Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:54:23.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Islamic Pharmacology in the Middle Ages: Theories and Substances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2008

Danielle Jacquart
Danielle Jacquart*
Affiliation:
Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes, Sorbonne, 45-47 rue des Ecoles, 75005 Paris, France
*
E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

From the ninth to the 13th century, numerous works on pharmacology were written in Arabic in Eastern as well as in Western parts of the Islamic world. Starting from Galen and Dioscorides, the Islamic authors greatly improved on the Greek heritage. Among the theories they developed, two major trends stand out. The first trend emphasized medicinal degrees of primary qualities, and thus could lead to the promotion of mathematical rules. The second trend, on the contrary, focused on ‘the whole form’ of the substances, and opened the way to an experimental approach. Both these trends will continue in European pharmacology up to the Modern period.

Type
Focus: Pharmacy in Islam
Information
European Review , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 219 - 227
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References and Notes

1. M. Ullmann (1978) Islamic Medicine (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press), p. 193.Google Scholar
2. M. Levey (1973) Early Arabic Pharmacology, An Introduction based on Ancient and Medieval Sources (Leiden: Brill).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3. M. Comes (ed.) (1991) Ecuatorios andalusies. Ibn al Samh al-Zarqâllu y Abû l-Salt (Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona).Google Scholar
4. Abû l-Salt Umayya (2004) Kitâb al-adwiya al-mufrada. Arabic text, Latin and Catalan medieval translations, edited and introduced by A. Labarta, J. Martínez Gázquez, M. R. McVaugh, D. Jacquart and L. Cifuentes. Arnaldi de Villanova Opera Medica Omnia XVII (Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona).Google Scholar
5. On Galenic pharmacology see A. Debru (ed.) (1997) Galen on pharmacology (Leiden, New York, Köln: Brill).Google Scholar
6. Galen, De simplicium medicamentorum temperamentis et facultatibus, edited by C. G. Kühn (1964–1965) Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia XI–XII (Hildesheim). Olms (repr. of the edition of 1821–1833).Google Scholar
7. Arnald of Villanova (1975) Aphorismi de gradibus. In: M. R. McVaugh (ed.) Arnaldi de Villanova Opera Medica Omnia II (Granada-Barcelona: Seminarium Historiae Medicae Granatensis).Google Scholar
8. See M. Ullmann (1970) Die Medizin im Islam (Leiden, Köln: Brill), pp. 268–269.Google Scholar
9. Sâ’id al-Andalusî (1991) Tabaqât al-’Umam. Translated into English by S. I. Salem and A. Kumar (Austin: University of Texas Press). Edition of Ibn Wâfid (1995) Kitâb al-adwiya al-mufrada (Libro de los medicamentos simples) by L. F. Aguirre de Cárcer (Madrid: C.S.I.C.–I.C.M.A.).Google Scholar
10. A. Labarta (1981) El prólogo de al-Kitâb al-Musta’înî de Ibn Buklârish. Texto árabe y traducción anotada. In: J. Vernet (ed.) Estudíos sobre historia de la ciencia árabe (Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona), pp. 181–316.Google Scholar
11. See G. Strohmaier (1999) Avicenna (München: C.M. Beck).Google Scholar
12. Ibn Sînâ (1877) al-Qânûn fî l-tibb, 3 vols. Bûlâq (ed.) (Cairo).Google Scholar
13. Galen, De compositione medicamentorum secundum locos, De compositione medicamentorum per genera, edited by C. G. Kühn (1964–1965) Claudii Galeni Opera Omnia XII–XIII (Hildesheim). Olms (repr. of the edition of 1821–1833).Google Scholar
14. Bûlâq (ed.) vol. 3, p. 318.Google Scholar
15. Avicenna, Liber Canonis, ed. Venice 1507 (reprod. Hildesheim: Olms, 1964).Google Scholar