Some Sources and Procedures for Editing a Medieval Arabic Surgical Tract

Before the present edition the text most frequently used was John Channing's edition of the Arabic text with Latin translation, Albucasis de chirurgia, arabice et latine (Oxford, 1778), 2 vols. A French translation by Leclerc Lucien , La chirurgie d'Albucasis (Paris, 1861) appeared earlier in the Gazette médicale de l'Algérie, iii–vi (1858–61). A rather poor Arabic text was lithographed in 1908 in Lucknow.

The seven manuscripts cited by the editors in this edition are Oxford, Bodleian ms Huntington 156 and ms Marsh 54, the Khuda Bakhsh Library ms 2146 at Patna (= Bankipore 17), in Istanbul three at the Süleymaniye Library, ms Haci Be<gap>s</gap>ir Ag̬a 503, ms Haci Be<gap>s</gap>ir Ag̬a 502 and ms Veliüddin 2491, and one at Topkapi Sarayi ms Ahmet iii 1990. The following additional manuscripts are known to contain all or part of the surgical chapter: University of Tübingen ms Or. 91 (formerly in Berlin); Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Arabe ms 2953, ms 6824 and ms 6461 (the last is incomplete); Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, cod. N.F. 476A; Gotha, Landesbibliothek Arab ms 1275 (= 1989 Pertsch); Leiden, Cod. Or. 2540 and Cod. Or. 1338 (both fragmentary); Istanbul, Süleymaniye, Ali Emiri Arabi ms 2854; Escorial Arabe ms 876 (incomplete); Rabat, Bibliothèque Générale, ms D 1427 (fragmentary) and ms 21J (= Marrakush ms 21J; complete and dated ad 1213); Granada, Bibliotheca de Sacro Monte de Granada Asin Palacies, no number assigned; Tehran, private collection of Majid Movaghar, copy written about ad 1311; Hyderabad, Asafiyya Library ms 1298; Oxford, Bodleian Or. 491 (fragmentary); Birmingham, Selly Oak Colleges Library, Mingana iv, 932; and Dublin, Chester Beatty Arab. ms 4932 and M. 4009. Most of these manuscripts are described by Hamarneh Sami K. and Sonnedecker Glenn in A Pharmaceutical View of Abulcasis al-Zahrāwī in Moorish Spain (Leiden, 1963), 137–47.

A profitable comparison might also be made with the textual descriptions of instruments and practices found in the thirteenth century specialized surgical treatise (the only Arabic treatise devoted only to surgery) by the Syrian physician Ibn al-Quff, or with the Safavid surgical procedures, or even the surgical practices of nomadic tribes at the beginning of the present century. For these topics see the following studies: Spies Otto and Müller-Bütow Horst , Anatomie und Chirurgie des Schädels, insbesondere der Hals-, Nasen- und Ohrenkrankheiten nach Ibn al-Quff (Berlin; New York, 1971); Elgood Cyril , Safavid medical practice, or the practice of medicine, surgery and gynaecology in Persia between 1500 AD and 1750 AD (London, 1970); Hilton-Simpson M. W. , Arab medicine and surgery. A study of the healing art in Algeria (London, 1922).

See pp. 484–8 of the book under review, where the editors have compared the drawings in the two Oxford Arabic manuscripts of Albucasis with the Greco-Roman vaginal specula pictured and discussed by Milne J. S. , Surgical instruments in Greek and Roman times (Oxford, 1907).

The text also contains some typographical errors, no doubt inevitable in such a long text, as on p. 255, 1. 35, where the next to the last word must be wajhih instead of wajh, and between the fifth and sixth words of line 7 on p. 253 an entire sentence is omitted while it is included in the translation. Both readings are to be found in H as presented by Channing. The typographical errors, however, are relatively few and need not be enumerated.

It should be noted that the term 'a<gap>s</gap>ab is generally used for the singular by Albucasis, although the older form 'a<gap>s</gap>aba does occur once (p. 203), with the more common a'<gap>s</gap>ab for the plural.

