The authors publish a previously unedited Regimen of Health attributed to Avenzoar (Ibn Zuhr), translated at Montpellier in 1299 in a collaboration between a Jewish philosopher and a Christian surgeon, the former translating the original Arabic into their shared Occitan vernacular, the latter translating that into Latin. They use manuscript evidence to argue that the text was produced in two stages, first a quite literal version, then a revision improved in style and in language adapted to contemporary European medicine. Such collaborative translations are well known, but the revelation of the inner workings of the translation process in this case is exceptional. A separate Hebrew translation by the philosopher (also edited here) gives independent evidence of the lost Arabic original.

Ibn Zuhr (or Avenzoar) of twelfth-century Seville was the most important physician of Muslim Spain. His family boasted six generations of physicians, and also included midwives, jurists, poets, and viziers. His Kitab al-taysir, a compendium of therapeutics, was translated into Latin and Hebrew; its Latin version, Liber Teisir, served as a companion book to the Colliget, the Latin translation of Kitab al-kulliyat, a largely theoretical book of the philosopher-physician Ibn Rushd (Averroes). The rabbi-physician Maimonides quoted extensively from Ibn Zuhr and considered him "unique in his age and one of the great sages." But Ibn Zuhr was not just a keen observer of patients and a dispenser of remedies: buried within his generally dry narrative are candid recollections and views on a variety of subjects and of his society. And his medical recipes could be compared to current forms of alternative medicine. Together, his holistic approach to medicine and his spontaneous vignettes make him one of the most refreshing physicians of any age. This account of the life and legacy of Ibn Zuhr, the first of its kind, reveals the man and his world, his importance in his own times, and his relevance to our world today. Against a modern culture of often impersonal, bureaucratized, and costly health care, Ibn Zuhr's embodiment of the wisdom of the ages and his role as healer-priest can be an inspiration.

Jews and Health: Tradition, History, Practice investigates the value of health in the Jewish tradition and explores Jewish recommendations and practices to maintain and restore health as a state of physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing.

Gerrit Bos (Ph.D. 1989) is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne. He has published extensively in the fields of Jewish studies, Islamic studies, and medieval science and medicine in Arabic and Hebrew texts. In July 2023, he celebrated his 75th birthday. On this occasion, his colleagues and students presented him with a Festschrift containing over twenty original papers. They deal with various topics belonging to his wider fields of interest ranging from the Ancient Orient, Jewish and Islamic theology and philosophy, medicine and natural sciences in medieval Islamicate and European countries, to Romance philology and linguistics.

In Novel Medical and General Hebrew Terminology from the Middle Ages, Volume 6 Gerrit Bos offers more terms not featuring in existing dictionaries as addition to his Concise Dictionary of Novel Medical and General Hebrew Terminology from the Middle Ages.

Medizingeschichte (Mittelalter) / Montpellier.

A classified bibliographic resource for tracing the history of Jewish translation activity from the Middle Ages to the present day, providing the researcher with over a thousand entries devoted solely to the Jewish role in the east-to-west transmission of Greek and Arab learning and science into Latin or Hebrew. Other major sections extend the coverage to modern times, taking special note of the absorption of European literature into the Jewish cultural orbit via Hebrew, Yiddish, or Judezmo translations, for instance, or the translation and reception of Jewish literature written in Jewish languages into other languages such as Arabic, English, French, German, or Russian. This polyglot bibliography, the first of its kind, contains over 2,600 entries, is enhanced by a vast number of additional bibliographic notes leading to reviews and related resources, and is accompanied by both an author and a subject index.

Maimonides’ On the Regimen of Health was composed at an unknown date at the request of al-Malik al-Afḍal Nūr al-Dīn Alī, Saladin’s eldest son who complained of constipation, indigestion, and depression. The treatise must have enjoyed great popularity in Jewish circles, as it was translated three times into Hebrew as far as we know; by Moses ben Samuel ibn Tibbon in the year 1244, by an anonymous translator, and by Zeraḥyah ben Isaac ben She’altiel Ḥen who was active as a translator in Rome between 1277 and 1291. The present edition by Gerrit Bos contains the original Arabic text, the medieval Hebrew translations and the Latin translations, the latter edited by Michael McVaugh.