn al-Qaysarānī quoted in Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xix:79). If they quarrelled with lances they would be, in the mind, tall spears [or: lance-tips] for the hand holding them. Or if they touched the blades of swords they would blunt the two edges of the sparkling burnished blades. Or if they composed a model decree The precise meaning of mithāl here is not clear; cf. Dozy Supplément : ‘ordre écrit’. they would produce something more refined and more lofty than the model, Dictating paragraphs full of ideas that make up for any want of lofty qualites. They spit upon the pretty white pages a black night, to say nothing of their licit magic: ‘Spitting’ (here pens letting the ink flow) is associated with (black) magic; cf. Q al-Falaq 113:4. There is a play on words with ṣibāḥ ‘pretty’, cognate with ṣabāḥ ‘dawn, morning’, contrasting with layl , ‘night’. Superior eloquence is often compared to ‘licit magic’. Writings that guarantee, unconditionally, the utter destruction of mighty squadrons. If they reached Hārūt he would flee without giving a thought to Babel. Hārūt and Mārūt, mentioned in the Qur’an (al-Baqarah 2:102), were two fallen angels, sent to Babylon on earth, teaching mankind forbidden arts such as black magic. They contain jet Reading subaḥ , ‘beads’ (Müller, Riḍā, Najjār) seems to make a good contrast with ‘pearls’ but the point is the blackness (jet/ink) contrasting with white (silver/page). Ibn al-Qaṭṭān couples pearls with jet in another poem, see al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:280. on silver higher in value than pearls, In their fragrance An untranslatable play on two meanings of nashr (‘fragrance; publication’). Perhaps there is an allusion to writing with perfumed ink (compare al-Hamadhānī, Maqāmāt , 54, at the end of al-Maqāmah al-Iṣfahāniyyah ). like the faces of virgins covered in expensive perfumes. Your words have made for the mountain goats a place to come down from the summits. Reading al-qilāl ( SBR ) instead of the meaningless al-filāl (A). Mountain goats or ibexes are often mentioned as being normally unreachable, impossible to bring down. You kill enemies with cunning, peacefully, without fighting. So many people unwilling to be hobbled, defying reason, The word ʿaql is punningly used in two senses (‘hobbling’, ‘reason, intellect’). have you tamed, restraining them again. May you always remain successful in your serious efforts, and be given intercession in what you ask, While your affairs are made to obey your wishes, O best of all remaining men! O most noble father of a son who will succeed him, with refined characteristics! How noble is that young man of yours, as a supporter of the dynasty, min waliyyin li-l-dawlah ; one wonders if the son’s honorific name was Walī al-Dawlah. a devoted follower! If he is generous ( jāda ) he puts the morning rain-clouds Reading al-ghawādī (S,B,R) rather than al-aʿādī (‘the enemies’, A). to shame; or if he speaks he excels ( ajāda ) in his speech. O sun of loftiness, that boasts a full moon with which the crescent moon cannot be compared: May he never cease to shine and give light in your protective shade, always perfect, As long as feastdays It is possible that this ode was offered on the occasion of a religious feast. will return for you with joy, while you look after him well and comprehensively, In the most ample bliss and easy life, with good things continually succeeding one another. May your loftiness never cease to be firmly established, never submitting to decrease! My supplication for your long and lasting life comes from a most devoted intention, sincerely. What is true and sound will never be confused  – by God! – for you with what is absurd. [10.68.2.3] He [Muhadhdhab al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī] also told me that al-Badīʿ al-Wāsiṭī recited to him, saying, ‘The aforementioned [Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl] recited to me a poem he composed himself’: Metre: sarīʿ . Attributed to ‘Ibn al-Faḍl’ in Ibn Abī l-Ḥadīd, Sharḥ Nahj al-balāghah , v:355–356. I do not praise despair, but it gives more comfort to one’s heart than hope. May he prosper who sees the green herbage of wishes being grazed but has not himself grazed and gone into the pasturage. He [Muhadhdhab al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī] also told me that al-Badīʿ al-Wāsiṭī recited to him, saying, ‘The aforementioned [Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl] recited to me a poem he composed himself’: Metre: sarīʿ . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:252 (lines 1–2, 4). According to Masālik it is Ibn Hubayrah who is lampooned here. O people, time to depart, time to depart! The bloated-bellied coward Hirdabb is glossed as ‘coward, with bloated belly who has no heart; or a big coward with little sense’ ( Lisān al-ʿArab ). sits on the throne! He has started to command and prohibit among us; I had hoped he would not. Every time I said: ‘It’s a mere speck in the eye that will clear off, a gloomy moment that will soon lighten up’, I opened my eyes and the dynasty was still the same dynasty, and the Sheikh the vizier was still vizier. He [Muhadhdhab al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī] also told me that al-Badīʿ al-Wāsiṭī recited to him, saying, ‘The aforementioned [Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl] recited to me a poem he composed himself that he wrote about the poet Pell-Mell who had been barked at by a bitch with puppies so he killed one of her puppies with his sword’: Metre: basīṭ . Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:55 (with an added line), al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:309; Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:251–252. In their versions it is the puppy itself that had barked. O people! Al-Ḥayṣ Bayṣ has done a deed that earned him shame in town. In the other versions the poem opens with ‘O people of Baghdad!’. He is a coward, who showed his courage towards a weak, defenceless little puppy. Its mother, having lost her child, exclaimed: ‘Little Spot’s blood be avenged by the One and Eternal God!’ “I say to myself, by way of consolation and condolence: ‘One of my hands struck me, involuntarily. This verse and the next are taken from Abū Tammām’s famous anthology al-Ḥamāsah (al-Marzūqī, Sharḥ , 207). They are by an unknown Bedouin, who refused to kill his brother in retaliation for the murder of his son. The quotation insinuates that Ḥayṣ Bayṣ is a dog himself; the puppy’s mother leaves vengeance to God and she will not kill the killer. Each of the two is a substitute for the loss of the other: this is my brother when I call him, and that is my son.’ ” [10.68.2.4] He [Muhadhdhab al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī] also told me that al-Badīʿ al-Wāsiṭī recited to him, saying, ‘The aforementioned [Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl] recited to me a lampoon poem he composed himself’: Metre: kāmil . Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , iii:125. Abū l-Wafāʾ Yaḥyā ibn Saʿīd, known as Ibn al-Murakhkhim (d. 555/1160), was not only a physician and astrologer but also chief qadi in Baghdad during the reign of al-Muqtafī, see al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxviii:141–145. Ibn al-Murakhkhim, you have become a judge among us. Has Time got into its dotage, you think, or has the celestial sphere become mad? If you give rulings on the basis of the stars, perhaps (it is all right); but as for Aḥmad’s Sharia, Aḥmad is another name of the Prophet Muḥammad. where do you find it? He [Muhadhdhab al-Dīn al-Ḥalabī] also told me that al-Badīʿ al-Wāsiṭī recited to him, saying, ‘The aforementioned [Hibat Allāh ibn al-Faḍl] recited to me a poem he composed himself lampooning al-Badīʿ al-Aṣṭurlābī’: Metre: kāmil muraffal . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:252. No wonder that the pilgrims were struck with misfortune and have suffered a disaster: Al-Badīʿ went on pilgrimage, with his wife and his son. Now look: what a company! Three from one dwelling: a catamite, a pimp, and a whore. He also composed this poem lampooning Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh: Metre: basīṭ . In al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , ii:277, Ibn al-Qaṭṭān is said have lampooned the vizier Anūsharwān ibn Khālid with these verses. They are attributed to Ibn al-Habbāriyyah (on the same vizier) in Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqā, Fakhrī , 414, and to Muḥammad ibn Abī l-Wafāʾ ibn Aḥmad al-ʿUmarī, known as Ibn al-Qabīḍī (fl. 610/1213), otherwise unknown, in al-Suyūṭī, Bughyah , i:260. This is that well-known ‘humility’ of yours, springing from baseness, for which you have become suspected of an excess of vileness. Kharīdah , Fakhrī , and Bughyah have kibr (‘haughtiness, arrogance’), which makes a better contrast with tawāḍuʿ . You let down the hope of a petitioner, though you stand up for him: this is jumping at those who seek your help, rather than jumping up for them. [10.68.2.5] He also said: Metre: ramal . A gazelle who is fond only of minted gold coins: He is never pleased with my expressions coined in verse or prose. There is a play on two meanings of maṭbūʿ : ‘imprinted’ and ‘natural, free of artificiality’. He also said: Metre: sarīʿ . Bravo, Army of the Religion of True Guidance, routed amidst 500,000 men! Although the orthography of ‘hundred’ is in classical Arabic ( miʾati ), the line scans correctly only when read as vernacular ( mīt-i ). It is not clear to which battle the epigram refers; the number is obviously a poetic licence. Its marching was like that of the rope-maker: steadily proceeding backwards. He also said: Metre: mutaqārib . Attributed to Athīr al-Dīn Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī shujāʿ al-Muẓaffar ibn Hibat Allāh in al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-ʿIrāq) , i:156. Say to Yaḥyā, the vizier of all people: Abū l-Muẓaffar Yaḥyā ibn Muḥammad, known as Ibn Hubayrah, was vizier for sixteen years until his death in 560/1165, poisoned, it is said, by his physician. He was also a considerable scholar and author of works on Islamic law and Prophetic tradition, such as a commentary, entitled al-Ifṣāḥ ʿan maʿānī l-Ṣiḥāḥ , on the two canonical collections of Hadith by al-Bukhārī and Muslim, each called al-Ṣaḥīḥ , ‘The [collection of] Sound [traditions]’. You have obliterated the Sharia with a stroke of your pen; Literally, ‘as lines of writing are deleted’. You have destroyed the ‘Sound’ ( ṣiḥāḥ ) Hadith collections by ‘correcting’ ( taṣḥīḥ ) them and you struck at their roots. You did not aim at ‘revising’ them ( li-tahdhībihā ), but at uttering drivel with them ( li-tahdhī bihā ) in public. Interpretation of fī l-ṣudūr uncertain. He also said: Metre: wāfir . According to al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xix:255, the lines are by ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn al-Ḥusayn, known as Abū Tammām al-Bārid (‘the Cold One’), on Jalāl al-Dīn ibn Ṣadaqah (i.e., al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Ṣadaqah, appointed vizier under al-Mustarshid in 513/1119–1120). The reference to coldness supports this attribution; at the same time it could be a self-deprecating joke, for insipid poetry is often called ‘cold’. They said, ‘Master will not receive you! He is in a private place.’ I replied, ‘My verse will open the locks and enter. The cold is a burglar.’ [10.68.2.6] He also said in praise of the medicine known as Barshaʿthā when Awḥad al-Zamān compounded it: Metre: ṭawīl . For this medicine, see Ch. 10.66.9 no. 5, and, at some length, Dāwūd al-Anṭākī, Tadhkirah , 72. Dozy, Suppl ., vowels it as barshiʿthā . Al-Anṭākī says it is Syriac for burʾ sāʿah , ‘the cure of an hour’, which conveys the sense correctly, but it is apparently from Syriac bar-shaʿ a thā , ‘son of an hour’. I swallowed a draught of barshaʿthā when my condition was ‘ruffled’ ( ashʿath ), and after that no ruffling ailment has befallen me. If it were possible to revive the dead after Jesus, all the dead would live by means of this barshaʿthā . He also said: Metre: mujtathth . This one says, ‘We are relieved’, Another says, ‘We have been wronged’. Both are lying, and whoever of us believes it is talking nonsense. He also said: Metre: ramal . Often have I gone to the privy Taraddada means ‘to hesitate; visit frequently’. Here it seems to have the special sense given in Dozy, Supplément , ‘Aller souvent à la selle, avoir la diarrhée’, with the difference that the poet’s problem was constipation rather than diarrhoea. and swallowed bitter medicine. Then, when God finally make me succeed and I deposited a load, It contained no more ‘wheat’ than a mouse’s nibble. He also said: Metre: sarīʿ . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:252. Sometimes I praise him, and I talk nonsense about him at other times. I do not expect him to support me: Like an imam among villagers, who prays with them while the olive oil comes from him. He also said: Metre: sarīʿ . