Kitab al-Mujarrabat (Libro de las experiencias medicas (review)

Abu’l-‘Ala’ Zuhr ibn ‘Abd al-Malik al-Iyadi (d. 525/1130) was an eminent member of the Banu Zuhr, an important family of Andalusian physicians and political figures under the Almoravids, based mainly in Seville. Though somewhat overshadowed—at least among modern medical historians—by his more famous son Abu Marwan ibn Zuhr (d. 557/1161), Abu’l-‘Ala’ was in his own time a leading figure in medicine, a man of letters and scholar of the religious sciences, a friend and confidant of the Almoravid rulers of al-Andalus, and possibly a high-level administrator. He wrote numerous medical works, and his interests in this field concentrated mainly on pharmacology. He also participated in the controversies that often drew the attention of medical writers in medieval times; al-Razi (d. 313/925) and ‘Ali ibn Ridwan (d. 460/1067) were criticized by him for their attacks on Galen and hunayn ibn Ishaq (d. 260/873), respectively, and the treatment of simple drugs by Ibn Si\na (d. 428/1037) also provoked a refutation.

In the work presented here for the first time by Cristina Álvarez Millán we see another side of this author’s medical work. The Kitab al-Mujarrabat comprises the clinical and therapeutical notes of Abu’l-‘Ala’, apparently found among his papers after his death. These notes were compiled by his students and arranged for publication according to the classical head-to-foot classification; today they survive in three manuscripts in Spain and Morocco. Álvarez’s edition is based on Escorial MS 844.3, and collated against Rabat (al-Maktaba al-malikiya) MS 1538. The 310 case histories that these two MSS have in common comprise the text that she publishes as the Kitab al-Mujarrabat; an additional 19 case histories found only in the Escorial MS, and another 11 extant in Rabat MS 844.3 and a second Rabat MS (al-Maktaba al-malikiya, no. 253), are printed in separate appendices. As the original compilers themselves may have had doubts about these further case histories, Álvarez’s decision to separate them from the main text is entirely justified. The Spanish translation, in addition to making the text available to a non-Arabic-reading public, repeatedly reminds the medical historian of how much excellent work is being produced these days by Spanish colleagues in the field of Islamic medical history. More’s the pity, then, that this work is not better known or accessible outside Spain.

The ailments covered in the text give some sense of the kinds of complaints that people most commonly brought to the attention of their physicians: ophthalmological concerns are the ones most commonly addressed, with major attention also going to problems associated with the liver and stomach; numerous dermatological complaints are also discussed. Almost as well represented are oral, aural, and nasal difficulties, respiratory problems, and afflictions of the urinary tract.

The cases recorded in the text present “medical experiences,” as Álvarez calls them, rather than what a modern reader would understand by the term “case histories.” The notes are narrowly focused on the complaint and its treatment, and the persona of the patient is rarely visible. It is interesting to see that, as in other collections of medical case notes, epidemic diseases are not mentioned—perhaps suggesting that it was the more customary routine of medical practice, as opposed to the special problems posed by epidemics, that case notes were intended to document. It is also noteworthy that so little is said about sources or medical authorities: Galen is mentioned about a dozen times and his Kitab al-mayamir is cited in four places (nos. 59, 126, 146, 187), but aside from isolated references to Ibn Serapion (fl. early 4th/10th c.) and Ishaq ibn ‘Imran...