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On Ibn Juljul and the meaning and importance of the list of medicinal substances not mentioned by Dioscorides

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2014

ZOHAR AMAR ,
EFRAIM LEV  and
YARON SERRI
ZOHAR AMAR
Affiliation:
Bar-Ilan University
EFRAIM LEV
Affiliation:
University of Haifa
YARON SERRI
Affiliation:
Zefat Academic College
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Abstract

Pedanius Dioscorides, a Greek physician and one of the first pharma-botanists is known mainly for his book De Materia Medica, a medical codex listing hundreds of medicinal substances. The Arabs admired Dioscorides’ legacy however they were very aware that their own inventory of drugs was much larger than his.

The Andalusian physician Ibn Juljul (944 – after 994) became famous on account of several medical treaties which he wrote. He devoted most of his time to identifying the drugs listed in Dioscorides’ monumental work, and thereafter wrote: “An article on the drugs not mentioned in Dioscorides’ book. . .”

This article analyzes and discusses the names of those drugs and presents an English translation of this work. The absence of these substances from Dioscorides’ codex, and from other classical sources of the pre-Islamic period (Theophrastus, Pliny, Galen, Paul of Aegina), is a prime reason for ascribing their distribution to the Arabs.

Ibn Juljul's list reflects the major change that took place in the inventory of Galeno-Arabic drugs after the Islamic conquests; about one hundred new substances. Some of these substances, such as the myrobalan, soon became among the most common and popular drugs in the practical pharmacology of the Middle Ages. The fact that about half of the substances not mentioned by Dioscorides are of “Indian” origin should be seen against the background of the influence of the Ayurvedic medical culture, to which the Arabs were exposed alongside the Greek.

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Type
Research Article
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 24 , Issue 4 , October 2014 , pp. 529 - 555
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2014 

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References

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32 This column contains complementary information, mainly on places that Ibn Juljul did not mention. This information is based on various medieval Arabic sources presented above. If no source is cited, the information rests on phyto- or zoo-geographical analysis.

33 In some cases ihlīlaj kābulī is called ihlīlaj ʾaswad and it should not be confused with the “Chinese kind”; see Ibn al-Bayṭār, “Kitāb”, IV, p. 196.

34 As Ibn Juljul hints, and opposing to the white kind to which few identification traditions had been brought up in the Middle Ages (see no. 15), to the red kind, the suggested identifications are less acceptable; see Meyerhof and Sobhy, “The Abridged”, no. 139. There Abū Manṣūr is mentioned as having seen the plant in the mountains of Afghanistan.

35 The Spanish physicians said that it was an Indian plant, and added that in their time it was mistaken for other plants such as orchid; see Meyerhof and Sobhy, “The Abridged”, p. 140; Ibn al-Bayṭār, “Kitāb”, I, p. 122; Meyerhof, “Un Glossaire”, no. 56. Indeed the būzīdān should not be identified as orchid, which is clearly mentioned by Dioscorides: III, no. 144.

36 This plant is also mentioned in other sources (Meyerhof and Sobhy, “The Abridged”, no. 261; Meyerhof, “Un Glossaire”, no. 113) and even few identifications (e.g., Capsicum minimum; Aquilaria agallocha) have been suggested. But these are not suitable for plants from the Slavic area, as mentioned also by Ibn Sīnā, “Kitāb”, II, p. 299.

37 See Meyerhof, “Un Glossaire”, no. 259.

38 al-ʾIshbīlī (p. 108) writes this almost identically in his entry “bustān al-Jawārī” (garden of the adolescent). At the end he adds that the plant was sown recently in his country and that it was common in Egypt. Ibn al-Suwaydī (p. 6a) identifies bustān ʾabrūz with (Ocimum basilicum); compare Abū al-Munā Dāwud b. al-Isrāʾīlī, Abī Naṣr al-Kūhīn al-ʿAṭṭār, Minhāj al-Dukkān wa-Dustūr al-ʾAʿyān fī ʾAʿmāl wa-Tarākīb al-ʾAdwiya al-Nāfiʿa li-l-ʾInsān, (Cairo, 1940), p. 219 Google Scholar.

39 If the origin of this plant is really India there is no justification for its identification as Taxus baccata mentioned in the literature; see Meyerhof, “Un Glossaire”, no. 137; E. Lev, Medicinal Substances of the Medieval Levant (Tel Aviv, 2002), p. 151.

40 qarn al-khutuww, identified with a whale (Monodon monoceros); see Richter-Bernburg,”Albert Dietrich”, p. 149. Al–Bīrūnī (p. 174) suggests identifications of other animals as well like rhinoceros. Another option of identification is a bone of a bull's forehead, See: Qaddumi, “Book of Gifts”, p. 270.

41 Described as a kind of a pearl, see: Ruska, J., Steinbuch des Aristoteles, (Heidelberg, 1912), pp. 10–13 Google Scholar.

42 For different identification suggestions see Meyerhof, “Un Glossaire”, no. 327.

43 According to Ibn Juljul a few other plants in Spain such as Leontice leontopetalum and Anastatica hierochuntica were named the same.

44 al-ʾIshbīlī (p. 234) mentions that it is also named al-Tustarī after Tustar, since it is common there and the seeds were brought to Spain from that location.

45 Ibn Abi Uṣaybiʿa, “ʿUyūn al-ʾanbāʾ “, p. 495. Unfortunately, Ibn Juljul's words, and quotations attributed to him, have not survived, but, at Ibn Abi Uṣaybiʿa's writings.

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67 Oxford, Bodleiana Hyde 34( = Uri 573), 197b-201b.

68 Istanbul, Nuruosmaniye 3589, 128a-129b.

69 This might also be sap in the ancient sources.

70 In the text “ʾaḥshāʾ”, which may also be translated as “intestine”.

71 Ibn al-Bayṭār, II, p. 90, wrote: “similar to the leaves of lūf [Arum sp.]”, and see there the remark of the editor Dietrich, “Die Ergänzung”, p. 36, note 3.

72 In the text the phrase nuʿāyinahu, is found meaning “we saw with our own eyes”. It also means examining the benefits of a certain drug from medical point of view.

73 In the text the phrase “yuqtaʿu bi-qawlihi” is found, meaning one who is confident about what he says.

74 In the text the phrase “quriʾa ʿalayya” is found meaning “someone taught me” or “read for me”.

75 The editor Dietrich, “Die Ergänzung”, p. 48, translated “plates”; and “ʾadrāj” “kastchen”.

76 al-ʾIshbīlī (p. 619) maintains that this is cattle bile.