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:252. You who fear being lampooned: you may feel safe against being touched by it. You, with that reputation of yours among people, are like shit: untouchable. [10.68.2.7] He also said: Metre: khafīf majzūʾ . For longer versions of this poem and for its occasion, see Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , vi:59 (11 lines) and al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:312 (9 lines). The poet had been merry and had danced in the presence of the vizier al-Sharīf Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Ṭirād al-Zaynabī, naqīb al-nuqabāʾ (d. 561/1166), who did not like it, for it reminded him of the common saying ‘Dance for the monkey the day he is powerful’. Compare the rajaz lines by al-ʿAttābī: ‘Prostrate yourselves to the evil monkey in its heyday (…) | And flatter him as long as you are in his power!’, al-Jāḥiẓ, Ḥayawān , i:355, cf. vii:166; Ibn ʿAbd Rabbih, ʿIqd , ii:443; al-Damīrī, Ḥayāt , ii:246; as a proverb: al-Maydānī, Majmaʿ , i:452. Abū Nuwās had said of the Barmakid family of viziers, ‘This is the time of monkeys, so submit: | Listen to them and obey!’ ( Dīwān , ii:51). Whenever I say, ‘My people have become Baghdadized’, they Homsify themselves. This and several other lines remain obscure. The form taḥamṣaṣū is irregular, for one would rather expect taḥammaṣū (but this could be wrongly interpreted as ‘they shrivelled’). It is nothing but a curtain that is raised and a plastered gate, And canopies on top with stuccoed decorations, And skylights and belvederes, and prancing horses; While I am a dog that wags his tail every day to a monkey. The versions in Wafayāt and Wāfī reverse ‘dog’ and ‘monkey’, but the above reference to the common saying proves that the reading of IAU is better. Whenever fortune applauds them I get up and dance. When shall I hear the call, ‘Rescue has come!’? [10.68.3] Abū l-Qāsim Hibat Allāh composed the following works: 1. Medical notes ( Taʿālīq ṭibbiyyah ). 2. Questions and answers on medicine ( Masāʾil wa-ajwibatuhā fī l-ṭibb ). 3. The collected works of his own poetry ( Dīwān shiʿrihi ). MS Sb ends here. In the colophon it adds a riddle epigram, see AII .6. 10.69 al-ʿAntarī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see EI Three art. ‘Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh al-ʿAntarī’ (G.J. van Gelder); GAL S i:462; M. b. al-Maḥallī [ sic ] b. aṣ-Ṣāʾiġ aṭ Ṭabīb’ mentions al-Mukhtār al-sāʾigh min dīwān Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh ; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv:384–386. [10.69.1] Al-ʿAntarī – that is, Abū l-Muʾayyad Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Mujallī ibn al-Ṣāʾigh al-Jazarī – was a renowned physician, and a notable scholar, good at treating patients and providing regimens. He was of abundant merit, a philosopher, distinguished in letters, and wrote a great deal of poetry about philosophy and other subjects. The Ḥakīm Sadīd al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar, may God have mercy upon him, See Ch. 15.46. told me that al-ʿAntarī at first used to write the legends about ʿAntar al-ʿAbsī The famous pre-Islamic poet ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād al-ʿAbsī became the hero of a lengthy popular epic, in which his name was truncated to ʿAntar. EI 2 art. ‘ʿAntara’ (A. Jones) and art. ‘ʿAntar, Sīrat’ (P. Heath). and became known by this name. [10.69.2] Among his words of wisdom, he said: 1. My son, seek learning, for if you gain nothing else in this world, you will at least be free of those who would enslave you whether by truth or by falsehood. 2. My son, rational wisdom will show you that the world is being driven by the reins of ignorance to error and rectitude. 3. The ignorant person is a slave who cannot be emancipated from bondage except through knowledge. 4. Wisdom is the lantern of the soul which, when lacking, the soul is blind to the truth. 5. The ignorant person is drunk and will not sober up except through knowledge. 6. Wisdom is the nourishment and adornment of the soul. Wealth is the nourishment and adornment of the body. When they both come together in a person his imperfection ceases, his perfection is complete, and his mind is at ease. 7. Wisdom is the cure for everlasting death. 8. A person without knowledge is like a body without a soul. 9. Wisdom is the nobility of those without noble ancestry. 10. Education adorns a person more than his lineage, and has priority over his nobility, and protects his honour more than his wealth, and exalts his memory more than his beauty. 11. Whoever would like his name to be praised then let him be much concerned with his knowledge. 12. The man of knowledge who is destitute is more noble than an ignorant person who is well-provided for. 13. Nothing is more unfruitful than lack of knowledge. 14. The ignorant person seeks wealth while the person of knowledge seeks perfection. 15. Sorrow is the night of the heart and joy is its day. To drink poison is easier than to suffer oppressive thoughts. [10.69.3.1] Among the poetry of Muḥammad ibn al-Mujallī al-ʿAntarī which the Ḥakīm Sadīd al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar ibn Raqīqah recited to me, who had it from the Ḥakīm Muʾayyad al-Dīn, the son of al-ʿAntarī, who had it from his father the aforementioned. He said: Metre: kāmil . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 339–340, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:70. Line 4 in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv:385. My dear son, memorize my admonition and act by it, for all medicine is gathered in the text of my speech: Before all medication for a sick one, be concerned with preserving his strength from day to day. Existing health is preserved with likes, but in opposites lies the cure of every sickness. Have as little sexual intercourse as you can, for it is the water of life that is poured into wombs. Have only one meal a day and beware of taking food before the previous food is digested. Do not think lightly of a trivial illness, for it is like fire that may turn into a blaze. If an external condition changes for you, attempt to reverse the undoing of what was well-ordered. Do not shrink from vomiting, but avoid everything the chyme Arabic kaymūs , from Greek χυμός ( chymos ), ‘(gastric) juice’, also came to mean ‘mixture (of the four humours), constitution’, but is here used in the sense of harmful acidic juices from certain foods, as in Galen’s Good and Bad Juices ( K. al-Kaymūs al-jayyid wa-l-radīʿ ). of which is a cause of illnesses. A diet is a helpful assistant of nature, that cures diseases and agues. Do not drink immediately after eating, nor eat straight after drinking wine. Vomiting and diarrhoea For this meaning of qiyām , see the dictionaries such as Lane and Dozy. too are prevented by these two things, though not every kind of diarrhoea. And take medicine when the constitution is disturbed by nocturnal emissions or frequent dreams. And when the constitution has purified the inside, then the cure of what the skin contains is by means of the bath. Take care not to stick to only one kind of food, and thus lead your constitution to harm by the reins, And increase the humours: if they decrease bihī (?) they increase(?); so diminish their excess with qawām (proper treatment?). All medicine can be summed up, if you investigate it critically, as the loosening and binding of the natural constitution of bodies. Understanding the management of the humours has a virtue by which the sick are cured, and (also) by illusions(?). Unclear. I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that this ode is also attributed to the shaykh al-raʾīs Ibn Sīnā See his entry Ch. 11.13. and also attributed to al-Mukhtār ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Buṭlān. See his entry Ch. 10.38. The truth is that is is by Muḥammad ibn al-Mujallī because of what I have previously said – that is, that Sadīd al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar See his entry Ch. 15.46. recited it to me as being among that which Muʾayyad al-Dīn ibn al-ʿAntarī See his entry Ch. 10.69. recited to him of what he had heard from his father. I have also found that al-ʿAntarī mentioned the ode in his book named The Blossom Plucked (al-Nawr al-mujtanā) The full title is given below as al-Nawr al-mujtanā min rawḍ al-nudamāʾ ( The Blossom Plucked from the Garden of Drinking Friends ); see also al-Ghuzūlī, Maṭāliʿ , i:142 (with riyāḍ instead of rawḍ ). where he says the ode is by himself. [10.69.3.2] He also said: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 452. In my being there is something of every composite kind, from the realm Although A vowels it as ʿālim , it should be read ʿālam . For the following lines, compare the famous Quranic verse (24:35, Arberry’s translation): ‘The likeness of His Light is as a niche wherein is a lamp (the lamp in a glass, the glass as it were a glittering star) kindles from a Blessed Tree, an olive that is neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil wellnigh would shine, even if no fire touched it.’ that can be comprehended by the intellect and is composite. My mind is a niche, my soul is a glass that shines with the burning lamp of understanding, And my light is from the divine Light that is always cast on to my essence, without being poured out, And my oil is from the olive tree with its sweet oil, that is exalted above description in East or West: It is as if I, with my description, am the light of a monk, The image is already found in pre-Islamic poetry, e.g. Imruʾ al-Qays: ‘When night falls she lights up the dark as if she were a lamp in the night cell of an anchorite ( manāratu mumsā rāhibī )’, tr. Stetkevych, The Mute Immortals Speak , 253. in whose translucent lamp shines the noblest star. He also said: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 268 (with four lines preceding and one following). … Until it was as if his soul were like a garden where all kinds of birds warbled everywhere; It reflected on(?) the seven layers (of heaven) Q al-Mulk 67:3 « Who has created seven heavens in storeys » (tr. Alan Jones). and separated, elevated from it, from the prisons of the elements. Translation uncertain. He also said: Metre: sarīʿ . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 352. Our being is a mixture, continually, of the world of light and of darkness. Some of use choose it It is not clear to which noun this feminine pronoun refers (perhaps al-dunyā , ‘this world’ or al-arḍ , ‘the earth’ is understood). as their home while others ascend to the stars. [10.69.3.3] He also said: Metre: kāmil . The truth is denied by the ignorant one because he is bereft of imagination and assent. Thus he is the enemy of everything he does not know; but when he does imagine it, he turns into a friend. He also said: Metre: kāmil . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 261–262, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:69 (lines 1–3). If you knew everything that all of mankind knows you would be the friend of the whole world. But you are ignorant, so you think that everyone who loves something different from what you love is not learned. You should be ashamed that reason laughs at what you say, while you are like someone asleep. If you would hear what I have heard and if you knew what I know, you would be shamefaced like someone who repents. God has laid dissent among people in their nature, until it became something inevitable. He also said: Metre: khafīf . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 436, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv:385, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:69 (lines 2–3). Tell all the world about me that all my knowledge is imagination and analogy. I have investigated things in fact until they appeared to me without ambiguity, And I learned about men through knowing, whereas other people learn knowledge through men. He also said: Metre: kāmil . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv:385. They say, ‘You are content, you most learned among people, with the true nature of things as they come from their Creator, Since the verb raḍiya (‘be pleased or content with, approve of’) can be construed with the prepositions bi - and ʿan (as well as a direct object), another translation could be: ‘You are content, you who among all people knows best about the true nature of things, with their Creator’; but rāḍīhā in the following line shows that ḥaqāʾiq al-ashyāʾ are the object of the verb. While you pass through the doors of obscurity!’ The sense is that al-ʿAntarī, despite his knowledge, is not famous. I replied, ‘Unwillingly; I am not someone ignorant who is content with them. I have an ambition that is shackled; if it encountered good fortune, without obstacles that prevented it, Space would not be wide enough for them; the celestial spheres, would be unable to contain them, so lofty are they. Why are there so many intentions whereas on my intentions the Divine Decree ( al-qaḍāʾ ) has hung space ( al-faḍāʾ ) and wilderness?(?). Translation and interpretation unclear. I fold up the Nights with desires, while their vagaries unfold me a multiple of what I fold up. Interpretation unclear. I endure the vicissitudes of Time; either my lifetime will come to an end Perhaps instead of sa-yafnā l-ʿumru one could read sa-yufnī l-ʿumra , ‘they will wear out my lifetime’. or it will wear them out. Whatever lasts I have preserved, and I do not give a thought to transient things.’ [10.69.3.4] He also said: Metre: basīṭ . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 257, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv:385–386. Dear son, preserve knowledge, reject all that people are concerned with, and you will earn a (true) lineage. A man may become a gentleman without being descended from noble stock: through knowledge, until he reaches the meteors. Nurture all knowledge by much memorizing and it will increase steadily; fire extinguishes if it does not find any firewood. In my view non-being is more proper for a human being than a life in which he does not gain knowledge or property. He spends his life and when he dies in his funeral cortège are ignorance and poverty: with hardship has he finished them of. He also said: Metre: khafīf . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 253, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv:385–386. Be rich if you can, or else be wise; all things but these two are useless. A man’s power lies in wealth and knowledge; poverty and ignorance have never reigned. He also said: Metre: ramal . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 306. Divide your lifetime into three parts and listen, dear son, to my sincere advice and guidance. Seek wisdom in the first part, acquire knowledge and travel in the world for it. Earn money in the second, eat and drink wine, and do not desire wickedness. Drinking wine is apparently not deemed a grave sin. And look forward to the end of your life. Then, if death comes to you, you will have got what you want. But if death visits you already in one of the two earlier parts, you will have achieved a holy endeavour. The Arabic has jihād , which does not mean ‘holy war’ here. This is the conduct of a fortunate man, who has followed the right course for this world and the next. [10.69.3.5] He also said: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 288. Dear son, learn wisdom of the soul: it is a road to a man’s right course and a guide. Do not seek the world, for much of it amounts to little, and after a slumber it will cease. He who covets the world will remain sad in his heart and despicable. But to him who abandons the world and becomes God-fearing harm will never find a way. He also said: Metre: kāmil . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 289. My soul demands that I act according to its nature, while my reason restrains it from lusts. The soul knows that this is a duty but nature pulls it towards customary (bad) practices. Nature falls short of what is desired by both; thus both are wholly given to sorrows. The soul will wake up, in the midst of the hosts of the dead, from the wine of life and its intoxication. He also said: Metre: kāmil . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:69. Do not offer a man who loves you openly your love, when the opposite of his affection is in his nature, And shun your friend if his love has changed for the worse: a diseased limb is cured by amputating it. He also said: Metre: sarīʿ . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv:386. He who keeps to silence acquires respect which hides his bad qualities from people. The tongue of him who is intelligent is in his heart, while the heart of him who is ignorant is on his tongue. [10.69.3.6] He also said: Metre: kāmil . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:69. Balance your constitution as well as you can and be not like someone who procrastinates and is destroyed by badly mixed humours. Takhlīṭ can also mean ‘insanity, delirium’. Preserve your (innate) heat with moisture that remains, One is tempted to emend tabqā to tabqa , ‘and then you will last’ (cf. the following line), but it is unmetrical; perhaps it a solecism for tabqa . for if you fail to preserve it you will be remiss. Know that you are like a lamp that will last as long as there is oil at the tip of the wick. He also said: Metre: khafīf . The sluggishness of the body draws its nourishment seeking to survive and to last; When it sees that dissolution is in its nature it replaces itself, leaving behind its like through nourishment and food. [10.69.3.7] He said about apples: Metre: munsariḥ . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 54. A slender-waisted youth came to visit me at dawn, with in the flirtation of his eyes the magic of Hārūt, See above, Ch. 10.68.2.2 vs. 75. Carrying a rosy-red apple, like a large pearl inlaid with ruby: It looked as if the Star (? al-najm ), blazing, were in conjunction with the full moon in the sky in Pisces. The Star ( al-Najm ) is Venus ( al-Zuharah ), the exaltation of which is in Pisces. This comment (presumably a gloss by IAU ) is probably mistaken. In poetry, al-Najm almost always refers to the Pleiades. Although they are near Pisces they can of course not be in conjunction with it. In poetry however, especially after ‘it looked as if’, everything is possible; and in any case the conjunction is with the moon rather than with Pisces. For a conjunction of the Pleiades (unambiguously called al-thurayyā ) with the moon in several verses, see Ibn Qutaybah, Faḍl al-ʿArab , 128–129. He also said: Bishr ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Kātib gifted to me at al-Raḥbah a dish of apples more red and juicy than I had never seen. I had written to him as he had requested a simile on apples so I said to him that when I have apples I will make a simile about them. He sent them so I wrote to him: Metre: kāmil . Bishr ibn ʿAbd Allāh has not been identified. Get up, you two, An example of the ancient convention of addressing, without naming them, two companions at the beginning of a poem. for the cock has got up and crowed, night has departed, so pour me some wine! A wine that relieves worries and whose nature bans sickness and refreshes the spirits. The Boss has given – and in his generosity there is a trait that gives precious things, morning and evening – A bowl of apples; I am always fond of fruit and I love apples! Nature and constitution were partners in creation when they brought them into being, magnanimously; They moulded them as camphor, but their skin they dressed in a sash of blood. It is as if they have taken a firebrand from the colour of my love and as if they exhale the fragrance of Bishr’s nature. And he said about oranges: Metre: khafīf . Pour me, from the secluded ones Mukhaddarah (less commonly mukhdarah ), ‘secluded woman’, is a common metaphor for wine (as is the following ‘daughter of the vine’); perhaps there is a play with mukhaddirah ‘numbing, soporific, narcotic’. in amphoras, a ‘daughter of the vine’, red like purple dye, And pass it round in a gathering elated by the melodies of flutes and lutes! The glasses there are like stars raised by the hands of beautiful full moons; And it began, after traversing the sphere of good fortune, to sink wholly in our bodies. And the oranges, amidst the drinking companions, were like balls sculpted from saffron. And he said about sour pomegranates: Metre: sarīʿ . There was a bright-faced young gazelle, like a full moon, with whom I was drinking wine one night until dawn. All night he kept averting harm from drinking several cups of wine, By taking pomegranate immediately after them, fearing the bad effects of drunkenness: As if he (an expert in these things) were breaking a ruby with pearls. [10.69.3.8] He also said: Metre: munsariḥ . There was a boy with magic of Babel A common expression for ‘bewitching eyes’ (cf. above, Ch. 10.68.2.2 vs. 75). in his glances, like the moon, who had become a temptation for mankind on earth. On him were bestowed all grace, beauty, and charm by the Giver of Forms. I was afraid of Scorpio with the moon in it; so what about two scorpions in a moon? The two ‘scorpions’ are his side-locks. In medieval astrology, following an older system of Babylonian origin, each planet was assigned one degree along the zodiac (or ecliptic) at which it has its greatest influence – called the ‘exaltation’ ( sharaf ) – and one degree in the zodiacal sign opposite that was a degree of least influence – called the “fall” ( hubūṭ ). In the case of the Moon, its ‘fall’, or point of least influence, is 3° Scorpio. Therefore, for the Moon to be in Scorpio means that all the good effects that the Moon might have are nearly negated by the basically rather unpleasant attributes of Scorpio. The ‘falls’ and ‘exaltations’ of planets were very important in prognostications, and they even were occasionally illustrated allegorically. For an example of such an illustration, see the Appendix (A Technical Discourse on Star Lore and Astrology) in Rapoport & Savage-Smith, Lost Maps of the Caliphs , where there is an illustration of the Moon in Scorpio from a copy of Kitāb al-Bulhān , produced in Baghdad during the reign of Sulṭān Aḥmad (r. 1382–1410). Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodl Or. 133, fol. 27a. He also said: Metre: kāmil . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 21. There was a slender boy, who overwhelms the eyes; one drowns in the billows and waves of the ‘water’ of the beauty of his face. ‘Water’ often metaphorically stands for lustre and freshness. Nature’s pen and Jupiter have drawn him, while Mercury dictates to him from his apogee. Translation uncertain. MSS A and R (margin) add: awj ʿuṭārid fī l-ʿaqrab (‘The apogee of Mercury is in Scorpio’), perhaps again a reference to side-locks, as in the preceding epigram. And he said about boys swimming in the Tigris: Metre: basīṭ . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 31. A flock of slender youths at the bank of the river Tigris had shed their clothes and thrown off all other burdens. In the midst of waves of the water they all looked like pearls in the sea, stripped of their shells. And he said about a boy in the bathhouse: Metre: khafīf . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 31. The bath stripped him of every piece of clothing and showed me what I intended to see of him: A body like the dawn appearing under a night sky dark black in colour, not curly. The ‘dark sky’ is his hair. Water poured on a body that resembled silver until it was clothed in a rose-coloured veil. [10.69.3.9] And he said in a letter to a friend: Metre: khafīf . Shaʿbān has come, warning of the fasting to come, Shaʿbān, the eighth month of the Muslim calender, is followed by Ramadan. Many Muslims who have few qualms about drinking wine (though forbidden at all times) will refrain from it during Ramadan. so pour me wine, mixed with water from the clouds, A choice old wine, like the sun in colour and luminescence, purer than imaginings; ‘Purer’, in the sense of ‘less corporeal’. And pour it me from the right hand of a fair white antelope, one of the Turks, like a full moon. Young Turks are very common in Arabic and Persian erotic poetry. The reddish wine in all its beauty, together with the wine-pourer and the bubbles floating on the wine, Are like a sun in the afternoon, held in the hand of a full moon, topped by a string of pearls that resemble stars in the dark, Especially now that Spring is lush A adds a gloss for this rare sense of the word: ʿāf in ay kathīr al-nabt (‘ ʿāf in , i.e., with much vegetation’). with roses: one day of it would be bought for the price of seventy years. He also said: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 190–191. I write to you, with a passion in me on account of an ardent yearning and sorrow; a passion that weakens my powers and front-feathers.(?) Translation uncertain. Were it not for the hope that God will bring us together as happily as we were before, I would have come to you earlier. But I pray to the One who sees everything that He may bring you back safe and sound. And he said: Metre: kāmil . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 191. You who live in Damascus Jilliq is properly a site near Damascus (see EI 2 art. ‘D̲j̲illiḳ’ [N. Élisséeff]), but it often (and probably here and in the next poem too) stands for Damascus itself. and for whom happy people pray: ‘Live forever!’, Do not seek a substitute for her: she is God’s garden that He promised. Spend your time and do not sell, out of greed, hard cash for a promise you hope to get tomorrow; And drink there a limpid, yellow wine that banishes cares and takes grief away, A wine that, when decanted in vessels, casts froth at the rims. When an intelligent, astute man obtains his desires in a dwelling, he stays there. I love drinking a limpid wine mixed with water from the river Baradā, Taken from the hand of a woman loved by one’s heart who goes round there with it when the night grows cold ( baradā ), Pouring it for drinking companions like stars with bright faces: you would think they were hail stones ( baradā ), While we meet only people of intelligence who impart their knowledge, or a singer who warbles. [10.69.3.10] He also said: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 191–192. A greeting like the breaths of a garden in ʿĀlij, ʿĀlij, of uncertain location, is usually said to be a sandy place in Arabia; see Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān . brought by the east wind to the land of Damascus, To someone who dwells there with the same feeling in his heart, staying there, detained, until we meet again; To the paradise on earth, together – I wish I had one day made my camels kneel down there, When you were there. Wine is not delicious unless with a sincerely loving, affectionate drinking companion, One who listens and obeys his friends, with a love pure, without impurity, like vintage wine. I am summoned to you, every moment, by passion and the warbling of ring-doves. A greeting, continually, from the ‘southern Sirius’ to its glittering northern sister! The Arabic for ‘southern’ ( yamānī ) and ‘northern’ ( shāmiyyah ) can also be read as ‘Yemeni’ and ‘Syrian’ (or ‘Damascene’), respectively. ‘The two Siriuses’ ( al-Shiʿrayān ) are Sirius proper ( al-shiʿrā al-ʿabūr ) and Procyon ( al-shiʿrā l-yamāniyah or al-ghumayṣāʾ ). See also the note at Ch. 10.69.4 no. 4. Though wilful Fate may have ripped apart our union, my affection is not torn. It has given me as a substitute aloofness from you; now my condition is like that of someone in bonds, held captive in a foreign land. Among the hardships of tyrannical Fate and its vagaries is that a philosopher ( faylasūf ) is made a neighbour, unwillingly, of a fool. He also said: Metre: basīṭ . O Ḥujjat al-Dīn, Literally, ‘Proof of the Religion’; it is probably Ḥujjat al-Dīn Marwān mentioned below, who was made a vizier under Zangī, and to whom al-ʿAntarī also addressed a congratulatory epistle. He is Marwān ibn ʿAlī ibn Salāmah al-Fanakī (d. after 550/1155), see al-Iṣfahānī, Kharīdah (al-Shām) , ii:407–415, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxv:461–462. go forth, holding fast to God, and do not grieve because of a separation that was destined. The planets have an excuse in their movement from their houses in order to occupy their exaltation. But for the necks of pretty women pearls would not fated to come forth, sometimes, from their shells. So go to a king whose utmost degree has not been obtained and who has not been encompassed by kings on earth in past generations. Translation and interpretation uncertain; the identity of this ‘king’ is unclear. He is the primordial matter, Hayūlā (from Greek ὕλη) is ‘primordial matter, matter before it has been given form’. you are the body that receives all kinds of lofty qualities … The meaning of qabūlan ghayra mukhtalifi (‘with an accepting that does not differ’) is not clear. [10.69.3.11] And he said, ‘al-Raḍī the vizier of al-Jazīrah invited me to his house on a rainy night so I wrote to him via his servant’: Metre: basīṭ . The identity of this vizier is unknown. Say to the vizier – may God perpetuate his blessings in a dynasty whose authority is over the settled and nomadic people: ‘You sent someone to fetch me when rain was pouring down and mud prevents those who come and go from walking. I hereby send back the one you sent to fetch me; now send me a riding animal and a horse blanket!’ So he sent me what I sought. He also said in a letter to a certain state secretary: Metre: kāmil . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 216. Stop this never-ending deferring! Making excuses makes my heart sick! Give me a Yes or a No, without further dithering, for despair is easier to bear than yet more delay. In my thwarted ambition I am like someone who has ‘tangled dreams’ A reference to the dreams that Yūsuf/Joseph was able to explain (Q Yūsuf 12:44, al-Anbiyāʾ 21:5). without an interpretation. [10.69.3.12] And he said lampooning ʿAlī ibn Mus′hir the poet: Metre: ṭawīl . Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Saʿīd ibn ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Wāḥid ibn Mus′hir died in 543/1148 or 546/1151–1152, nearly ninety years old. See Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 203; Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , iii:391–395; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxi:129–133. No female demon of the jinnees of ʿAbqar ʿAbqar is a legendary place inhabited by jinnees. The evil female demon siʿlāʾ is the counterpart of the male ghūl . has ever given birth to an uglier person than ʿAlī ibn Mus′hir. He has a bald head on top of a figure that is crooked, hunchbacked, in the compass(?) of a little finger. The sense of fī dawri l-khinṣir is unclear. A dung-beetle is lurking between his jaws that spits shit from his mouth in every company. When he complained to me of an old disease in his posterior, and of a disease in his mouth that smells bad, I said to him, ‘The cure of the posterior is a stab of a smooth one, broad of neck, naked, bald, one-eyed, With which you are fucked between the thighs of a madman, who is possessed by demons, one like a wild ass, frantic, priapic(?), Translation unclear. Ayyir , according to the dictionaries, is one of the names of the east wind; a derivation from ayr ‘prick’ seems more likely here. The vowelling in Riḍā, ayyur , does not give any sense. And the complaint of your filthy mouth is cured with a toothbrush of dung excreted by the dunghole of a man from Khaybar. Khaybar is an oasis 95 miles N. of Medina. The allusion is not clear. It is notorious for its bad climate. And eat the “stomachic” Jawārishn is a variant form of jawārish (from Persian), ‘stomachic, digestive medicine promoting appetite’. of bellies, for it is more wholesome for your disease than Caesar’s stomachics. See Ibn Sīnā, Qānūn (Būlāq), iii:358, 412. For there are in you so many ills that if they were distributed among all mankind you would find only unfortunate people.’ And he said: Metre: mukhallaʿ al-basīṭ . Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix: ‮‭70‬‬‎. I saw on top of the Chief an infidel lout, a black one, mounting him like a donkey, Burying in the ivory something ebony, and making the night enter into the day. The last hemistich is an obscene variation on the Qur’anic « God makes the night to enter the day and makes the day to enter into the night » (Q al-Ḥajj 22:61 and several other places). And he said about a woman: Metre: mukhallaʿ al-basīṭ . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , iv:386, Ibn Faḍl Allāh, Masālik , ix:70 (lines 1–2). There came an ogre from among the girls, looking from behind her decorated veil. Translation of muʿlam al-niqāb uncertain ( muʿlam means ‘marked’). One of the worst disasters, I said, is a lock on a ruined mansion. Proverbial; cf. al-Ābī, Nathr al-durr , vi:503, al-Azdī, Ḥikāyat Abī l-Qāsim , 57: ʿajūz muntaqibah: qufl ʿalā khirbah . The best place you could be is in a cloak, with your head wrapped in a sack. [10.69.3.13] And he said in praise of the merits of the sacred law: Metre: kāmil . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 252. The Sharia, with its salvation, has been composed for the world with all its opposites and intermixtures. The Law has reformed every recalcitrant errant person and has killed the evil of every stray criminal. The words jānin mārij(in) seem to allude to Q al-Raḥmān 55:15 « He created the jinn ( al-jānna ) of a smokeless fire ( mārijin )». But for the Sharia mankind would not be held together and in good order, and they would be afflicted by raging evil. The Sharia is wisdom and benefits for internal things and advantages for internal things. Reason is God’s light, but it does not mingle with the world that is perceived by the senses. When you have contented yourself with an internal act of your reason your external affairs will all come to nought. The prophets are stars that guide to the paths of true guidance, for those travelling at night. The Arabic has two words here: dhawī l-surā ‘those travelling at night’ and al-dālij , ‘he who journeys from the beginning of the night’. And when he gave up wine and repented of it and of eulogizing in poetry he said: Metre: basīṭ . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 291–292. Since the fire of wine and the fire of thought have consumed my body, I have given up wine, for fear of the Fire. The cup, by its nature, causes the reason of the drinker to rust, There is a play on words with ṭabʿ , ‘nature’ and ṭabaʿ or ṭibʿ , ‘rust’. and inebriation robs him of the wisdom of the Creator. He also said: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn al-Ṣāʾigh, Mukhtār , 291. I have abandoned red wine, ‘Red wine’ ( al-ṣahbāʾ ) usually stands for wine in general; it does not mean that he will only drink white or rosé. since I found it disagreeing with my nature and my character, And have given myself, instead, cups of wisdom, with which I diverted myself, Translation of taʿallaltuhā uncertain; normally the verb is constructed with bi - instead of a direct object. and I increased in longing for the Pourer. The sāqī , ‘wine-pourer’, is here apparently God who pours out His wisdom. [10.69.4] Al-ʿAntarī wrote the following books: 1. Blossoms plucked from the gardens of the boon-companions and the mementos of the meritorious sages and the delectation of the worldly life ( K. al-Nawr al-mujtanā min rawḍ al-nudamāʾ wa-tidhkār al-fuḍalāʾ al-ḥukamāʾ wa-nuzhat al-ḥayāt al-dunyā ), which he arranged according to the seasons of the year and included in it poetry and fine anecdotes by many men of letters and also by himself and in which he displays his merit. 2. The Pearl : on nature and metaphysics ( K. al-Jumānah fī l-ʿilm al-ṭabīʿī wa-l-ilāhī ). 3. The medical formulary ( K. al-Aqrābādhīn ), which is a great medical formulary in which the author treats of compound drugs, and it is an excellent compilation. 4. The letter of the Southern Sirius to the Syrian Sirius, The ‘Southern Sirius’ ( al-shiʿrā l-yamāniyah or al-ghumayṣāʾ ) is Procyon (α Canis Minoris), distinguished from Sirius proper ( al-shiʿrā l-ʿabūr , α Canis Maioris). ʿArafah the grammarian has not been identified. which he wrote to ʿArafah the grammarian in Damascus, in reply to a letter the latter had written to him from Damascus. 5. On the motion of the world ( R. Ḥarakat al-ʿālam ) in which he congratulates a vizier who was invited to another land, namely Ḥujjat al-Dīn Marwān when he was made vizier to Atabeg Zangī ibn Āq Sunqur. ʿImād al-Dīn Zangī ibn Āq Sunqur (r. 521–541/1127–1146), also often spelled Zengi, founder of the Zangid dynasty that ruled in Mosul and Aleppo, see EI 2 art. ‘Zangids’ (S. Heidemann). On Ḥujjat al-Dīn Marwān, see above in the poem addressed to him by al-ʿAntarī. 6. On the difference between timeless time [eternity] and time, and unbelief and belief ( R. al-Farq bayn al-dahr wa-l-zamān wa-l-kufr wa-l-īmān ). 7. On divine and natural love ( R. al-ʿIshq al-ilāhī wa-l-ṭabīʿī ). 10.70 Abū l-Ghanāʾim Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Uthrudī This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3. For references, see al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvii:303–304; Thomas & Roggema, Christian-Muslim Relations , iii:277–279. Abū l-Ghanāʾim Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAlī ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn Uthrudī was an inhabitant of Baghdad. He was a philosopher of distinction, with merit in the art of medicine, and renowned for the excellence of his theory and practice. He wrote the following books: 1. Medical and philosophical notes ( Taʿālīq ṭibbiyyah wa-falsafiyyah ). 2. On sensual pleasure during sleep and at what time it occurs ( Maqālah fī al-Ladhdhah fī l-nawm fī ayy waqt tūjad minh ). He composed this treatise for Abū Naṣr al-Takrītī, The son of al-Faḍl ibn Jarīr al-Takrītī, see above 10.39–40. physician to the emir Ibn Marwān. Abū Naṣr’s father served the last Marwanid emir Naṣīr al-Dawlah Manṣūr (d. 489/1096), as, presumably, did Abū Naṣr himself. See EI 2 art. ‘Marwānids’ (C. Hillenbrand). 10.71 ʿAlī ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Uthrudī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxii:282; Ziriklī, al-Aʿlām , v:30. Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAlī ibn Uthrudī was an inhabitant of Baghdad and a physician of merit, renowned for his prominence in the art of medicine and his excellent knowledge of it. He was good at treating patients and a fine writer. He is the author of an exposition of the questions in the book The Physicians’ Banquet (sharḥ masāʾil Kitāb Daʿwat al-aṭibbāʾ) , The Physicians’ Banquet was written by Ibn Buṭlān, for whom see above Ch. 10.38. For an Arabic edition and French translation of Ibn Uthrudī’s response, see Dagher & Troupeau, Réponses aux questions posées par Ibn Butlan dans le Banquet des médecins ; there is also a German translation in Franke, Das Ärztebankett , pp. 147–204. Also mentioned in Ullmann, Medizin , 225, where also Ibn Athradī, and Sharḥ Mushkil Daʿwat al-aṭibbāʾ . which he composed for Abū l-ʿAlāʾ Maḥfūẓ ibn al-Masīḥī al-Mutaṭabbib. Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxii:282, has al-Musabbiḥī for al-Masīḥī. 10.72 Saʿīd ibn Uthrudī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. See also al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xv:2‮‭47‬‬‎. Abū l-Ghanāʾim Saʿīd ibn ʿAlī ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Uthrudī was one of the renowned physicians of Baghdad. He was the practitioner in the ʿAḍudī hospital and foremost during the time of al-Muqtafī li-amr Allāh. Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Mustaẓhir, the twenty-ninth Abbasid Caliph. See EI 2 art. ‘al-Muḳtafī’ (K.V. Zetterstéen). 10.73 Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Uthrudī This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the book. See also al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xii:138, where this entry is conflated with that of Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī (Ch. 10.74). Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Uthrudī was learned in the art of medicine, a good practitioner and excellent at treatment. He was much appreciated in Baghdad. 