The selection of nineteenth-century Arabic texts on medical education, medicine and health demonstrates the significant link between the revival of the Arabic language and literary culture of the nineteenth century, known as thenahda, and the introduction of medical education to the Ottoman Empire. These include doctor Ibrahim al-Najjar's autobiographical account of his studies in Cairo (1855), an article by doctor Amin Abi Khatir advising on the health and care of infants (1877), questions and answers in the major popular Arabic journalsal-Hilalandal-Muqtataf(1877–1901) (...) and an article about a new tuberculosis treatment by doctor Anisa Sayba‘a (1903). Taken together they contribute to our understanding of the bottom-up production, reproduction and reception of global scientific knowledge, as well as to a social and intellectual history of science. We argue that the engagement with science during thenahdawas a multi-vocal and dialogical process, in which doctors and patients, journal editors and their readers, negotiated the implications of scientific knowledge for their own lives and their own society. The texts of the original documents and their translations can be found in the supplementary material tab athttps://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087422000413. (shrink)

Arabic contributions to medicine, mathematics, astronomy, and other fields have been extensively studied, yet Arabic logic has never been systematically investigated. In this book, Nicholas Rescher sheds new light on the major philosophical contribution of Arab logicians. He provides a historical account of the evolution of Arabic logic, from its inception in the early ninth century through the sixteenth century, when these tenets gained wide acceptance. The book also includes a bio-bibliography of 170 Arabic logicians, and a discussion of (...) the place of each within the overall scheme of developments. (shrink)

This book addresses the pressing issues involved with the ethical conduct of research in one developing world region - the Arab Region. Clinical research has soared in the developing world -as pharmaceutical companies continue their search for regions with large, treatment naive populations - including the Arab region, and has profound implications for the health and the economies for the area. The ethical issues involved with the conduct of such research, however, have so far not been adequately addressed. (...) This volume presents the issues regarding research ethics and research governance that have relevance for health authorities, regulators, industry, and academia. As a multi-authored volume it includes both international and local experts on ethical issues in research, representing all stakeholders, thus presenting a balanced view on this timely topic. (shrink)

Chinese Hui medicine is a unique Chinese traditional medicine system formed by the integration of traditional Islamic Arabia medicine and China traditional Chinese medicine. It is also the cream of ancient Eastern and Western traditional medicine. Hui medicine is based on its unique concepts of Hui medical philosophy, such as the theory of Zhenyi Vitality and the theory of seven elements. It is the only traditional national medicine developed by inheriting Islamic Arab medical philosophy and integrating Chinese traditional Chinese (...) medical philosophy theory. Hui medicine likes to use the application method characterized by aromatic Hui medicine (also known as ship medicine). It has high traditional treatment effect in Hui orthopedics and traumatology, Hui medicine of brain, Hui medicine of gynecology, Hui medicine of ophthalmology, Hui medicine of dermatology, Hui medicine of anorectal, etc. There is a relatively complete traditional medical system of Hui medicine. The Sinicized Islamic philosophical system guides the philosophical concept of Hui medicine. Hui medicine absorbs and combines the essence of traditional Chinese medicine, which forms the theoretical system of “Zhenyi (True one)”, “Vitality”, “Yin and Yang”, “Qixing”, “Four natures”, “Four body fluids” “Viscera Qi activity” and “Four parts and seven diseases” systems, which have been formed in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases. The characteristics of Hui medicine application are based on the formulation of aromatic drugs, and the nature of cold, hot, dryness, and humidity is conducted for each drug, as well as the drug strength (toxicity) of each drug is graded in grades 1 - 4. Therefore, Hui medicine is a traditional ethnic medicine combined with Chinese and Western medicine. (shrink)

