Çocuk Sağlığı ve Hastalıkları Dergisi
2013 , Vol 56 , Num 3
Physician Nidâ’î from Ankara and his famous work Manafi al-Nas (Benefits of People): a glance at pediatric diseases and medical deontology from the 16th century
Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Tıp Tarihi ve Etik Anabilim Dalı Doçenti İletişim: aciduman@medicine.ankara.edu.tr
The aims of this article were to evaluate and present the 36th and 60th
chapters of Manafi al-Nas (Benefits of People), which related to pediatric
diseases and deontological advice for physicians, respectively. The copy of
Manafi al-Nas numbered 06 Hk 470 was determined as the main sample
and was transliterated into the contemporary Turkish alphabet and then
compared to copy number 06 Hk 269 to prepare and evaluate the 36th
chapter related to pediatrics. The 60th chapter, in which Nida’i explained
why he wrote the book and presented deontological advice for physicians,
was also prepared from copy number 06 Hk 470. Nida’i described diseases
and also interpreted some symptoms of diseases as illness in the pediatric
chapter of Manafi al-Nas. He made direct treatment suggestions after he had
presented symptoms or diseases without giving additional information about
them. Treatment suggestions sometimes included one or more prescriptions
in which mostly herbal but also animal drugs were. Magical or mystic/
religious treatment approaches were determined in some conditions. Nida’i
related features that are necessary for physicians in the first part of his
deontological advice, then praised his book Manafi al-Nas in the second part
of couplets, and finally invoked God and prayed for both himself and for
those for whom the book was written. In the pediatric chapter of the book
(Chapter 36), examples are found clarifying that materialistic, magical, and
then materialistic and religious medical applications originating from Central
Asia were performed together, though there is a distinction between them.
Based on similar examples in works from the 15th and 17th-18th centuries,
it can be said that this process shows continuity. On the other hand, it was
understood that advice for physicians was found in classical medical books
in Islamic medicine, and Nida’i continued this custom.
Anahtar Kelimeler :
Nidâ’î, Menâfi‘ü’n-Nâs, çocuk hastalıkları, tıbbi deontoloji, tıp tarihi.