The medical compendium entitled Zād al-musāfir wa-qūt al-ḥāḍir (Provisions for the Traveller and the Nourishment for the Sedentary) and compiled by Ibn al-Jazzār from Qayrawān in the tenth century is one of the most influential medical handbooks in the history of western medicine. In the eleventh century, Constantine the African translated it into Latin; this translation was the basis for the commentaries by the Salernitan masters from the twelfth century on, and was popular in Jewish circles as well, as is attested by the fact that it was translated into Hebrew three times. The current volume covers Book 7, chapters seven to thirty of Ibn al-Jazzār’s compendium. These chapters cover a wide variety of external afflictions such as measles and smallpox; bites and stings; rabies; tumours; warts and calluses, leprosy, scurf and eczema, pruritus and scabies, furuncles, scrofula, sharā and heat rashes; fractures and dislocations; haemorrhages caused by a sword, knife or arrow; whiteness of the nails and paronychia; burns; wounds caused by pressure from the shoes; and fissures in the hands and feet.

First published in 1997. This book is from the original Arabic text with an English translation, introduction and commentary of a critical edition of Zad al-musfir wa-qut al-hadir, Provisions for the Traveller and Nourishment for the Sedentary, book six.

A follow-up publication to the Handbook of Medieval Studies, this new reference work turns to a different focus: medieval culture. Medieval research has grown tremendously in depth and breadth over the last decades. Particularly our understanding of medieval culture, of the basic living conditions, and the specific value system prevalent at that time has considerably expanded, to a point where we are in danger of no longer seeing the proverbial forest for the trees. The present, innovative handbook offers compact articles on essential topics, ideals, specific knowledge, and concepts defining the medieval world as comprehensively as possible. The topics covered in this new handbook pertain to issues such as love and marriage, belief in God, hell, and the devil, education, lordship and servitude, Christianity versus Judaism and Islam, health, medicine, the rural world, the rise of the urban class, travel, roads and bridges, entertainment, games, and sport activities, numbers, measuring, the education system, the papacy, saints, the senses, death, and money.

This is a first part of the new catalogue of medical manuscripts preserved in the Wellcome Library. It serves not only as a guide to the collection of the manuscripts, purchased by the Wellcome Library in 1986, but is also an independent research tool, which can be used by various specialists: librarians, historians, paleographers, art historians, conservators, etc. This catalogue comprises detailed indices and many illustrations on cd-rom, which help researchers to consult in detail each codex prior to coming to the Wellcome Library in London to consult the manuscript per se.

In this collection of essays, an international group of renowned scholars attempt to establish the theoretical basis for studying the ancient and medieval history of the Mediterranean Sea and the lands around it. In so doing they range far afield to other Mediterraneans, real and imaginary, as distant as Brazil and Japan. Their work is an essential tool for understanding the Mediterranean, pre-modern and modern alike. It speaks to ancient and medieval historians, to archaeologists, anthropologists and all historians with environmental interests, and not least to classicists.

The development of medical drug therapy in medieval times can be seen as an interplay between tradition and innovation. This book follows the changes in the therapy from the Arabic medicine of Ibn S n (Avicenna) to Latin medical scholasticism, aiming to trace both the continuity and the development in the theory and practice of medieval drug therapy. In this delicate balance between change and continuity a crucial role was played by the scientific community through critical rejection or acceptance of new ideas. The drug choices were in most cases rational also from the point of view of contemporary medical theory. The method used in the book for studying these choices could promote the development of a novel methodology for historical ethnopharmacology.

Publisher description

Modern medicine has penetrated Bedouin tribes in the course of rapid urbanization and education, but when serious illnesses strike, particularly in the case of incurable diseases, even educated people turn to traditional medicine for a remedy. Over the course of 30 years, the author gathered data on traditional Bedouin medicine among pastoral-nomadic, semi-nomadic, and settled tribes. Based on interviews with healers, clients, and other active participants in treatments, this book will contribute to renewed thinking about a synthesis between traditional and modern medicine — to their reciprocal enrichment.

The first part of this collection brings together a selection of Peregrine Horden's papers on the history of hospitals and related institutions of welfare provision from their origins in Late Antiquity to their medieval flourishing in Byzantium and the Islamic lands as well as in western Europe. The hospital is seen in a variety of original contexts, from demography and family history to the history of music and the liturgy. The second part turns to the history of healing and medicine, outside the hospital as well as within it. These studies cover a period from Hippocratic times to the Renaissance, but with a particular focus on the Mediterranean region - Byzantine, Middle Eastern and Western - in the Middle Ages.

First published in 2005. The first part of this book is an historical study of the Hebrew written production on women's healthcare and of Jewish women's lives and experiences regarding the care of their bodies during the late Middle Ages in the Mediterranean West. The aim is to restore value to feminine knowledge and practices that were significant then and remain so today. The second part presents an edition translated into English with commentary of the Hebrew compilation Sefer Ahavat Nashim, the Book of Women's Love. This was compiled in the late Middle Ages and is preserved in a single manuscript from Catalonia-Provence. Its contents are concerned with magic, sexuality, cosmetics, and gynecology - areas of knowledge essentially, though not exclusively, related to women. The author focuses on the relation between women and health care and examines both women's knowledge and knowledge about women. This pioneering work makes a valuable contribution to the history of Jewish culture and Jewish women during the Middle Ages, and also makes a substantial contribution to the history of medicine.