Medicine Dietetics and Pharmacology - Food Culture and Health in Pre-Modern Islamic Societies - page 234

Concerning weights, measures, and ves-
sels used by the aārūn , more information
can be found in G. C. Miles, Early Arabic
Glass Weights and Stamps , Supplement, New
York 1951. The best known druggists'
quarter ( sū al-aārīn ) of ancient times
was in al-Fusā, which was burned down
almost completely in 563/1168 (but was,
according to Ibn Dumā, rebuilt under
the Mamlūks), also referred to in docu-
ments from the Geniza. The sū al-ir of
Damascus is also worthy of note. A wood-
cut in E.W. Lane, An Account of the Manners
and Customs of the Modern Egyptians ii, facing
p. 9, gives a vivid picture of a druggist's
shop in the 19th century. Original bills for
medicines, prescriptions, and similar texts
from a druggist's practice, exist in consid-
erable numbers on papyrus. The fact that
this particular calling was very widespread
is borne out by the frequency with which
the term al-aār appears as a cognomen,
especially amongst poets and scholars for
whom this calling may well have served as
an additional source of income. The best
known instance is Farīd al-Dīn Aār.

hospitals had a pharmacist on the staff
we can infer e.g. from the al-aydala fi
'l-ibb of al-Bīrūnī. The rapid increase in
the materia medica , not only of Greek but
also of Iranian and Indian origin certainly
called for a special body of men and for
the separation of the pharmaceutical from
the medical profession. In ordinary outside
practice the doctor may have prescribed
and compounded his own mixtures. As a
rule drugs were bought separately from
the druggist and then compounded. The
mutasib had to give heed to the various
ways in which drugs were adulterated.
The practice of preparing substitutes for
certain simple drugs is attested by the
philosopher al-Kindī who wrote a treatise
containing recipes for the preparation of
substitutes for rare drugs.

Pharmacological literature
Galen's De medicamentorum compositione
secundum locos et genera had been translated
into Arabic, under the title Kitāb Tarkīb
al-Adwiya , by ubay ª from the Syriac of
unayn b. Isā. We are told that sur-
geons, before they could practise, were
obliged to make themselves masters of
this work.
The first pharmacopoeia to receive uni-
versal acceptance throughout the caliph-
ate was written by the Christian physician
Sābūr b. Sahl (d. 255/869), of the staff of
the hospital of ⁄ unday Sābūr. Accord-
ing to Ibn Nadīm it contained 22 chap-
ters, according to Ibn Abī Uaybia 17
chapters. It was in common use until the
publication of the Arābā £ īn of Amīn al-
Dawla Hibat Allāh b. Saīd b. al-Tilmī £
(d. 560/1165). Ibn al-Tilmī £ was a
court physician to al-Mutafī and to his
successor al-Mustan ¡ id and attached to
the Audī hospital in Ba ∞ dād. Besides
the Arābā £ īn in 20 chapters he wrote a
compendium ( al-Mū ¡ az al-Bīmāristānī ) for
use in ordinary hospitals. Manuscripts

(A. Dietrich)

Pharmacopoeia

Ar. arābā £ īn , or arābā £ īn from Syriac
grāfā £ īn , reproducing Greek γραφίδιον ,
“small treatise”, was used by the Arabs
as a title of treatises on the composition
of drugs, or pharmacopoeias, while the
simples which went into the composition
were designed by the term al-adwiya al-
mufrada .

The practice of
pharmacology
In the hospitals pharmacological
instruction very early made an important
part of the medical training. That the big