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NOTE XXVII. AVICENNA 157
and the victory of the Egyptians led by Qjituz al-Maliku'1-Muzaffar over
the Tartars at 'Ayn Jaliit in A.D. 1260, these predictions being based on
astrological considerations connected with the conjunction* of Jupiter and,
Saturn in Capricorn " the Mansion of Saturn." Another poem contains'
medical advice as to the treatment of an ulcer on the forehead addressed
to the Wa2ir Abu Talib a'i>'Alawi, who had consulted ^yicenna on this
subject, in similar verses 1 . There are also some remarkable ve?s^s in
. praise of wine, which is compared to "blood of gold," the Christian
Trinity, and the First Cause. His literary activity was prodigious ahd
varied, extending to almost every branch of letters and learning, as may
be seen by glancing at the lists of his works g"iven by Ibn Abi Usaybi'a' 2
and Brockelmann. Of these only three are specifically mentioned in the
Chahdr Maqdla, namely th,e Kitdbu'l-Mabda'wa'l-Ma^dd, quoted by
Mirza Muharhmad 3
from the British Museum MS.; the book entitled
" How to guard against various mistakes in medical treatment," printed
at Bulaq in the margins of ar-Razi's Mandfi^u^l-aghdhiya wa daf'u
maddrri-hd under the title of Daf'u'l-maddrri'l-kulliyya 'anfl-abddmUinsdniyya*
and the ;
Qdnun, the largest and most fc,mous of Avicenna's
medical, writings. In the preparation of the FitzPatrick lectures on
"Arabian Medicine'' which I delivered at the Royal College of Physicians
in November 1919 and 1920, and which will I hope be published
in the course of 1921, I made use of the fine but not very correct edition
printed at Rome in A.D. 1593, but there is also a Biilaq edition in two
volumes. A good account of the various editions and Latin translations
will be found in Dr Ludwig Choulant's Handbuch der Biicherkunde fur
di", Altere Medicin (Leipzig, 1841), pp. 359-368. See also Moritz Stein-
schneider's Die Europdischen Ubersetzungen aul dem Arabischen bis Mitte
des 17 Jahrhundcrts b
in the Index s.v. " Avicenna."
In Anecdote XXXVIII the narrator, Abii Kalanjar, mentions four
other disciples of Avicenna, concerning three of whom Mirza Muhammad
gives some* valuable information in the Persian notes on pp.
ro vvo.
Bahmanyar's full name was Abu'l-Hasan Bahmanyar ibn Marzuban
al-Adharbayjani al-Majiisi, and he died in 458/1066. A few of his
writings exist in manuscript, and two of his metaphysical treatises were
ibn Muhammad
printed at Leipzig in A.D. 185 1. Abii Mansiir al-Husayn
ibn 'TJmar ibn Zila^al- Isfahan! died in 440/1048-9. The assertion that
he was a Zoroastrlan is unsupported by evidence, and, in view of the
names of, his father and grandfather, appears very improbable 8 . There
exist in the British Museum MSS. of two of his treatises, one on Music,
entitled tfl-Kdfi (Or. 2361), and the other a Commentary on Avicenna's
Story ofHayy ibn Yaqzdn.
Far more important than these two was Abii ^Ubayd Abdul-Wahid ibn
Muhammad al-Juzjani, who first became acquainted with Avicenna in
Avicenna was then about thirty-two years old, and
Jurjan ^403/10 1 2-3 7 .
1
Vol. ii, p. 14.
3
See p. TS of the Persian notes.
2
Loc- fit-) pp- 18-20.
*
Ibid., p. rrv.
6 Published in two parts with separate pagination in the Sitzungsberichte d. fi~ats.
Akad. d. Wissensch. (Philos.-histor. Klasse}, Vienna, 1904 and 1905.
6
Compare, however, note 2 at the foot of p. 154 supra.
1 Mirza Muhammad has established this date from the writings of both Avicenna and
al-Juzjani. See Persian notes, pp.
Ver \\ ad cole. ,
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