See Solmsen F. , “Greek philosophy and the discovery of the nerves”, Museum Helveticum, xviii (1961), 150–67 and 169–97.

Abū Bakr Mu<gap>h</gap>ammad ibn Zakarīyā' al-Rāzī (d. ad 923–4), known in the Latin West as Rhazes. See Ullmann Manfred , Die Medizin im Islam (Leiden, 1970), 87.

See Ullmann (ref. 8) 85. Al-Bīrūnī (Abū Rai<gap>h</gap>ān Mu<gap>h</gap>ammad ibn A<gap>h</gap>mad), one of the greatest of the Islamic scientific figures, died in ad 1048.

Spink and Lewis cited Haly Abbas, as he was known to the Latin world, only once (p. 208), but again do not give a specific reference to the chapter or section of the treatise. The Arabic text of Kitāb kāmil al-<gap>s</gap>inā'a (also known as Kitāb al-malikī) was printed at Bulāq-Cairo (1294/1877). The ninth book of part two is contained in vol. ii, 454–607. The Latin translation circulated under the titles Liber regius of Haly Abbas and the Pantegni of Constantine the African. See also Costantion l'Africano Chirurgia. Traduzione e commento a cura di Marco T. Malato e Luigi Loro [Annali di medicina navale e tropicalae, ser. 1, Anno 15, v. 13] (Rome, 1960).

Biesterfeldt Hans Hinrich , Galens Traktat “Dass die Kräfte der Seele den Mischungen des Körpers Folgen“in arabischer Übersetzung, herausgegeben (Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Bd xl, 4) (Wiesbaden, 1973) [has extensive Arabic-Greek and Greek-Arabic glossaries].

Colin Gabriel , Avenzoar, sa vie et ses œuvres (Publications de la faculté des lettres d'Alger, Bulletin de Corresp. Africaine Tome xliv) (Paris, 1911) [glossaries pp. 179–91].

Colin Gabriel , La Tedhkira d'Abū al-‘Alā’ (Publications de la faculté des lettres d'Alger, Bulletin de Corresp. Africaine Tome xlv) (Paris, 1911) [pp. 69–78 index of technical terms].

Colin Gabriel S. and Renaud H. P. J. , Ibn al-<gap>H</gap>ashsha (XIII^e siècle J.C.). Glossaire sur le Man<gap>s</gap>ūrī de Razès (X^e siècle) (Collection de Textes Arabes publ. par l'Institut des Hautes-Études Marocaines, vol. xi) (Rabat, 1941).

Dols Michael W. , “The black death in the Middle East” (unpubl. Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 1971) [pp. 257–61: The Arabic terminology of the plague].

Favrot Alexis , La nomenclature médicale des Arabes. Lettres à M. le professeur A. Sedillot (Paris, 1868).

Fonahn Adolf , Arabic and Latin anatomical terminology chiefly from the Middle Ages (Videnskapsselskapets Skrifter ii, Hist.-phil. Kl. no. 7) (Kristiania, 1922).

Greenhill W. A. , A treatise on the small-pox and measles, by Abu Becr Mohammed ibn Zacariyā ar-Rāzī (commenly called Rhazes) (London, 1848) [extensive glossaries of technical terms].

Guiges Pierres , “Les noms arabes dans Sérapion ‘Liber de simplici medicina’. Essai de restitution et d'identification des noms arabes de medicaments usités au moyen age”, Journal Asiatique, ser. 10, v (1905), 473–546; vi, 49–112.

Hirschberg J. and Lippert J. , Die Augenheilkunde des Ibn Sina aus dem Arabischen übersetzt und erläutert (Leipzig, 1902) [pp. 169–81 glossaries of medical terms].

Hyrtl Josef , Das Arabische und Hebräische in der Anatomie (Vienna, 1879) (reprinted Wiesbaden, 1966).

