Gleanings From an Arabist's Workshop

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Gleanings from an Arabist's Workshop: Current Trends in the Study of Medieval IslamicScience and Medicine

Author(s): Emilie Savage-SmithReviewed work(s):Source: Isis, Vol. 79, No. 2 (Jun., 1988), pp. 246-266Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/233610 .Accessed: 12/01/2012 18:55

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SPECIAL SECTION ONISLAMIC SCIENCEGLEANINGS FROM AN ARABIST'S WORKSHOP

CURRENT TRENDS IN THE STUDY OF MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC SCIENCE AND MEDICINEByEmilieSavage-Smith*

The decade of the 1980s has seen an unprecedentedgrowth of activityandmatu-rity in the history of Islamic science and medicine. When compared with otherareas of the history of science andmedicine, however, the specialty may appearsomewhat underdevelopedand antiquated.'Because the field has been slow toappreciate the methodsandconcerns of otherhistorians,muchof what has beenpublished fails to interest a largeraudience. An overridingconcern with cata-loguing and assessing manuscriptsources as well as editing texts is immediatelyapparentfrom the bulk of recent publications. The field has been dominatedbyan interest in bibliographyand sources of the sort that characterizedancient,medieval, and Renaissance studies in earliergenerations;andto many historianstoday this focus on text and translationappears outdated.Part of the reasonfor this apparentbackwardnessand failure to reflect currenthistorical trends is that the specialty is a relatively recent development, andscholars have not been able to profit (as have historians of ancient Westernscience, for example) from large quantitiesof edited texts and catalogues pre-paredin earliergenerations.In fact, despitethe recent increasein publishedtextsand translations, the major medieval scientific and medical treatises, usuallyquite lengthy, still await reliable translations and editions, and a great deal ofpotentially importantmaterial ies unexaminedexcept, perhaps, by a cataloguerwho duly noted the title. It is difficultfor a nonspecialist to appreciate that thepercentageof written sources in this historicaldisciplinethat have been studiedis actually quite small, for the fieldcomprehendsan area extendingfrom SpaintoWestern Indiaanda time spanof at least nine centuries.In these circumstances,attention to the location and content of materials s not unreasonable, and sincemost of these medieval written sources tend to be formal treatises or manualscompiledfor private use, the applicationof quantitativemethods, so much a partof modern historicalscholarship, s largely inappropriate.The specialty has also been plagued by the difficulties of the languages in-volved (Arabic,Persian,andTurkish),which both discouragepeople from enter-ing the field and serve as a barrier to nonspecialists. To counterbalance thistendency of the area to become isolated, it is especially incumbentupon every-one workingin it to minimize the problemsfacing the nonspecialist. For exam-ple, standardizing he forms of names and the systems of transliterationwould

* Medical History Division,Departmentof Anatomy,and Von GrunebaumCenterfor Near East-ern Studies, Universityof California,Los Angeles, California 0024-1763.The bibliographical eadingsof the works on Islamicscience discussed in this essay are presentedas footnotes, but contain the usualfull information,as available, n bibliographicalormat. I wish tothank Frances CoulbornKohlerfor her carefulediting of this literature eview.1 Cf., e.g., Nancy G. Siraisi, "Some CurrentTrends n the Study of RenaissanceMedicine,"Re-naissance Quarterly, 1984,37:588-600.ISIS, 1988, 79: 246-272 246


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EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITH ON THE FIELD 247allow easier recognition of and reference to Islamic figures. While the systemused in the Encyclopaedia of Islam is accepted by much of the modern academiccommunity, neither it nor any other is employed universally. The difficulty andstrangenessof the languages and, to a lesser extent, the lack of appeal to theimmediate and familiar, tend to discourage Western readers, except perhapsthose interested in Islam as a vehicle by which ideas reached the West.In addition, the field has been affected by a debate touchingall areas of Islamichistory-the controversy over Orientalism.In today's context this debate con-trasts the insights and linguistic capabilities of the native speaker with those ofthe Western scholar who learns the languageas a second languageor sometimesonly as a reading language. Thus it pits Middle Easterneragainst Westerner,native speaker against one who acquired he language ater,and sometimes Mus-lim against non-Muslim.Instead of encouragingcooperationand the exchange ofideas, emphasis on this dichotomy discouragespeoplefromenteringthe fieldandfrom readingwhat others with differentperspectiveshave written.I would like to suggest that, at least as far as the medieval and early modernmaterial is concerned, the gulf between the scholar and the scientificpracticesand culture that are the objects of studyis no greaterfor the modern non-nativespeakerthan for the native speaker,and is quite comparable o what the Westernhistorian of Byzantine Greek or medieval Latin science encounters. The scien-tificandculturalmentalitiesof the medieval periodandthe nuances of the classi-cal languagesare as distant from the modernMiddle Easterneras from the mod-ern Europeanscholar. All historians,in tryingto interpreta past society on itsown termsare faced with the dilemmaof never knowingto what extent they canunderstandandexplain events, when time andcircumstanceshave destroyednotonly most of the evidence but the very frameworkof attitudesandconceptionsinwhich they occurred. For example, how can anyone today fully understand asociety that was verbal ratherthanvisual, a society in which the role of illustra-tion was frequentlydifferent rom whatit is today?Or a society thatcontinuedtouse only Ptolemaic constellations ong after the southernskies had been mapped,or continued to produce copies of medievalanatomicaldiagrams ong after theanatomicaldiscoveries of Vesalius and others were known in the Middle East?

HISTORIOGRAPHICAL APPROACHES AND NEEDSAmong historians of Islamic science and medicine, attention has for the mostpart been focused on a small number of individualmedieval figures and, evenmore, on individual reatises. The questionsthat have customarilybeen asked ofearly Islamic science concernthe reception, transformation,and transmissionofearlier scientific ideas. The field has also had its shareof devotees of precursor-ism, whose concern is to findproto-Copernican r proto-Harveyanor other pro-tomodern deas in the medieval literature.Yet the questionof how farthe learnedwritings reflected actual practices and conditions within the society has onlyrecently been raised by historians of Islamic science and needs to be exploredmore fully. For the most part,archivalmaterials,where they exist, and nonwrit-ten sources, such as artifactsand archaeologicaland paleopathologicalremains,have yet to be as fully exploredas in otherspecialties.A notableexceptionto theneglect of nonwrittenmaterial s the study of Islamicastronomical nstruments,which has attractedmuch attention over the years.Alongside this rathertraditional ext-boundapproach o the historyof Islamicscience and medicine are some encouraging rends that reflect methods used insocial history. For example, the originandrole of institutions,such as the hospi-tal, and societal reactions to the insane are currently objects of much study,


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248 ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287(1988)particularlyby MichaelDols. Actual medical practicein the society at large andacross the broadest possible social spectrum has attracted the attention ofLawrence Conrad.2Dols and Conrad, as well as others, have investigated re-sponses to epidemic diseases, especially the plague, and indigenous traditionsand the role of occult and divinatorypracticesare also attractingserious study.In general, regionaldiversityand the multifacetednature of practiceshave beenemphasizedmore by recenthistoriansof medicinethanby historiansof the phys-ical sciences. However, no attempthas been made to profilelocal medical com-munities, considering the various levels of training, wealth, and status of thepractitioners, as social historians of Western medicine have done. Nor has asmuch attentionbeen given to a few celebratedcenters of learningas in Westernmedieval and Renaissance studies, where considerable scholarshiphas been de-voted to centers such as Padua andMontpellier.A. I. Sabrahas recently been concernedwith reassessingthe traditionalviewof Westernscholarstoward Islamic science, namely,thatit was merelya holdingground for Hellenistic and Byzantine ideas until they were again encounteredfirsthandby Western readers. Sabra is urginga redefinitionof terms and a newapproachto early Islamic science that wouldview it as a phenomenonof Islamiccivilizationitself.3 Such admonitionscannotbut be a beneficialand creativeforcein the field.Comprehensiveand interpretativehistories of Islamic science have yet to bepublished.The historyof astronomyand mathematics n medieval Islamic soci-ety is in particularneed of a broaderhistorical nterpretation f its development,for historians of Islamic astronomyand mathematicshave tended, even morethan medical historians, to restrictthemselves to analyzingthe theoretical con-tents of the extant texts. Furtherconsiderationmust be given to the interactionof scientific intellectual traditionswith technical problems, industrial concernsand constraints, military requirements,timekeepingneeds, shiftingimperativesof public policy, andeducationalandreligiousinstitutions. The role in society ofastronomers, astrologers,mathematicians,physicians, and others learnedin sci-entific matters, both within and outside the courts, could well be explored, ascould the place of instrumentmakersin the scientificand medicalcommunities.Nearly all the attention of historians of Islamic science has been directed to-wardArabic sources, so that the vast quantityof Turkishand Persianmanuscriptand archival sources remainvirtuallyuntouched.In these areas currentwork isstill at the cataloguingstage, with only one or two people workingon a text andtranslation.It will be quite some time beforea more synthetic approach,employ-ing currenthistorical methodsand questions, is appliedto the historyof sciencein Persian-andTurkish-speakingands, thoughof course Arabic was the learnedlanguage throughout hose lands in the earlymedievalperiod.

EDITIONS, TRANSLATIONS, AND SYNTHETIC WORKSThe monographsof the 1980s,many of which are reviewed here, consist for themost partof editions and translationsof medieval texts, reprintsof older studiesand cataloguesof manuscriptsources; only a few are syntheticworks. As indi-cated above, there are more of these last in medicine thanin the sciences.

