Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and the desire to acquire social status or
to protect it. Ultimately, Ibn Bulān was
forced to leave, but rather than return to
Ba
∞
dād he went first to Constantinople
and then to a monastery, where he became
a monk. Ibn Bulān composed a medical
manual for the use of monks, a tract on
how to detect illnesses in slaves that were
for sale, a satirical piece exposing the
shortcomings of a physician and other
medical personnel (
Dawat al-aibbā
), and
the extremely popular
K. Tawīm al-ia
,
which in the course of 40 charts presents
210 plants and animals and 70 other
items and procedures useful for maintain-
ing good health. Neither Ibn Bulān nor
Ibn Riwān appear to have been aware of
the
ānūn
of Ibn Sīnā.
Perhaps with Ibn Bulān's
Tawīm
as
a model, synoptic charts became a com-
mon didactic element in Arabic medi-
cal literature. Such charts are found, for
example, in the therapeutic handbooks
of Ibn
⁄
azla and Saīd b. Hibat Allāh,
and in the treatises on
materia medica
of
Ibrāhīm b. Abī Saīd al-Alāī Ma
∞
ribī
(
fl
. mid-6th/12th cent.) and ubay
ª
b.
Ibrāhīm al-Tiflīsī (
fl
. end of 6th/12th
century). As early as the 3rd/9th cen-
tury, branch diagrams were used to illus-
trate the relationship between ideas or
between related diseases. Ibn Māsawayh
appears to have been amongst the earliest
to employ them, though branch diagrams
are also found in some Arabic copies of
summaries (
¡
awāmi
) of Galenic treatises.
Another popular format for medical dis-
course was that of questions and answers.
unayn b. Isā employed the technique
in his
al-Masāil fi 'l-ibb li 'l-mutaallimīn
and also in
al-Masāil fi 'l-ayn
. Others fol-
lowed suit, such as Saīd b. Abi 'l-
‡
ayr
al-Masīī (d. 589/1193), court physi-
cian to the Abbāsid caliph al-Nāir, in
his introductory guide to medicine,
K.
al-Itiāb
. Didactic medical poetry was
also a common device, though given little
attention by modern historians.
The Ayyūbid and Mamlūk dynasties
were noted for their patronage of physi-
cians and hospitals. Al-Malik al-Nāir I
alā al-Dīn Yūsuf b. Ayyūb (Saladin) was
said to have had no less than 18 physicians
in his service, eight of them Muslim, five
Jews, four Christians, and one Samaritan.
These included the well-known Jewish
physician and philosopher Maimonides
(Ibn Maymūn) and Ibn
⁄
umay. The lat-
ter had a number of students, including
Ibn Abi 'l-Bayān al-Isrāīlī, the author of
a formulary
Dustūr al-bīmāristān
for use in
the Nāirī hospital.
Nūr al-Dīn Mamūd b. Zangī had
founded a hospital in Damascus which
was named after him the Nūrī hospital,
and al-Malik al-Nāir I (Saladin) followed
his example by founding in 567/1171 a
hospital in Cairo called the Nāirī hospital.
The development of urban hospitals was
a major achievement of mediaeval Islamic
society. The relation of their design and
development to earlier poor and sick relief
facilities offered by some Christian mon-
asteries has not yet been fully delineated,
but it is evident that the mediaeval Islamic
hospital was a more elaborate institution
with a wider range of functions.
The Islamic hospital served several
purposes: a centre of medical treatment,
a convalescent home for those recover-
ing from illness or accidents, an insane
asylum, and a retirement home giving
basic maintenance needs for the aged
and infirm who lacked a family to care for
them. It is unlikely that any truly wealthy
person would have gone to a hospital,
unless they were taken ill while travelling
far from home. Except under unusual
circumstances, all the medical needs of
the wealthy and powerful would have
been administered in the home. Though
Jewish and Christian doctors working in
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