Practical materia medica of the medieval eastern Mediterranean according to the Cairo Genizah - Sir Henry Welcome Asian Series Volume 7

664 Pages·2008·9.56 MB·English

by  Efraim Lev

Practical Materia Medica of the Medieval
Eastern Mediterranean According to the
Cairo Genizah
LEV-AMAR_i-iv.indd i 9/3/2007 3:45:12 PM
Sir Henry Wellcome
Asian Series
Edited by
Dominik Wujastyk
Paul U. Unschuld
Charles Burnett
Editorial Board
Donald J. Harper
Ch. Z. Minkowski
Guy Attewell
VOLUME 7
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Practical Materia Medica
of the Medieval Eastern
Mediterranean According
to the Cairo Genizah
By
Efraim Lev and Zohar Amar
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2008
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
The Sir Henry Wellcome name is used under licence from the Wellcome Trust.
The volumes in this series are published with financial support from the Wellcome
Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL.
The peacock logo of the series was drawn by the artist Phyllida Legg.
The authors would like to thank the Syndicate of Cambridge University Library
for the permission to publish the Cairo Genizah fragments presented in this book
and on its cover.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lev, Efraim.
Practical materia medica of the medieval eastern Mediterranean according to the
Cairo / by Efraim Lev and Zohar Amar.
p. ; cm. — (Sir Henry Wellcome Asian series, ISSN 1570-1484 ; v. 7)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
ISBN 978-90-04-16120-7 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Materia medica—Middle East —
History. 2. Medicine, Medieval—Middle East—History. 3. Jews—Medicine—Middle
East—History. 4. Cairo Genizah. I. Amar, Zohar. II. Title. III. Series: Sir Henry
Wellcome Asian series (Brill Academic Publishers) ; v. 7.
[DNLM: 1. Materia Medica—history—Middle East. 2. History, Medieval—Middle
East. 3. Jews—history—Middle East. QV 11 JA2 L655p 2008]
RS64.L48 2008
615'.10956—dc22
2007031992
ISSN: 1570-1484
ISBN: 978 90 04 16120 7
Copyright 2008 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishers,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated,
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PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS
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CONTENTS
List of Figures ...................................................................................... vii
Preface ................................................................................................... ix
PART A
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................... 3
Chapter 2 Practical Materia Medica and Its Sources ................... 20
PART B
DISCUSSION
Chapter 3 The identification of Materia Medica in the Genizah
and method of presenting the data ............................................... 29
Chapter 4 Prescriptions, lists, letters and their analysis .............. 42
Chapter 5 Inventory of practical Materia Medica of the
Genizah people, its analysis, and comparisons with the
theoretical inventory ...................................................................... 55
PART C
DESCRIPTIONS AND USES OF THE PRACTICAL
MATERIA MEDICA
Chapter 6 Materia Medica: detailed items .................................... 89
Chapter 7 Materia Medica: concise items ..................................... 325
Chapter 8 Epilogue .......................................................................... 509
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vi contents
PART D
APPENDIXES, BIBLIOGRAPHY AND INDEXES
Appendixes
Appendix 1 Practical Materia Medica ........................................... 515
Appendix 2 Theoretical Materia Medica ....................................... 550
Appendix 3 Compound Medicines and Drugs ............................ 559
Appendix 4 Foodstuffs .................................................................... 570
Appendix 5 Prescriptions, lists of Materia Medica and
notebooks ......................................................................................... 573
Bibliography ......................................................................................... 581
Figures
Indexes
Index of Scientific Names ................................................................... 599
Index of Arabic Names ....................................................................... 605
Index of English Names ...................................................................... 612
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LIST OF FIGURES
The Figures can be found after the Bibliography
Figure 1 A page from al-Kūhīn al-(cid:2)Att(cid:3)ā(cid:3) r’s Minhāj al-dukkān wa-dustūr
al-(cid:2)a(cid:3)yān fī (cid:2)a(cid:3)māl wa-tarākīb al-(cid:2)adwiya al-nāfi(cid:3)a lil-(cid:2)insān on syrups,
found in the Genizah (T-S Ar.40.91).
Figure 2 A fragment of a notebook on dentistry (T-S Or. 1080.7.17).
Figure 3 A letter from Maimonides to his disciple Tobias with a recipe
for his headache (T-S Ar.30.286).
Figure 4 Prescription for a recipe written in Judaeo-Arabic, opening
and closing with benedictions in Arabic (T-S Ar.30.305).
Figure 5 Prescription consisting of two similar recipes, the lower in
Judaeo-Arabic and the upper in Arabic (T-S AS 155.365).
Figure 6 Prescription for the treatment of haemorrhoids (T-S
Ar.44.181).
Figure 7 Family prescription listing 12 patients, some related (T-S NS
223.82-83).
Figure 8 Fragment identified as a part of Ibn al-Bayān’s al-Dustūr
al-bīmāristānī (T-S Ar.43.270).