2 MichaelW. Dols. "TheOriginsof the IslamicHospital:Myth and Reality."Bulletinof the Historyof Medicine, 1987, 61:367-390.MichaelW. Dols. "Insanityand Its Treatment n Islamic Society." Medical History, 1987,31:1-14.Lawrence . Conrad."The Social Structureof Medicine n MedievalIslam."Bulletinof the Societyfor the Social History of Medicine, 1985, 37:11-15.3 A. I. Sabra. "The Appropriation nd SubsequentNaturalizationof Greek Science in MedievalIslam: A Preliminary tatement."History of Science, 1987,25:223-243.


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EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITHON THE FIELD 249MedicineSeldomhas one topic been traced through he medieval Islamic literature,but anoutstandingexampleof this approach s the definitiveanalysisof theories regard-ing reproduction,heredity, and prenatal development by Ursula Weisser.4 Inaddition to surveyingthe earlierAristotelian and Galenicwritings, Weisser hasexamined the relevant sections of the majorArabic medical encyclopedias andembryologicalmonographsas well as two tracts concernedsolely with obstetri-cal and pediatric matters.The result is an exhaustive study of the changingfor-tunes of certain ideas througha thousand years of medical writing. This well-documented study, with its extensive bibliographyand numerousindexes, de-serves to be more readilyavailable.Several recent synthetic interpretationsappearwith an edited text; this is thecase for one of the most importantand useful, the historicalessay written byMichaelDols as an introduction o his translationof a tract written in the elev-enth century by IbnRidwan,a self-taughtbut learned and successfulphysicianinCairo.5 In his treatise On the Prevention of Bodily Ills in Egypt, written in re-sponse to the claim of a Tunisian doctor that Egypt was particularlyunhealthy,Ibn Ridwan examined the climatologicalproblemsof Egypt and proper proce-dures for preventingandtreatingepidemicand endemic diseases. Dols's Englishtranslation s accompaniedby the Arabictext, editedby Adil Gamalfrom sevenmanuscriptcopies.There are problems with the volume as a whole. The Arabic section is sopoorly printed as to be nearly illegible except with a strong glass, which thenreveals many typographicalerrorsand overcrowding.Moreover, the translationrefers to the Arabic text by folio numbers,which are so inconspicuousin theArabic as to be nearly useless, while the paragraphing oes not correspondtothatin the translation.On the otherhand,the translations unusuallyreadableaswell as reliable, and its notes are informative.Discrepanciesdo occur betweenthe translationand the text; these seem to reflect a conflict in methodologybe-tween editor and translatorand thus illustratethe pitfallsof collaboration.Glos-sariesof Arabicand Englishterms and subjectindexes completethe volume.Dols has used his translationand edition of IbnRidwan'stract as a vehicle foran imaginative scholarlyessay on the medical professionin early medievalIsla-mic society, the education andtrainingof physicians,andthe generaltherapeuticconcepts thatwere the foundationof theirpractice. By combiningsuch a generalessay with a translationandedition of a text, Dols has produceda substantialandauthoritativeguideto earlymedieval Islamicmedical practice. The problemwithcombiningthese items into one volume, however, is that the publication ends tobe classifiedbibliographicallymerely as a text with translationand the interpre-tative essay to be overlooked. Yet this piece is one of the best introductionstomedieval Islamic medicine now availableand is likely to remain so for sometime. A paperback printing of the essay, along with the translation of IbnRidwan'streatise, would be a useful teachingaid, especially if it were combinedwith a general essay on Islamic medicine written earlierby ManfredUllmann.The latter also could profit from a paperbackprinting.64 Ursula Weisser. Zeugung, Vererbung und Pranatale Entwicklung in der Medizin des arabisch-islamischenMittelalters.xi + 571pp., bibl., indexes.Erlangen:VerlagsbuchhandlunganneloreLiu-ling, 1983.

5 cAli ibn Ridwan. Medieval Islamic Medicine: Ibn Ridwan's Treatise "On the Prevention of BodilyIlls in Egypt." Translatedwith an introductionby MichaelW. Dols. Arabic text edited by Adil S.Gamal. (ComparativeStudies of Health Systems and Medical Care.)xv + 186 + 63 (Arabic)pp.,illus., bibl., indexes. Berkeley/LosAngeles/London:Universityof CaliforniaPress, 1984.6 ManfredUllmann.Islamic Medicine. (IslamicSurveys, 11.) Edinburgh:EdinburghUniversityPress, 1978.


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250 ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287(1988)The use of astrology in medical diagnosis and prognosis is the subject of arecent monograph by Felix Klein-Frankeentitled latromathematics in Islam,which again combinesa text and translationwith an interpretative ssay.7 Klein-Franke does not present the rationalefor applyingthe term iatromathematics oastrological medicine, and in fact it mightbe more appropriatelyapplied to the

use of numerical divinatory systems such as jafr, which became enormouslypopularin Islamic countries at a slightlylater date than the period Klein-Frankeexamines.The mainArabic text presentedby Klein-Franke s a small tractwrittenin theninth century by Ibn al-Salt, who was personally acquaintedwith the ArabictranslatorIshaq ibn Hunaynand the physician Yuihannabn BakhtishTic.Othermembers of the Bakhtishficfamily, which for eight generationsserved the ca-liphs as physiciansand advisers, have been the focus of Klein-Franke'spreviousscholarship,and throughthis tractby Ibn al-Salt much is to be learned of now-lost astrological writings by Yuihanna bn Bakhtishtic. The Arabic text of Ibnal-Salt's tract is supplementedby an English summary,which is at times drasti-cally condensedand highlyinterpretative.Nearly all astrologicalmanuals had sections dealingwith medical prognosis,and the writingsof the leadingIslamic authority n astrology, AbuiMacshar, wereno exception. The Kitab al-Mudkhal al-kabfr, known in Latin as the Liber intro-ductoriusmaior, was writtenby AbuiMacshar n 848, andthoughit was probablythe most influentialastrological writingin both Europeand the Middle East, ithas never seen a modern edition and printing n either Arabic or Latin. In aneffort to remedy this scholarly lacuna partially, Klein-Franke has included inIatromathematics in Islam the Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew versions, accompa-nied by full English translations,of some excerpts in which, amongotherthings,AbuiMacshar berates a class of urbanphysiciandevoted primarily o financialgain. Abui Macshar says they are unlearned men, ignorantof sound medicalpracticesas well as of astrology'sfundamental mportance o medicine as a guideto the nature andcourse of illness and the timingof treatment.Precedingthese documents of Islamic astrological medicine is an essay con-cerned with the spheres of activity of the physician and astrologerand theircommon concern for prognosis.This is a somewhaterraticassemblageof quota-tions used to illustratecertainissues, such as the conflictbetween prognosisandorthodox Islamic theology, with its total relianceupon God's will and omnipo-tence. In addition to some linguisticobscuritiesthat occur because Englishis asecond languagefor the author, the essay is marredby the lack of sufficientdocumentation for some interpretationsand the failure to develop others. Forexample, Klein-Frankeasserts thatAbuiMacshar'sastrologicalmanualwas fun-damental o the subsequentdevelopmentof astrology, which, he says, "led to therapidlydeterioratingpositionof the physicianof subsequentgenerations" p. 57).No evidence is presentedfor the assertionthat the status of physiciansdeterio-rated,and in fact it appearsto be contradictedby much of the availableevidence.Nor does Klein-Frankeexplain how physicians resolved the apparentdilemmathat if astrologywas indeed true and events were determinedby planetaryandzodiacal influence, then there was little need for medicine. Moreover, little issaid of the role of astrologyin the manualsdevotedprimarily o medicine.Yet, as in his earlier writings, Klein-Franke has drawn attention to literarysources that deserve serious historicalexaminationandhas raisedquestionsandsuggested interpretations hat, thoughnot always conclusively argued,stand as achallengeto historians.

7 Felix Klein-Franke. Iatromathematics in Islam: A Study on Yuhanna Ibn as-Salt's Book on "As-trologicalMedicine." (Texte und Studien zur Orientalistik,3.) ii + 161pp., index. Hildesheim/Zu-rich/NewYork: Georg OlmsVerlag, 1984.?7.45(paper).


