Abstract

Kāmil al-Sināʿa al-Ṭıbbiyya known as Liber Regalis (The Royal Book), which is an encyclopedic medical work, was written by ʿAlī b. al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī, one of the physicians of the period called as golden age of Islamic science and medicine, and dedicated to ʿAḍūd al-dawla of Buyids. The first time Constantinus Africanus translated Kāmil al-Sināʿa al-Ṭıbbiyya into Latin, and introduced to Europa, the second time the book was translated into Latin by Stephanus of Antiochia, citing the name of author. An Arabic copy printed in Bulaq in Egypt in 1294/1877 and a Latin copy printed in Venice in 1492 were mainly used in this study. "The first discourse" of the second part related to practice of medicine is on "preservation of the health" and comprises 31 chapters. The aim of this study is to discuss and bring the knowledge in the sections related to preservation of health of the pregnant and the children to literature of Turkish history of medicine. The 19th chapter of the first discourse is “on the regimen of weak bodies, firstly, on regimen of the pregnant and the children”, the 20th chapter is “on regimen of the children’s bodies”, 21st is “on regimen of the wet nurse”, 22nd chapter is “on regimen of the children who were weaned”. These chapters were translated from both Arabic and Latin into Turkish, and then a Turkish text was composed, basing on Arabic translation and comparing both translations to each other, and was presented in the results section of the article. The knowledge presented in the results section was evaluated with the knowledge in similar chapters in works of predecessors of ʿAlī b. al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī, such as Aphorisms by Hippocrates of Cos, De sanitate tuenda by Galen of Pergamum, Gynaeceia by Soranus of Ephesus, Synopsis by Oribasius of Pergamum, Epitome by Paul of Aegina and Liber Almansoris by Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyā al-Rāzī. As a result, it is possible to say that the knowledge on pediatrics given by ʿAlī b. al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī is in accordance with the knowledge shared by his predecessors; even there are some little differences. On the other hand, it is recognized that Stephanus’ translation remained faithful to Arabic sentence structure. Furthermore, his Latin adaptation of many Arabic words, especially names of herbs, mostly verbatim or with little changes, makes us to think that he had difficulty in finding out Latin words corresponding Arabic ones.

Keywords: Haly Abbas, Kamil al-Sinaa al-Tibbiya, Liber Regalis, Stephan of Antioch, pediatrics, history of medicine

How to Cite

1.
Acıduman A, Aşkit Ç. On regimen of the pregnants and the children in Kāmil al-Ṣināʿa al-Ṭibbiyya (The Royal Book), the famous work by ʿAlī b. al-ʿAbbās al-Majūsī. Çocuk Sağlığı ve Hastalıkları Dergisi 2017; 60: 64-81. Available from: https://cshd.org.tr/article/view/61