Population-based genomics studies have proven successful in identifying genetic variants associated with diseases. High-quality biospecimens linked with informative health data from diverse segments of the population have made such research possible. However, the success of biobank research depends on the willingness of the public to participate in this type of research. We aimed to explore the factors associated with the willingness of the public to participate in biobank research from four low- and middle-income countries in the Arab region (Egypt, (...) Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan). We used a previously validated questionnaire to assess several constructs that included the public’s perceptions, attitudes, and willingness to participate in biobank research. We recruited 967 participants. More than half did not have prior awareness of biobanks. Participants’ willingness to donate biospecimens and health data was less than 10%. Our results also showed that participants harbored concerns with trust, privacy, and with data-sharing involving international researchers. Predictors of willingness to participate in biobank research included no previous involvement in research and positive attitudes toward biobanks. Finally, our study showed several differences between the four countries regarding several of the investigated constructs. We conclude there should be additional efforts to raise public awareness and enhance perceptions of the public in biobanking research to enhance trust. We further recommend qualitative research to explore the underlying factors that contribute to the public’s concerns with international data sharing that would enhance global health. (shrink)

Representations of the heavens in various levels of detail can be found in a number of branches of Arabic literature. One particular genre, the hay'a texts, has as its purpose a full though non-mathematical discussion of the arrangement of the celestial orbs; hay'a writers are particularly sensitive to the philosophical requirements which all systems must meet. The pivotal work in this genre, On the Configuration, was written by Ibn al-Haytham. Later writers continued to produce works in the spirit of On (...) the Configuration. In the east, al-Tusi and his followers developed new models; in the west, a group of thinkers tried to rediscover the models which, so they thought, were the ones endorsed by Aristotle himself. (shrink)

This first full-length study of the Arabic reception of Plato's Timaeus considers the role of Galen of Pergamum in shaping medieval perceptions of the text as transgressing disciplinary norms. It argues that Galen appealed to the entangled cosmological scheme of the dialogue, where different relations connect the body, soul, and cosmos, to expand the boundaries of medicine in his pursuit for epistemic authority – the right to define and explain natural reality. Aileen Das situates Galen's work on disciplinary boundaries in (...) the context of medicine's ancient rivalry with philosophy, whose professionals were long seen as superior knowers of the cosmos vis-à-vis doctors. Her case studies show how Galen and four of the most important Christian, Muslim, and Jewish thinkers in the Arabic Middle Ages creatively interpreted key doctrines from the Timaeus to reimagine medicine and philosophy as well as their own intellectual identities. (shrink)

The Aldine edition of Galen’s works, prepared by humanists anxious to replace the medieval Latin translations with a purely Greek text, certainly represents an advance in scholarship. However, widespread anti-Arabic prejudices of the time precluded most humanists, including the Aldine editors, from perceiving anything of value in the Latin Galenic textual tradition, which was characterized as representing a Galen that had passed through the corrupting influence of Arabic. This paper considers the cost to the medical tradition of ignoring Arabic in (...) the Aldine edition of 1525, and thereafter. Several examples of passages from the Arabo-Latin Galen are compared with the Aldine, and their differences are considered and evaluated with regard to their impact on medical knowledge. The conclusion is drawn that, although there were some real corruptions in the Arabo-Latin tradition, in the main it contained useful variant readings, which might have been used to the profit of Greek philology, as well as to the advancement of Galenic scholarship. (shrink)

