Journal of - International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine

Procedure of Manuscript Study in Post Graduate Education of Unani
Medicine: A Reappraisal
Ashfaq AHMAD & Ala NARAYANA
Conclusion
There are hundreds of manuscript in Arabic/Persian
languages in good conditions but still remain unpublished.
The following Steps should be taken for the betterment of
Unani system.
1. Critical editions of valuable and popular works like
Firdausul Hikmat, Kitab al-Tasrif of Zahravi, works of
Galen (Jaleenus), Alvi Khan, Hakim Ahmadulla Khan,
Fazl Ali Shifai Khan, etc should be edited, translated
into English and published.
2. Glossary of Unani terms used in different classics
should be provided in English with works of different
period with references
3. A detailed survey and scrutiny of the manuscript would
help to tell the history of Unani medicine.
4. The scientific documentation of Unani Drugs will
prevent other countries from patenting of our ancient
herbs of healing.
5. Inheritors of valuable manuscript to be motivated and
educated for proper utilization, efforts should be made
to procure from private collections
6. Digitization of all manuscripts scattered across the Indian
sub continent and creation of a central data bank for accession
should be done for researchers because it is very
difficult to handle deteriorated manuscript manually.
7. Preparation of E-Book of all digitized manuscript and
to make it available on the website that accession becomes
easy.
8. Efforts should be done to develop a centralized Repository
of Unani Medical Manuscripts and rare books.
9. Providing the training to Unani technical persons for
Unani texts, different scripts, preservation etc in the institute
where highly professionals in the field with modern
gadgets are available.
10. Multidisciplinary research should be carried in the
study of manuscript for validating the old concepts,
drugs diseases and treatment on the basis of modern
sciences.
11. Work shops and campaigns may be organized for acquainting
with the experts in the field of manuscriptology.
12. Translation of valuable manuscript into English in recent
period is utmost important to make Unani system
a global art of healing, for this purpose Unani scholars
with knowledge of Arabic, Persian and English
languages should be selected and appointed in Unani
research institutions. Otherwise translation in Urdu is
like khud hi padh lo aur khush ho lo.
13. One separate Department of Manuscriptology should
be created in all Unani post graduate institute for medico-historical
research in Unani system of Medicine.
14. In this age of software technology, research data base of
all Unani published research papers and articles with
full text made instantly accessible on the internet on the
line of ICMR.
REFERENCES
1. Agrawal, O.P., 1972, Conservation in the tropics, C.S.L., National Museum,
New Delhi, India. Pp 1-3.
2. Agrawal, O.P., 1992, Conservation of Manuscripts and Documents,
INTACH, Indian Conservation Institute, Lucknow, India. Pp 15-18.
3. Anonymous, 2010, Annual report 2009-2010, National Institute of
Indian Medical Heritage (NIIMH), Hyderabad, India, Pp 1-2
4. Anonymous, Wikipedia org./wiki/manuscript
5. Momin Ali, 1995, ‘Research Methodology in Indian System of Medicine’
paper, National seminar on research methodology, Jamia Hamdard,
New Delhi, India. Pp 20-21
6. Narayana, A, 2005, History of Manuscriptology, BIIHM, Vol. xxxv,
NIIMH, Hyderabad, India Pp. 60-63
7. Rama Rao, B, 1995, ‘Significance of study of source material’ paper,
National seminar on research methodology, Jamia Hamdard, New
Delhi, India. Pp 23-24
8. Rahman, S.Z., 1995, ‘Advia Qalbia of Avicenna’ Publication Division,
A.M.U. Aligarh. India. Pp 27-28
9. Shaheen, H.E., Husain, S.J., 2002, ‘Unani Tib: History….’ The Annals
of the American Academy, Sep. 2002, Pp 122-124
10. Ullmann, M, 1978, ‘Islamic Medicine’, Edinburgh University Press,
Edinburgh, Scotland
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