Iskander A. Z. , “Al-Rāzī al-<gap>t</gap>abīb al-iklīnakī wa nu<gap>s</gap>ū<gap>s</gap> min makh<gap>t</gap>ū<gap>t</gap>āt lam yasbiq nashrahā [Rhazes's clinical experience: New material]” al-Mashriq, lvi (1962), 217–82 [glossary pp. 265–82].

Kircher Heidi Gisela , “Die ‘einfachen Heilmittel’ aus dem ‘Handbuch der Chirurgie’ des Ibn al-Quff” (Phil. Diss., Univ. Bonn, 1967).

de Koning P. , Trois traités d'anatomie arabe par Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, 'Alī ibn al-'Abbās et 'Alī ibn Sīnā (Leiden, 1903) [glossary pp. 813–30].

Kroner H. , Zur Terminologie der arabischen Medizin und zur ihren zeitgenössischen hebräischen Ausdrücke. An der Hand dreier medizinischer Abhandlungen des Maimonides (Berlin, 1921).

Levey Martin , “Ibn Māsawaih and his treatise on simple aromatic substances: Studies in the history of Arabic pharmacology 1”, Journal of the history of medicine, xvi (1961), 394–410 [p. 410 list of Arabic terms with discussion throughout].

Levey Martin , Medieval Arabic toxicology. The “Book of poisons” of Ibn Wa<gap>h</gap>shīya and its relation to early Indian and Greek texts (Trans. of the American Philosophical Society, n.s., lvi, pt 7) (Philadelphia, 1966) [pp. 115–27 glossary].

Levey Martin , The medical formulary or Aqrābādhīn of al-Kindī, translated with a study of its materia medica (Madison, Wis., 1966) [pp. 225–345 glossary].

Levey Martin and al-Khaledy Noury , The medical formulary of al-Samarqandī and the relation of early Arabic simples to those found in the indigenous medicine of the Near East and India (Philadelphia, 1967) [pp. 244–61 glossary].

Lewin Bernhard , The book of plants of Abū <gap>H</gap>anīfa ad-Dīnawarī, Part of the alphabetical section (alif-zā). Ed. from the unique ms. in the Library of the University of Istanbul, with introduction, notes, indices and a vocabulary of selected words (Uppsala Universitets Årsskrift, 1953:10) (Uppsala, Wiesbaden, 1953) [pp. 17–52 glossary].

Lyons M. C. , Galeni in Hippocratis De officina medici commentariorum, versionem arabicam quoad exstat, ex codice scorialensi et excerpta, quae 'Alī ibn Ri<gap>d</gap>wān ex eis sumpsit, ex codice cantabrigensi edidit et in linguam Anglican vertit (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum Supplementum Orientale1) (Berlin, 1963) [pp. 124–72 glossaries].

Lyons M. C. , Kitāb tadbīr al-amrā<gap>d</gap> al-<gap>h</gap>ādda li-buqrā<gap>t</gap> (Hippocrates: Regimen in acute diseases). Edited and translated with introduction, notes and glossary (Arabic Technical and Scientific Texts, i) (Cambridge, 1966) [pp. 1–41 Arabic-Greek glossary; pp. 42–81 Greek-Arabic].

Lyons M. C. , Kitāb buqrā<gap>t</gap> al-ma'rūf bi-qā<gap>t</gap>ī<gap>t</gap>rīün ay <gap>h</gap>ānūt al-<gap>t</gap>abīb (Hippocrates in the surgery) Edited and translated with introduction, notes and glossary (Arabic Technical and Scientific Texts, iii) (Cambridge, 1968) [pp. 25–50 Greek-Arabic glossary; pp. 51–77 Arabic-Greek].

Lyons M. C. , Galen on the parts of medicine, on cohesive causes, or regimen in acute diseases in accordance with the theories of Hippocrates. First edition of the Arabic versions with English translation. The Latin versions of On the parts of medicine ed. by Schöne H. , and On cohesive diseases ed. by Kalbfleisch K. reedited by Kollesch J. Nickel D. and Strohmaier G. (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum Supplementum Orientale, ii) (Berlin, 1969) [pp. 147–66 Arabic index; pp. 178–86 Greek-Latin-English-Arabic glossaries].

