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a remarkable medico-philosophical con-
troversy in which the two adversaries
tried to exhibit their entire erudition, par-
ticularly in Greek medicine and philoso-
phy. “Ibn Bulān was the more gracious
in style, more spirited and more distin-
guished in literature and subjects con-
nected with it” (Ibn Abī Uaybia). After
a stay in Cairo of three or four years, he
went to Constantinople where he arrived
in the summer of 446/1054; his arrival
there coincided with the crisis which led
to the schism between the Greek and the
Latin Church, and the Patriarch, Michael
Cerularius, asked Ibn Bulān to compose
for him a treatise on the doctrine of the
Eucharist, and in particular on the con-
troversial point of the use of unleavened
bread. Ibn Bulān stayed in Constanti-
nople for one year and then returned to
Syria, alternating between Aleppo and
Antioch; he was for some time in the
service of Abu 'l-Mutawwa ¡ Muallad
b. Nar b. Muni £ (d. 450/1059), the
great-grandfather of Usāma b. Muni £ ;
in 455/1063 we find him supervising the
building of a hospital in Antioch and at
the same time engaged in literary work.
Finally he became a monk and retired
to a monastery in Antioch; he died on 8
· awwāl 458/2 September 1066 and was
buried in the church of the monastery.
The literary production of Ibn Bulān
is distinguished by its originality. (1) His
main work is the Tawīm al-ia , a syn-
opsis of hygiene and macrobiotics in the
form of tables, an arrangement borrowed
from works of astronomy; fi azālī in the
preface of his Iyā refers to it as his prec-
edent for using an arrangement familiar
to the readers from another branch of
learning, and it served as a model for the
Sulūk al-mālik fī tadbīr al-mamālik , a “mir-
ror for princes” by Ibn Abi 'l-Rabī (wrote
655/1256). It was translated into Latin
with the title Tacuini Sanitatis Elluchasem
Elimithar Medici de Baldath , Argentorati
1531, second ed. 1533, and into German,
by Michael Herr, with the title Schachtafeln
der Gesundheit , Strassburg 1533. Another
Latin treatise of hygiene is based on this
work. (2) Dawat al-atibbā , “The Medi-
cal Dinner Party”, written in 450/1058
and dedicated to Nar al-Dawla Amad
b. Marwān, the Marwānid ruler of
Mayyāfāriīn (401/1010-453/1060), a
witty skit on quacks, their ignorance and
arrogance, with remarks on the ethics of
the medical profession. A commentary
by a Christian author of Ba dād dates
from the 6th/12th century. (3) Tadbīr
al-amrā al-āria ala 'l-ak º ar bi-'l-a ∞£ iya
al-malūfa wa-'l-adwiya al-maw ¡ ūda yantafiu
bihā ruhbān al-adyira wa-man bauda min
al-madīna , a treatise on homely remedies,
particularly for the benefit of monks. (4)
Risāla fī ª irā al-raī wa-talīb al-abīd , on
how to buy slaves and how to detect bodily
defects. (5) Two treatises directed against
Ibn Riwān dating from 441/1049-50; a
third and final treatise, written after Ibn
Bulān had left Cairo, and called Wakat
al-aibbā , has not been preserved. (6) A
report of Ibn Bulān, addressed at his
request to the man of letters and minis-
ter, Hilāl al-Sābi, on his journey from
Ba dād to Cairo; it was incorporated in
Muammad b. Hilāl's Kitāb al-Rabī , and
considerable extracts have been preserved
in the biography of Ibn al-ifī and the
Geographisches Wörterbuch of Yāūt. This
report contains most valuable descriptions
of Aleppo, Antioch, Laodicea and other
cities at the time of Ibn Bulān's visit.
The treatise, together with other indica-
tions, shows the kind of society in which
Ibn Bulān moved. (7) Ibn Bulān's “Trea-
tise on the Eucharist”, Maāl fi'l urbān
al-muaddas , hastily written in the sum-
mer of 446/1054. (8) Quotations from his
notes for an autobiography, with remarks
on the epidemics which he witnessed, have
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