Beschreibung:

Muhammad bin Abdan ibn al-Boudi al-Damashqi, Shahr Mukhtasar al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (A Commentary on the fourth chapter of Avicennas Canon of Medicine), in Arabic, decorated manuscript on paper [Jerusalem, dated Safar 920 AH (1514 AD)] 21 leaves (plus 2 fly-leaves), single column, 33 lines black cursive naskh in a cursive and somewhat unrefined hand in keeping with a practical medical book, key words and phrases in red, contemporary overlining to important phrases also in red, some contemporary annotations to margins, outer edges trimmed affecting marginalia, upper edges of hinges repaired affecting text in places, a few small scuffs and smudges to text, overall very presentable condition, 258 by 165 mm.; nineteenth-century morocco-backed pasteboards, blind stamped with central cartouches, extremities a little rubbed An important relic of two of the greatest medieval medical institutions of the Near East: copied half a millennia ago in the Salahi hospital in the Holy City of Jerusalem, and containing a text most probably written by the chief physician of the Nuri al-din Bimaristan of Damascus Provenance: The colophon in this manuscript indicates that it was copied in the Bimaristan al-Salahi (Salahi Hospital) in Jerusalem in month of Safar, 920 AH (1514 AD), doubtless as a practical medical handbook for use by physicians there. The Salahi hospital was founded in the heart of the Old City by Western Crusaders, and in 583 AH/1186 AD was reportedly refounded by Saladin, and endowed as a teaching hospital. It remained in use as one of the foremost medical centres of the Near East until the eighteenth century, when it fell out of use and became a fruit market. One of its cavernous halls presently holds the souvenir bazaar. Any manuscript from its once vast library is of great importance, adding to our knowledge of that lost book collection, and shaping our understanding of what was taught and practised there. This manuscript is likely to have been copied there from an exemplar in that library, perhaps for a visiting medical student or physician. Text: The Arabic commentary here focusses on the fourth book of Avicennas vast medical treatise, that on the spread of contagious diseases, such as fevers and viruses, which manifest the entire body and often have no physical appearance. What is also notable in this manuscript is that the author, who is named in the heading as the chief physician and head practitioner in the Hospital of Damascus (almost certainly the famous Nur al-din Bimaristan) proves difficult to trace with certainty, and this may well be the only recorded copy of his work, and perhaps the only surviving record of his life. This hospital was of no less fame in the Near East to that of its counterpart in Jerusalem, and was founded in 1154 by the Zengid sultan, Nur al-Din, in the al-Hariqa quarter of the city to the west of the Umayyad Mosque. It remained in use as the primary medical centre of the region until the late fifteenth century, by which time it had founded five further hospitals in the city. Its building presently houses The Museum of Medicine and Science in the Arab World. For a manuscript of Avicennas work, and an important copy of its first printing, see lots 28 and 67 here.