Bio-Bibliographies
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See Muḥammad Ḥusaynī ibn Muḥammad Hādī
Ḥājjī Zayn al-‘Aṭṭār (d. 1403-4/806)
زين الدين على ابن الحسين الانصارى المشتهر بحاجى زين العطار
Zayn al-Dīn ‘Alī ibn Ḥusayn al-Anṣārī, known as Ḥājjī Zayn al-‘Aṭṭār, was for sixteen years the court physician to the Mazaffarid ruler Shah Shuja‘, who ruled from 1358 to 1384. His comprehensive Persian pharmacopoeia of simple and compound remedies, the Ikhtiyārāt-i Badī‘ī was apparently composed for the Muzaffarid princess Badī‘ al-Jamāl, who is named in the title of the treatise but of whom very little is known.
For sources regarding his life, see Richter-Bernburg, "UCLA", p. 32; and Storey PL II,2, pp. 220-3 no. 380.
see ‘Alavī Khān
see Muḥammad Ḥusaynī ibn Muḥammad Hādī
Ḥakīm Muḥammad Sharīf Khān (d. 1805/1220 or 1816/1231)
حكيم محمد شريفخان
Ḥakīm Muḥammad Sharīf Khān was a Shi‘i physician of some importance at end of 18th and beginning of 19th centuries. He was physician to the Mughal emperor Shah ‘Alam II (ruled 1759-1806) and possibly to his son Akbar II (ruled 1806-1837). Sources differ as to when he died, some recording that he died in 1805/1220 and others that he died eleven years later in 1816/1231. Ḥakīm Muḥammad Sharīf Khān was responsible for introducing aspects of the new science current in Europe in his day, and he composed works in both Arabic and Persian, including a dictionary of Indian drugs.
For his life and writings, see Storey PL II,2, pp. 283-5 no. 494; GAL-S, vol. 2, p. 864 no. 56a.
Harawī, Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf (fl. 1492-1518/898-924 H)
محمد ابن يوسف الهراوى
In 1518/924 Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Harawī composed in Arabic an alphabetical medical dictionary and encyclopedia. It covered anatomical and pathological terms and concepts, medicinal substances, and prominent physicians, with all the entries arranged alphabetically. NLM has one copy of this comprehensive medical dictionary (MS A 6, item 1).
Al-Harawī also wrote a lexicon titled Jawahir al-lughah, in three chapters: the first explaining terminology for parts of the body (in alphabetical order), the second on the names of simple and compound drugs (also in alphabetical order), and the third on names of diseases, presented in order from head to toe according to their locations. An autograph copy of Jawāhir al-lughah exists in which the author states that he completed the correction of the treatise in 898/1492 (London, Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, MS Arab. 143). The Baḥr al-jawāhir is a very different treatise written later, in 924/1518. It has no subdivisions, but rather presents all the medical terminology together in alphabetical order, with the explanations of the numerous anatomical, pathological and medicinal terms mostly in Arabic but sometimes in Persian. For a comparison of the two treatises, see A.Z. Iskandar, "Jawāhir al-lughah wa-Baḥr al-jawāhir: mu‘jaman mukhtalifan lil-tabib Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Harawī" [in Arabic], al-Mashriq, 1963, vol. 57, pp. 331-334 and 7 plates; also Iskandar, "Wellcome", pp. 68-9. See also Ullmann, Medizin, p. 237.
Ḥārith ibn Kaladah al-Thaqafī (6th-7th cent. A.D.)
الحارث ابن كلده الثقفى
An Arab named al-Ḥārith ibn Kaladah is said to have studied medicine at Gondeshapur in Persia, and to have held learned discussions with the Persian ruler Khusraw Anushirwan (who died in AD 579). He is also said to have been sufficiently known for his care that the Prophet Muhammad referred sick people to him, and (according to some accounts) to have been consulted during the final illnesses of the last two of the Orthodox caliphs. The therapy that he apparently advocated reflects traditional practices of using locally available plants. The accounts of al-Ḥārith ibn Kaladah were elaborated over time to the extent that they now include conflicting elements making it difficult to assess the historical figure.
For data regarding this enigmatic figure, see G.R. Hawking, "The Development of the Biography of al-Ḥārith ibn Kalada and the Relationship between Medicine and Islam," in The Islamic World from Classical to Modern Times: Essays in Honor of Bernard Lewis, ed. C.E. Bosworth, C. Issawi, et alii (Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1989), pp. 127-40. See also, Sezgin, GAS III, pp. 203-204.
see ‘Ali ibn ‘Abd Allāh ibn Haydūr
Hermes Trismegistus
الهرميس الهرمس
Hermes Trismeistus was both the Hellenistic Greek name for the ancient Egyptian god Thoth and the name of an authority of late Antiquity on philosophical and magical subjects. In the Islamic world he was known as Hirmīs or Harmas or Harmis or Hurmus. In Arabic treatises he is frequently cited as an authority in alchemy, astrology, and especially magic.
