1001 Cures tells the fascinating story of how generations of physicians from different countries and creeds created a medical tradition admired by friend and foe. It influences the fates and fortunes of countless human beings, both East and West...
“The content of many schools’ curricula and popular books of science rarely mention any scientific or technological progress between the fall of the Roman Empire and the European Renaissance. Yet reliable history books tell us of a period lasting nearly 1000 years after 600 CE, where a vast amount of scientific and intellectual activity took place in the Muslim world. Unfortunately, this public amnesia has led to a polarised world. We, at the Foundation for Science, Technology and Civilisation (FSTC), recognise a need for a new language based on the cultural roots of science to discover connections between cultures to foster social cohesion and inter-cultural respect. Looking at world history through the lens of science, we see examples of cooperation, homage and respect throughout humanity. FSTC endeavours to popularize the notion that the development of science, technology and medicine benefitted from all cultures. This is exemplified by the famous saying of Sir Isaac Newton: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” Professor Mohamed El-Gomati
The opening page of the Vesalius’ Abridgment of al-Rāzī’s Ninth Book for Al-Manṣūr (Paraphrasis in nonum librum Rhazae).
Opening page of Galen’s On the Sects for Beginners with owner’s note by Avicenna.
The opening page of the revised Latin translation of Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine.
Two people in a physician’s surgery. From Ibn Buṭlān’s Physicians’ Dinner Party. The manuscript is from 13th century Iraq or Syria.
13th-century manuscript from Animals and their uses/ Kitab na’t al-hayawan wamanafi’ihi showing Aristotle and Alexander the Great.
Three physicians in conversation from a 13th-century miniature from a translation of Dioscordies’s “De Materia Medica”
13th-century manuscript showing a Greek translation of the medical handbook by Ibn al-Jazzār entitled Provisions for the Traveller and Nourishment for the Sedentary.
Opening of Maimonides’ Abridgment of Galen’s ‘Method of Healing’ in Judaeo-Arabic, that is, Arabic written in Hebrew.
Opening page of Ibn al-Tilmīdh’s Treatise on Bloodletting. Arundel Or. 10, f. 109v
Dioscorides’ Materia Medica lists the humoral qualities of drugs. Or. 3366, f. 89r
This image from a copy of the Arabic translation of Dioscorides’ On Medical Substances dipicts what’s happening inside a pharmacist’s shop.
Two patients in front of a physician, with some surgical instruments on the table. From De Materia Medica by Dioscorides.
Surgical instruments illustrated in a Hebrew translation of al-Zahrāwī’s Surgery.
In school. Al-Jāḥiẓ said: ‘God has divided stupidity into 100 parts. He gave 99 parts to teachers and the last part to other people.’
In the bathhouse (ḥammām). Miniature from a 16th-century Persian manuscript.
The anatomy of the eye and its muscles. From the Ten Treatises on the Eye (Al-ʿAshr maqālāt fī l-ʿayn) by the famous 9th-century translator Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq.
The process of distillation as illustrated in a medieval Arabic manuscript.
Alchemical intruments. top: glass beaker; bottom: alembic and cucurbit.
Frontispiece from Crollius’ Royal Chemistry (Basilica Chymica) which was translated into both Ottoman Turkish and Persian in the 17th century.
A woman giving birth attended by other women, possibly midwives.
A physician takes the pulse of a young girl.
Dioscorides’ Materia Medica lists the humoral qualities of drugs. Or. 3366, f. 89r
The anatomy of a pregnant female body as illustrated in Manṣūr’s Anatomy (tashrīḥ-i Manṣūrī)
The system of nerves as illustrated in Manṣūr’s Anatomy (tashrīḥ-i Manṣūrī).
The human skeleton as illustrated in a copy of Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine.
Inside the Arghūn hospital in Aleppo where water features were essential.
A 16th-century Persian miniature dipicting Ibn Sina (Avicenna) at the bedside of a patient suffering from love-sickness (ʿishq).
A medieval cupping (ḥijāma) glass
Surgical instruments from Fusṭāṭ (Old Cairo), 9th century.
A physician with a patient about to vomit. Taken from a 13th-century copy of the Arabic version of Dioscorides’ On Medicinal Substances.
Bone-setting illustrated in a Latin translation of Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine
Entrance of the Divrigi hospital in Turkey.
Ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo. In the 9th century, the mosque had a bīmāristān attached to it. in the 9th century.
Among al-Rāzī’s most important medical works is the multi-volume Arabic encyclopaedia called The Comprehensive Book of Medicine (Al-Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb)
A manuscript from al-Ḥarīrī’s Maqāmāt dipicting cuppring performed by a charlatan.
This 13th century manuscript dipicts instruments for eye surgery as displayed in a copy of al-Ḥalabī’s Sufficient Book on Ophthalmology (al-Kāfī fī l-kuḥl).
Hippocratic Aphorisms in Syriac and Arabic.
The central text consists of the anatomical sections of the Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna).
Inside the Divrigi hospital in Turkey.
Layout of Qalawun’s hospital in Cairo, as it functioned in the early nineteenth century.
Surgical instruments for extracting a dead foetus taken from al-Zahrāwī’s Surgery.
The description of malabathron (sādhaj) in the Arabic translation of Dioscorides’ Medical Substances.
This 13th-century manuscript image from al-Ḥarīrī’s Maqāmāt shows doctors visiting a patient.
Ibn Jazla’s Almanac of Bodily Parts for the Treatment of People, written in Arabic and Karshūnī, meaning Arabic written in Syriac letters.
Prof Peter E. Pormann, signing 1001 Cures books, Royal Society, London
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