Mineralogy in Simples II: Arabo-Islamic Reception.

GALEN’S NATURAL PHILOSOPHY Berlin, HU 26-27 October 2015
MINERALOGY IN SIMPLES II: ARABO-ISLAMIC RECEPTION
Lucia Raggetti (FU Berlin)
THE TRANSLATION OF GALEN’S PHARMACOLOGY INTO ARABIC
Books I-V
- Two unsatisfactory Syriac translations by Yūsuf al-Ḫūrī and Job of Edessa. - a third Syriac translation by Ḥunayn himself, commissioned by Salmawayh Ibn
Būnān.
Books VI-XI
- Syriac translation by Sergios of Rēšʿayna
- Ḥunayn receives Sergios’s version together with a Greek manuscript of the Simples
from Yūḥannā ibn Masawayh
—
- Ḥubayš ibn al-Ḥasan made a first complete translation into Arabic, commissioned
by Aḥmad ibn Mūsā al-Munaǧǧim. —
* Ḥunayn prepared an abridged version in Syriac
* The translation of the first five books was commissioned by ʿAlī ibn Yaḥyā. THE ANDALUSIAN TRADITION OF GALEN’S SIMPLES I
Escorial 794, 51r
Saray Ahmet III 2083, 194v
Escorial 802, 19r (Abridgement)
Laurenziano Or. 193, 163v Escorial 793, 139v
THE ANDALUSIAN TRADITION OF GALEN’S SIMPLES II
1. I collated it [this ms] in the palace of Seville -may God preserve it- in the
year 536 (1141 AD)
2. against the book of the noble Abū ʿAlā ibn Zuhr (d. 1078 AD) -may God
have mercy of him- His father ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān ibn Zuhr copied it 3. in Egypt in the year 436 (1044 AD) from the library of al-Mustaʿlī 4. -bi-Allah from the folia (awrāq) in the hand of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥaq, and he
(ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān) collated it against them [the authograph folia],
and God is the One who gives help. 5. I carried out its collation in Toledo, in the the days of our emigration there,
in the year 545 (1150 AD)
6. I carried out its collation in the year 550 (1155 AD). (Laurenziano Or. 193 f. 218v)
THE ANDALUSIAN TRADITION OF GALEN’S SIMPLES III
On the first opening of the book that I used as Vorlage for this copy, I found this written
note: I collated this copy (umm) against the copy of the wise Abū Marwān bin alLawniqa (d. 1105) with the copy of his; this copy had already been collated against the
copy of the vizir Abū al-Muṭarrif Ibn Wāfid (Toledo, ca. 1008 – 1075) against the copy of
the wise the eminent Abū ʿUṯmān Saʿīd bin Muḥammad bin al-Baġūniš, and its copy
had been collated against the copies of Muḥammad bin ʿAbdūn al-Ǧabalī (d.995 in
Cordoba), Sulaymān bin Ǧulǧul (Toledo 943-d. after 994), Muḥammad bin al-Tišāġa, and
with the copy of the vizir and it was collated against the copy of the physician of alAndalus par excellence Muḥammad bin al-Ḥusayn bin al-Kattānī (Saragossa 1029) with
the copy of Muḥammad bin Ḥusayn and with the copy of the vizir, and who collated it
against the copy of his master al-Zahrāwī (d. Cordova 1013).
ʿAlī bin Sulaymān bin Ḫalaf (d. 1081?), that collated it against the copy of Abū al-Ḥakam
al-Kirmānī. All this happened in the year 502 (1108 AD)
Escorial 794, 1r
THE ‘FORTUNE’ OF GALEN
al-Ġafiqī (d. ca. 560/1165)
Kitāb al-adwiya al-mufrada
(On Simple Drugs)
al-Ṭabarī (3rd/9th cent.), Firdaws al-Ḥikma
(The Paradise of Wisdom)
Pseudo-Aristotle (9th/3rd cent.? )
Kitāb al-aḥǧār
(Book of Stones)
al-Rāzī (d. 323/935) Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb (Liber Continens)
Ibn al-Bayṭār (d. 646/1248)
Al-Ǧāmiʿ al-Mufradāt
(Compendium of Simples)
AVICENNA - DE CONGELATIONE
De Mineralibus
- De congelatione at conglutinatione
lapidum
-  De causa montium, - De quatuor speciebus corporum
mineralium
Cod. Bodmer 10, 214v
Sciant artifices alchimiae species metallorum mutare non posse se similia
facere possunt et tingere rubeum citrino ut videatur aurum aut tingere albo
donec sit multum simile argento
PS. ARISTOTLE ON STONES
- Precious stones (pearl, emerald, rubin, diamond, etc.)
- Magnets (iron, gold, silver, copper, cotton, wool, hair, nails, etc.) - Animal stones (sea crab, snails, sea urchin, etc.)
- Stones that melt and become soft (gold, silver, copper, lead,
quicksilver, etc.)
- Stones that derive from the seven stones that melt (verdigris,
cinnabar, various oxyds, etc. )
- Stones that have the consistency of dust (aḥǧār turābiyya:
sulphur, arsenic, vitriol, etc.)-
Aya Sofya 3610, 1r
Structure of the entry
- Name(s) of the stone and definition of its varieties on the basis of the
colour
- Mines and places in which the stone can be found
- Properties of the stone: Manāfiʿ and Ḫawāṣṣ (medical and peculiar
technical properties)
GALEN AND THE PERSIAN WEAVER (We 662, 48v-50r)
“Galen told the weaver to divorce
his wife, forbade him to practice
medicine again, and told him not
to marry a woman richer than
him, then gave him a generous
sum, and ordered him to go back
to his weaving.”
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION
Berlin We 662, 48v
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