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EMILIESAVAGE-SMITHON THE FIELD 251Editions and translationsof Arabicmedical texts that do not include interpre-tative studies have also been publishedrecently. A treatiseon therapeutics anddiagnostics, also written by Ibn Ridwan, has been edited and translated byJacques Grand'Henry.The firstpart appeared n 1979;the second volume, con-tainingthe section on diagnosticsaccompaniedby a glossary, was publishedin

1984 (reviewed in Isis, 1985, 76:434-435). Yet another work of Ibn Ridwan's,this one concerned with ancient Greek medical authors, has been edited andtranslatedby Albert Dietrich. Manfred Ullmannhas continued his retrieval ofthe writings of the GreekphysicianRufus of Ephesus, who wrote at the startofthe second century,by editing the Arabic translationof Rufus's tracton jaundice(reviewed in Isis, 1985, 76:118). Also, the Arabic versions of Dioscorides' Ma-teria medica have been examined by M. M. Sadek, who focused on the illustra-tions, chapter headings, and colophons of the Arabic manuscripts n a prelimi-naryattempt to sort out the complex Arabictradition see Isis, 1985, 76:633-634,for a review).8In 1943 Max Meyerhof, an eminent historianof medicine living in Cairo,pur-chased a manuscriptof a tract writtenin the twelfth century by Ibn Jumayc, aJewish physician who worked in Egypt at the court of Saladin. The book hadbeen written for Saladin himself, and the copy Meyerhof acquiredwas tran-scribedin 1180, duringSaladin's lifetime. In 1945Meyerhofpublished a transla-tion of a section giving a history of medicine in Greekand Islamic lands. AfterMeyerhof's death in the same year nothingfurther was done on this importantwriting,and the location of his manuscript s still unknown.HartmutFahndrich,however, has recently employedan Istanbul copy of the same work to print theArabictext and an English translationof the entire treatise.9It is concerned not

only with medical history, but with the deplorablestate of contemporarymedi-cine and ways in which it mightbe improved.Ibn Jumaycborrowed from manysources, includingIbn Ridwan,and thus providesinsightinto medicaleducationin Saladin's day. This slim volume is a welcome edition to our knowledge ofIslamic medicine, though Fahndrich's translation occasionally needs to bechecked againstthe Arabictext.In contrastto the Greek-basedmedicine espoused by such learnedphysiciansas IbnJumaycand IbnRidwan,anothertype of medicine,calledpropheticmedi-cine, was also current.This approach o medicalcare assumedthe religiousposi-tion that knowledge could be obtainedonly fromrevelation,the prophetMuham-mad, and the customs and opinions of his immediatefollowers. Such treatiseswere usuallywrittenby clerics ratherthanphysicians,anddiet and simple drugsformedthe maintherapy,with manyfolkloriccustoms included.Although they

8 CMAi ibn Ridwan. Le Livrede la methodedu medicinde cAlf b. Ridwan (998-1067). Arabictexteditedand translatedwith commentaryby JacquesGrand'Henry.Louvain-la-Neuve,Belgium:Insti-tut Orientalistede l'UniversiteCatholiquede Louvain.(Paper.)VolumeI: Introduction-Therapeuti-que. (Publicationsde l'InstitutOrientalistede Louvain,20.) xii + 109pp., illus. 1979.VolumeII:Diagnostic-Glossaire. (Publicationsde l'InstitutOrientalistede Louvain,31.) viii + 188 pp., bibl.1984. (Distributedby Editions Peeters, Grand'rue 6, B-1348,Louvain-la-Neuve.)CAli ibn Ridwan. Uber den Weg zur Gliickseligkeit durch den arztlichen Beruf. Edited and trans-latedwith commentaryby AlbertDietrich. Abhandlungener AkademiederWissenschaftenn Got-tingen,Philologisch-historischeKlasse, 3.129.) 74 pp. Gottingen:Vandenhoeck& Ruprecht,1982.Rufus of Ephesus. Die Schrift des Rufus von Ephesos Uber die Gelbsucht in arabischer und latein-ischer Ubersetzung.Editedby ManfredUllmann. Abhandlungen er Akademieder Wissenschaftenin Gottingen,Philologisch-historischeKlasse, 3.138.)87 pp., illus., apps. Gottingen:Vandenhoeck&Ruprecht,1983. DM68 (paper).Mahmoud M. Sadek. The Arabic Materia Medica of Dioscorides. x + 229 pp., illus., bibl., indexes.St-Jean-Chrysostome,Quebec:Les Editionsdu Sphinx,1983.9 Ibn Jumayc. Treatise to Salah ad-Dfn on the Revival of the Art of Medicine. Edited and trans-lated by HartmutFahndrich. Abhandlungenur die Kunde des Morgenlandes,46.3.) Wiesbaden:Steiner, 1983.(Paper.)


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252 ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287(1988)_ ~~~~~~~~~~~~l

Hooks used in eye surgery.Madrid, Escurial MS Arab. 835,folio 174r, from a treatise byMuhammadl-Gh,fiqT, editedand translated in part by MaxMeyerhof as AI-morchid fiX1-kohhl, ou Le guide d'oculiste(Barcelona: Masnou, 1933)(see page 257 below).

were quite popular, especially in the thirteenthand fourteenth centuries, fewsuch tractshave been printed n modemnritical editions. Recently, however, thepropheticmedicine treatise by Ibn Qayyimal-Jawziyah(d. 1350)has been criti-cally edited by Shucayb and cAbd al-Qadiral-Arna:lfitand publishedsimulta-neously in Beirut and Kuwait.10Thoughthe volume has no index or bibliogra-phy, it is a beautifullyprintedand carefullyedited version of an influential ext.An Englishtranslationby PenelopeJohnstoneof the OrientalInstitute in Oxfordis near completion.Anotherfolklorictradition,magicalmedicine,is the subjectof a treatiseattrib-uted to the twelfth-centurypolymathAbraham bn Ezra and publishednow forthe first time.1' The Hebrew treatise is based, thoughnot exclusively, on a lostArabic tract by tho Andalusian physician cAbd al-Rahimanbn al-Haythamal-Qurtubi,who died in 951 (and who should not be confused with the famouswriteron optics of a similarname). It records the everydaymedicalpracticesof

10Ibn Qayyimal-Jawziyah.Al-Tibbal-Nabdwt (Propheticmedicine).Editedby Shucaybal-Arna'utand cAbd al-Qadiral-Arna'ut. (In Arabic.)423pp. Beirut:Mu'assasat al-Risalah;Kuwait:Maktabatal-Manaral-Islamiyah,1984.I' Abraham ibn Ezra [spurious]. Sefer Hanisyonot: The Book of Medical Experiences Attributed toAbraham ibn Ezra; Medical Theory, Rational and Magical Therapy; A Study in Medievalism. Editedwith translationand commentaryby J. 0. Leibowitzand S. Marcus. 345 pp., illus., bibl., index.Jerusalem:Magnes Press, HebrewUniversity, 1984.$28.


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EMILIESAVAGE-SMITHON THE FIELD 253the less learned section of society in tenth- to twelfth-centurySpain, which em-ployed more magicalthanrational herapies.The contents are arrangedaccordingto anatomicalstructure,and all condi-tions are treatedby the applicationof medicamentsor othersubstances,with thefrequent use of sympathetic cures and amulets. Gynecological problems are amajor concern, but surgery is not a part of the manual, though anesthetics andanalgesics are discussed. Notable throughout s the absenceof reference to astro-logical medicine.These remedies were set down, accordingto the compiler, "since there aremany people who cannot buy what they need, and also because qualifiedhealerscannot be found in every place" (p. 127). The rangeof pathologicalconditionsincluded is much more limited than in the medical encyclopedias composed forthe use of formallytrainedphysicians.Thoughits approach s magical, the trea-tise is partof a genreof medicalwritings n whichrecipesfor drugremediesweresaid by the author or "experimenter" o have been tried or "tested" (Arabicmujarrab,Hebrew nisiti), a claim that obviouslyenhancedtheirappeal.J. 0. Leibowitz and S. Marcushave edited the Hebrew text andpresentedanEnglish translationand commentary.In a preliminaryessay the editors suggestsome plausible motivationsfor the use of certainmagicalcures. Throughout heircommentaryandintroduction,however, they intersperseunnecessaryremindersof the inadequacyof the proceduresand sometimesjarring comparisons withmodern methods of treatment.They do not always appear o be familiarwith theclassification of diseases in other medieval manuals,nor are they entirely con-versant with the modern studies of similar Byzantine and Islamic sources. Theresultis that while some comments areinteresting,provocative,andinformative,others are unnecessary, misleading,and distracting.Yet Leibowitz and Marcushave succeeded in settingforthfor modern readers an important ype of medicaltext usuallyavoidedby scholarsbecause of the difficulties nherent n the genre.MathematicsTwo new editions andseveral synthetic studies have appearedon Islamic mathe-matics. The eleventh-centuryEgyptianmathematicianbnal-Haytham,known inLatin as Alhazen, is the subject of two importantpublications: he first volume ofA. I. Sabra's criticaledition of the Arabictext of his treatise on optics, has nowappeared;while his completionof the treatiseon conics begun by Apollonios ofPerga has been published n an edition, translation,and analysis by J. P. Hogen-dijk. Both were recently reviewed in Isis (1984, 75:609-611, and 1986, 77:365-367). In addition,Roshdi Rashed has publisheda volume of meticulousstudieson variousaspects of mathematical houghtin medievalIslam, while J. L. Berg-gren has issued a useful survey of the present state of our knowledge aboutmedieval Islamicmathematics.12

12 Al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham. Kitab al-Manazir: Books I-II-III (On Direct Vision). Edited withintroduction,Arabic-Latinglossaries, and concordancetables by Abdelhamid . Sabra. (Preface inEnglish, text in Arabic.) 789 pp., illus., apps., indexes. Kuwait:National Councilfor Culture,Arts,and Letters, 1983. $50.Ibn al-Haytham's Completionof the Conics. Editedwith translationand commentariesby J. P.Hogendijk. Sources in the History of Mathematicsand Physical Sciences, 7.) 415 pp., illus., figs.,bibl., indexes. New York/Berlin/Heidelberg:pringer-Verlag,985. $98.Roshdi Rashed. Entre arithme'tique et algebre: Recherches sur l'histoire des mathematiquesarabes. (CollectionSciences et PhilosophieArabes,Etudeset Reprises.)321pp., illus., index. Paris:Societe d'Edition"Les Belles Lettres," 1984.Fr 230 (paper).J. L. Berggren. "Historyof Mathematics n the Islamic World: The Present State of the Art."Bulletin of the Middle East Studies Association, 1985, 19:9-33.


