The Scientific Tradition
 |
Qanun fi’l-tibb (Canon of Medicine) Taqwim al-Sihha (Maintenance of Health) Brass Planispheric Astrolabe |
From the ninth century onwards, scholars in Muslim lands were engaged in all of the disciplines of science. A treasury of Greek, Indian, Persian and Babylonian philosophic and scientific thought became available through translations into Arabic, and philosopher-scientists, physicians, mathematicians and astronomers - a community of scholars that included Christians and Jews as well as Muslims - enriched this intellectual legacy with their own contributions.
Qanun fi’l-tibb (Canon of Medicine)
Ibn Sina's Qanun fi’l-tibb (Canon of Medicine), volume 5 Persia or Mesopotamia, 11th century, Arabic text in naskh script in brown ink on buff paper; opening title-page decorated with a central shamsa
The literary production of the 11th-century Christian physician Ibn Butlan is distinguished by its originality and his Taqwim al-sihha is a synopsis of hygiene and macrobiotics in the form of tables. Ibn Sina's al-Qanun fi’l-tibb became the medical textbook of the Islamic world and with the transfer of knowledge to the Latin West in the twelfth and thirteenth century, it became the most used of all mediaeval references in Europe's medical schools almost until the beginning of modern times.
Taqwim al-Sihha (Maintenance of Health)
Ibn Butlan's Taqwim al-Sihha (Maintenance of Health), Near East, 14th century, Arabic text in naskh script on paper, numerous tables in red and black ink
Brass Planispheric Astrolabe, Spain, possibly Toledo, 14th century, inlaid in silver, incised with inscriptions in Arabic, Hebrew and Latin
Gateways