The Pharmacological Tables of Rhazes

This article deals with the 22nd volume of Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyāʾ al-Rāzīʾs (Rhazes, d. 313/925) medical encyclopedia al-Ḥāwī fī l-ṭibb. Volume twenty-two is dedicated to pharmacology and pharmacological tables, and introduced by a short treatise in which Rhazes explains his unusual choice of tabula...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Kahl, Oliver (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Oxford University Press 2011
In: Journal of Semitic studies
Year: 2011, Volume: 56, Issue: 2, Pages: 367-399
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Non-electronic
Description
Summary:This article deals with the 22nd volume of Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyāʾ al-Rāzīʾs (Rhazes, d. 313/925) medical encyclopedia al-Ḥāwī fī l-ṭibb. Volume twenty-two is dedicated to pharmacology and pharmacological tables, and introduced by a short treatise in which Rhazes explains his unusual choice of tabular design and terminological arrangement. Following upon a brief bio-bibliographical survey and forming the core of this article, Rhazesʾ introductory treatise is re-edited here in the original Arabic and further made accessible through an annotated English translation. Edition and translation, in turn, are followed by a detailed study of both the treatise and the tables, including explanatory diagrams, statistical evaluations, a source-critical analysis, and some observations regarding the tradition of synoptic tables in Arabic pharmaceutical literature — thus gradually emerges the conceptual originality of Rhazesʾ implementation, and new light is thrown on his broad linguistic interests and abilities. The article concludes with an excursion into the realm of Persian-Chinese intellectual exchange, suggesting the possibility of a stimulus to Rhazesʾ imagination from a remote and otherwise mostly hidden corner.
ISSN:1477-8556
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of Semitic studies
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgr008