Catalogue: Medical Poetry
In the collection at NLM there are 11 anonymous medical poems, some of them fragmentary. Five are contained in one album of medical poetry (MS P 25), while three are in another collection of poetry (MS A 85). The three remaining anonymous poems occur amongst various medical prose writings.
None have been published.
An Album of Five Poems
Five anonymous medical poems are contained in an album of poetry in the NLM collection (MS P 25) that was compiled sometime before 1796, when an owner's signature and stamp were placed in the volume:
-
Bur’ al-sā‘ah manzūm
(MS P 25, item 4) - (Cure in an Hour, Versified)
- كتاب برؤ الساعه منظوم
- anonymous, but probably based on a treatise by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā’ al-Rāzī (d. ca. 925/312)
- ابو بكر محمد ابن زكرياء الرازى
This short anonymous Persian didactic poem appears to be based upon the very popular Arabic essay by al-Rāzī on conditions that can be cured very quickly, beginning with headache. For the Arabic treatise by al-Rāzī, see (MS A 84, item 4). The name of the versifier is not supplied.
No other copies are recorded.
Physical Description
Persian. 4 leaves (fols.95a-98b). Dimensions c. 22 x 13.2 (text area 17.5 x 19.2) cm; frames for central text 11.8 x 6.9cm. 15 lines per page. No author is given. The title Kitāb Bur’ al-sā‘ah is given on fol. 94a at the bottom line of the central area.
The copy is undated. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a date of the late 17th to early 18th century. It must have been completed before an owner's signature and stamp was placed in it in 1796/1211 H.
The metrical treatise is written in two columns on each folio, with an unrelated prose text (medicaments, in alphabetical order) written in the margins. The central text and the marginal text were executed by the same hand, in a medium-small careful, professional ta‘liq tending toward naskh script, using black ink with headings in red and green. The text area has been frame-ruled, and space was allowed for frames to enclose the metrical treatise; on earlier folios frames of two blue lines enclose the central text, but they were not drawn on the folios containing this item.
There are later interlinear and marginal notes.
-
‘Ilāj-i va-‘alāmat-i dā' al-asad
(MS P 25, item 6)
- (The Treatment and Symptoms of Leontiasis)
- علاج وعلامات داء الاسد
- anonymous
This short Persian didactic poem on the treatment and symptoms of a form of leprosy called da' al-asad (ailment of the lion) has no author given.
No other copies are recorded.
Physical Description
Persian. 2 leaves (fols. 117b-118a). Dimensions c. 22 x 13.2 (text area 17.5 x 19.2) cm; frames for central text 11.8 x 6.9cm. 15 lines per page. No author is given. The title is given on fol. 117b, line 1.
The copy is undated. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a date of the late 17th to early 18th century. It must have been completed before an owner's signature and stamp was placed in it in 1796/1211.
The metrical treatise is written in two columns on each folio, with an unrelated prose text (medicaments, in alphabetical order) written in the margins. The central text and the marginal text were executed by the same hand, in a medium-small careful, professional ta‘liq tending toward naskh script, using black ink with headings in red and green. The text area has been frame-ruled, and space was allowed for frames to enclose the metrical treatise; on earlier folios frames of two blue lines enclose the central text, but they were not drawn on the folios containing this item.
-
[Poem on Regimen and Therapeutics]
(MS P 25, item 8)
- anonymous
No author or title is given for this brief Persian didactic poem on regimen and therapeutics. The metrical treatise may be misplaced in this volume or belong with other poems yet unidentified.
Physical Description
Persian. 4 leaves (fols. 157b-160b). Dimensions c. 22 x 13.2 (text area 17.5 x 19.2) cm; frames for central text 11.8 x 6.9cm. 15 lines per page. No author or title is given.
The copy is undated. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a date of the late 17th to early 18th century. It must have been completed before an owner's signature and stamp was placed in it in 1796/1211.
The metrical treatise is written in two columns on each folio, with an unrelated prose text (medicaments, in alphabetical order) written in the margins. The central text and the marginal text were executed by the same hand, in a medium-small careful, professional ta‘liq tending toward naskh script, using black ink with headings in red and green. The text area has been frame-ruled, and space was allowed for frames to enclose the metrical treatise; on earlier folios frames of two blue lines enclose the central text, but they were not drawn on the folios containing this item. fol. 157a does not have a central poem, though the marginal treatise continues on that leaf.
-
Faṣl dar fawā'id mufradāt (MS P 25, item 9)
- (Chapter on the Principles of Materia Medica)
- فصل در فوايد مفردات
- anonymous
This Persian didactic poem concerns simple drugs. The metrical treatise may be misplaced in this volume or belong with other poems yet unidentified.
Physical Description
Persian. 2 leaves (fols. 161a-162a). Dimensions c. 22 x 13.2 (text area 17.5 x 19.2) cm; frames for central text 11.8 x 6.9cm. 15 lines per page. No author or title is given.
The copy is undated. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a date of the late 17th to early 18th century. It must have been completed before an owner's signature and stamp was placed in it in 1796/1211.
The metrical treatise is written in two columns on each folio, with an unrelated prose text (medicaments, in alphabetical order) written in the margins. The central text and the marginal text were executed by the same hand, in a medium-small careful, professional ta‘liq tending toward naskh script, using black ink with headings in red and green. The text area has been frame-ruled, and space was allowed for frames to enclose the metrical treatise; on earlier folios frames of two blue lines enclose the central text, but they were not drawn on the folios containing this item. The lower half of the central portion of fol. 162a is blank; the central portion of 162b has been filled with a later owner's note.
-
[Untitled Poem]
(MS P 25, item 7)
This is an anonymous, lengthy, untitled, Turkish didactic poem with a Persian interlinear commentary. The items discussed are presented in alphabetical order, and it may be that it is a rhyming lexicon of medical and pharmaceutical terms.
Physical Description
Turkish and Persian. 39 leaves (fols. 118b-156b). Dimensions c. 22 x 13.2 (text area 17.5 x 19.2) cm; frames for central text 11.8 x 6.9cm. 7 or 8 lines per page. No author or title is given.
The copy is undated. The appearance of the paper, ink, and script suggests a date of the late 17th to early 18th century. It must have been completed before an owner's signature and stamp was placed in it in 1796/1211.
The metrical treatise is written in two columns on each folio, with an unrelated prose text (medicaments, in alphabetical order) written in the margins. This central poem is written by a similar but slightly different hand than was used for the marginal text as well as the other central texts in the volume. It is a medium-small careful, professional ta‘liq tending toward naskh script, using black ink with headings in red and green. The text area has been frame-ruled, and space was allowed for frames to enclose the metrical treatise; on earlier folios frames of two blue lines enclose the central text, but they were not drawn on the folios containing this item. There are many interlinear notes. The central area of fol. 156a was left blank, and a later hand wrote in a couple of unrelated quatrains.
All five anonymous poems are found in one album of poetry.
The thick, opaque, slightly-glossy yellow-brown paper has indistinct laid lines only occasionally visible. The paper is waterstained. Some leaves have been repaired and strengthened; fols. 2 and 3 are guarded. The edges have been trimmed from their original size.
The volume consists of 162 leaves and one preliminary folio. The preliminary folio and fol. 1a are blank. The volume contains a collection of 8 metrical treatises on medical topics in addition to a fragment of an encyclopaedia. A prose treatise on medicaments is written in the margins of all the folios but two. Item 1 (fol. 1b) is a fragment of an abridgement of an encyclopaedia by Jurjānī; item 2 (fols. 2a-80a) is a poem by ‘Alī ibn shaykh Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān; item 3 (fols. 80b-95a) a poem possibly based on a treatise by Jurjānī; item 4 (fols. 95a-98b) is the anonymous poem on cure in an hour, here catalogued, possibly based on a treatise by Rāzī; item 5 (fols. 99a-117a) versification of a treatise by Jaghmīnī. Item 6 (fols. 117b-118a) is the anonymous poem on leprosy; item 7 (fols. 118b-156b) the anonymous Turkish poem with Persian commentary; item 8 (fols. 157b-160b) the anonymous poem on regimen and therapy; and item 9 (fols. 161a-162a) the anonymous poem on materia medica. The marginal item (MS P 25, margin) occuring on fols. 2a-159a and 160a-162b is an anonymous prose treatise on materia medica and regimen. There are occasional unexplained blank central spaces on leaves where the marginal treatise continues around the edges of the folios. In two of these central blank spaces (fols. 75a and 76a) a much more recent and casual hand has placed two 16x16 magic squares. The order of the leaves comprising the volume may not be entirely correct.
Binding
The volume is bound in a modern library binding of pasteboards covered with tan leather, with "Khamrah Aghā, Jawāhir al-maqāl 1796" in gilt on the spine. There are modern pastedowns and endpapers.
Provenance
At five places in the volume (fols. 75a, 76a, 95a, 98b, and 162b) a later hand in a good calligraphic script has repeated the same statement: "The owner and possessor of this medical book called Jawāhir al-maqāl is Khamrah Aghā ibn Rustum ibn Muḥammad Aghā ibn Khiḍr Aghā ibn Mīr Khamrah ibn Mīr Mīzā ibn Aḥmad Beg, in the year 1211 [= 1796-7]." An owner's stamp accompanies these statements. Sommer (Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 338) interpreted this name as referring to the compiler of the collection, giving the name as Khamrah Aghā ibn Rustam Aghā ibn Muḥammad; the name, however, is clearly that of a later owner.
The volume was bought in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A.S. Yahuda, who acquired it in Ebril in northern Iraq (ELS 1685 med 45).
References
Schullian/Sommer, p. 338 entry P25, where the name of an owner of the volume is misinterpreted as the compiler of the collection.
NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-136 no. 5