Mattock J. N. , Kitāb buqrā<gap>t</gap> fī <gap>h</gap>abl 'alā <gap>h</gap>abl (Hippocrates: On Superfoetation). Edited and translated with introduction, notes and glossary (Arabic Technical and Scientific Texts, iii) (Cambridge, 1968) [pp. 26–77 Arabic-Greek glossary; pp. 78–112 Greek-Arabic].

Mattock J. N. , Kitāb buqrā<gap>t</gap> fī'l-akhlāt (Hippocrates: On humours) and Kitāb al-ghidhā' li-buqrā<gap>t</gap> (Hippocrates: On nutriment). Edited and translated with introduction, notes and glossary (Arabic Technical and Scientific Texts, vi) (Cambridge, 1971) [pp. 39–48 Greek-Arabic glossary and pp. 49–80 Arabic-Greek; for second treatise pp. 23–27 Greek-Arabic glossary and pp. 45–62 Arabic-Greek].

Mattock J. N. and Lyons M. C. , Kitāb buqrā<gap>t</gap> fī <gap>t</gap>abī'at al-insān (Hippocrates: On the Nature of Man). Edited and translated with introduction, notes and glossary (Arabic Technical and Scientific Texts, iv) (Cambridge, 1968) [pp. 43–80 Greek-Arabic glossary; pp. 81–119 Arabic-Greek].

Mattock J. N. and Lyons M. C. , Kitāb buqrā<gap>t</gap> fī'l-amrā<gap>d</gap> al-bilādiyye. Hippocrates: On endemic diseases (Airs, waters and places). Edited and translated with introduction, notes and glossary (Arabic Technical and Scientific Texts, v) (Cambridge, 1969) [pp. 191–261 Greek-Arabic glossary; pp. 262–331 Arabic-Greek].

Meyerhof Max , The book of the ten treatises on the eye ascribed to <gap>H</gap>unain ibn Is<gap>h</gap>āq (809–877 AD) … The Arabic text edited from the only two known manuscripts, with an English translation and glossary (Cairo, 1928) [pp. 172–227 glossaries].

Meyerhof Max , “The ‘Book of Treasure,’ an early Arabic treatise on medicine”, Isis, xiv (1930), 55–76 [pp. 74–76 glossary].

Meyerhof Max , “‘Alī a<gap>t</gap>-<gap>T</gap>abarī's ‘Paradise of Wisdom’, one of the oldest Arabic compendiums of medicine”, Isis, xvi (1931), 6–54 [pp. 47–54 glossary].

Meyerhof Max , Al-Morchid fi'l-Kohhl, ou Le guide d'oculistique, ouvrage inédit de l'oculiste arabe-espagnol Mohammad b. Qassoūm ibn Aslam al-Ghāfiqī (xii^e siècle) (Masnou-Barcelona, 1933) [pp. 167–93 glossary].

Meyerhof Max , Šar<gap>h</gap> asmā' al-'uqqār (L'Explication des noms de drogues). Un glossaire de matière médicale composé par Maïmonide, texte publié pour la première fois d'après le manuscrit unique (Cairo, 1940).

Meyerhof Max and Sobhy G. P. , The abridged version of “The book of simple drugs“of A<gap>h</gap>mad ibn Mu<gap>h</gap>ammad al-Ghāfiqī by Gregorias Abu'l Farag̬ (Barhebraeus) edited from the only two known mss. with an English translation, commentary and indices (Faculté de medicine, Fouad 1 Université, Pub. No. 4) (4 parts, Cairo, 1932–38).

Rabin C. , “Ibn Jamī' on the skeleton”, in Science, medicine and history: Essays on the evolution of scientific thought and medical practice written in honour of Charles Singer (ed. by Underwood E. Ashworth ) (London, 1953) [pp. 185–202 discussion and index of Arabic terms].