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254 ISLAMICSCIENCE REVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287(1988)Still concerned with mathematics, but touching on topics of interest to abroader audience, is a collection of essays by A. A. al-Daffa andJ. J. Stroyls.13This volume will no doubt cause much consternation and controversy in theacademic world. Indeed, one outspoken objectionhas already been sounded by

David King in a review in the Bulletin of the Middle East Studies Association(1985, 19:243-245). The volume is certainlynot a studyin the traditionof mathe-matical history exemplified by E. S. Kennedy or Roshdi Rashed, which isfounded upon detailed mathematicalanalysis of medieval texts. Rather, it is acollection of seven disparateessays that use secondary sources to a large extent,but also work with some Arabic and Latin printedtexts.The first essay surveys recent scholarshipconcerningthe transmissionof Ara-bic science to the Latin West and considers in particularhow the theories ofCharlesHomerHaskinsneed to be modified n lightof these studies.The authorsdraw attention to the ideas of Norman Daniel and T. F. Glick and suggest howthey are applicableto the history of Islamic science and technology. The follow-ing two essays are concerned with "mumpsimus,"which the authors define as"an adherenceto exposed, but customary errors"(p. 19), as illustratedby twomathematicaltopics: the Pythagoreantheorem and the supposed medieval Is-lamic use of logarithms. The fourth chapter undertakes a survey of Islamic at-tempts to prove the parallel, or fifth, postulate of Euclid, culminatingn the workof Nasir al-Din al-Tiisiin the thirteenthcentury. The methods employed in thisessay are not the orthodox historicaluses of internalevidence anddirect citationof sources, but involve a novel way the authors have devised to classify themedieval work on the parallelpostulate into logicallyequivalentgroupsbased ongeometric equivalence theory.The fifth essay considers and attemptsto refute George Sarton's dismissal ofAvicenna as a seriousmathematician.The sixth essay, employingthe older stud-ies of Heinrich Suter and the more recent work of Kennedy and Rashed, dis-cusses evidence for numericalanalysis to be found in medieval Near Easterntexts, while the final contributionconcerns two schools of approachto handlingequationsin medievalIslam, the geometricand the numerical,and speculatesonpossible connections between the two.The purposeof the volumeis to challengecertainpreconceivednotionspreva-lent among some historians of science, and while al-Daffa and Stroyls do notalways elaborateor documentpoints conclusively-and indeed some of the in-terpretations they offer may prove invalid-their ideas are provocative andshould stimulate historiansto serious discussion.Physical SciencesThe physical sciences in medievalIslam have also been the objectof muchrecentscholarship. Among the numerous medieval alchemical writings, some of themost influentialwere those attributed o Jabir bn Hayyan, or Geber, as he wasknown in Latin. This is a shadowy figurefrom the end of the ninthor the earlytenth century, though some recent scholarshave arguedthat he lived a centuryearlier.Despite the scholarlyattentiongivento Jabir bnHayyanandthe alchem-ical tradition,there have until now been no modern-languageranslationspub-lished of most of the writings.The Book of Seventycontains seven groupsof tentreatises and presents a systematic exposition of the alchemicalteachingsasso-

13 Ali A. Al-Daffa; John J. Stroyls. Studies in the Exact Sciences in Medieval Islam. x + 243 pp.,figs., apps., bibl. Dhahran,Saudi Arabia:University of Petroleumand Minerals;Chicester/NewYork/Brisbane: ohnWiley & Sons, 1984.?20, $30.


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EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITHON THE FIELD 255ciated with the name Geber. The Latin translation,Liber de septuaginta, wasedited by MarcellinBertholetin 1906,and a few chaptersfrom the Arabicorigi-nal were published by Paul Kraus in 1935.A complete Germantranslationwaspreparedover forty years ago by MartinPlessner,but remainsunpublished.

Consequently,PierreLory's French translationof the first ten treatisesof theBook of Seventy is especiallywelcome.14Lory employed six Arabicmanuscriptsin preparinghis translation; he Arabic text, however, is still unpublished. Thetranslation s preceded by a brief introductiondiscussingthe alchemical orienta-tion and language,the social role of medievalalchemists,andthe differingmod-ern views as to the origin of the Jabirianwritings.A concluding essay concernsvarious terms employed in the tract, and historical notes and a bibliographycomplete the volume. The absence of an index, however, severely limits theusefulness of the translation.Nonetheless, this volume at last makes available areliable modern-language uideto at least some of the earliestIslamic alchemicalliterature.A major study of Islamiccosmology is to be found in Anton Heinen's editionand translationof and commentaryon a fifteenth-centuryract by al-Suyiti (al-ready reviewed in Isis, 1985, 76:124-125). Heinen, like Dols, prefacedhis metic-ulous text and translationwith an extensive, well-argued,and imaginative nter-pretative essay on early Islamic cosmological concerns. In this case, too, theedited text is the point of departurefor an historical interpretationof broaderinterest than the description "text-translation-commentary"ould indicate.15In the area of astronomyproperthere are also recent publicationsof note. PaulKunitzsch continued his detailed examinationof star names and astronomicalnomenclaturewith two monographs ecently reviewedin Isis (1985, 76:435, 632).The fourth-largestmuseum collection of astrolabes n the world-that at the Na-tional Museum of American History of the Smithsonian Institution-has nowbeen catalogued by Sharon Gibbs, with the assistance of George Saliba, in avolume recently reviewed in Isis (1986, 77:711-713).16 The fifty-two astrolabesdescribedin the cataloguedate from the eleventh to the nineteenthcentury, andthe majorityareIslamic.It should be noted, however, that despite the title sevenof the instrumentsare in fact no longerat the museum.The catalogue includes photographs,transcribedArabic and Persian inscrip-tions, translations,and a useful study of the gazeteers. The work, however, isseverely marredby inconsistent and sometimes incorrectrenderingsof Arabicwords. Some vowels have overbars when they should not; others lack themwhen they should have them. Names occasionally are spelled inconsistently

14 Jabir ibn Hayyan. Dix traite's d'alchemie: Les dix premiers traites du "Livre des Soixante-dix."Translatedwith commentaryby PierreLory. (La Bibliothequede l'Islam: Textes.) 318 pp., bibl.Paris: EditionsSinbad, 1983.Fr 150 (paper).15 Anton M. Heinen. Islamic Cosmology: A Study of as-Suyfili's al-Hay'a as-sanlya fi l-hay'aas-sunniya with Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary. (Deutschen Morgenlandischen Ge-sellschaft,BeiruterTexte und Studien,27.) viii + 289 + 79 (Arabic)pp., bibl., index. Beirut/Wies-baden: FranzSteiner Verlag, 1983.DM 78 (paper).16 Paul Kunitzsch. Glossar der arabischen Fachausdrucke in der mittelalterlichen europaischenAstrolabliteratur. Nachrichtender Akademie der Wissenschaftenin Gottingen. I. Philologisch-historischeKlasse, 1982, 11.)111pp., indexes.Gottingen: Vandenhoeck& Ruprecht, 1983.Paul Kunitzsch. Uber eine anwda-Tradition mit bisher unbekannten Sternnamen. (Beitrage zurLexikographiedes KlassischenArabisch, 4.) (Sitsungsberichteder BayerischeAkademie der Wis-senschaften, Philosophisch-historischeKlasse, 1983,5.) 118pp., app., index. Munich:Verlag derBayerischenAkademieder Wissenschaften,1983.Sharon Gibbs; George Saliba. Planispheric Astrolabes from the National Museum of AmericanHistory. (SmithsonianStudies in History and Technology,45.) viii + 231 pp., illus., apps., bibl.,index. Washington,D.C.: Smithsonian nstitutionPress, 1984.


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256 ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287(1988)(e.g., Hamayoni in the text and Hiumayfunin the notes) and sometimes inter-preted incorrectly (e.g., al-Hadad nstead of the Persian name Allahdadfor theprogenitorof a four-generation amily of astrolabemakers n MughalIndia). Fur-thermore,it is highly idiosyncratic o use Ben to denote "sonof' whenIbn is thestandard orm in modern scholarship.These may appearto be smallpoints of noimmediate nterest to nonspecialists. Yet it is precisely non-Arabistswho are themost confused by such carelessness, forthey frequentlyhave difficultyrecogniz-ing a person or term when they encounter it spelledin a differentmanner.

REPRINTS OF EARLIER WORKDuring the period under review several reprints of significantolder studies byorientalists appeared. The collection of studiesby E. S. Kennedyon mathemati-cal and astronomical opics in Islam has alreadyreceived attention in Isis (1984,75:758-759),as has the second volume of the collected writingsof Willy Hartner,whose diverse interests included astronomicaldoctrinesin Islam and their trans-mission to Europe (see Isis, 1986, 77:184-185).Recent articles and reviews byDavid A. Kingon Islamicmathematicalastronomyand astronomical nstrumentshave been reprinted n two volumes by VariorumReprints in London, in 1986and 1987.17The reprintingof the voluminous studies on Islamic science by EilhardWiede-mann,who died in 1928,is now complete.A three-volumecompilationof articlesnow supplements the publication n 1970 of two volumes of studies Wiedemannhad originally publishedin a journal printedin Erlangen.18These five volumesmake availableto modern-day cholars the workof a learnedandmost importantscholar whose formidable contributionsto many different aspects of Islamicscience have not been given the attentionthey deserve recently, primarilybe-cause manywere inaccessible.These volumes of Wiedemann'swritings are models of what such a seriesshouldbe, for they present the entireproductionof an importanthistorian.Fur-thermore,the reprintsare accompaniedby an extensive biography(the one thatappeared n Isis, 1930, 14:166-186),a complete bibliographyof his writings,anda full set of indexes, including separateones for proper names, subjects, techni-cal terms, and Latin, Greek, and Arabic termsoccurring n the articles.