BackgroundBiobanks have recently been established in several low- and middle-income countries in the Arab region of the Middle East. We aimed to explore the views of biobank managers regarding the challenges, ethical issues, and governance arrangements of their biobanks.MethodsIn-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of eight biobank managers from Egypt, Jordan, and Sudan. Interviews were performed either face-to-face, by phone, or via Zoom and lasted approximately 45–75 min. After verbal consent, interviews were recorded and then (...) transcribed. The authors performed a thematic analysis of the transcripts independently and then integrated the themes via a consensus process.ResultsBiobank managers discussed the main challenges in establishing their biobanks. These included the staff’s lack of experience and training, limited funds, deficit awareness of biobanks, obtaining funding from different sources. Only four reported they were active in distributing biospecimens and health data to researchers. Six biobanks used a broad consent model, one used tiered consent, and another allowed participants to opt-out of being recontacted. Five managers avoided partnerships with pharmaceutical companies due to concerns with unfavorable reactions from the community. Five managers did not have clear policies for returning research results to the donors. Five expressed challenges with sample and data sharing with international collaborators; all five used material transfer agreements. The biobank managers revealed variable governance arrangements and activities with community involving awareness and educational efforts rather than active engagement. Several expressed the importance of transparency with the operations of their biobanks and gaining the trust of their stakeholders.ConclusionManagers of biobanks in LMICs in the Arab Middle East encounter financial, operational, and social challenges toward their sustainability efforts. Discussions with key stakeholders are warranted to manage ethical issues involving informed consent, privacy, data sharing, and the return of results. We recommend that biobank managers in the Arab Middle East form collaborative networks within the region and internationally, develop trusting governance relationships with their stakeholders, and pursue engagement activities with their communities to enhance trust. (shrink)

This volume presents the first edition of the Arabic translation, by Hunayn ibn Ishaq, of Galen's Critical Days (De diebus decretoriis), together with the first translation of the text into a modern language. The substantial introduction contextualizes the treatise within the Greek and Arabic traditions. Galen's Critical Days was a founding text of astrological medicine. In febrile illnesses, the critical days are the days on which an especially severe pattern of symptoms, a crisis, was likely to occur. The crisis was (...) thought to expel the disease-producing substances from the body. If its precise timing were known, the physician could prepare the patient so that the crisis would be most beneficial. After identifying the critical days based on empirical data and showing how to use them in therapy, Galen explains the critical days via the moon's influence. In the historical introduction Glen Cooper discusses the translation of the Critical Days in Arabic, and adumbrates its possible significance in the intellectual debates and political rivalries among the 9th-century Baghdad elite. It is argued that Galen originally composed the Critical Days both to confound the Skeptics of his own day and to refute a purely mathematical, rationalist approach to science. These features made the text useful in the rivalries between Baghdad scholars. Al-Kindi (d.c. 866) famously propounded a mathematical approach to science akin to the latter. The scholar-bureaucrat responsible for funding this translation, Muhammad ibn Musa (d. 873), al-Kindi's nemesis, may have found the treatise useful in refuting that approach. The commentary and notes to the facing page translation address issues of translation, as well as important concepts. (shrink)

RésuméSamuel Ibn Tibbon est connu surtout comme le traducteur du Guide des Égarés de Maïmonide et comme l'auteur de l’œuvre cosmogonique audacieuse d'inspiration avicennienne Ma'amar Yiqqawu ha-mayim. Le fait que Samuel Ibn Tibbon soit également l'auteur de la traduction d'arabe en hébreu du Tegni de Galien avec le commentaire d'Ibn Riḍwān, connu sous le titre d’al-Ṣināʿa al-ṣaġīra, est attesté par les colophons de deux manuscrits, mais a récemment été nié. La question n'est pas sans importance, car, si Ibn Tibbon est (...) bien l'auteur de cette traduction, alors, comme l'avait observé Steinschneider, le commentaire de ʿAlī Ibn Riḍwān est la première traduction d'arabe en hébreu d'une œuvre d'un auteur musulman. Dans cet article je réfute les arguments contre l'attribution de la traduction à Ibn Tibbon, et, au contraire, je montre positivement qu'un examen systématique des données confirme qu'il en est bien l'auteur. Je procède notamment par un examen de l’évolution du vocabulaire philosophique d'Ibn Tibbon, espérant que ses résultats seront utiles au-delà de l'objectif immédiat qui l'a déclenché. Cet article accompagne l'article: Gad Freudenthal et Resianne Fontaine, “Philosophy and medicine in Jewish Provence, Anno 1199: Samuel Ibn Tibbon and Doeg the Edomite translating Galen's Tegni”, publié dans ce numéro d’ASP, 26, pp. 1–26. (shrink)

