Journal of - International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine

Editing and Study Adwiyat Harf al-Thal from Taqwīm
al-adwiyah al-mufrada Manuscript (Table of Simple
Drugs) Written by Ibrāhīm b. Abī Sa`īd b. Ibrāhīm
al-Maġribī al-Alā’ī (Lived in 547H/1152 A.D)
Abdul Nasser KAADAN*, Hesham ALAHMAD**
* Chairman, History of Medicine Department, Aleppo University, Aleppo-Syria.
The President of ISHIM (www.ishim.net).
e-mail: a.kaadan@scs-net.org
** Phar. M. Doctorate stage student, History of Medicine Department, Institute for the History of Arabic Science, Aleppo University, Aleppo – Syria
E-mail: ha44ha@gmail.com
Summary
The author of this book “Taqwīm al-adwiyah al-mufrada” is Ibrāhīm b. Abī Sa`īd b. Ibrāhīm al-Maġribī al-Alā’ī, he is unknown doctor at his time,
so we don’t know the date of his birth or death, but we know that he wrote three books on simple drugs, these books are Albadaliyat, Alalwah and Altaqwim
(this book). He dedicated his book to the sultan of Malatia city Al’amiyr Alaa’ Aldiyn ‘Abi Shujaa Thul-qarnayn Bin Ain Aldawla Bin Ghazi who
ruled at the period 547-557H/ 1152-1162 A.D.
The author began his book with a long introduction which consists of basic knowledge of simple drugs, such as the conditions of testing drugs, examinations
methods, and characteristics of various drugs.
Three tables kinds of tables were included, the first is an index to the second tables, the second kind of table contains detailed tables which form
most of the book, each table of which consists of 16 columns under the following titles: Name, Description, Type, Experimental, Humors, Strength, Use
in Head Diseases, Use in Respiratory Diseases, Use in Digestive Diseases, Use in the body as a whole, Method of administration, Dose, Contraindications,
Antidotes, Substitutes, and number. The third kind of tables is eight-pages addendum which contains 230 entries, and is entitled “Medications that
have two or three names”.
Key Words: Simple Drugs, Islamic Medicine, Islamic Pharmacy, al-Alā’ī al-Magribi, Medical History.
Introduction
Simple Drugs Science is a very important branch in Islamic
Medicine, and Tabular Form books –in this branchis
a worthwhile phenomenon that hasn’t been studied well.
The author of this book Ibrāhīm b. Abī Sa`īd b. Ibrāhīm
al-Maġribī al-Alā’ī is one of the most important physicians
in this field, and so is his book. In spite of this fact, his book
hasn’t been yet edited or studied as desired. This research
aims to edit and study this book partially, and to be as an
introduction for doing this.
In our study the linguistic origin of drug’s idioms is determined,
in addition to the recent scientific names of the drug
and their botanical families, finally the therapeutic uses in
complementary and homeopathic medicine were identified.
The book contains 409 medications of plant origin, 80
medications of animal origin, and 61 medications of nonorganic
origin.
The Used Manuscripts
In order to obtain the most precise version of the author’s
text, three manuscripts have been used and compared
to each other, these manuscripts are:
1. Egyptian Bookstore “Dar al-Kotob” Manuscript, No.
Tibb 43, 136 foliate, written in 1096 H.(1)
2. Mecca Haram Library Manuscript, No. 3595 Tibb, 139
foliate, written in 1276 H.(2)(3)
3. Royal Library of Denmark Manuscript, No. 114, 121 foliate,
bought from Cairo in 1761 a.d, this means that it
has been written before this time.(4)
The first manuscript will be considered as the origin,
the other two manuscripts will be compared with it. The
first manuscript will be D, the second will be H, and the
third A.
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ISHIM 2011-2012