The thoroughnessand utility of these reprintsof Wiedemann'swritingscon-17 E. S. Kennedy; with colleagues and former students. StudiesI in the Islamic Exact Sciences.Edited by David King and Mary Helen Kennedy. xvi + 771 pp., illus., bibls., indexes. Beirut: Ameri-can University of Beirut, 1983. (Available n the U.S. fromSyracuse University Press.) $80.Willy Hartner. Oriens-Occidens: Ausgewiihlte Schriften zur Wissenschafts- und Kulturgeschichte.Volume II. Edited by Y. Maeyama. ntroduction y MatthiasSchramm. Collectanea,3.2.) xli + 423pp., illus., figs., index. Hildesheim:GeorgOlmsVerlag,1984.DM 118.DavidA. King. Islamic MathematicalAstronomy. (CollectedStudiesSeries, 231.) xi + 342 pp.,illus., index. London: VariorumReprints,1986.David A. King. Islamic Astronomical Instruments. (Collected Studies Series, 253.) vi + 362 pp.,illus., index. London: VariorumReprints,1987.?36.18 Eilhard Wiedemann. Aufsdtze zur arabischen Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Foreword and indexesby Wolfdietrich Fischer. (Collectanea, 6.) 2 vols. xxiv + 880 pp.; ix + 859 pp., index. Hildesheim: G.Olms, 1970.Eilhard Wiedemann. Gesammelte Schriften zur arabisch-islamischen Wissenschaftsgeschichte.(Veroffentlichungen es Institutesfur Geschichte der Arabisch-IslamischenWissenschaften,ReiheB; Nachdrucke, Band 1.) Volume I: Schriften 1876-1912. Edited by Dorothea Girke. 612 + 51(Arabic)pp. Volume II:Schriften1912-1927. Editedby DorotheaGirkeand DieterBischoff.598 + 47(Arabic) pp. Volume III: Schriften in Zusammenarbeit mit Fritz Hauser. Edited by Dorothea GirkeandDieter Bischoff.580 + 44 (Arabic)pp., indexes. Frankfurt m Main:Institut urGeschichte derArabisch-IslamischenWissenschaftenan der JohannWolfgangGoethe-Universitat,1984. DM 135.


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EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITHON THE FIELD 257trast with the shortcomingsof the recently issued volume of articles by MaxMeyerhof, who died in 1945.19There is no complete listing of Meyerhof'swrit-ings, and only the shortest of biographies of this eminent ophthalmologistandhistorian who spent almost thirty-five years in Egypt. Even more regrettably,nearlyall the reprintedarticles were taken fromjournalsthatcan be quite easilyobtained today (e.g., nearly half are from Isis), and some equally importantbutless accessible studies are not even mentioned,such as his studies of John Philo-ponus, of the medical-philosophicalcontroversybetween Ibn Ridwan and IbnButlan, or of the extractionof cataracts by the eleventh-centuryCaireneoculist'Ammar, all published in Egypt or Spain. Add to that the fact that some of thestudies selected are now outdated by virtueof morerecent work(such as that onIbn Jumay' mentioned earlier;or the work of Casey Wood, apparentlyunknownto the editor, which supersedesthe single article on the history of ophthalmologyincludedin the volume), and the result is a volume of very 'limitedutility.

To be fair to the editor, Penelope Johnstone, the historical production ofMeyerhof, like that of Wiedemann,was so extensive that anyone required toselect only eleven items is in an unenviableposition.Johnstoneobviously tried toselect articles thatwould representthe different acets of his historical interests,and her amazingly succinct biographyshows a gracious appreciation or Meyer-hofs importance. She also supplied a general index to the names, titles, andmanuscriptscited in the eleven articles.Nonetheless, it would have been of greater service to have provideda detailedbibliographical isting of all his historical publications, especially since some,such as his book on the Theologus autodidactusof Ibn al-Naf s, were not pub-lished until many yearsafter his death and are not included n the earlybibliogra-phies to which the reader s referred.Moreover,if it was impossibleto undertakea reprintingof all Meyerhofs writings,it wouldhave greatlyenhanced the signifi-cance of this tributeto an outstandingscholarof Islamic science and medicinehad equally importantbut less accessible materialbeen chosen.The inadequacy of Studies in Medieval Arabic Medicine is in part offset by theappearance wo years later of a four-volumeset of reprintsconcernedwith oph-thalmologyin medievalIslam, which includes all the historicalophthalmologicalarticles and monographsby Max Meyerhof.20This excellent set, issued by thesame publisherswho reprintedWiedemann'swritings, reproducesthe Germantranslationsof five Arabicophthalmologicalmanualspreparedby Julius Hirsch-berg at the beginningof this century (Vol. I); Meyerhof's English and Frenchtranslationsof three Arabictreatises(Vol. II); Hirschberg'stwo monographsonthe historyof ophthalmology n Islamiclands, alongwith seven of his articles onrelated topics and twenty by Meyerhof (Vol. III); and thirty studies employingLatinversions of the Arabicophthalmologicaliterature,manyof them disserta-tions that are quite difficult to locate (Vol. IV). These four volumes bring to-gether all the importantearly studies on Islamic ophthalmology,except for thehighlyuseful annotatedEnglishtranslationof 'All ibn 'Isa's (d. 1010)A Memo-randumBookfor Oculists, madeby Casey A. Wood under the direction of Max

19Max Meyerhof. Studies in Medieval Arabic Medicine: Theory and Practice. Edited by PenelopeJohnstone. CollectedStudiesSeries, 204.)366pp., index. London:VariorumReprints, 1984.$28.20 Fuat Sezgin (Editor). Augenheilkunde im Islam: Texte, Studien und Ubersetzungen. (Veroffentli-chungendes Institutesfur Geschichte der Arabisch-IslamischenWissenschaften,Reihe B; Nach-drucke Abteilung Medizin, Band 3, 1-4.) Volume I: Werke von Ibn Sind, CAlI bn Cjsa, CAmmdr ibncAla al-Mausilt, Halifa al-Halabt und Salah ad-Din. 840 pp. Volume II: Werke von Hunain ibn Ishaqund Muhammad al-Gaftqt. 910 pp. Volume III: Beitrdge von Hirschberg, Meyerhof und Prufer. 730pp. Volume IV: Dissertationen, Augsatze und Ubersetzungen. 820 pp. Frankfurt am Main: Institutfur Geschichte der Arabisch-IslamischenWissenschaftenan der JohannWolfgangGoethe-Universi-tat, 1986.DM 165.


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258 ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287 (1988)Meyerhofin 1936(Chicago:NorthwesternUniv. Press), whichcertainlydeservesreprinting ince it is obviously unknown to many scholars working today.

CATALOGUESCataloguesof originalsource materialsconstitutesome of the most importantaswell as voluminous publicationsin this decade. With their appearance,all themajormedicalcollections will have been substantiallycatalogued except for theholdings in Cairo. As for the mathematicaland physical sciences, the Cairo col-lections have been completely dealt with, but there are other major collectionsstill in need of analysis. Distribution n the West has been somewhat delayedanderratic for some of the catalogues published n the Near East.A collection of 350 Islamic manuscriptswas assembled by Sami IbrahimHad-dad, a surgeon and founderof the OrientHospitalin Beirut, who died in 1957. Ofthese manuscripts, 125 were concerned with medicine, pharmacy, and relatedtopics. A carefully preparedcatalogue,writtenin Arabic, by his son Farid SamiHaddadin collaborationwith the historianHans HinrichBiesterfeldt, presents acomplete descriptionof each item, includingthe opening and final passages ofeach tract and indications of owners, published versions, and translations,aswell as references to the standard bibliographicalsources and other copiesknown to the cataloguers.21Moreover, the catalogue includes eleven appendixesgiving additional nformationsuch as dates of purchaseand the historicalpubli-cations of Sami Haddad;thirteenindexes that serve as guides to titles, authors,copyists, owners, and dates of copies; and thirty illustrations,which unfortu-nately are quite poorly reproduced.This is a well-roundedcollection of medicalmanuscripts, mostly in Arabic but with a few Persian items, and includes notonly many of the standardmedieval medicalcompositionsbut also a few itemsnot known to exist outside this collection, suchas Palladios's commentaryon theaphorisms of Hippocrates (currentlybeing edited by Biesterfeldt)and a treatiseon anatomy by clmad al-DinMahmuidf Shiraz.Of the 125 Haddad manuscriptsso carefully catalogued by Biesterfeldt andHaddad, 95 were offered for sale at Sotheby's in Londonin November 1985. Thesale catalogue gave only very shortdescriptionsof the items, along with seven-teen illustrationsof folios. This lot waspurchased n its entirety by the WellcomeInstitute for the History of Medicine in London, where it will supplementalready-extensiveholdings n Islamic medical manuscripts. t is fortunate hat themajorityof Sami Haddad's collection has been maintainedintact and placedwhere it will be well cared for and easily availableto scholars. It is regrettable,however, that the remaining 30 manuscripts,which include many of the rareritems, were not kept with those sold to the Wellcome Institute.Islamicmedicalmanuscripts n 129libraries n Turkeyare the focus of a cata-logue prepared n Istanbulunderthe auspicesof the ResearchCentrefor IslamicHistory, Art, andCulture.22 he catalogueencompasses nearly 1,000titles repre-senting the work of about 550 medieval medical writers, commentators, and