10.74 Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Uthrudī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. See also al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxi:133(?). Jamāl al-Dīn Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Abī l-Ghanāʾim Saʿīd ibn ʿAlī ibn Hibat Allāh ibn ʿAli ibn Uthrudī was of merit and learned in the art of medicine, distinguished in its theory and practice. Once, the poet Humām al-Dīn al-ʿAbdī Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Naṣr al-ʿAbdī al-ʿIrāqī Humām al-Dīn (d. 596/1199); see al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xii:129–130. had borrowed the Medical Questions of Ḥunayn ( K. Masāʾil Ḥunayn ) See Ch. 8.29. from Jamāl al-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Uthrudī. Humām al-Dīn wrote the following poem in praise of Jamāl al-Dīn and composed a eulogy on him by way of jesting that the borrowed copy of the Medical Questions was now required by him. Qad waqaʿa khtiyāruhu ʿalayhā , literally ‘(that) his choice had fallen on them’; meaning he would like to keep them. This was in the year 580/1184. Metre: kāmil muraffal . Lines 1–3 in al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xii:138 (where the rhyme is given as - īm , but since all verse allow reading it as - īmī , this is to be preferred). May a glistening life-giving rain greet you from me, and a light, brisk breeze! For you have a noble character and you have a comely appearance, With fingers flowing richly with generosity, and a nature suited to bestowing blessings. Whenever he smiles ( iftarra ), the gloom of dark night’s army flees ( farra ). With a fresh charm, like doves that move over the flowers of full-grown plants, Easy in moments of opulence, rich in joys for the drinking companion. Never bored, never contentious, never ignorant, never carping. Rather, he pairs subtle words with ample and huge power. Call out to mankind, crying for help: ‘Is there any friend or soul-mate, Someone who carries the burdens of his fellow, unassailable as to the protection of the sacrosanct?’ And summon the noble: no one will answer save Abū l-Ḥasan, the sage. Please listen, Jamāl al-Dīn, to the words of a true loving friend: Could the Problems return one day to their old home? Ah, what an idea! The most impossible wish of a stud is to impregnate a barren female! But between you and me there is a bond of bestowing favours and all-encompassing kindness, And the most splendid bond is a praiseworthy loyalty to the Awesome Tiding. Q al-Nabaʾ 78:1–3: « Of what do they question one another? – About the awesome tiding on which they are at variance. » Surely we are united in being loyal to the Straight Path. Q al-Fātiḥah 1:6: « Guide us on the straight path ». He also said, praising him: Metre: rajaz . Ask why slumber shuns my eyelids after he who departed went far away; And he who took my fortitude into the distance, why did he leave sorrow in my heart? And say to him who imagines passion (tell me!) is possible at a distance and believes it: Reading waṭan instead of wa-ẓan(n) would also give some sense: ‘And say to him who imagines that passion (tell me!) at a distance is a home’. Love’s ardour did not, and will not, remove what separation has left behind; Nor will my heart find rest after having found solace. You who believes that love is one of the most trivial events: Love is what turns a man’s clothes into a man’s shroud. It is not (merely) what makes tears flow and thus makes the secret public. Ah, one with a slender figure, drowsy-eyed, with a moaning voice, Raising a neck as if of a gazelle with calf, who seeks her young not yet full-grown: I yearn for a young man who does not follow up a favour ( mann ) with idle talk of favours ( minan ); For the ambiguity of minnah (pl. minan ), see al-Zabīdī, Tāj al-ʿArūs ( MNN ); and cf. Q al-Baqarah 2:263 « Those who spend their wealth in the cause of God and then do not follow up what they have spent with reproach or injury …» (the word mann has also been interpreted as ‘reminder of one’s benevolence’). And you will never see anything better than my yearning for Abū l-Ḥasan, One by whom any man would be charmed who would not be charmed but for his love for him. I long (for him) in yearning and passion: if only he would yearn and long (for me)! I am always asking about him, but is he asking about (me)? Unusual ellipsis of the pronoun after a preposition. No chance! What has someone free of love to do with one who is full of passion and sorrow? He who loves has no protection against the arrows of ardent love‮ز‬‎ His soul almost flows away, were it not attached to the body. How could I not be enamoured by him whose gifts and eloquence are honeyed? What he gives away generously is for glory, what he stores is for being munificent. His munificence lies in his intelligence, for there is sagacity in acts of munificence. May the throne of his lucky star never be toppled, never weaken, never flag! I praise him, not seeking a price from him for my praise, Nor with the love of someone who has abandoned gazelles and protection. Translation uncertain. So stay alive for us as long as there is a dove cooing on a branch, And walk, as you prefer, on the path of glory as is you custom! And congratulations with the feast, The poem was probably made on the occasion of a feast ( ʿīd , possibly the ‘Eid’ at the end of Ramadan). with which your enemies may not be congratulated. Taking tuhan(n) to be a shortening of tuhanna (for tuhannaʾ ). 10.75 Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. [10.75.1] Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī – that is, the Imām Fakhr al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Salām ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-Sātir al-Anṣārī – was unique of his time and the most learned of his age in the philosophical disciplines. He had a powerful intellect, was a noble soul, and had a good knowledge of the art of medicine and undertook practice of the art. He was given to much research, and was an elevated soul who loved the good, was proficient in language and a master of Arabic. While he was born in Māridīn, his forefathers were from Jerusalem. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī’s father was a judge, and when Najm al-Dīn Ilghāzī ibn Artuq conquered Jerusalem he sent Fakhr al-Dīn’s grandfather ʿAbd al-Raḥmān to Māridīn where he and his children settled. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī’s teacher in philosophy was Najm al-Dīn ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, that is, Najm al-Dīn Abū l-Futūḥ Aḥmad ibn al-Sarī, See Ch. 15.17. a Persian from Hamadān who had been summoned by Ḥusām al-Dīn Timurtāsh ibn Ilghāzī ibn Artuq. Artuqid ruler of Mārdīn and Mayyāfāriqīn, r. 516–548/1122–1154, see Bosworth, New Islamic Dynasties , 194. Ibn al-Ṣalāh excelled in philosophy and had a good knowledge of it and was expert in its intricacies and secrets and authored books on the subject. At the end of his life he settled in Damascus and died – may God show him mercy – in the year […] The manuscripts leave a blank space. In the entry on Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ IAU says he died ‘on Sunday in the 540s’, that is, after 1145. and was buried in the graveyard of the Ṣūfīs by the Bānyās canal outside Damascus. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī studied the art of medicine with Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh. The Ḥakīm Sadīd al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar, who was known as Ibn Raqīqah, told me that Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī studied the Canon of Ibn Sīnā with Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh and discussed it with him and went far in correcting it and copying it with him. Ibn al-Tilmīdh studied logic with Fakhr al-Dīn and among the books he studied with him was The Medium Jurjānī Abridgement ( K. al-Mukhtaṣar al-awsaṭ al-Jurjānī ) of Ibn Sīnā. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī settled in the city of Ḥīnī for many years and was in the service of Najm al-Dīn ibn Artuq. [10.75.2] Sadīd al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar, who had accompanied Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī in the city of Ḥīnī A town in the region of Diyār Bakr, also known as Ḥānī (see Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldan , s.v. Ḥānī and Ḥīnī). and had studied the art of medicine with him and remained with him for a long time, would never part with him either when he travelled or was at home. He said the following: The shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī – may God show him mercy – arrived in Damascus, and I was with him, in the year 587 [1191–1192]. In Damascus he taught the art of medicine and he had a public teaching session. Among those who studied with him in Damascus was the shaykh Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn ʿAlī See Ch. 15.50. who studied some of the Canon of Ibn Sīnā and corrected it with him. The shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī remained in Damascus until the end of the month of Ramadan of the year 589 [September 1193], when he left for his home town. After Fakhr al-Dīn had decided to make the journey he was visited by the shaykh Muhadhdhab al-Dīn who asked if it was possible for him to remain in Damascus so that he could complete his study of the Canon and that his deputy would receive three hundred Nāṣirī dirhams monthly by way of an allowance. Fakhr al-Dīn did not do so and said, ‘On principle, learning should not be sold. Rather whoever is with me I will teach him wherever I am.’ However, it was not possible for Muhadhdhab al-Dīn to go with him. When Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī was on his way to Aleppo, al-Malik al-Ẓāhir Ghāzī ibn al-Malik al-Nāṣir Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn sent out to summon him, as he had admired his discourses, and requested that he remain with him. Fakhr al-Dīn made his apologies to him but al-Malik al-Ẓāhir did not accept them and gave him a great deal of wealth and finery. Fakhr al-Dīn attained a great station with the king and remained in his service for nearly two years, and then travelled to Māridīn. [10.75.3] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī – may God show him mercy – died on Sunday the twenty-first of Dhū l-Ḥijjah of the year 594 [24 October 1198] at Āmid at the age of eighty-two years. All of his books were made an endowment of the shrine that Ḥusām al-Dīn ibn Artuq endowed. Ḥusām al-Dīn himself was of merit, a sage and philosopher who had also endowed the shrine with philosophical books. The books endowed by the shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn are among the best of books and are his own copies, most of which he had studied with his teachers and produced fair copies of and went to great lengths in correcting and perfecting. Sadīd al-Dīn Maḥmūd ibn ʿUmar, who had been present at the shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī’s deathbed, told me that when the shaykh Fakhr al-Dīn sensed death was near he did not cease from invoking God’s name and glorifying Him and did not tire of this until he died. The last thing we heard him say was, ‘O God, I have faith in you and in your Prophet – may God’s blessings and salutation be upon him – who spoke the truth. God will be ashamed to torment an old man.’ This echoes a non-canonical tradition of the Prophet about God’s respect for age. See, for example, Ibn Khamīs, Manāqib al-abrār , ii:130. [10.75.4] Fakhr al-Dīn al-Māridīnī wrote the following books: 1. A commentary on the shaykh Ibn Sīnā’s poem that begins ‘There descended unto you from the highest place … ( Habaṭat ilayka mina l-maḥalli l-arfaʿī …)’. For this poem, see Ch. 11.13.7.1. He composed this commentary at the request of the emir ʿIzz al-Dīn Abū l-Qāsim al-Khiḍr ibn Abī l-Ghālib Naṣr al-Azdī al-Ḥimṣī. 2. An essay in which he exposes certain people who accused him of having sympathies for a condemnable doctrine. 10.76 Abū Naṣr ibn al-Masīḥī This biography appears in all three versions of the book. [10.76.1] Abū Naṣr Saʿīd ibn Abī l-Khayr ibn ʿĪsā ibn al-Masīḥī was distinguished in the art of medicine, excelled in it and was notable for it. [10.76.2] Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Karīm al-Baghdādī told me that the Caliph al-Nāṣir li-dīn Allāh fell gravely ill in the year 598 [1201–1202]. It was an illness associated with sediment Al-maraḍ bi-raml (a disease with sand) is an unusual phrase in the medical literature, but apparently refers to a condition in which a sediment settles in a phial of urine after it has been shaken, which was a diagnostic aid at this time to identifying a calculus in the bladder, kidneys or urethra. It might also be read as al-maraḍ bi-ramal (a disease with only a small quantity of rain or water; Lane, Lexicon , r-m-l ), perhaps referring to a disease associated with dysuria, or the passing of only a small quantity of urine, again another indication of a calculus. For the diagnosis and treatment of calculi in medieval Arabic treatises, see Britschai & Brodny, Urology in Egypt , 66–113; al-Rāzī, Traité sur le calcul (de Koning). and he developed an extraordinarily large stone in his bladder and his pain became severe. The illness became chronic and his physician was Abū l-Khayr al-Masīḥī, Judging by Abū Naṣr ibn al-Masīḥī’s full name, Abū l-Khayr al-Masīḥī would appear initially to have been the father of Abū Naṣr ibn al-Masīḥī. However, as the story develops it is evident that that was not the case. who was a fine shaykh of old age. He had been in the Caliph’s service for a long time and was an expert in the medical art. The physician died near his hundredth year, but the Caliph’s illness carried on and he resented the constant treatment. Then he was advised that the bladder should be cut open to extract the stone, and he enquired about master surgeons and was told of one man called Ibn ʿUkāshah who lived at al-Karkh to the west side of Baghdad. He was brought and looked at the afflicted organ and the Caliph ordered him to cut it open. Ibn ʿUkāshah said, ‘I need to consult the master physicians about this.’ The Caliph said, ‘Do you know anyone in Baghdad who is good in this art?’ He said, ‘Master, there is no-one in the entire land who can be compared to my mentor and teacher Abū Naṣr ibn al-Masīḥī.’ The Caliph said, ‘Then go and order him to come.’ When Abū Naṣr entered into the presence of the Caliph, he said, ‘at your service’, and kissed the ground. The Caliph bade him sit and he sat for a while and did not address him or bid him do anything until his awe subsided. When the Caliph sensed this he said to him, ‘Abū Naṣr, pretend that you are in the hospital and you are treating a patient who has come down from one of the estates. I would like you to attend to my cure and treat me in this illness as you would someone like that.’ Abū Naṣr said, ‘I hear and obey. However, I need to know from this previous physician about the onset of the illness and its states and changes and how he treated it from the beginning until now.’ The shaykh Abū l-Khayr was brought and began to relate to him the beginnings of the illness and the changes in its states and how he treated it from beginning to end. Abū Naṣr said, ‘The regimen was correct and the treatment was proper.’ The Caliph said, ‘This shaykh has made an error and I must crucify him.’ Abū Naṣr stood up, kissed the ground, and said, ‘Master, by the truth of God’s blessings upon you and your pure forebears who have gone before you, do not decree this custom for physicians. The man did not err in his regimen but it was his pure bad luck that the illness didn’t end.’ The Caliph said, ‘I forgive him, but he will not visit me again.’ Abū l-Khayr left. Then Abū Naṣr began to treat the Caliph and gave him drinks and anointed the member with emollient oils and said, ‘If we can possibly ease the situation such that the stone will come out without incision then that is desirable and if it doesn’t come out then we will not have lost anything. This continued for two days and on the eve of the third day he expelled the stone. It is said that it weighed seven mithqāl s or perhaps five, and it is said that it was the size of the largest ever olive stone. The Caliph recovered and his cure continued and he entered the bathhouse. He ordered Abū Naṣr to enter the treasury and take whatever gold he was able to carry, which he did. Then robes of honour and dinars arrived from the Caliph’s mother and from his two sons the emirs Muḥammad and ʿAlī, and from the vizier Naṣīr al-Dīn Abū l-Ḥasan ibn Mahdī al-ʿAlawī al-Rāzī, Naṣīr al-Dīn Nāṣir ibn Mahdī al-ʿAlawī al-Rāzī (d. 617/1220), see al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvi:660–663, Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqā, Fakhrī (ed. Beirut: Dār Ṣādir, n.d.), 325–326. and from the rest of the great emirs in the state. The Caliph’s mother and sons and the vizier and Najāḥ al-Sharābī’ Najāḥ al-Sharābī al-amīr Najm al-Dawlah (d. 615/1218), a powerful official at the caliphal court. See al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvi:716–717. each gave him one thousand dinars and the same came from the great emirs and the others according to their stations. I have been told that he obtained twenty thousand dinars in coin as well as a great deal of robes and clothes. Abū Naṣr continued his service of the Caliph, who gave him a valuable stipend and wages and a dwelling, and he continued in service until al-Nāṣir died. [10.76.3] A certain physician told me that Ibn ʿUkāshah the surgeon had made Abū Naṣr vow to give in charity one-quarter of what he had earned to the Church of the Tuesday Market, and that he took two hundred and fifty dinars to the church. Abū l-Khayr al-Masīḥī was dismissed from service before which his station with the Caliph had been great and his position high and the Caliph had given him great presents and gifts. Among the things he gave him was the library of al-Ajall Amīn al-Dawlah ibn al-Tilmīdh. The Caliph became ill often but then was cured at his hands and Abū l-Khayr gained a great amount because of it. The shaykh Abū l-Khayr died during the reign of al-Nāṣir, and it is said of him that he died leaving a backward son and a great amount of wealth, and he said that his child should not be prevented from inheriting from his father since that which we spend will not return to us. [10.76.4] Abū Naṣr ibn al-Masīḥī wrote the following books: 1. The Epitome, in question and answer format ( K. al-Iqtiḍāb ʿalā ṭarīq al-masʾalah wa-l-jawāb ), on medicine. 2. Selections from the Epitome ( K. Intikhāb al-Iqtiḍāb ). 10.77 Abū l-Faraj ibn Tūmā This biography appears in all three versions of the book. [10.77.1] Ṣāʿid ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Tūmā Müller, i:302 includes a marginal note which reads: ‘This is an error by the author for in fact his name is Ṣāʿid ibn Yaḥyā ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Tūmā. As for Ṣāʿid ibn Hibat Allāh, the author mentions him subsequently. Thus in the margin of the exemplar.’ On Ṣāʿid ibn Yaḥyā ibn Hibat Allāh see Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 212–214, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xvi:239–240. was a Christian of Baghdad and was a distinguished physician and a great notable. [10.77.2] Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Karīm al-Baghdādī told me that Abū l-Faraj ibn Tūmā was the physician of Najm al-Dawlah Abū l-Yumn Najāḥ al-Sharābī Najāḥ al-Sharābī al-amīr Najm al-Dawlah (d. 615/1218), a powerful official at the caliphal court. See al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvi:716–717. and that his station rose until he became his vizier and secretary. Then he entered the service of al-Nāṣir and used to be among the physicians who visited the Caliph during his illnesses. Later he attained the Caliph’s full favour and was given responsibility for a number of areas of service and he oversaw a number of dīwāns and secretaries. Abū l-Faraj ibn Tūmā was murdered in the year 620/1223 The precise death date is given by Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 214, and quoted by IAU at the end of this biography. and the reason for this was that he had summoned a group of soldiers for whose wages he had responsibility and addressed them in a way they disliked so two of them ambushed him and killed him with daggers. Then his estate was prevented from being inherited, and the Caliph ordered that all moneys be conveyed to the treasury while the cloth and other property would remain with his children. A certain person of Baghdad told me that eight hundred and thirteen thousand dinars were taken from his house to the treasury while the furnishings and property to the sum of nearly one hundred million dinars MS A gives the figure of 100 million dinars, MSS Gc and B give 1 million. were left to his children. [10.77.3] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that I found al-Ṣāḥib Jamāl al-Dīn ibn al-Qifṭī has related the following about the life of the aforementioned Ṣāʿid ibn Tūmā saying: He was a wise man and a physician, good at treating patients, frequently correct in his diagnoses, successful in his treatments in most cases, and had great good fortune in this regard. He was honourable and trustworthy and advanced during the reign of al-Nāṣir until he attained to a rank equal to the viziers. The Caliph entrusted him with custody of the property of his courtiers and would deposit it with him and send him on secret missions to his viziers and depend upon him at all times. Abū l-Faraj was a good arbiter and had beautiful manners and helped many people in need and by his arbitration prevented many evils. For a long time, the days favoured him and all were grateful to him and spoke well of him. Towards the end of his reign the Caliph al-Nāṣir’s sight became weak and he was distracted most of the time because of great sorrows which had overwhelmed his heart. After he had become unable to inspect the petitions he summoned a woman of Baghdad who was known as Lady Ar. sitt , a colloquial form of sayyidah or Lady. Nasīm and took her into his inner circle. Her handwriting resembled the Caliph’s and so she would sit with him and write letters and notes assisted in this by a eunuch Context suggests that khādim means ‘eunuch’ here. named Tāj al-Dīn Rashīq. Al-Nāṣir’s condition worsened and the woman began to write the letters off her own back in which, at times, she would be correct but at others she would err, aided all the while by Rashīq. It so happened that al-Qummī the vizier known as al-Muʾayyad Muʾayyad al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Qummī (d. 629/1231 or 630), see Ibn al-Ṭiqṭaqā, Fakhrī (ed. Dār Ṣādir), 326–328, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , i:147–148. wrote an enquiry and by return received the woman’s answer which was clearly defective. The vizier was taken aback and found it reprehensible. Then he called for the Ḥakīm Ṣāʿid ibn Tūmā and confided in him as to what had happened and asked him to explain the situation. Ṣāʿid ibn Tūmā told him of the Caliph’s loss of sight and the distraction which befell him most of the time and what the woman and the servant were doing with regard to the letters. At this the vizier ceased work on most of the matters which came to his attention. The servant and the woman, who had opportunistically sought to bring about certain worldly goals for themselves, realized this and guessed that the Ḥakīm Abū l-Faraj had made the vizier aware of the situation. Rashīq plotted with two soldiers in the Caliph’s service to assault the Ḥakīm and kill him. The two men were known as the sons of Qamar al-Dawlah and were of the Wāsiṭī soldiery, one of whom was in active service and the other with no duties. One night they watched the Ḥakīm until he came to the house of the vizier then left to return to the Caliph’s palace. The two men followed him until he reached the gate of the dark Ghallah Lane where they fell upon him with their knives and killed him. The Ḥakīm fled after falling to the ground because of the pain of the knife wounds until he reached the gate of Khirbat al-Harrās This gate in Baghdad is otherwise unidentified. with the killers following him. Someone saw them, so the Ḥakīm shouted ‘seize them’ but they returned to him and killed him and wounded the lamp bearer who was with the Ḥakīm. The Ḥakīm ibn Tūmā was carried dead to his house and was buried there that very night. Some of the Badriyyah Guard were sent to his house and that of the vizier to guard the trust deposits which he had kept for the ladies and the servants and the courtiers. A search was made for the killers and their arrest was ordered, undertaken by Ibrāhīm ibn Jamīl Unidentified. by himself. Ibrāhīm brought the two killers to his house and early next morning they were brought out to the execution place, their bellies were slit open and they were crucified on the gate of the slaughterhouse opposite Bāb al-Ghallah where the Ḥakīm had been stabbed. The Ḥakīm’s death and murder was on the eve of Thursday the twenty-eighth of Jumādā I in the year 620 [29 June 1223]. 10.78 Abū l-Ḥusayn Ṣāʿid ibn Hibat Allāh ibn al-Muʾammil This biography appears in Versions 2 and 3 of the work. See also Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 214, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xvi:240. Abū l-Ḥusayn Ṣāʿid ibn Hibat Allāh ibn al-Muʾammil was a Christian whose origin was from al-Ḥaẓīrah ‘A large village near Baghdad, toward Takrīt’ (Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān ). but who settled in Baghdad. His name was also Mārī, which is an ecclesiastical name amongst the Christians who name their children at birth with certain names and then, when they baptize them, they name them with one of the names of the righteous among them. Abū l-Ḥusayn was a physician of merit who served at the Caliphal Palace and became very close to the Caliph. Through his service and friendship to the Caliph, he became very wealthy, earned abundant respect, and a great station. Abū l-Ḥusayn had studied belles-lettres with Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-ʿAṣṣār, d. 576/1180; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xiv:10–11. and with Abū Aḥmad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Khashshāb al-Naḥwī, Grammarian and polymath of Baghdad who died in 567/1172; EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-K̲h̲as̲h̲s̲h̲āb’ (H. Fleisch); EI Three art. ‘Ibn al-Khashshāb’ (J. Hämeen-Anttila). and with Sharaf al-Kuttāb ibn Jiyā, Sharaf al-Kuttāb Abū l-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Ḥamzah ibn Jiyā (or Jiyāʾ), d. 579/1183; Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-udabāʾ , xvii:270–277; al-Qifṭī, Muḥammadūn (Hyderabad, 1966), i:40–43; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , ii:112–113. and others. He had a perfect knowledge of logic, philosophy, and all types of wisdom, but could be arrogant, stupid, foolish, and presumptuous and he is charged with excess wrongdoing. He remained thus copying books of philosophy and engaging in medicine and close to the Caliph until he died on the twentieth day of Dhū l-Ḥijjah in the year 591 [25 November 1195] in Baghdad and was buried in the Christian church there. At this point MS R adds in the margin a quote from Barhebraeus ( Mukhtaṣar , 238–239): ‘The excellent Shaykh Abū l-Faraj ibn Ḥakīmā, known as “Holy Father”, says in his History : Two of the physicians of the court of the imam al-Nāṣir [li-Dīn Allāh] were Ṣāʿid ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Muʾammil Abū l-Ḥasan, the Christian physician from Ḥaẓīrah, and his brother Abū l-Khayr, the Archidiakon; they were the sons of the Katholikos known as Ibn al-Masīḥī. Ṣāʿid was at the service of the caliph al-Nāṣir who held him very dear; he had a comprehensive knowledge of medicine and logic and composed a small book entitled The Quintessence ( al-Ṣafwah ) in which he compiled theoretical and practical sections of medicine. At the end of the first section from the second part there are even three aphorisms on circumcision, because it was entrusted to physicians in Baghdad, even when no word about it has ever been heard fom anyone in the past or the present. [Ṣāʿid ibn Hibat Allāh] used to copy scientific books. He died at the end of 571 [1176]. The Archidiakon was also an excellent [scholar] who wrote an epitome in which he summarised the studies of the book on generalities ( kulliyāt ) of [Ibn Sīnā’s] Canon , he called [this book] The Epitome ( al-Iqtiḍāb ), then he wrote an abridgment of it to which he gave the title Selections from the Epitome ( Intikhāb al-iqtiḍāb ). From the History of Abū l-Faraj ibn ʿIbrī.’ 