The Ikhwan al-Safa' (Brethren of Purity), the anonymous adepts of a tenth-century esoteric fraternity based in Basra and Baghdad, hold an eminent position in the history of science and philosophy in Islam due to the wide reception and assimilation of their monumental encyclopaedia, the Rasa 'il Ikhwan al-Safa' (Epistles of the Brethren of Purity). This compendium contains fifty-two epistles offering synoptic accounts of the classical sciences and philosophies of the age; divided into four classificatory parts, it treats themes in mathematics, (...) logic, natural philosophy, psychology, metaphysics, and theology, in addition to didactic fables. Epistles 6 to 8 are from the first division of the Epistles, on the propaedeutical and mathematical sciences. Epistle 6 develops ideas concerning natural numbers and their arithmetic, geometric, and harmonic ratios, marked by the influence of Nicomachus of Gerasa and of Euclid. The Brethren here emphasize practical applications of proportionality in music, medicine, and alchemy. Epistle 7 addresses theoretical scientific knowledge as directed towards the spiritual realities of souls, the goal of which is to actualize human potential; this epistle also presents a remarkable classification of sciences. Epistle 8 surveys material cultures in the Islamic mediaeval milieu, embellished by a consideration of the effects of the heavenly bodies on the predisposition of individuals to follow specific trades. These three epistles are, of course, underpinned by the Brethren's perennial tropes of the microcosm/macrocosm analogy and the emanative hierarchy of existents. (shrink)

This article investigates the Arabic tradition of the Problemata Mechanica, a Greek text of mechanics ascribed to Aristotle, of which it has often been said that Arabic classical culture had been ignorant of it. Against this prevailed claim, it is shown that the Arabo-Muslim scholars had access to the text at least in the form of an abridged version entitled Nutaf min al-iyal edited by al-Khāzinī in Kitāb mīzān al-ikma . The article includes the critical edition of the Arabic text (...) of the Nutaf on the basis of the two extant manuscripts and its English translation. Finally, the mechanical theory in the Nutaf is characterized briefly. (shrink)

The reception of the rational sciences, scientific practice, discourse and methodology into Arabic Islamic society proceeded in several stages of exchange with the transmitters of Iranian, Christian-Aramaic and Byzantine-Greek learning. Translation and the acquisition of knowledge from the Hellenistic heritage went hand in hand with a continuous refinement of the methods of linguistic transposition and the creation of a standardized technical language in Arabic: terminology, rhetoric, and the genres of instruction. Demonstration more geometrico, first introduced by the paradigmatic sciences-mathematics, astronomy, (...) mechanics-and adopted by philosophers embracing the cosmology of Neoplatonism, was complemented and superseded by the methods of syllogistic demonstration. Faced with the establishment of philosophy as a demonstrative science, which claimed absolute and universal knowledge, even the hermeneuti. (shrink)

In this paper I will show some contributions from Averroes around some issues related to psychology and medicine. My intention is to establish some relations between the commentaries on De anima and the medical treatises. The itinerary is the following: a) I will show that, like Aristotle, Averroes conceives the soul as a set of biological capacities; b) De anima is a biological treatise, so there we can find some considerations that must be understood from a medical point of view, (...) specially, from the Arabic contributions on Anatomy. It is necessary, then, to point out the importance of the nerves and the brain to understand the narrow relation between the De anima and the Book of Medicine. We will find that Averroes does not understand the soul as a 'spiritual principle' but like something generated that makes possible several biological functions, from the vegetative and the sensitive to the intellectual ones. So, Averroes denies the Neoplatonic conception of the soul as something separated from the body. Averroes explains that the soul is the concretion of the biological process denominated "life". KEY WORDS – Averroes. Aristotle. De anima. Neoplatonism. Biology. Life. (shrink)

That philosophy and medicine provide complementary forms of knowledge of the same subject is attested several times, by many authors, in various ways. For examp.

