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NEW FRAGMENTS FROM ON MELANCHOLY OF RUFUS OF EPHESUS IN AL-RĀZĪ’S THE COMPREHENSIVE BOOK

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2026

Abdullah Yildiz Open the ORCID record for Abdullah Yildiz [Opens in a new window]  and
Ahmet Aciduman
Abdullah Yildiz*
Affiliation:
Ankara University
Ahmet Aciduman*
Affiliation:
Ankara University
*
dr.abdullahyildiz@hotmail.com
ahmetaciduman@yahoo.com
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Abstract

This study examines overlooked or underexplored fragments from Rufus of Ephesus’ On Melancholy, as cited in Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī’s seminal medical work, The Comprehensive Book (Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb). Through an analysis of Arabic texts and Latin translations, we present two previously unexamined fragments and one of doubtful authenticity which reference Rufus’ understanding of melancholy. Preserved across diverse linguistic and cultural contexts, these fragments illuminate the transmission of ancient Graeco-Roman medical knowledge into the Islamic Golden Age and Renaissance Europe. Arabic texts are compared with corresponding Latin editions to verify their authenticity and trace their historical transmission.

Keywords

Rufus of EphesusAl-Rāzīmelancholyhistory of medicineancient medicineGraeco-Roman medicine

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Shorter Notes
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The Classical Quarterly , First View , pp. 1 - 5
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© The Author(s), 2026. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

INTRODUCTION

Many texts by Graeco-Roman medical writers have not survived to the present day. Nevertheless, we can gain insight into these physicians and, in some cases, reconstruct their works through translations into various languages or through quotations by later prominent physicians. In this context, Arabic, Syriac and Latin works and the physicians who wrote in these languages have played a crucial role. Rufus of Ephesus, one of the most important physicians of antiquity, wrote extensively on various medical subjects. His writings on melancholy in particular are considered extremely valuable contributions. For example, Galen referred to Rufus’ work on the subject despite never having written a dedicated treatise on melancholy himself.Footnote 1 Although Rufus’ original writings on melancholy have not survived, significant studies have been conducted to reconstruct his perspective. Scholars such as Rosenthal,Footnote 2 Flashar,Footnote 3 UllmannFootnote 4 and PormannFootnote 5 have worked extensively to present a holistic view of Rufus’ understanding of melancholy, drawing on later sources and physicians. Contributions are ongoing.Footnote 6 Pormann’s study in particular highlights numerous citations of Rufus’ work in Arabic medical literature.Footnote 7 Arabic sources have provided us with valuable knowledge, insights and interpretations of many ancient works, including those of Rufus. A key figure in preserving and interpreting Rufus’ understanding of melancholy is Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī (Rhazes) (died c.925), a philosopher and physician. Al-Rāzī regarded melancholy as an important subject in his works, reflecting his broader interest in mental health and its treatment.Footnote 8 This note examines certain overlooked or insufficiently analysed fragments from Al-Rāzī’s The Comprehensive Book (Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb), one of his most important works. These fragments, which have received limited scholarly attention or whose originality remains contested,Footnote 9 offer valuable insights into Rufus’ works on melancholy.

Both the Arabic manuscripts (MS Arundel Or. 14Footnote 10 and MS Arabic 10Footnote 11 ) and the printed editionFootnote 12 of Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī’s The Comprehensive Book (Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb) are used in this study, along with the printed editions (Brescia, 1486Footnote 13 ; Venice, 1509Footnote 14 ; Venice, 1529Footnote 15 ) of its Latin translation (Liber Continens) by Faraj b. Sālim (Faragut) composed in 1279.

Using the keywords روفس, Ruffus, مالنخوليا and melancholia, the aforementioned editions were searched, and fragments containing excerpts from Rufus’ On Melancholy were compared with those of Pormann’s edition (n. 5 above). This note offers two new short fragments from Rufus of Ephesus’ On Melancholy. Moreover, it argues that a fragment previously called spurious (F76 Pormann) is likely to come from On Melancholy, since two Arabic manuscripts (MS Arundel Or. 14 and MS Arabic 10) introduce the fragment as روفس في المالنخوليا قال ‘Rufus, On Melancholy, he said’.

FRAGMENT 1

F56a M.M. Ismāʿīl (ed.), Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī: The Comprehensive Book ([Kitāb] al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb) (Beirut and Lebanon, 2000), 8.3435, lines 4–5:

شوكران؛ قال روفس في كتاب المالنخوليا: إن الشوكران ورقه شبيه بورق اليبروح إلا أنه أصغر، وأصله دقيق، ليست له ثمرة.

Hemlock. Rufus said in his book On Melancholy: its leaves are similar to those of the mandrake, except that they are smaller, its root is thin, and it has no fruit.