Figure 9 Prescription for the treatment of ancient ulcer, chancre, and
some eye ailments (T-S AS 161.23).
Figure 10 List of simples and their quantities, written in Judaeo-Arabic,
including weights or prices in Coptic numerals (T-S Ar.30.274).
Figure 11 List of simples and their quantities, written in Arabic (T-S
Ar.39.487).
Figure 12 One of a few prescriptions that mentions myrobalan (T-S
Ar.43.338).
Figure 13 Dry decoction of Aloe, Aloe sp. (Liliaceae)
Figure 14 Crystals of alum, Stypteria
Figure 15 Resin of bdellium, Commiphora mukul (Burseraceae)
Figure 16 Seeds of bottle gourd, Lagenaria vulgaris (Cucurbitaceae)
Figure 17 Dried flowers of borage, Anchusa italica (Boraginacea)
Figure 18 Leaves and oil of camphor, Cinnamomum camphora
(Lauraceae)
Figure 19 Fruits of cardamom, Elettaria cardamomum (Zingiberaceae)
Figure 20 Seeds and root of carrot, Daucus carota (Apiaceae)
Figure 21 Leaves of cassia, Cassia acutifolia (Fabaceae)
Figure 22 Hard cheese; cattle product, Bos taurus (Bovidae)
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viii list of figures
Figure 23 Seeds of chate melon, Cucumis melo var. chate (Cucur-
bitaceae)
Figure 24 Samples of white clay [earth, bole]
Figure 25 Bark of cinnamon, Cinnamomum cassia, (Lauraceae)
Figure 26 Red coral, Tubipora musica (Coelenterata System)
Figure 27 Seeds of coriander, Coriandrum sativum (Apiaceae)
Figure 28 Resin of frankincense [olibanum], Boswellia carteri (Bur-
seraceae)
Figure 29 Gum Arabic; resin of Acacia nilotica (Mimosaceae)
Figure 30 Leaves, fruits and powder of henna, Lawsonia inermis, alba
(Lythraceae)
Figure 31 Fruits of jujube, Ziziphus vulgaris (Rhamnaceae)
Figure 32 Crystals and powder of galena, Plumbum sulphidum (PbS)
Figure 33 Resin of lentisk, Pistacia lentiscus (Anacardiaceae)
Figure 34 Roots of liquorice, Glycyrrhiza glabra (Fabaceae)
Figure 35 Fruits of long pepper, Piper longum (Piperaceae)
Figure 36 Mollusc [Operculum of marine gastropods]
Figure 37 Fruits of yellow myrobalan (cherry plum), Terminalia citrina
(Combrotaceae)
Figure 38 Resin of myrrh, Commiphora myrrha (Burseraceae)
Figure 39 Oak gall, Quercus sp. (Fagaceae)
Figure 40 Fruits of peony, Paeonia sp. (Paeoniaceae)
Figure 41 Fruits of pepper (black pepper), Piper nigrum (Piperaceae)
Figure 42 Fruits of perfumed cherry, Prunus mahaleb (Rosaceae)
Figure 43 Roots of rhubarb, Rheum sp. (Polygonaceae)
Figure 44 Flowers of rose (dog rose), Rosa canina (Rosaceae)
Figure 45 Common Rue, Ruta graveolens (Rutaceae)
Figure 46 Stigmas of saffron, Crocus sativus (Iridaceae) [on left side]
and imitations sold in markets today [right side]
Figure 47 Sarcocolla [resin], Astragalus sarcocolla (Fabaceae)
Figure 48 Fruits of sebesten, Cordia myxia (Boraginaceae)
Figure 49 Roots of spikenard [nard, nardus root, musk root, Indian
spikenard], Nardostachys jatamansi (Valerianaceae)
Figure 50 Crystals of cane sugar, Saccharum officinarum (Poacea)
Figure 51 Cylinders of natural Sulphur (S)
Figure 52 Leaves and seeds of sweet violet, Viola odorata (Violaceae)
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PREFACE
There is much information on Eastern medieval medical practices
and the use of medicinal substances, which is based mainly upon the
wide literature written in this field. This body of literature deals with a
wide variety of subjects, from general works on medical doctrines and
theories, codes of maintaining health, treating different diseases to the
preparation of medication and more.
The vast majority of these books was written by learned and usually
well trained, educated and known physicians in concrete and well
organized forms, and were meant to be practical and theoretical teaching
tools as well as reference books for practitioners.
In these works, the optimal medicinal substances were mentioned, out
of an enormous inventory from all over the Old World, as ingredients in
the proposed medicines. However, it seems that so far there has been no
wide and deep examination, which tries to assess how much of this body
of data regarding the medicinal substances was really used.
The goal of our study is to try to bridge the gap between the theoretical
and the practical information, as well as comparing uses of medicinal
substances according to the vast documentation dealing with medicine
in the Cairo Genizah. We strongly believe that the large number of
fragments dealing with medical issues, which are mainly related to
the Jewish community of medieval Cairo, truly reflect the wide field
of medicine in most of the eastern communities in particular and the
Mediterranean society in general.
The Genizah supplies us with reliable, direct and authentic information
on the diseases from which the members of the community suffered,
allows us to reconstruct the inventory of medicinal substances which
were sold in the pharmacies and moreover, to determine the frequencies
of their uses in prescriptions and their usefulness. Doing this, our study
contributes much to the knowledge regarding the medieval daily life,
the material culture, economy and trade among these communities.
This book is the outcome of five intensive years of research (based
on a decade of study of the medicine and the materia medica of the
Levant), which includes the sorting of thousands of manuscripts and
examining hundreds of original fragments, most of which are found at
the “Genizah capital”—the Taylor-Schechter Collection at Cambridge
University Library. It is our pleasure to thank Prof. Stefan Reif, the
former director of the Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University
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