The article comments on the epistemological foundations of medieval Arabic science and philosophy, as presented in five earlier communications, and attempts to draw some guidelines for the study of its social history. At the very beginning the notion of "Islam" is discounted as a meaningful explanatory category for historical investigation. A first part then looks at the applied sciences and notes three major characteristics of their epistemological approach: they were functionalist and based on experience and observation. The second part looks (...) at the theoretical sciences and notes that their epistemology was based on geometrical as well as (b) syllogistic modes of proof, and that the particular approach of scientists and philosophers was determined by (c) whether the motivations of each were scientific or non-scientific (e.g., religious, dogmatic, eristic, etc.). A third part concludes that for medieval Arabic-writing scholars with a scientific motivation the epistemological bases of their work were common to scientists to all cultures, and that the causes of advance or decline of Arabic science and philosophy have to be sought in social factors. In this regard three factors are presented as instrumental: (a) the level of patronage and wealth in any given society within the medieval Islamic world, (b) the cultural attitude of ideological laissezfaire in Sunni Islam which neither imposed nor adopted authoritative solutions in scientific and philosophical issues, and (c) the temporal and local specificity of scientific activity that makes the social contextualization of each science necessary in historical work. (shrink)

RésuméTechnê iatrikêde Galien a été traduit en hébreu trois fois. Deux fois dans le midi, autour de l'an 1199: d'abord, à partir de la version latine de Constantine l'Africain, par un médecin anonyme qui utilisait le pseudonyme “Doeg l’Édomite”; et une seconde fois de l'arabe, par Samuel Ibn Tibbon à Béziers, laVorlageétant maintenant la version arabe de Ḥunayn Ibn Isḥāq (al-Ṣināʿa al-ṣaġīra), accompagnée par le commentaire de ʿAlī Ibn Riḍwān. (La paternité de Samuel Ibn Tibbon de cette traduction a été (...) contestée, mais elle est établie dans l'article de Gad Freudenthal dans ce numéro d’ASP.) Une troisième traduction, encore une fois du latin et comprenant le commentaire d'Ibn Riḍwān, a été réalisée par Hillel ben Samuel à Rome à la fin du XIIIesiècle, mais elle n'entre pas dans notre sujet.Nous présentons leTegniet décrivons son histoire. Puis nous posons la question pourquoi cet ouvrage a été traduit en hébreu deux fois exactement au même moment et dans la même région. Nous montrons que les deux traducteurs ont répondu à un besoin des médecins juifs lisant seulement l'hébreu. Doeg réalise sa traduction dans le cadre de son vaste projet de mise à disposition en traduction hébraïque de la plus grande partie du corpus de l’école de Salerne. Samuel Ibn Tibbon, pour sa part, a traduit leTegniavec le commentaire d'Ibn Riḍwān parce que, après avoir été médecin, il évoluait graduellement vers la vocation d'un traducteur de l'arabe en hébreu d’œuvres philosophiques et ce texte médico-philosophique était en adéquation avec cette évolution d'un médecin avec des intérêts philosophiques vers un scientifique-philosophe. (shrink)

RésuméCet article examine une brève présentation catéchétique de la doctrine médicale galénique des jours critiques composée par le traducteur et penseur duixesiècle Qusṭā ibn Lūqā (m. 912/3) et que l'on a trouvée dans un manuscrit iranien. Tout d'abord, on démontre que cette œuvre a été composée à partir du traité de Galien sur les jours critiques. Ensuite, on la discute section par section, sous forme de commentaire, pour élucider les doctrines médicales proposées par Qusṭā. Enfin, l'œuvre est comparée avec une (...) tentative antérieure, celle d'al-Kindī (m.c. 870), de décrire les jours critiques d'une façon mathématique. On discute les diverses doctrines présentes à l'arrière-plan du traité, comme les diverses approches de la méthode scientifique. L'article se conclut en mettant en contraste la méthode scientifique mathématique eta priorid'al-Kindī avec la méthode empirique eta posterioride Galien et Qusṭā, et il fait des suggestions concernant la chronologie des occurrences de ces doctrines et de ces textes en langue arabe. Une transcription du texte arabe est donnée en appendice. (shrink)