21 Farid SamI Haddad; Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt. Fihris al-makhtutat al-tibbtyah al-carabtyah ftmaktabat al-duktur Sdmi Ibrdhim Haddad (Catalog of the Arabic medical manuscripts in the libraryof Doctor Sami IbrahimHaddad). (In Arabic.) 223 + xxxiii pp., illus., indexes. Aleppo, Syria:Machad al-Turathal-cIlmi al-cArabi,Jamicat Halab(Institute or the Historyof ArabicScience atthe Universityof Aleppo), 1984.(Paper.)22 Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu (Editor).Catalogue of Islamic Medical Manuscripts (in Arabic, Turkishand Persian) in the Libraries of Turkey. Preparedby Ramazan $e?en, Cemil Akpinar, andCevad Izgi.(Studies and Sources on the History of Science, 1.) (In Arabic.)xxviii + 525 + v pp., indexes.Istanbul:ResearchCentre or Islamic History, Art,and Culture, 1984.$30(paper).


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EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITH ON THE FIELD 259translators,as well as nearly 5,000 duplicatecopies of various titles, all of whichare to be found in libraries throughout Turkey. Approximately 80 percent ofthese manuscriptsare in Arabic,with the remainder n Persian andTurkish.The text of the catalogueis in Arabicand was composed on a word processorat the Research Centre in Istanbul. The clarity and accuracy of the resultingvolume demonstratethe value of computer-set texts in preparingArabic cata-logues. The concise entries are arrangedby author, with the title of each compo-sition, physical description of the copy, collection name, and call number givenfor every known copy, followed by commentaries,translations,and summaries.Anonymous works are listed separately n alphabeticalorder by title, and exten-sive indexes serve as guides to authors, commentators,andtitles.This volume is the first of a series of publicationsentitled"Sourcesand Stud-ies on the History of Science," edited by the director general of the ResearchCentre,EkmeleddinIhsanoglu.The second volume is an annotatedbibliography,compiled by Ihsanoglu,of Turkish iteratureon chemistry,which surveys morethan250 works, publishedbetween 1830and 1928, that reflect the introductionofmodern chemistry into Turkey.23The third and fourth volumes are to be cata-logues of Turkishmanuscriptsconcernedwith the naturaland physical sciences.Scholars throughout he worldwill be indebtedto the Research Centre for under-taking this effort to make their vast collections of historical materials morewidely known.In 1981 an importantcatalogue of the medical manuscriptspreserved in theZahiriyahLibrary n Damascus was published.24 t was preparedby the curatorof manuscriptsat the Zahiriyah,$alahMuhammad l-Khiyami,with the purposeof correcting he omissions and errorscontainedin the earliercatalogue preparedby SamiHamarneh n 1964 and issued as PartI of the series. The firsthalfof thisnew catalogue describes in detail 208 items omitted from the previous one. Theentries are arranged n alphabetical order by title and also give the name anddates of the author (if known), extensive opening and closing passages with thebasic divisions of the treatise, the date and name of the copyist (if recorded), ageneral descriptionof the manuscript'sphysical condition, and any informationavailable on previous owners and readersas well as other manuscript copies.These detailsare supplementedby indexguidesto the authors, copyists, owners,place names, and the names of authoritiesmentioned n the treatises.The secondhalf presents correctedbut condensed alphabetical istings of the 181 titles in-cluded in the catalogue by Hamarneh.The majorityof the manuscriptsin thiscollection are Arabic, with a few Persian and Turkish,and they include somevery important tems, such as a complete copy of the Anatomical Procedures ofGalen, two copies of an otherwiseunknowntractby Ibn Sinaon the treatmentofeye diseases, an ophthalmologicaltreatise by Ibn al-Naf s, and an especiallyimportantcopy of the history of physicianswrittenin the thirteenthcentury bythe Syrian physician Ibn Abi Usaybicah-the only one known to contain a bio-graphical account of his contemporaryIbn al-Naf s. This thoroughly preparedcataloguewill be of greatservice to historiansand is a welcome replacement orits predecessor.In recent years the University of Californiaat Los Angeles has acquired

23 Ekmeleddin hsanoglu.TurkKimyaEserleriBibliyografyasi. Studiesand Sources on the Historyof Science, 2.) (In Turkish.) x + 148pp., indexes. Istanbul:Research Centrefor IslamicHistory,Art, and Culture, 1985. (Paper.)24 Salah Muhammad al-Khiyami. Fihris makht.tdt Ddr al-Kutub al-Zdhirtyah: al-Tibb wa al-Say-dalah, al-juz' al-thdni(Catalogof the Manuscripts f the ZahiriyahNationalLibrary:MedicineandPharmacy, Part II). (In Arabic.) 490 pp., indexes. Damascus: Majmac al-Lughahal-cArabiyah iDimashq, 1981.


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260 ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287 (1988)Arabic, Persian, and Turkish manuscriptsnumberingmore than 5,086 volumes;nearly 200 boxes of manuscriptsare yet unnumbered.These Near Eastern manu-scripts are groupedinto fifteen designatedcollections, all but two of which arehoused in the Special Collections of the University Research Library; two col-lections composed primarilyof medical manuscriptshave recently been trans-ferred to the historical collections of the Biomedical Libraryin the School ofMedicine. Of the Persianmedical manuscriptsmaking up one of these two col-lections (Collection 1117), all but twenty were admirably described by LutzRichter-Bernburgn a catalogue published n 1978.The Arabicmedical items thatmake up Collection 1062are the subject of a recent catalogue by A. Z. Iskan-dar,25who had earlier catalogued a substantialportion of the Arabic medicalmanuscriptsat the Wellcome Institute in London. It should be noted that thedesignation employed by the library for this collection-that is, Near EasternCollection 1062-is never mentionedby Iskandar.In fact, the only designationhe used for the manuscripts s "Ar.," as if they were the only Arabicmanuscriptsowned by the university. Before preparing his handlist Iskandar selected 122volumes from the Near Eastern holdingsand designatedthem a separate collec-tion. In the process the record of the immediate provenanceof the items waslost. Furthermore,several volumes apparentlyproved, on closer inspection, tohave been neither medical nor scientific, for they are not included n the handlist,though they remainin the collection.The catalogue contains an unusual introduction n which Iskandar describesthe catalogue thathe wouldhave put together, includingopening and concludingpassages andreferencesto othercopies, had not the cost of printingbeen prohib-itive. As it stands, the handlist, which is the result of four years' work between1969 and 1973, consists of a short descriptionof each of the 262 treatises orfragments, presentedalphabeticallyby title, with standardbibliographical efer-ences. This is supplementedby indexes of authors, place names, copyists, andprevious owners (except for the owner immediately before UCLA), and thirtyillustrationsof selected folios from the manuscripts.A useful feature is a list inthe introductionof the names of physicianswho have made some type of datedentry in a manuscript.The introductionalso draws attentionto some of the out-standing tems containedin this collection, such as the copy of Galen'sAnatomi-cal Procedures and the manuscriptof Ibn al-Naf s's commentaryon the anatomyin Ibn Sina's Canon of Medicine, which was copied forty-six years before Ibnal-Naf s's death.A discussion of the limitationsof this cataloguecan be found in the review byLawrence Conradin Medical History (1986, 30:484-486). It should be added,however, thatone of the most distressing eaturesis the implication n the title-A Descriptive List of Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Science-that thiscollection of 122volumes exhausts the Arabic medicaland scientificmanuscriptsat UCLA. This is not the case. Throughout he otherNear Easterncollections atUCLA are numerousvolumes on astronomy,mathematics,andoptics, and evensome on medicine andallied topics, in additionto manyon the so-calledpseudo-sciences of alchemy, astrology, divination, magic, amulets,and talismans.A guide to many of these other scientific items at UCLA can be found in avoluminouschecklist, published n Persianin 1983, by MuhammadTaqIDanish-pazhih.26This short-entrycatalogue surveys 3,619 Arabic, Persian,and Turkish

25 A. Z. Iskandar. A Descriptive List of Arabic Manuscripts on Medicine and Science at the Uni-versity of California, Los Angeles. xiv + 119 + xxx pp., illus., indexes. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1984.26 Muhammad Taqi Danishpazhuh; Ismacil Hakimi. Nuskhah-hdi-i khatti. (Intisharat-iDanishgah-iTihran, 1039/11/12.) In Persian.)786 + ccccxii pp., illus., indexes. Tehran: Danishgah-iTihran,1983.