10.79 Ibn al-Māristāniyyah This biography appears in all three versions of the book. See also al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xix:390–392. Abū Bakr ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Abī l-Faraj ʿAlī ibn Naṣr ibn Ḥamzah was known as Ibn al-Māristāniyyah. Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Karīm al-Baghdādī al-Kātib told me that Ibn al-Māristāniyyah was eminent in the art of medicine and its practice. He had heard some prophetic traditions and was distinguished and learned. He also wrote some sermons which he used to show to our shaykh Abū l-Baqāʾ ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Ḥusayn al-ʿUkbarī Grammarian, d. 616/1219; EI 2 art. ‘al-ʿUkbarī’ (Mohammed Yalaoui). who approved of them. Ibn al-Māristāniyyah took up the post of inspector in the ʿAḍudī Hospital; then he was arrested and imprisoned for two years. He was released and composed a history of the City of Peace [Baghdad] which he named The Greater Record of Islam (Dīwān al-islām al-aʿẓam) and wrote a great deal of it but did not complete it. In the month of Ṣafar in the year 599 [October-November 1202] he was sent from the dīwān on a mission to Tbilisi and was given a black robe and shawl and set off there. He delivered the message and returned but died before he reached Baghdad at a place known as Jarkh Band ‘A small town in Armenia or Azerbaijan’ (Yāqūt, Muʿjam al-buldān , where Ibn al-Māristāniyyah’s death is mentioned as the single noteworthy fact about the place). on the eve of Dhū l-Ḥijjah in the year 599 [10–11 August 1203] and was buried there. 10.80 Ibn Sadīr This biography appears in all three versions of the book. See also al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxii:50 (nearly identical with IAU ) and 98 (an even shorter, somewhat different entry, under ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ibn Sadīr). Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh was from al-Madāʾin ‘The Cities’. Site of the Persian Imperial capitals on the Tigris river 20 miles southeast of Baghdad. EI 2 art. ‘al-Madāʾin’ (M. Streck & M. Morony). and was known as Ibn Sadīr, Sadīr being the nickname of his father. He was a physician learned in the art of medicine and in treatment, and he used to compose poetry and was gentle and jocular. He died suddenly in al-Madāʾin during the last ten days of Ramadan in the year 606 [18–28 March 1210]. Among the poetry of Ibn Sadīr: al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Saʿīd ibn Yaḥyā ibn al-Dubaythī al-Wāsiṭī Historian, d. 637/1239; author of a continuation of Tārīkh Baghdād ( The History of Bagdad ) by al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī; EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-Dubayt̲h̲ī’ (J. Pedersen). said in his book that Ibn Sadīr recited the following poem he had composed: Metre: ṭawīl . Ibn al-Shaʿʿār, Qalāʾid , iii:379, al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxii:50. O who can save me from people who grow ever more base! It defies my medicine and my doctor’s skill is humbled by it. When one of them falls ill, that is my health; but if he stays alive I almost give up the ghost. I treat them, though not for baseness, for this defies the treatment by any smart and skilful man. 10.81 Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ibn Habal This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Also Ibn Hubal. EI 2 art. ‘Ibn Hubal’ (J. Verney); EI Three art. ‘Ibn Habal’ (A. Watson); Ullmann, Medizin , 161–162 (Ibn Hubal); GAL i:490, S i:895 (b. Hubal); Ibn al-Qifṭī, Taʾrīkh al-ḥukamāʾ , 238–239,60 (where “Ibn al-H.bal”, with the article, is an error); Ibn al-Qifṭī, Inbāh , ii, 231; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xx, 358–359 (specifies the vowelling Ibn Habal); Ibn al-Dubaythī, Dhayl Tārīkh Baghdād , ii:402–403 (vowelled Ibn Habal, following Wāfī ). [10.81.1] Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ibn Habal – that is, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Habal al-Baghdādī, also known as al-Khilāṭī – was foremost of his time and the most learned of his age in the art of medicine and in the philosophical disciplines. He was distinguished in letters, composed fine poetry and eloquent sayings and had mastered the memorization of the Qur’an. Ibn Habal was born in Baghdad by the Portico Gate in Thamil Lane on the twenty-third of Dhū l-Qaʿdah in the year 515 [2 February 1122]. He grew up in Baghdad and studied belles-lettres ( adab ) and medicine and also learned traditions there from Abū l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Samarqandī. Then he went to Mosul where he lived until the time of his death. [10.81.2] ʿAfīf al-Dīn Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn ʿAdlān al-Naḥwī al-Mawṣilī D. 666/1267; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxi:308–314, Ibn Shākir, Fawāt , iii:43–46. All manuscripts read ibn ʿAdnān instead of ibn ʿAdlān. the grammarian of Mosul told me that the shaykh Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ibn Habal was from Baghdad but settled in Mosul and then in Khilāṭ with Shāh-i Arman the governor of Khilāṭ with whom he remained for a time during which he obtained from him a great amount of money. Before leaving Khilāṭ he deposited all the cash money he had with Mujāhid al-Dīn Qaymāz at Mosul which was nearly one hundred and thirty thousand dinars. Ibn Habal then settled in Māridīn with Badr al-Dīn Luʾluʾ and al-Niẓām until the two were killed by Nāṣir al-Dīn ibn Artuq the governor of Māridīn. Badr al-Dīn Luʾluʾ was married to Nāṣir al-Dīn’s mother. Muhadhdhab al-Dīn became blind through fluid entering his eyes after an injury and this was at the age of seventy-five years. Then he left for Mosul but became an invalid and remained in his house in Abū Najīḥ Street and used to sit on a couch and all of the students of medicine and other subjects would come to him. [10.81.3] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that he also learned prophetic traditions among which is the following: the Ḥakīm Badr al-Dīn Abū l-ʿIzz Yūsuf ibn Abī Muḥammad ibn Makkī al-Dimashqī known as Ibn al-Sinjārī related to me that Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Abī l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Habal al-Baghdādī known as al-Khilāṭī related to him that the shaykh the Ḥāfiẓ Abū l-Qāsim Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUmar ibn al-Ashʿath al-Samarqandī informed them that Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Kinānī informed them that Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUthmān ibn Abī Naṣr, and Abū l-Qāsim Tammām ibn Muḥammad al-Rāzī, and al-Qāḍī Abū Naṣr Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Hārūn al-Ghassānī known as Ibn al-Jundī, and Abū l-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī l-ʿAqib, and Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Yaḥyā al-Qaṭṭān, informed them, saying: Abū l-Qāsim ʿAlī ibn Yaʿqūb ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Abī l-ʿAqib informed us that Abū Zurʿah ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ṣafwān al-Azdī al-Baṣrī related to them that ʿAlī ibn ʿAyyāsh related to them that Shuʿayb ibn Abī Ḥamzah related to them, from Nāfīʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said, ‘The Messenger of God – may God bless him and salute him – said, “There is good in the forelocks of horses until the day of resurrection”.’ A famous tradition, found in various forms in numerous compilations, see Wensinck et al., Concordance , vi:469. [10.81.4] Muhadhdhab al-Dīn’s teacher in the art of medicine was Awḥad al-Zamān, See Ch. 10.66. and at first Ibn Habal had met with ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad ibn Aḥmad ibn al-Khashshāb al-Naḥwī Grammarian and polymath of Baghdad who died in 567/1172; EI 2 art. ‘Ibn al-K̲h̲as̲h̲s̲h̲āb’ (H. Fleisch); EI Three art. ‘Ibn al-Khashshāb’ (J. Hämeen-Anttila). and had studied with him some grammar. He also frequented the Niẓāmiyyah College where he studied some jurisprudence. After that, he became renowned in the art of medicine and surpassed his contemporaries among the physicians. Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ibn Habal – may God show him mercy – died at Mosul on the eve of Wednesday the thirteenth of Muḥarram in the year 610 [4 June 1213] and was buried on the outskirts of Mosul by the al-Maydān Gate in the graveyard of al-Muʿāfā ibn ʿImrān al-Muʿāfā ibn ʿImrān al-Mawṣilī (d. 184/800), an early renunciant ( zāhid ) and traditionist; al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xxvi:5. close to al-Qurṭubī. Yaḥyā ibn ʿUmar al-Qurṭubī, poet and jurist, born in Cordova, d. Mosul 567/1172; EI 2 art. ‘al-Qurṭubī’ (R.Y. Ebied & M.J.L. Young). [10.81.5] Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ibn Habal wrote this poem: Metre: ṭawīl . O tamarisks in Iraq that I was familiar with: a greeting to you that will never cease to be fragrant! I was strong when I dwelled in your courtyard, but now what was hidden in my heart is disclosed. How beautiful were those days in the shade of your friendliness, shortly before the rising of the sun, when it was already gleaming! The turtle-dove was cooing in the dusk before dark and pigeons guarded the tree trunks, lamenting. It is not wholly clear why pigeons should do this. Cf. Lane, Lexicon : riʿāʾ , ‘the guarding of palm-trees’. The cooing of doves is supposed to be a lament for the loss of a primaeval dove-chick. I thought of days at the Ṣarāh Al-Ṣarāh is a canal in Baghdad. and their sweetness, carried away in yearning for them when we were headstrong. And he said: Metre: ṭawīl . O tree at the mention of which my heart is enraptured! God bless you, friendly tree! Distance cast me far from you and close to itself, but yesterday I was a close neighbour to you. I wish, being so far from my loved ones, I were transported, with a happy soul, to the grave. Or else, I wish Time enabled them to grip, with five fingers, the ropes of union. When my eyes roam towards Iraq and its air it is as if I see the horizon from where the sun rises. The poem was presumably composed in Mosul, Mardin, or al-Khilāṭ, which means that Iraq lies to the south east. My wielding the reed pen and reed lance was exchanged for the wielding of a minted thing named ‘penny’. Fals , a copper coin. The allusion is not wholly clear. Perhaps he was distracted by administrative duties while in the service of the ruler of al-Khilāṭ, during which he acquired great wealth. I was compensated with a robe that encompassed glory, for the price of a manly robe resembling a saddle-blanket. He who does not see the evil of destiny and its decree with a calm mind, which does not compare to touching, Perhaps meaning ‘experiencing’ this fated evil. Will live forlorn among people, blind, disfigured, with far-reaching ambitions, the most likely person to suffer a downfall. And he also said: Metre: basīṭ . Al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , xx:359. I was captivated, on the morning at al-Khayf, The most famous of the several locations called al-Khayf (‘the mountain slope’) is the one at Minā, near Mecca. Brief meetings during the hajj inspired countless erotic poems. by a pretty woman who has taken possession of beauty, with her dallying and childlike love ( wa-ṣabā ). Here ṣabā is a licence for ṣabāʾ . The poem is an exercise in paronomasia. She stood up, swaying like a twig of a willow tree, flirting, in the late afternoon hours, with the north wind and the east ( wa-ṣabā ). Her waist, with which she flirted, was so thin that it almost complained to her rump, because of its weight, of discomfort ( waṣabā ). If her pretty mouth The word here used for ‘mouth’, mabsim , literally means ‘place of smiles’, hence the addition of ‘pretty’ (it does not necessarily imply that she is actually smiling). had not had camomile-like teeth, my heart would not have been infatuated with my love for her, in passion and yearning ( wa-ṣabā ). [10.81.6] Muhadhdhab al-Dīn ibn Habal wrote the following books: 1. Selections on medicine (K. al-Mukhtār [ āt ] fī l-ṭibb) , which is a magnificent book containing theory and practice. The entire text has been published, using 3 manuscripts, in Ibn Hubal, Kitāb al-Mukhtārāt . The chapters on kidney and bladder stones has been edited and translated into French; see de Koning, Traité sur le calcul , 86–227. Other chapters in German translation are in Thies, Die Lehren der arabischen Mediziner Tabari und Ibn Hubal . For manuscript copies, see Savage-Smith, NCAM -1 , 331–334. 