Oliver Kahl – författare

This book centres around a critical edition and annotated English translation of an Arabic medical writing: On the Errors of the Physicians in Damascus, composed by the Jewish philosopher, Jacob ben Isaac (fl. AD 1202). The edition and translation are framed by a bio-bibliographical sketch of the author, a source-critical study of the text, a detailed description of the extant manuscripts, and various indices which make the material accessible from different angles. Jacob's treatise is significant in several ways: first, as an example for the lasting influence of the Greek medico-philosophical tradition, especially Galenism, on medieval Arabic and Jewish scholarship; second, as an authentic witness to the theoretical and practical state of Arabic medicine in the High Middle Ages; third, it illustrates the Jewish contribution to medieval Islamic science; and fourth, it contains valuable information relating to socio-cultural history in general.

The Kitāb Taḥrīm dafn al-aḥyāʾ, the Book on the Prohibition to Bury the Living, written by the Nestorian physician ʿUbaidallāh Ibn Buḫtīšūʿ (d. c. 1060 CE), deals with the causes, signs and treatments of apparent death. Based on a short pseudo-Galenic treatise, whose Greek original is lost, ʿUbaidallāh’s Arabic commentary is a comprehensive and in many ways unique piece of scientific writing that moreover promotes a psychological understanding of physical illness. Oliver Kahl’s present book offers a critical Arabic edition with annotated English translation of ʿUbaidallāh’s work on apparent death, framed by a detailed introductory study and extensive glossaries covering all relevant terms; for comparative purposes, the Arabic and Hebrew recensions of the lost Greek prototype are presented in an appendix.

The Kitab Tahrim dafn al-ahya?, the Book on the Prohibition to Bury the Living, written by the Nestorian physician ?Ubaidallah Ibn Buhtisu? (d. c. 1060 CE), deals with the causes, signs and treatments of apparent death. Based on a short pseudo-Galenic treatise, whose Greek original is lost, ?Ubaidallah's Arabic commentary is a comprehensive and in many ways unique piece of scientific writing that moreover promotes a psychological understanding of physical illness. Oliver Kahl's present book offers a critical Arabic edition with annotated English translation of ?Ubaidallah's work on apparent death, framed by a detailed introductory study and extensive glossaries covering all relevant terms; for comparative purposes, the Arabic and Hebrew recensions of the lost Greek prototype are presented in an appendix.

This book comprises a philological analysis and critical edition of an undated, anonymous Arabic pharmacopoeia, preserved in the form of a unique manuscript.A study of the manuscript showed that it represents the oldest hand-written witness of Arabic pharmacology known to date, and one of the earliest pharmacopoeias ever written in Arabic, viz. the small, and authentic version of an otherwise lost or, in the course of transmission, largely transmuted Aqrabadhin originally composed by the Christian physician Sabur b. Sahl (d. 255/869).Following a brief introduction, the manuscript is described, analysed and illustrated by ten facsimiles. A biographical sketch of the author is followed by a critical edition of the manuscript. Philological observations, a glossary of technical terms, and indices are appended to the edition.

This book offers an annotated English translation of one of the earliest dispensatories ever written in the Arabic language, viz. the small version of the Aqrabadin composed by the Nestorian physician Sabur ibn Sahl (d. 869 CE). The translation is based on the edition of the Arabic text as published in volume 16 of the IPTS series, which in turn is based on the oldest handwritten witness of Arabic pharmacy known so far. The translation is framed by a detailed introductory study of the subject, and by various glossaries which make this important source text accessible from both the Arabic and the English side. The book thus marks the first serious attempt at fully translating an early Arabic dispensatory into a modern Western language.

ʿAlī ibn Sahl Rabban aṭ-Ṭabarī's Indian Books, completed in the year 850 CE as an appendix to his medico-philosophical chef-d'œuvre "Paradise of Wisdom", belong to the most remarkable texts in Arabic scientific literature. The Indian Books offer a unique, interpretative summary of the main tenets of Ayurvedic medicine, as understood by Arabic-speaking scholars on the basis of now lost translations from Sanskrit. The present book centres around a critical edition and annotated translation of this crucial text, framed by a detailed introduction and extensive glossaries of terms. Ṭabarī's learned exposé of Ayurveda also throws a more nuanced light on the allegedly uncontested supremacy of Greek humoralism in 9th-century Arabic medicine.

Oliver Kahl and Henrietta Sharp Cockrell present a facsimile edition of a newly discovered medieval medical text attributed to the famous physician Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī (Rhazes, d. 925 CE). This unique Arabic manuscript comprises a work in the health regimen genre titled “Book of the Crown” (Kitāb al-Iklīl). Copied in 1220 CE and bound parallel to the text (flip-bound), it is highly unusual, both in terms of physical appearance and topical choices. The edition is accompanied by an annotated English translation en regard, a detailed introduction including a codicological study, and bilingual indices.

Oliver Kahl and Henrietta Sharp Cockrell present a facsimile edition of a newly discovered medieval medical text attributed to the famous physician Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya? al-Razi (Rhazes, d. 925 CE). This unique Arabic manuscript comprises a work in the health regimen genre titled "e;Book of the Crown"e; (Kitab al-Iklil). Copied in 1220 CE and bound parallel to the text (flip-bound), it is highly unusual, both in terms of physical appearance and topical choices. The edition is accompanied by an annotated English translation en regard, a detailed introduction including a codicological study, and bilingual indices.

In the present book, Oliver Kahl offers, for the first time, a complete, annotated English translation of Ibn Juljul’s Ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ wa-l-ḥukamāʾ, one of the earliest Arabic texts of its kind. Ibn Juljul’s work, completed in the year 987 CE in Córdoba, is essentially a collection of biographical essays on ancient and medieval physicians, scientists and philosophers, interspersed with numerous anecdotes and containing a highly instructive, relatively long section on ‘Andalusian sages’. The work represents a most crucial source for our understanding of the evolution and the development of medicine and philosophy in Muslim Spain, drawing also on a number of otherwise unattested Latin-into-Arabic translations, and abounding moreover in burlesque literary embellishments.