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EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITH ON THE FIELD 261manuscriptsin nine of the Near Eastern collections at UCLA, not includingthose catalogued by Iskandaror Richter-Bernburg.Over 5,000 titles of treatisesare enteredin the checklist, supplementedby 412 pages of photographsof foliosfrom selected volumes. Unfortunately, he catalogue has no author ndex, whichgreatly diminishes its usefulness, and there are occasional errors. For example,Collection 955 is referred to as Collection995, which may cause difficulty forpotentialreadersof the manuscripts.It nonetheless serves as a useful and impor-tant preliminaryguide to nearly two thirds of the Arabic, Persian,and Turkishmanuscriptsat UCLA, and a surprisingportion of these manuscriptsdeal withsome aspect of science or medicine.The largest singlecollection acquiredby UCLA was assembledby a physicianin Isfahan named Caro Owen Minasian. Two thirds of Minasian's collection, or1,505 volumes, came to UCLA, with the remaindernow at WadhamCollege,University of Oxford. The checklist preparedby Danishpazhuih lso contains achecklist of the items now at WadhamCollege, of which a few are medical orscientificand most are in Persian.The Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine in London houses thelargest Persian medical manuscriptcollection in the Western world; it has re-cently published an extensive catalogue of the 617 Persian manuscriptsin itspossession.27The vast majorityof these manuscriptsare concerned with medi-cine, but there are also items on other sciences such as astronomy, mathematics,and geomancy and on nonscientific topics such as music, literature, and lexi-cography. The dates of composition of the treatises range from the elevenththrough the eighteenth centuries, though no extant copies are as early as theeleventh century. The cataloguer,Fateme Keshavarz, describes each treatise inconsiderable detail before givingspecific information egarding he copies in theWellcome collection. Medieval and early modern Persian medical literaturehasbeen neglected by recent historians;this catalogueshould surely encouragehis-toriansto delve into this abundanceof riches.The EgyptianNational Library in Cairo is one of the largest repositories ofIslamicmanuscripts.Recent yearshave seen the extensive examinationand cata-loguing by David A. King of the astronomical, mathematical,mechanical,andoptical Arabic, Persian, and Turkishmanuscripts among its holdings. In 1981King published in Arabic, with a short English preface, the first volume of aprojected two-part catalogue.The second volume, also in Arabic,did not appearuntil the end of 1986,andconsequentlythe complete cataloguehas only recentlybecome available.28Here again, as with Iskandar'shandlist, the title-A Catalogue of the Scien-tific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library-is somewhat misleading, forthe cataloguedoes not includeany of the biologicalsciences or alchemy,chemis-try, medicine, pharmacy,botany, animalhusbandry,or physiognomy.As for thelegion of treatises on magic squaresand various forms of numerical divinationpreservedin Cairo, only a very few of the items in the huruf (divinatory)collec-tion of the National Libraryare catalogued here, while the vast holdings on

27 Fateme Keshavarz. A Descriptive and Analytical Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Li-brary of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. 705 pp., illus., indexes. London: Well-come Institutefor the Historyof Medicine, 1986.?35, $55.28 David A. King. A Catalogue of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library.Cairo:GeneralEgyptianBook Organization,n collaborationwith the AmericanResearch Center nEgypt and the Smithsonian Institution. Part I: A Critical Handlist of the Scientific Collections: In-dexes of Copyists and Owners.(AmericanResearchCenter n Egypt, Catalog3.) (InArabic.) xvii +781 + xviii pp., indexes. 1981. $40 (paper.). Part II: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Scientific Collec-tions Arranged Chronologically According to Subject Matter (Arabic-Persian-Turkish): Indexes ofTitles and Authors. (In Arabic.) viii + 1299 + viii pp., indexes. 1986. (Paper.)


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262 ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287(1988)divination and astrology in the Mustafa Fadil hurufcollection are scarcely men-tioned.However, even grantedthat "scientific" s here taken to mean only the mathe-maticalandphysical sciences (excluding chemistryandalchemy),the numberofitems surveyed is most impressive. The first volume of the catalogue contains ahandlist of over 2,500 volumes, presentedin shelf order by collection, each de-scribed in short entries supplyingtitles of individualtreatises, authors (whenknown), and length and dimensions of the copy, as well as date, copyists, andprevious owners (if recorded). The provenance-in the sense of the region inwhich the copy was made-is indicated througha series of symbols designatinggeographical regions. All this is supplementedby indexes of copyists, owners,andreaders,in additionto a chronological ist of the datedcopies anda list of themanuscriptsavailableon microfilm hroughthe League of Arab States Instituteof ArabicManuscripts.

The second volume analyzes the same Arabic manuscriptsby groupingtheminto seven subject categories: general astronomy, ephemeridesand charts, astro-nomical timekeeping, writings on astronomical instruments, astrology, mathe-matics, andphysics. Withineach of these headings,the manuscriptsaregroupedinto more specific topics and then describedin roughly chronologicalorder. ThePersian and Turkishmanuscriptsare analyzed in the same format but in separatesections prepared by Cornell Fleischer, while a few items are given only theshortest of entries since they concern medicine, divination,or other topics out-side the areadesignatedas "scientific."The entry in this second volume for each treatise consists of its openingandclosing paragraphs transcribedby a number of assistants under King's direc-tion), a table of contents, and informationon the length of the manuscript,theshelf number,and multiple copies to be found in the Cairo collections-all veryuseful information o historians.The indexes of authorsand titles in this secondvolume are keyed only to the subject and chronology numbers assigned theworks there, ratherthan to the shelf numbers used in the first volume. As aresult, a user who is interested in a particularauthor or title must find the fullentry in Volume II before lookingfor the corresponding ntry in Volume I.Since it seems that all the manuscripts isted by shelf order in Volume I arepresented in Volume II in a more accessible manner and in greater detail, thequestion naturallyarises as to why the first volume was required.It does in factcontain a modest amount of information hat is not repeated, namely, the geo-graphical origins of the volumes, their dimensions, copyists and owners, andshortentries describingeleven astronomical nstrumentsowned by the EgyptianNational Library, all quadrants.The inclusion of entry numbers from earliercatalogues, especiallyfor those items recorded n the 1888-1890catalogue,wouldhave been of considerable value, for earlierhistorians often referredto Cairomanuscriptsonly by these early cataloguenumbersand not by the collection andshelf numbersactuallyused by the library.In a furtherattemptto make this mass of resources even more accessible topotential readers, King publishedin 1986an English-languagedigest of the samemanuscripts.29A yet-differentarrangementof the materialwas undertaken,andentries were supplementedwith references to the standardmodern biobiblio-graphicalsources and published studies. The resultingvolume could be a veryuseful guide, except that the authors are not arrangedalphabeticallyand there

29 David A. King. A Survey of the Scientific Manuscripts in the Egyptian National Library. (Ameri-can Research Center n Egypt, Catalog5.) xiv + 331pp., illus. WinonaLake, Indiana:Eisenbraunsfor the AmericanResearch Center n Egypt, 1986. $39.50 (paper);$54.50 (cloth).


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EMILIE SAVAGE-SMITH ON THE FIELD 263are no indexes to authors, titles, or subjects; noris there a key to matchthe entrynumbersused in the second volume of the Arabic catalogue with the new codesused for the author entries in this English volume. Instead, the authors(as wellas anonymous tracts)are grouped first by region (designatedby letter)and thenchronologically (by number).The criterionfor determiningwhat region or timeperiod to assign a writeror anonymoustreatise to is neither stated nor alwaysevident. Because of the lack of indexes, users must already know a fair amountaboutthe object of theirsearch or be willing to scan every page. One thirdof thevolume consists of 109 pages of photographed olios from particularly mportantmanuscripts,accompaniedby extensive captions.Through these three large volumes-each surveying the same 2,500 manu-scripts but analyzing them from different perspectives-King has providedscholars with detailedinformation egarding he largestsinglecollection of medi-eval Islamic astronomicaland mathematicalmanuscripts n the world. He hasbrought many important tems, previously unknown or overlooked, to the atten-tion of historians. To give but one example, the treatise on astronomical nstru-ments by the Yemeni sultan al-Ashraf d. 1296)containsthe earliestreference toa magneticcompassin medieval astronomical iterature, houghal-Ashrafhimselfdid not claim the invention. Appended to this same treatise are commentsby thesultan's teachers on six astrolabesthat al-Ashrafmade, one of which is now atthe MetropolitanMuseumof Artin New York(although ts authenticityhad beenquestioned prior to the publicationof these catalogues).Medieval astronomers in Yemen have been a particularconcern of DavidKing's, and this is evident in another guide to manuscriptsources he recentlypublished, Mathematical Astronomy in Medieval Yemen.30This volume surveysover one hundred Yemeni astronomicalmanuscriptspreserved in libraries inEurope and the Near East. A historical survey of Yemeni astronomy from thetenth century to the early twentieth century is followed by a list of more thanfifty Yemeni astronomersand their writings; this also includes writers on arith-metic, surveying, and problemsinvolved in determining nheritance. Seven in-dexes give access to the materialcatalogued.This useful volume on Yemeni sources, as well as the two-volume Arabiccatalogue of manuscriptsat the EgyptianNational Library publishedin Egyptand the English-language ompanion guide to the Cairocollection, are all beingdistributedin the United States by Eisenbrauns(P.O. Box 275, WinonaLake,Indiana 46590).

INSTITUTIONAL ACTIVITIESThere could scarcely be a more encouragingomen for the futureunderstandingand appreciationof medieval Islamic science and medicine than the establish-ment of the Institutfur Geschichteder Arabisch-IslamischenWissenschaftenofthe JohannWolfgangGoethe Universitat n Frankfurt m Main.Amongthe manyactivities it has launched is a new journal devoted to the history of Islamicscience, Zeitschrift fur Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften,under the editorshipof Fuat Sezgin. "Science" is broadlydefined in thisjournal,as it was in medievalIslam, so as to includenot only astronomy,mathematics,and medicine, but also literary criticism, grammar,andjurisprudence.Book re-views and editions of short Arabic texts also makeup part of thejournal, which

30 David A. King. Mathematical Astronomy in Medieval Yemen: A Biobibliographical Survey.(AmericanResearch Center in Egypt, Catalog4.) ix + 98 pp., illus., bibl., indexes. Malibu,Calif.:UndenaPublications,1983.$17 (paper).