Commentary

The first fragment examined in this study is found in volume 22 of Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb, entitled في الصيدلة وفي جداول استنباط الأسماء والأوزان والمكاييل ‘On pharmacy and on derivation tables for names, weights and measures’.Footnote 16 This fragment is also present in the 1486 edition of the Latin translation.Footnote 17 This Arabic fragment is not included, however, in Pormann’s edition, nor is its Latin translation found in the work of Daremberg and Ruelle.Footnote 18

FRAGMENT 2

F64a M.M. Ismāʿīl (ed.), Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī: The Comprehensive Book ([Kitāb] al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb) (Beirut and Lebanon, 2000), 8.3751, lines 22–3:

روفس في المالنخوليا: الطعام القليل ولو كان رديئاًFootnote 19 تحيله الطبيعة لشدة استيلائها عليه، وبالضد.

Rufus, On Melancholy: a small amount of food, even when it is bad, is quickly transformed by the nature [of the patient], as the nature dominates it vehemently; the opposite is also true [namely, that a large amount of food is only digested with difficulty].

Commentary

The second fragment presented in this study is found in volume 23 of The Comprehensive Book, entitled (ق١) في قوانين استعمال الأطعمة والأشربة وفي النوم واليقظة وفي الأمراض التي تعدي وتتوارث وغيرها ‘(Q1) On the laws of using foods and drinks, and on sleep and wakefulness, and contagious and transmitted diseases, and others’.Footnote 20 This fragment appears in two of the Latin printed texts (1486 and 1509).Footnote 21

Although Pormann’s edition includes two fragments (FF44, 64) from volume 23 of the Arabic text,Footnote 22 it does not incorporate this particular Arabic fragment. In contrast, Daremberg and Ruelle’s edition includes it in quotation no. 372.Footnote 23

FRAGMENT 3

F76 Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī, The Comprehensive Book (Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb), London, British Library, MS Arundel Or. 14, fol. 335a, lines 7–11 and New Haven, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, MS Arabic 10, fol. 258a, lines 13–15:

روفس في المالنخوليا قال الكلى تضعف عند الشيخوخة والهرم ومن ركوب الخيل بغتة عن غير عادة، ومن ضربة تعرض للصلب والتعب الشديد وانتصاب طويل [للشمس]Footnote 24 والسفر البعيد ففي هذه الأحوال تقلFootnote 25 قوي الجاذبة للبول وربما انحدرFootnote 26 في هذه الأحوال شيء من رطوبات دمية كانت سببا للتقرح.

Rufus, On Melancholy, he said about kidneys that they become weak in old age—senility—and because of riding horses all of a sudden without previously being used to it; an accidental blow to the spine; by extreme exhaustion; by standing in the sun for a long time; and by travelling long distances. For in these conditions the powers to draw urine are diminished. Also in these conditions some bloody moistures may come down, which cause ulceration.Footnote 27

Commentary

The third fragment presented in this study appears in volume 10 of The Comprehensive Book, entitled في أمراض الكلى ومجاري البول وغيرها ‘On diseases of the kidneys, urinary tract, etc.’. The Arabic manuscripts indicate that the quotation is from Rufus of Ephesus’ On Melancholy. Similarly, in the printed Latin translations published in 1509 and 1529, it is evident that the quotation is also from Rufus’ On Melancholy.Footnote 28

In the Arabic printed text, however, only the name of Rufus appears, without the work’s title, for which an explanation is provided.Footnote 29 In Daremberg and Ruelle’s work on quotations from Rufus, the Latin version of this quotation appears as quotation no. 280 and is taken from Rufus’ De melancolia.Footnote 30

This fragment is referenced in Pormann’s edition as F76 in the Spuria section. The quotation begins with the words … لرفوس ‘… by Rufus’, as found in the Arabic printed copy.Footnote 31 In his commentary on fragment F76, Pormann states that this fragment is unlikely to originate from Rufus’ On Melancholy and does not pertain to melancholy.Footnote 32

In the Arabic manuscripts cited above, the fragment begins with the words روفس في المالنخوليا قال ‘Rufus, On Melancholy, he said’. Similarly, the 1509 and 1529 editions of the Latin translation open with the words ‘Ruffus de melancholia dixit’. These findings support the argument that the fragment quoted by al-Rāzī from Rufus’ On Melancholy, as discussed, is indeed ‘a genuine’ fragment, in Pormann’s words.

CONCLUSION

This study presents two previously unexamined fragments (F56a and F64a) from Rufus of Ephesus’ On Melancholy preserved in al-Rāzī’s The Comprehensive Book. Both fragments begin with explicit attribution to Rufus and to his work on melancholy. The first (F56a) offers Rufus’ botanical description of hemlock. The second (F64a) deals with nutritional aspects of melancholy, emphasizing the capacity of the digestive system in relation to food and melancholy. Additionally, the manuscript evidence supports reconsidering F76 (previously classified as spurious) as potentially authentic, given its attribution to On Melancholy in two Arabic texts and in their corresponding Latin translations. These findings contribute to our understanding of Rufus’ approach to melancholy and demonstrate the value of Arabic medical sources in preserving lost Graeco-Roman medical knowledge.