Said Hakim Mohammed , Al-Bīrūnī's Book on pharmacy and materia medica, edited with English translation (Karachi, Pakistan, 1973) [discussion of terms throughout; see also Appendix ii (Materia medica glossary and commentary), pp. 67–137 of “Part 2: Preface, commentary and evaluation by Hamarneh Sami K. ”].

Sanguinetti B. R. , “Quelques chapitres de médecine et de thérapeutique arabe”, Journal Asiatique, ser. 6, vii (1866), 289–328.

Savage-Smith Emilie , “Galen on nerves, veins and arteries: A critical edition and translation from the Arabic with notes, glossary and an introductory essay” (unpubl. Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1969) [pp. 227–44 Arabic-Greek glossary].

Sbath P. and Meyerhof M. , “Le livre des questions sur l'œil de <gap>H</gap>onain ibn Is<gap>h</gap>āq”, Mémoires présentés à l'Institut d'Égypt (Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale), xxxvi (Cairo, 1938), 1–147 [pp. 133–40 glossary].

Schleifer J. , “Zu Sobhys General Glossary der Ḏah̬īra”, Orientalische Literaturzeitung, xxxix (1936), 665–71 [see also Der Islam, xxiv (1937), 77–89].

Seidel Ernst , “Die Medizin im Kitāb mafātī<gap>h</gap> al-'ulūm”, Sitzungsberichte der physik.-med. Sozietat in Erlangen, xiv (1915), 1–79 [pp. 70–79 index of terms, with discussion throughout].

Sickenberger E. , “Les plantes égyptiennes d'Ibn el Beithar”, Bulletin de l'Institut d'Égypte, ser. 2, x (Cairo, 1890) [not seen by present author].

Siddiqi Muhammad Zubayr , Studies in Arabic and Persian medical literature (Calcutta, 1959) [pp. 126–62 glossaries, rather unreliable].

Simon Max , Sieben Bücher Anatomie des Galen … zum ersten Male Veröffentlicht … ins Deutsche übertragen und kommentiert (2 vols, Leipzig, 1906) [vol. i, pp. 332–63 Arabic-Greek glossary].

Sobhy G. P. , ed. Kitāb al-dhakhīra fī ‘ilm al-<gap>t</gap>ibb tā'līf Thāībit ibn Qurra (Cairo, 1928) [glossary pp. 1–43, somewhat unreliable].

von Sontheimer Joseph , “Nachricht von einer arabisch-medizinischen Handschrift, vermutlich des Ibn Dschazla”, Janus, ii (1847), 246–72.

Spies O. and Müller-Bütow H. , Anatomie und Chirurgie des Schädels, insbesondere der Hals-, Nasen- und Ohrenkrankheiten nach Ibn al-Quff (Ars Medica, iii. Abteilung: Arabische Medizin, Bd. i) (Berlin, New York, 1971) [pp. 49–55, 58–65 discussion of problems and sources of medieval Arabic medical terminology and terms for instruments and weights; index of terms pp. 155–60].

Strohmaier G. Galen über die verschiedenheit der homoiomeren Körperteile in arabischer Übersetzung zum erstenmal herausgegeben, übersetzt und erläutert (Corpus Medicorum Graecorum Supplementum Orientale, iii) (Berlin, 1970) [pp. 142–55 index of Arabic terms, pp. 158–62 Greek terms].

Thies Hans-Jürgen , Der Diabetestraktat 'Abd al-La<gap>t</gap>īf al-Bagdādī's, Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Krankheitsbildes in der arabischen Medizin (Bonn, 1971) [pp. 172–7 Arabic-Greek glossary; pp. 178–83 Greek-Arabic].

Ullmann Manfred , Die Medizin im Islam (Handbuch der Orientalistik, Abt. I, Erg. Bd vi, Abschn. i) (Leiden, 1970) [see Kapitel 12: Glossographie, pp. 234–41].

van Vloten G. , Mafātīh al-Olūm explicans vocabula technica scientiarum tam arabum quam peregrinorum auctore Abū Abdallah Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn Jūsuf al-Kātib al-Khowarezmi (Leiden, 1895) [not seen by present author].