El presente artículo rastrea el rol de la lengua siríaca en el movimiento de traducción que derivó en la medicina islámica medieval a partir de la identificación de los paralelos literarios existentes entre la receta de la Hierá de Archigénes de El libro de las medicinas en lengua siríaca y los textos griegos y árabes que contienen testimonios de la misma receta. Esta receta, que es un compuesto de variada actividad terapéutica, es una de las tantas evidencias halladas que argumenta (...) a favor de la temprana labor de los cristianos de lengua siríaca como traductores de textos médicos clásicos, precediendo a quienes lo hicieron en lengua árabe, que habrían traducido sus textos farmacéuticos a partir del siríaco. The article traces the role of the Syriac language in the translation’s movement that led to medieval Islamic medicine from the identification of the literary parallels between the recipe of the Hiera of Archigenes of The book of medicines in language Syriac and the Greek and Arab texts that contain testimonies of the same recipe. This recipe which is a compound of varied therapeutic activity is one of the many evidences found that argues in favor of the early work of the Christians of the Syriac language as translators of classical medical texts, preceding those who did it in the Arabic language. (shrink)

A considerable number of the thirteenth and early fourteenth-century manuscripts of Michael Scot's Arabic-Latin translation of Aristotle's De animalibus display a system of guiding marginal glosses. These glosses are usually added by a later hand with respect to the hand that had written the text. The manuscripts were not only annotated for personal use, but also so as to allow for a better use in compiling commentaries, encyclopaedias and compendia. We can say that the marginalia form the main, if not (...) only, key to our understanding today of the use that readers made of the text. Apart from offering a mere explanation of the contents, we can see that their interest in the text was chiefly related to biblical exegesis and to scientific and medical knowledge. The approach to the text was often allegorical and moralizing in character. Some remarks reflect the reader's own experience and associations in relation to the text. (shrink)

The "Text" and the "Commentary" mentioned in the title of this essay are, respectively, the "Kitāb al-Manāẓir", or "Optics", of al-Ḥasan ibn al-Haytham, composed in the first half of the fifth/eleventh century, and the "Tanqīḥ al-Manāẓir li-dhawī l-abṣār wa l-baṣā'ir", written by Abū l-Ḥasan (or al-Ḥasan) Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī in the second half of the seventh/thirteenth century. It is known that, so far, only the first five of the seven "maqālāt"/Books that make up the Arabic text of IH's "Optics" have (...) been published, and that the "Tanqīḥ" was published in two volumes. I shall be concerned with certain episodes in the lives of these two works, my aim being to shed light on their transmission within the Islamic Arabic and Persian worlds. -/- . (shrink)

A considerable number of the thirteenth and early fourteenth-century manuscripts of Michael Scot's Arabic-Latin translation of Aristotle's De animalibus display a system of guiding marginal glosses. These glosses are usually added by a later hand with respect to the hand that had written the text. The manuscripts were not only annotated for personal use, but also so as to allow for a better use in compiling commentaries, encyclopaedias and compendia. We can say that the marginalia form the main, if not (...) only, key to our understanding today of the use that readers made of the text. Apart from offering a mere explanation of the contents, we can see that their interest in the text was chiefly related to biblical exegesis and to scientific and medical knowledge. The approach to the text was often allegorical and moralizing in character. Some remarks reflect the reader's own experience and associations in relation to the text. (shrink)