2. The Jamālī book of medicine ( K. al-Ṭibb al-Jamālī ), which he composed for the vizier Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad known as al-Jawād. Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī Jamāl al-Dīn al-Iṣfahānī, known as al-Jawād (‘the Generous’), d. 574/1178, vizier under the Zangids, rulers of Mosul; EI 2 art. ‘al-D̲j̲awād al-Iṣfahānī’ (Ed.). Müller adds at this point: “He composed the Selections in Mosul in the year 560 [1164–65].” This addition occurs in the Berlin MS only, which has not been used in our edition. 10.82 Shams al-Dīn ibn Habal This biography appears in all three versions of the book. Shams al-Dīn Abū l-ʿAbbās Aḥmad ibn Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abī l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī ibn Habal was born at the break of dawn before sunrise on Friday the twentieth of Jumādā II in the year 548 [12 September 1153]. He studied the art of medicine, was distinguished in letters, and had a high station in the state. He travelled to Anatolia where he was greatly honoured by the King al-Malik al-Ghālib Kaykāʾūs ibn Kaykhusraw Seljuqid ruler of al-Rūm (Anatolia), r. 608–618/1211–1220; EI 2 art. ‘Kaykāʾūs’ (Cl. Cahen). with whom he remained for a short time. Shams al-Dīn ibn Habal – may God show him mercy – died in Anatolia, then was carried to Mosul where he was buried. Shams al-Dīn ibn Habal had two great, eminent, and notable sons who still live in the city of Mosul. 10.83 Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus This biography appears in all three versions of the book. For references, see Sezgin, GAS V , 134, 141, 324 (brief references only). The fullest account is given by Ibn Khallikān ( Wafayāt , v:311–318) who himself studied with Kamāl al-Din ibn Yūnus for a time in Mosul. [10.83.1] Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus – that is, Abū ʿImrān Ibn Khallikān ( Wafayāt , v:311) gives the kunyah Abū l-Fatḥ. Mūsā ibn Yūnus ibn Muḥammad ibn Manʿah – the most learned of his time and foremost of his age was the paragon of the scholars and the chief of the philosophers. He mastered philosophy and distinguished himself in all other disciplines and was outstanding in the religious sciences and in jurisprudence. Ibn Khallikān ( Wafayāt , v:311) states he was a jurist of the Shāfiʿite rite ( faqīh shāfiʿī ). Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus taught at the school in Mosul and taught all the sciences including philosophy, medicine, religious teachings, and the like. He composed works of the utmost good quality and continued to live in Mosul until he died – may God show him mercy. His birth date is given by Ibn Khallikān ( Wafayāt , v:317) as Thursday 5 Ṣafar 551 [30 March 1156], and his death date as 14 Shaʿbān 639 [17 February 1242]. [10.83.2] The Judge Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar ibn Muḥammad ibn al-Kuraydī told me that, once, the Book of Guidance (K. al-Irshād) of al-ʿAmīdī He is Rukn al-Dīn Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Samarqandī, known as al-ʿAmīdī (d. 615/1218). See EI 2 art. ‘al-ʿAmīdī’ (S.M. Stern); al-Ṣafadī, Wāfī , i:280–281. His K. al-Irshād is extant in manuscript but no edition has been published. See also GAL i:568. arrived in Mosul. This book contains powerful dialectical arguments, which are called ‘ just ’ by the Persians, that is, ‘cunning’. The Persian noun just derives from the verb justan : to examine, search, and in this context probably corresponds with the Arabic baḥth from whence ādāb al-baḥth i.e. the etiquette of disputation, a branch of dialectics. The connection with the cunning is not clear. See Dozy, Supplément , i:194; Dihkhudā, Lughatnāmah , art. ‘ just ’. When the book was brought to the shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus he examined it and said, ‘This is a fine science whose author did not stint himself.’ The book remained with him for two days during which Kamāl al-Dīn made a fair copy of all its contents and then taught it to the students of jurisprudence and explained things to them which no-one before him had mentioned. [10.83.3] It is said that Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus knew magic. See EI 2 art. ‘Sīmiyāʾ’ (D.B. MacDonald & T. Fahd) and Porter, Saif & Savage-Smith, ‘Medieval Islamic Amulets’. An example of this was related to me by the Judge Najm al-Dīn ibn al-Kuraydī who said: The Judge Jalāl al-Dīn al-Baghdādī, the student of Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus, used to live near Ibn Yūnus in the school. Once, an emissary came to the merciful king Badr al-Dīn Luʾluʾ Badr al-Dīn Abū l-Faḍāʾil al-Malik al-Raḥīm (d. 657/1259). A freedman (hence the slave-name “Luʾluʾ”) of the last of the Zangids of Mosul and who became regent of Mosul in (607/1210–1211). See EI 2 art. ‘Luʾluʾ’ (Cl. Cahen). the governor of Mosul from the Emperor the king of the Franks, That is, Frederick  II , who also supposedly also sent questions to the philosopher Ibn Sabʿīn of Murcia (d. 668/1270). On Frederick  II and scholars in Mosul, see Arndt, Judah ha-Cohen and the Emperor’s Philosopher , 98–108; Hasse, ‘Mosul and Frederick  II  Hohenstaufen’; and Schramm, ‘Frederick  II of Hohenstaufen and Arabic Science’. See also Wiedeman, ‘Fragen aus dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaften’; and Akasoy, ‘Ibn Sabʿīn’s Sicilian Questions .’ who was expert in the art of syllogisms. The emissary had with him certain questions about astrology and the like and sought the answers from Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus. The governor of Mosul sent a message to Kamāl al-Dīn informing him of this and saying that he should wear beautiful clothes and prepare a splendid salon for the emissary knowing that Ibn Yūnus used to wear rough clothes without affectation and had no knowledge of the things of the world. Ibn Yūnus said, ‘Yes.’ Jalāl al-Dīn relates the following: I was with him when he had been told that the emissary of the Franks had arrived and was close to the school. Ibn Yūnus sent some students to meet the emissary and when he arrived we looked and saw that the room was adorned with the most beautiful and finest Byzantine carpets with a group of slaves and servants in fine clothes. The emissary entered and the shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn greeted him and wrote the answers to all the questions. When the emissary had gone all that we had seen before vanished so I said to the shaykh, ‘Master, how wonderful were the splendours and the servants we saw a short time ago!’ He smiled and said, ‘Baghdādī, that is science!’ The narrator continues saying: Jalāl al-Dīn said, ‘Shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn once had a request for Badr al-Dīn Luʾluʾ, so he rode out one morning to meet him in that regard. It was the custom of Badr al-Dīn to ride fast-paced horses and mules but when they gave him a horse in the morning and he mounted it, it would not move so he dismounted and mounted another but could not go a step. While he was waiting in consternation the shaykh arrived and told him of his request which Badr al-Din fulfilled. Then Badr al-Dīn asked him why the horse had refused to go until he had arrived? Kamāl al-Dīn said, ‘This is to do with the strength of old men’s minds.’ Then he returned and Badr al-Dīn went on his way and his soldiery followed him.’ [10.83.4] Najm al-Dīn Ḥamzah ibn ʿĀbid al-Ṣarkhadī told me that Najm al-Dīn al-Qamrāwī He is Najm al-Dīn Abū l-Faḍāʾil Mūsā ibn Muḥammad ibn Mūsā ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿĪsā al-Kinānī, known as al-Qamrāwī (d. 651/1253). He is noticed by Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , iii:332, 334. and Sharaf al-Dīn al-Mutānī He is Sharaf al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mūsā al-Ḥawrānī al-Mutānī (d. 659/1260–1261). For a notice of his death, see al-Yūnīnī, Dhayl Mirʾāt al-zamān , ii:134. (Qamrā Yāqūt, Muʿjām al-buldān (ed. Wüstenfeld) iv:173, has the name of this village as “Qamrāw”. Ibn Khallikān, Wafayāt , iii:332 has “Qamrāʾ”. and Mutān being villages of Ṣarkhad) Ṣarkhad (Ṣalkhad), an important mediaeval city and fortified stronghold in southern Syria and the residence of IAU in the latter part of his life. See EI 2 art. ‘Ṣalk̲h̲ad’ (M. Meinecke); and the essay ‘Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah: His life and career’ in Vol. 1. had studied the religious and philosophical sciences and had distinguished themselves and were renowned for their eminence. The two of them travelled the land in search of knowledge and when they reached Mosul they sought out shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus who was in the school teaching. They greeted him and sat with the students and when some questions of jurisprudence arose they spoke and discussed the principles of jurisprudence and showed their eminence over most of the others so the shaykh honoured them and drew them near. At the end of the day they asked him to show him a book he had written about philosophy in which there was an enigma but he refused saying, ‘I haven’t yet found anyone able to solve this book and I guard it jealously.’ They said, ‘Master, we are strangers who have sought you out to have the privilege of seeing you and to see this book. We will spend the night in the school with you as we do not wish to read it for more than this night only, and in the morning you may take it back, Master.’ They continued to speak kindly to him until he relented and brought out the book. The two sat in one of the rooms of the school and didn’t sleep at all that night but rather one of them dictated to the other and he would write until they had finished writing the book. Then they collated it and inspected it many times but the solution did not appear to them until the last moment when the sun rose and they were able to solve some of the last part of it. Then the rest became clear to them bit by bit until the enigma was solved and they understood it. They took the book to the shaykh who was teaching so they sat down and said, ‘Master, we had actually sought your great book which contains the enigma which is difficult to solve. The contents of this book, however, have been known to us for some time and we have had knowledge of the enigma therein from old and if you wish we can show it to you.’ Kamāl al-Dīn said, ‘Speak and let me hear it.’ Al-Najm al-Qamrāwī followed by the other man came forward and brought forth all the contents of the book from first to last and related the solution of the enigma in fine and eloquent phrases at which Kamāl al-Dīn was amazed and said, ‘Where are you from?’ They said, ‘From Syria,’ He said, ‘From which place?’ They said, ‘From Ḥawrān.’ The shaykh said, ‘Doubtless one of you is al-Najm al-Qamrāwī and the other al-Sharaf al-Mutānī.’ When they said they were, the shaykh rose and invited them to be his guests and honoured them to the utmost and the two of them studied with him for a time and then continued their journey. [10.83.5] I – Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah – say that when my uncle Rashīd al-Dīn ibn Khalīfah See Ch. 15.51. was at the beginning of his youth he intended to travel to Mosul to meet with shaykh Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus and study with him because of what he had heard about his knowledge and eminence which no-one could surpass. He had prepared for the journey but when his mother, my grandmother, learned of this she wept and begged him not to leave her. She was very fond of him and he could not go against her so he cancelled the journey to him. Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus had children in the city of Mosul who had mastered jurisprudence and other sciences and were prominent authors and eminent teachers. [10.83.6] Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus composed the following poem: Metre: munsariḥ . I am not one of those who obey their censurers, nor did I once think about abandoning him. I changed, like you, treacherously, changed; and just as you held me cheap, I held your once dear value cheap. And he composed a dūbayt : Dūbayt , a Persian-Arabic word, literally ‘two-liner’. Originally a Persian form, two lines (four hemistichs) with a specific metre and internal rhyme, aaba (as here) or aaaa ; in the Persian literary tradition called rubāʿiyyah (an Arabic word meaning ‘quatrain’). Until when Taking the strange ḥattā wa-matā (‘until and when’) to be a licence for ḥattā matā . will your promises to me be false? Ample delaying and scant gain! In my heart the seed of love for you is sown: Visit me; perhaps it will bear union as fruit, visit! [10.83.7] Kamāl al-Dīn ibn Yūnus wrote the following books: 1. Unveiling the problems and clarifying the difficulties in the exegesis of the Qur’an ( K. Kashf al-mushkilāt wa-īḍāḥ al-muʿḍilāt fī tafsīr al-Qur’an ). 2. Commentary on the book of instruction in jurisprudence ( Sharḥ Kitāb al-Tanbīh fī l-fiqh ), two volumes. A work by the Shāfiʿite scholar Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAlī al-Shīrāzī (d. 476/1083); Ibn Yūnus’s commentary was entitled Ghunyat al-muftī ( GAL , i:387, S i:670). 3. A lexicon of the Canon [ of Medicine by Ibn Sīnā] ( K. Mufradāt alfāẓ al-Qānūn ). 4. On the principles of jurisprudence ( K. fī l-Uṣūl ). 5. The sources of logic ( K. ʿUyūn al-manṭiq ). 6. An enigma of philosophy ( K. Lughz fī l-ḥikmah ). 7. The Sultan’s Secrets: on astrology ( K. al-Asrār al-Sulṭāniyyah fī l-nujūm ).