References

1 R.E. Siegel (ed.), Galen: On the Affected Parts. Translation from the Greek Text with Explanatory Notes (Basel / Munich / Paris / London / New York / Sydney, 1976).

2 F. Rosenthal, Das Fortleben der Antike im Islam (Zürich, 1965).

3 H. Flashar, Melancholie und Melancholiker in den medizinischen Theorien der Antike (Berlin, 1966), 84–104.

4 M. Ullmann, Islamic Medicine (Edinburgh, 1978), 37–8; M. Ullmann, Die Medizin im Islam (Leiden, 1970), 71–6; M. Ullmann, ‘Die arabische Überlieferung der Schriften des Rufus von Ephesos’, in W. Haase and H. Temporini (edd.), Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt: Geschichte und Kultur Roms im Spiegel der neueren Forschung, Teil II: Principat Band 37.2 (Berlin and New York, 1994), 1293–349.

5 P.E. Pormann, Rufus of Ephesus: On Melancholy (Tübingen, 2008).

6 P.E. Pormann, ‘New fragments from Rufus of Ephesus’ On Melancholy’, CQ 64 (2014), 649–56; P.E. Pormann, ‘New fragments from Rufus of Ephesus’ On Melancholy (24a–d) and On Preferring Fresh Poppies’, CQ 69 (2019), 355–62.

7 Pormann (n. 5), 14–21.

8 Pormann (n. 5), 14–21.

9 Pormann (n. 5), 109–10.

10 Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakarīyyā al-Rāzī, Al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb, London, British Library, MS Arundel Or. 14.

11 Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakarīyyā al-Rāzī, Kitāb al-Ḥāwī, New Haven, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, MS Arabic 10.

12 M.M. Ismāʿīl (ed.), Abū Bakr Muhammad b. Zakariyyā al-Rāzī: Al-Ḥāwī fī al-Ṭibb, 8 vols. (Beirut and Lebanon, 2000).

13 Mohammed Rhasis, Liber Elhavi, seu Ars medicinae (Brescia, 1486).

14 [Rasis], Continens Rasis ordinatus et correctus per clarissimum artium et medicine doctorem magistrum Hieronymum Surianum: nunc in Camaldulensi ordine Deo dicatum ultimo impressus (Venice, 1509).

15 Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā ar-Rāzī, Continens Rasis (Venice, 1529).

16 Ismāʿīl (n. 12), 8.3413–718.

17 ‘Iusquiamus dixit Ruffus in libro melancolie habet folia ut folia mandragore tamen minora et radicem tenuem sed caret fructu’; Rhasis (n. 13), 488.

18 C. Daremberg and É. Ruelle, Œuvres de Rufus d’Éphèse, texte collationné sur les manuscrits, traduit pour la première fois en Français, avec une introduction (Paris, 1878).

19 In the printed Arabic text, it appears as ردياً; Ismāʿīl (n. 12), 8.3751.

20 Ismāʿīl (n. 12), 8.3719–849.

21 ‘Ruffus in melancolia dixit: Cibus sumptus modice licet fuerit malus, natura ad votum eius alterat ex vehementi condominatione habita super eum et e converso’; Rhasis (n. 13), 532; [Rasis] (n. 14), 483v.

22 Pormann (n. 5), 54–5, 62–3.

23 Daremberg and Ruelle (n. 18), 527.

24 The word للشمس is absent from the Arabic manuscripts, whereas it is present in the Arabic printed text: Ismāʿīl (n. 12), 4.1553; Pormann (n. 5), 78.

25 In the printed Arabic text, it appears as تقبل; Ismāʿīl (n. 12), 4.1553. The correct word is تقل, which is also in line with the Latin translation: [Rasis] (n. 14), 249r; ar-Rāzī (n. 15), 210r.

26 ينحدر in the printed Arabic text: Ismāʿīl (n. 12), 4.1553; Pormann (n. 5), 78.

27 This translation, except the words ‘Rufus, On Melancholy’, is quoted from Pormann (n. 5), 79.

28 ‘Ruffus de melancolia dixit: Renes debilitantur penes senium et extenuationem senilem; et ex equitatione equorum, subito absque consueto usu, ac ex percussione accidenti spinali, ex labore vehementi, et ex erectione longa corporis; et ex itinere longo; unde in his dispositionibus diminuuntur virtutes attractive urine; an forte in his dispositionibus descendent humiditates sanguinee, que erunt in causa ulcerationis.’ [Rasis] (n. 14), 249r; ar-Rāzī (n. 15), 210r.

29 بياض في الأصل ‘originally white’; Ismāʿīl (n. 12), 4.1553.

30 Daremberg and Ruelle (n. 18), 502.

31 Pormann (n. 5), 78–9.

32 ‘[1] In the Arabic, we read “fī l-kulā (about kidneys)”, whereas the Latin translation has “de melancolia (about melancholy)”. The latter seems to be a mistake, since the whole context talks about kidneys. There is, however, a small chance that the erasure before “by Rufus” did contain the title On Melancholy, in which case this would be a genuine fragment.’ See Pormann (n. 5), 109–10.