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264 ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287(1988)

* . ' Cannon from an anonymousA A~~~~~~~~~Ottoman treatise on warfare;Egyptian National LibraryMNT3, folio 61. FromDavidKing, A Survey of ScientificManuscripts in theEgyptianNational Library.thus providesa forum for the publicationof material hat, because of the difficul-ties inherent n printingArabic script, is often not easily incorporated nto historyof science serial publications.The result is a much-needed ournal meeting thehighest standards of modem scholarship, printed clearly and accuratelyon thehighest quality paper.

The Frankfurt nstitute also starteda series of reprintsof older works in thefield in 1984, beginningwith the excellent three-volumeset of studies by Wiede-mannmentioned earlier. Since then, in addition to the four-volume set on medi-eval Islamic ophthalmology also discussed above, there have been reprintsofmajorstudies in the history of astronomyby Jacob Golius, Jean-JacquesSedillot,Louis-Amelie Sedillot, and H. C. F. C. Schjellerup; mportant monographs onIslamicgeographyby FerdinandWustenfeld, Joseph-ToussaintReinaud,GabrielFerrand, MaximilianStreck, G. S. A. Ranking,and R. F. Azoo; studies in Is-lamic mathematicsby FranzWoepckeand HeinrichSuter; philosophicalstudiesby Ernest Renan and Max Horten;books on generalIslamic history by Ferdi-nandWustenfeldand BernardCarrade Vaux;translationsby Pieter de KoningofArabic anatomicaland surgicalchaptersfrom medicalencyclopedias;and inves-tigations into the history of Orientalmusic by Henry George Farmer. The re-printingof these earlierhistoricalstudies at reasonableprices is a greatservicetothe field, particularly o youngerscholars who need to develop their librariesorwho are located far from majorreference librariesthat have the original,some-times ratherrare, editions.The Institute for the History of Arabic-IslamicScience also began in 1984 an


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ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287(1988) 265importantproject of producing acsimileeditions of some of the most significantand hitherto unpublishedmanuscriptson scientific topics. A manuscript s se-lected-frequently a unique copy in a rather inaccessible library-and repro-duced photographically.Thirty-onesuch volumes have so far been issued, withnine more in preparation,and they include such items as the complete medicalencyclopedia by the tenth-centurySpanishphysicianal-Zahrawl,known in Latinas Albucasis; the majorwritingon astrology by Abfi Macshar;and a thirteenth-century tract on proportionin musical composition. The volumes are not forgeneral sale through bookdealers, but are printed in limited editions of fivehundredcopies each, available at cost to specialists, libraries,and institutionswith sections on Islamic studies.Other institutions are also supporting he spread of Islamic studies. Anotherprojectedseries of facsimile copies of manuscripts s mentionedby David King inthe introduction o his catalogueof manuscriptsn Cairo.He statedthat a seriesof volumes reproducingby photo-offset some of the more significantmathemati-cal and astronomicalmanuscripts rom the collectionin Cairowill be undertakenby the EgyptianNational Libraryin collaborationwith the AmericanResearchCenterin Egypt. It is important hatthis facsimileseries does in fact materialize,for relatively easy access to the basic resources is fundamentally mportanttofuturehistorians, as the Frankfurtnstituteclearly realized when it undertook tsfacsimile series.Just as the Frankfurt nstitute's new journal will be an importantforum forfuture work, so was the Journal for the History of Arabic Science issued by theInstitute for the History of ArabicScience in Aleppo, Syria,whichunfortunatelyhas not appearedsince 1983.It is hoped that the institutein Aleppo will be ableto keep publishing its journal and edited texts, as well as sponsoring sympo-siums, as it did in the 1970sin particular.In Istanbul the Research Centre forIslamic History, Art, and Culturehas not only begun a series of publicationsconcernedwith the historyof Islamicscience buthas also sponsoredsome recentsymposiums, as have also the League of Arab States Office and the WellcomeInstitute for the History of Medicinein London. It is important hat such sympo-siumscontinue,for they providenecessary pointsof contact for scholars fromallover the world.

A LOOK AHEADThere are today a considerablenumber of individualscholars working on thehistory of Islamic science and medicine, and the numberappearsto be increas-ing. Importantand necessary work will continue in editing, translating,and in-terpreting exts, and there are stillmajorproblems n the cross-culturalmigrationof ideas that deserve full and serious study. In the nearfuture, however, therewill probablybe moreinterpretative tudies employing some of the methods andapproachesdeveloped in other historicaldisciplinesover the past twenty years.The investigationsof scholarssuch as A. I. Sabraat Harvardand Michael Dolsat Oxfordgive every promiseof creatingnew perspectiveson the developmentofmedieval Islamic science and medicine.Importantcollaborativeworks are due to appearearly in the next decade. Acomposite volume on the history of Islamic science and medicine, under theeditorshipof Roshdi Rashed and Regis Morelon of the Centre Nationale de laRecherche Scientifique n Paris, to be publishedin English, French, and Arabicversions, is expected to supply a fresh overview and some updatedinterpreta-tions of medieval Islamic science. The formatis to be accessible to nonspecial-ists. A comprehensive repertoire of signed Islamic astronomicalinstruments,


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266 ISLAMICSCIENCEREVIEWS-ISIS, 79: 2: 287(1988)prepared by the late Alain Brieux and Francis R. Maddison of Oxford, is alsoscheduled to appear soon.The next decade should see a growing awareness and applicationof otherhistorical methodologies and the somewhat belated joining with contemporaryhistorians of other areas, who have for some time displayed more interest in thebroader background of scientific development. In addition, the effects shouldsoon be felt of those calls, by Sabra among others, to understand slamic scienceon its own terms rather than as a subsidiaryof ancient Western science. Withsuch currents stirring,with the increased availabilityof resources,and with wid-ening opportunitiesto publish and exchange ideas, the study of the history ofIslamic science and medicine appearsto be maturingand will result, one hopes,in works of significance o a wider audience of historians.

Diophante. Les arithmetiques. Edited andtranslated by Roshdi Rashed. Volume III:Book IV. ccvi + 162 pp., illus., bibl. Vol-ume IV: Books V- VII. cxxxiv + 197 pp.,app., index. (Collection des Universites deFrance.) Paris: Societe d'Edition "LesBelles Lettres," 1984. Fr 250 (cloth).Diophantus. Books IV to VII of Dio-phantus' Arithmetica in the Arabic Trans-lation Attributed to Qustd ibn Luiqd. Editedandtranslatedby JacquesSesiano.(Sourcesin the History of Mathematicsand Physi-cal Sciences, 3.) xii + 502 pp., app.,bibl., index. New York/Heidelberg/Berlin:SpringerVerlag, 1982.

We have known aboutthe existence of afragment of the Arabic translationof Dio-phantus's Arithmetica (comprisingbooksIV-VII of the originalGreek)for morethana decade now, thanks to two articlesby Roshdi Rashed ("Les travaux perdusde Diophante," Revue d'Histoire desSciences, 1974, 27:97-122; 1975, 28:3-30)that presented the fragment'scontents ingreat detail. Rashed later published a pre-liminary edition of the same fragment(Cairo, al-Hay'ah al-Misriyyahal-cammahli-l-kitab, 1975),which included a historicalintroduction and a detailed mathematicalcommentary all in Arabic).Several studieshave since appearedthat were inspiredbyhis discovery and new interest in Dio-phantus's Arithmetica. More recently,JacquesSesiano has completedan Englishtranslationof the fragment,here underre-view, which he combines with aneditionofthe Arabictext, a historical ntroduction,amathematicalcommentary,and an Arabicindex that is reallya glossaryof terms. Fi-

critical edition of the same fragment,alsounderreview, as VolumesIII and IV of thecomplete Arithmetica (the other volumesbeingdevoted to the Greekpart) n the ele-gantFrenchBude series, accompaniedby aFrench translationon facing pages, a de-tailed historicalintroduction,a mathemati-cal commentary,criticalhistoricalandphil-ological notes, and an index of Arabicterms that is in fact a trilingualglossarycomprisingArabic,French,andGreek.One can thinkof dozens of books dealingwith science in the classical period ofwhich we do not have a decent edition inany language.In the case of this survivingfragment,extant in a uniquemanuscriptnthe Meshhed Library, Iran, we are for-tunate indeed to have not one editionbut two. These editions are significant orthe contrast between the methodologies,presuppositions, and approaches of twoindividuals coming from completely dif-ferent perspectives and backgroundsandequippedwith different rainingandexperi-ence. A careful considerationof both vol-umes reveals the effects such differencescan have on what one considers necessaryin establishingan authoritativecriticaledi-tion of a scientifictext.The differences focus primarilyon thetreatmentof Qustaas translator.The math-ematics of Diophantus'sArithmetica, therelationshipof the Arabic translation o theextant Greek text, and the general statusof Diophantinestudies were more or lessestablishedby Rashed in his earlierpubli-cations, and in this work he restates themwith much greater detail. Once again heshows that examiningthe conditionsof thetranslation of Qusta ibn Luiqa'swork is

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