This commentary examines the incursion on the neutrality of medical personnel now taking place as part of the human rights crises in Bahrain and Syria, and the ethical dilemmas which these incursions place not only in front of physicians practicing in those nations, but in front of the international community as a whole.In Bahrain, physicians have recently received harsh prison terms, apparently for treating demonstrators who clashed with government forces. In Syria, physicians are under the same political pressure to avoid (...) treating political demonstrators or to act as informants against their own patients, turning them in to government authorities. This pressure has been severe, to the point that some physicians have become complicit in the abuse of patients who were also political demonstrators.This paper posits that physicians in certain countries in the Middle East during the “Arab Spring,” specifically Syria and Bahrain, are being used as both political pawns and political weapons in clear violation of Geneva Convention and World Medical Association guidelines, and that this puts them into the most extreme sort of “dual loyalty” dilemma. They are being forced to choose between their own safety and well-being and that of their patients – a negative sum scenario wherein there is no optimal choice. As such, an international call for a United Nations inquiry must be made in order to protect the neutrality of medical care and personnel during times of armed conflict. (shrink)

This paper presents the newly rediscovered ‘Syriac Galen Palimpsest’. The manuscript has been subjected to the latest imaging techniques, which has allowed scholars to identify its undertext as containing a Syriac translation of Galens Book of Simple Drugs. After discussing the history, imaging and identification of the manuscript, we proceed to consider its significance for our understanding of the transmission of Greek medical lore in Syriac and Arabic, for which the Book of Simple Drugs serves as a convenient model. Several (...) common misconceptions,regarding the Syriac medical traditions are addressed, including the assumed inferiority of the Syriac translations, compared to the Arabic ones, and the role of Syriac as an intermediary between Greek and Arabic. (shrink)

The treatise On Formative Power of Ferrara's emblematic medical humanist, Nicolò Leoniceno, is the one of the first embryological monographs of the Renaissance. It shows, at the same time, the continuity of medieval Arabo-Latin tradition and the new elements brought by Renaissance medical humanism, namely through the use of the ancient Greek commentators of Aristotle like Simplicius. Thus this treatise stands at the crossroad of these two currents. The present study analyses the range of Leoniceno's philosophical discussion, determines its exact (...) sources and brings to light premises for the early modern development of the concept of formative force, which will end up in the theory of "plastic nature" at the heart of the Scientific Revolution. (shrink)

RésuméLe présent article propose la liste des œuvres médicales composées par Ibn Bājja, donne une présentation synthétique de celles qui nous ont été transmises et étudie le métacommentaire au commentaire de Galien sur lesAphorismesd'Hippocrate (Sharḥ fī al-Fuṣūl). Ce texte montre une influence profonde d'al- Fārābī, en particulier dans sa conception de l'expérience médicale, qui remonte à la façon dont ce dernier construit l'expérience (tajriba) comme le procédé inductif, décrit par Aristote dans lesSeconds Analytiques, produisant les prémisses de la démonstration. Sur (...) cette base, Ibn Bājja défend la pertinence d'une médecine moins scolastique et plus empirique, une position dont Ibn Rushd se fera l'écho. Des similitudes entre le texte d'Ibn Bājja et leK. al-Kulliyyāt fī al-ṭibbd'Ibn Rushd suggèrent que celui-ci avait lu leSharḥ fī al-Fuṣūl. Cette œuvre, en outre, pourrait bien attester que la dissection humaine était pratiquée à l'époque d'Ibn Bājja. (shrink)

