Medical and Para-Medical Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections.

• Author: Shaked, Shaul

This useful and nicely produced volume is the outcome of a work of love done by a medical doctor, born in Baghdad, who pursued over the years his interest in the history of Islamic medicine. At the same time, he perfected the rather complex set of tools required for accomplishing this kind of task: knowledge of the sources of Islamic medicine and to some extent of classical Arabic literature and an acquaintance with the language and orthography of Judaeo-Arabic and with its literature. Upon retirement from medical practice in Manchester, Dr. Isaacs moved to Cambridge to take part in the work of the Genizah Research Project. The work was completed shortly before his death and serves as an impressive monument to the contribution that a serious-minded amateur with detailed knowledge of the subject can bring to scholarship.

The subject matter of the volume is defined in very broad terms: besides compositions that deal with medicine proper, there are numerous fragments of compositions that deal with ancillary matter, such as materia medica, pharmaceuticals, and the use of herbs and other natural ingredients. Included here are also fragments of writings that belong to folk-medicine (as opposed to the institutionalized scientific medicine of the period, which essentially is Greek medicine through Arabic transmission) and even fragments representing the treatment of diseases through occult means. Likewise included are fragments that discuss the social background of the medical profession. The total number of fragments described is over sixteen hundred.

In the short introduction the author makes a number of observations on different aspects of the subject. He points out, for example, the frequent mention of eye diseases and various fevers, which he explains by the fact that these maladies figure prominently in writings originating in medieval Egypt, where such conditions are endemic.

I myself am particularly interested in what the author calls "quasi-medicine" (these fragments are described in general terms on p. xiii of the introduction) and the controversy over the usefulness of magical practices (in which as great a figure as Moses Maimonides took part).

The wide scope of fragments included in this book appears on occasion to be excessive. That purely chemical recipes have been included extends the limits of medicine beyond what is normally accepted; that treatises on natural history have been included is hardly justified (see p. xiii). Too much...