Download PDF | (Edinburgh Studies in Classical Islamic History and Culture) Zohar Amar and Efraim Lev - Arabian Drugs in Medieval Mediterranean Medicine (2016).
337 Pages
Preface
For more than 1,000 years Arab medicine held sway in the ancient world, from the shores of Spain in the West to China, India and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in the East. Arabic medical heritage, in its late practice, was in fact based on a conglomerate of diverse cultural foundations: Greek, Indian, Persian, Mesopotamian, Syrian, Egyptian, Slavic, Spanish and North African (Maghrib).
To our knowledge, no research assessing the relative contribution of each of these components has been done, yet most scholars seem to agree that the influence of the Greek medical heritage, on the one hand, and the Indian medical heritage, on the other, were the cornerstones of Arab medicine. We argue that this process was a ‘melting pot’ in which various scientific and political elements interacted — first, the physicians of the Galenic school versus those of the Indian and Zoroastrian schools and, later, the Near Eastern physicians versus the Andalusian ones. Various cultural and religious elements played a part in this process — stemming from Christians, Jews and Muslims — but they all shared an ‘Arab’ background and identity and, therefore, we are of the opinion that the term Arab Medicine is apposite and more appropriate in this case than that of Muslim Medicine.
This period is characterised mainly by the dissemination and documenting of the Classical knowledge, yet also by innovation and originality. This co-existence generated a radical transformation in the spiritual and physical cultures, as well as the daily life in the Middle East, which were conveyed from there to the West.
Most of the medicinal substances introduced by the Arabs originated in Southeast Asia; the ways in which they were distributed and assimilated into the Mediterranean region varied, however. Our research focuses on the main substances about which sufficient information was accumulated and that enabled clear-cut identification and assessment of their importance to medieval medicine. The ‘new’ medicinal substances enriched the existing inventory of drugs that was influenced basically by Galenic—Arab pharmacology; some even came to occupy a pivotal position in the practical medicine of the medieval period, such as various kinds of myrobalan. Other substances can be found in our modern-day ‘food basket’ in the form of agricultural crops (sugar, for example), and various spices (clove and nutmeg, for example).
In our book we mainly address one aspect: the relative impact of the Greek, versus the Indian, medical heritage on the evolution of Arab medicine and pharmacology. We investigate this issue from the perspective of materia medica that, we maintain, is ultimately a reliable indication of the ‘specific weight’ contributed by each of these medical legacies.
In the first chapter, the introduction, the Arab conquests (territorial expansion and government policies) are dealt with before contining with the Arab attitude to science. The translation of Greek science into Arabic is discussed in the next section, as it is crucial for the understanding of the assimilation of theoretical and practical medicine into Arab culture. The geopolitical aspect of this process in the early Islamic period is dealt with through the illustration of Baghdad as an intercultural centre and the pinnacle of the Galenic medical legacy. Persian and Indian medicines are dealt with later, followed by discussion on Indian medicinal substances. Next we deal with the commercial aspect of our story, that is, the ways in which the ‘drugs’ were introduced, traded and transported from the Orient to the West, starting with the history of the ‘Indian trade’ from ancient times and continuing with the medieval Islamic trade (mainly trade routes and commercial centres). The Mediterranean trade is next to be discussed, elaborating on its history, including contemporary Byzantine trade, principal trade routes and important commercial centres. The chapter concludes with a short description of the main groups of traders who were active in the medieval East—West trade.
In the first section of Chapter 2 we assess the influence of the legacy of Indian pharmacology on Galeno-Arab medicine. Later, we present Watson’s pioneering research, its advantages and disadvantages, how we have ‘improved’ his methodology and our test case of several species of the Cucurbitaceae
family. The following section contains our research dealing with the Crusader plants in the Holy Land, to which we applied our new methodology. The next section consists of two studies we conducted as part of the research for the present book. It is here that we introduce the Andalusian scholars Ibn Juljul and Ibn Rushd, and their writings on ‘the drugs not mentioned’ in Dioscorides’ and Galen’s books. The concluding section presents the suggested research model with a description of the methodology we used in the current book.
Chapter 3 deals with the ‘Arabian’ substances. We do not purport to include in our book all of the new ‘drugs’ that were distributed by the Arabs, but rather to focus predominantly on those substances that received proper documentation. Moreover, we did not always have sufficient evidence to determine whether or not this drug was new! Therefore, we do not present herein the list presented by Adams at the end of his edition of Paulus Aegineta. Some of the products of our research have been published in several preliminary articles, and in our book we strive to present the reader with a solid piece of updated and thorough research. The historical sources we have used are varied and plentiful, derived from theoretical and practical medical and pharmaceutical literature, alchemy and perfumery books, lexicography, accounts and logs of geographers and travellers, herbal and botanical books, general medieval encyclopedias, commercial literature and the vast Cairo Genizah manuscripts, as well as Byzantine and other Western literature, including commercial documents, the Italian archives and publications of studies.
Most of the entries open with quotations from a contemporary Arabic source, the purpose of which is to present the spirit of the era to the reader in a tangible and colourful manner. The reader will be able to get a glimpse of the material-cultural milieu of the medieval Islamic world and the world with which they traded: to learn how medieval people saw the world; what their geographical perception was; how they described other cultures; how they doubted the origin of the drugs; and the arguments on the origin of exotic drugs, their production and other aspects. This is the reason why we have translated the quotations in a free and flowing manner and not in a linguistically literal, professional one — to avoid detracting from the general, larger picture by going into the small and petty details.
We start by presenting eight new drugs of ‘Indian’ origin, followed by seven spices from the same origin that were heavily used in medicine and then continue with short entries of thirteen other medicinal substances. After dealing with four drugs of uncertain identification, we proceed to four industrial substances, seven kinds of perfumes and incense and conclude with three gemstones. The book ends with a brief discussion and decisive conclusions.
It is our privilege and pleasure to extend our thanks to the following entities for their financial support, without which this book could not have been written or completed: Research Authorities, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Eretz Israel Studies, University of Haifa, Israel, and the Landy Foundation, Cambridge, England.
It is with great pleasure that we acknowledge and thank our dear friend and colleague Mr Avraham Latti for years of collaborative work and brilliant translations from the early Arabic sources; without him this project could not have been accomplished.
We would also like to extend our gratitude to Professor Yaakov Lev, who read a draft of the manuscript and contributed an elegant critique, invaluable ideas and highly useful remarks; to Dr Yaron Serri for his professional editing of the Arabic and Hebrew terms and his incredible, never-ending knowledge; and to Marianne Steinmetz for her wonderful and professional English editing work.
It was truly a pleasure to work with the team members of Edinburgh University Press; their kindness and professionalism made our experience a highly productive and positive one.
The photographs of the ‘drugs’ presented in the book were taken in Southeast Asia by the authors, and some were displayed at the authors’ scientific and teaching collections at Bar-Ilan University, Israel and the University of Haifa, Israel (we thank our professional photographer Mr Shahar Cohen). The plates and maps were drawn by the talented graphic designer of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Haifa, Israel, Mrs Marina Bugaev.
This book is dedicated to our families, mainly on this occasion to our spouses Tamar Amar and Dr Michal Lev, and our children: Shaked, Yadin, Tzur, Mevaseret, Matania, Avigail Amar; and Hagar, Amitay, Avigail and Ilay Lev.
Zohar Amar Efraim Lev Neve Tsuf Zichron Yaakov
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