About the Author
The text for this Website was written by Emilie Savage-Smith, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate, The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE, England. As one of the leading historians of medieval Islamic medicine, Dr. Savage-Smith has written extensively about the history of anatomy, surgery, dissection, pharmacy and ophthalmology. She has also published books and articles on Islamic cartography, technology, astronomical instruments, divinatory equipment, and magical techniques. At the present time she is preparing a descriptive historical catalogue of the numerous Islamic medical manuscripts held in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, as well as a catalogue of the Oriental manuscripts, mostly astronomical, in St. John's College, Oxford.
Several of her publications on medieval science and medicine will be helpful to visitors at this Website. Among them are:
- "Europe and Islam." In Western Medicine: An Illustrated History, edited by Irvine Loudon, pp. 40-53. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
- "Medicine." In Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, edited by R. Rashed, vol. 3, pp. 903-962. London: Routledge, 1996.
- "Tashrih [Anatomy]" and "Tibb [Medicine]." In The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, ed. C. E. Bosworth, vol. 10, pp. 354-356 and 452-460. Leiden: Brill, 1999.
- Science, Tools & Magic (with co-author F. Maddison), 2 vols. [The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, XII] London: Azimuth Editions and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
- "The Practice of Surgery in Islamic Lands: Myth and Reality." In The Year 1000: Medical Practice at the End of the First Millennium, edited by P. Horden and E. Savage-Smith, pp. 307-321. [Social History of Medicine, XIII,2] Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
- "The Exchange of Medical and Surgical Ideas between Europe and Islam." In The Diffusion of Greco-Roman Medicine into the Middle East and the Caucasus, edited by J.A.C. Greppin, E. Savage-Smith, and J.L. Gueriguian, pp. 27-55. Delmar, NY: Caravan Press, 1999.
- "Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medieval Islam." Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 50 (1995): 68-111.
- "Islamic Science and Medicine." In Information Sources in the History of Science and Medicine, edited by P. Corsi and P. Weindling, pp. 436-455. London: Butterworth Scientific Press, 1983.
- "Ibn al-Nafis's Perfected Book on Ophthalmology and his Treatment of Trachoma and its Sequelae." Journal for the History of Arabic Science, 4 (1980): 147-206.
- "Galen's Account of the Cranial Nerves and the Autonomic Nervous System." Clio Medica, 6 (1971): 77-98 and 173-194.
Dr. Savage-Smith wishes to gratefully acknowledge the assistance given by Mr. Colin Wakefield, Keeper of the Islamic manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, and Professor G. van Gelder, of the Oriental Institute, in deciphering some difficult colophons and poetry. She also wishes to thank her colleagues in the History of Medicine Division at NLM, and especially Anne Whitaker, for their patience and dedication throughout this project.