For Hermes Trismegistus in medieval Islamic writings, see M. Plessner, 'Hirmis' in EI (2nd ed.), vol. 3, pp. 463-5; Ullmann, Natur, pp. 165-70, 289-293, and 368-78; and A.J. Festugière, La revelation d'Hermès Trismégiste, avec un appendice sur l'hermétisme arabe par L. Massignon 4 vols. (Paris: Lecoffre, 1944-54), vol. 1, Appendice 3, pp. 384-400. See also Ingolf Vereno, Studien zum ältesten alchemistischen Schriften auf der Grundlage zweier erstmals edierter arabischer Hermetica [Islamkundliche Untersuchungen, 155] (Berlin: Klaus Schwarz Verlag, 1992) and the essay book review in Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften, vol. 12 (1998), pp. 350-367; and Manfred Ullmann, ed. and trans., Das Schlangenbuch des Hermes Trismegistos (Qabs al-anwar wa-bahjat al-asrar), Wiesbaden: Harrossowitz, 1994.
Hippocrates (fl. 5th cent. BC)
ابقراط
A Greek physician of the 5th century B.C., whom many consider the "Father of Medicine". Some sixty treatises are preserved today under his name and are generally referred to as the "Hippocratic corpus," though not all were written by Hippocrates himself or even by his students. Some of these treatises clearly come from other sources and are to be assigned to later periods. Many of these Greek Hippocratic writings were translated into Arabic and a number were the subject of Arabic commentaries by later physicians. There are also a number of clearly apocryphal treatises that have been spuriously attributed to Hippocrates and are not included in the group of sixty writings that comprise the Hippocratic corpus.
For the life of Hippocrates and the writings comprising the Hippocratic corpus, see Jacques Jouanna, Hippocrates, translated by M.B. DeBevoise, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). For Arabic versions of Hippocratic writings, see Ullmann, Medizin, pp. 25-35, and Sezgin, GAS III, pp. 23-47.
Hubaysh ibn al-Ḥasan al-A‘sam al-Dimashqī (d. end of 9th century)
Hubaysh was the nephew and pupil of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq. He collaborated with Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq on a number of translations of medical treatises into Arabic, and he composed a number of treatises of his own. His original writings include a book on ophthalmology, and an appendix to Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq's Questions on Medicine.
See Ullmann, Medizin, pp. 118-119; and Sezgin, GAS III, pp. 265-266;
Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, al-‘Ibādī (d. 873 or 877 [260 or 264 H])
حنين ابن اسحق العبادى
Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq was the most productive translator of Greek medical and scientific treatises into Arabic. He was a Nestorian Christian originally from southern Iraq who spent his working life in Baghdad, the center of the great 9th-century Greek-into-Arabic translation movement. He translated into both Syriac and Arabic, often working in collaboration with others, especially his nephew Hubaysh. Ten years before his death Ḥunayn recorded that of Galen's works alone, he had made 95 Syriac and 34 Arabic versions.
Ḥunayn (known to Europeans as Johannitius) also composed a number of original medical writings, including the influential Questions on Medicine for Beginners (Kitāb al-Masa'il fī al-ṭibb li-l-muta ‘allimīn), which later in Europe, through a Latin version called the Isagoge, established the basic conceptual framework of medieval and early-modern medicine.
See G. Anawati and A.Z. Iskandar, "Hunayn ibn Ishaq" in DSB, vol. 15, pp. 230-249; Ullmann, Medizin, pp. 115-118; Sezgin, GAS III, pp. 247-256; Dimitri Gutas, Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ‘Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries) (London: Routledge, 1998).
Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Walī
ibn Naṣr ibn Ḥusayn al-Ḥanafī (fl. 1593/1001)
حسين ابن ابراهيم ابن ولى ابن نصر [ ...] ابن حسين الحنفى
This author is known only through his treatise on prophetic medicine and astrological medicine where his name is given as Ḥusayn ibn Ibrāhīm ibn Walī ibn Naṣr ..[?] .. ibn Ḥusayn al-Ḥanafī. There is one word following 'Naṣr' that is not clear. The author clearly states that he transcribed (harrara) and completed the treatise in the year 1593 (1001 H). This only recorded copy of this treatise is now at NLM (MS A 50, item 1), and it is presumably in the author's own handwriting.
Nothing else is known of this person.