In his commentary on the first Aphorism of Hippocrates Maimonides lists the seven parts of medicine. Scholars have studied the relation of this text to the work of al-Fārābī. In particular, they have focused on the Iḥṣāʼ al-ʼulῡm, which in its present form does not contain a discussion of medicine, and on al-Fārābīʼs Risāla fi al-ţibb. The article examines the medieval Hebrew versions of the Iḥṣāʼ al-ʽūlum. On the basis of these versions, it is argued that there existed a version (...) of the Ihşāʼ al-ʽulūm which did contain a section on medicine; that the Risala fi al-ţibb could have originated in such a fuller version of the Ihsa' al-'ulum; and that Maimonides's ultimate source for his classification of medicine was probably the Iḥṣāʼ al-ʽulūm. An appendix to the paper examines Maimonides's references to Galen and to Abū Bakr al- Rāzī. These references show Maimonides's perception of al-Fārābīʼs view of physicians who claim to be philosophers. Dans son commentaire sur le premier aphorisme d'Hippocrate, Maïmonide décrit les sept parties de la médecine. Dans le passé, les chercheurs ont étudié le rapport de ce texte avec l'œuvre d'al-Fārābī, surtout le Iḥṣāʼ al-ʼulῡm et la Risāla fi al-ţibb. L'article examine les traductions hébraïques médiévales du Iḥṣāʼ al-ʽulūm. Ces traductions suggèrent l'existence d'une version, aujourd'hui disparue, du Iḥṣāʼ al-ʼulῡm, contenant une section sur la médecine. II est possible que la Risāla fi al-ţibb trouve son origine dans cette version, et il semble que la taxonomie de la médecine offerte par Maïmonide est issue, en dernière analyse, du Iḥṣāʼ al-ʼulῡm. Un appendice examine les références faites par Maïmonide à Galien et à Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, et prend note de ce que Maïmonide croyait être l'opinion d'al- Fār¯bī sur les médecins qui se prennent pour des philosophes. (shrink)

-- jildi 13. Qonuni tib, kitobi duvvum, qismi 1-2. Andar shinokhtani doruḣoi soda.

MEDIEVAL ARABIC PHILOSOPHICAL ETHICS is a much neglected field. Not many texts have survived. Some of them are rather popular and belie the assumption that Medieval Arabic philosophy is essentially Aristotelian. For instance, al-Kindi, Abu Bakr al-Razi, Avicenna, and Miskawayh all wrote about treating sadness. Were philosophers at the time subject to acute bouts of depression? or did they have some serious philosophical reasons to deal with this topic? How can one conciliate the popular and highly successful genre of the (...) "Spiritual Medicine," which considers passions as diseases of the soul that are badly in need of eradication, with the need for a rigorous normative ethics? As Islam and its Shari'a provide detailed ethical prescriptions and prohibitions, as well as guidance for any situation in the life of pious Muslims, how can philosophy vindicate the autonomy and importance of philosophical ethics? Can it be done on Aristotelian grounds? Why do serious philosophers devote such efforts to "Spiritual Medicine," a very un-Aristotelian enterprise? Such questions are puzzling. To even begin answering them, we need to study carefully the works of each philosopher in order to understand on their own terms what place and what role they assign to ethics, and then to analyze their ethical works to determine their purpose, audience, and philosophic worth. (shrink)

Medicine is no stranger to patience. In fact, the word ‘patient’ has an etymology stemming from the Latin word ‘patiens’, describing the one who tolerates suffering.1 In this sense, the cornerstone of medicine, the patient–physician relationship, reflects passive language, ‘to suffer’. This suffering must be understood, and should be most intimately understood by those who provide care that is beyond a patient’s reach. The case of patients and their loved ones requesting medically futile care at the end of life is (...) one where further treatment is replaced by patience and, more rarely, the patience of medical teams is replaced by futile treatment. At the heart of this debate is not only the denial of futile care but also the need for understanding the extent of patience that must be endured as a result of it. Burns and Truog2 remark on this ethical dilemma: > The best solution – although perhaps also the most difficult – is…tolerating the demands for care that we believe to be futile, and finding ways to better support the emotional needs of each other in those rare cases where we are called on to provide this care. The concept of futility in care represents medical intervention with limited, or no, chance of resulting in what is regarded as a clinically successful outcome. Since the American Medical Association’s endorsement of the lack of consensus on futile care in 1999, this integral conflict remains.3 This is a conflict of understanding. I believe this understanding can be strengthened by acknowledging the Arabic word for patience, ‘ sabr ’, along …. (shrink)