Paradise of Wisdom
| Author | Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari |
|---|---|
| Original title | Firdaws al-ḥikma |
| Language | Arabic |
| Genre | Encyclopedia |
Publication date | 850 |
| Publication place | Abbasid Caliphate |
The Firdaws al-ḥikma (فردوس الحكمة),[1] known in English as the Paradise of Wisdom,[2] is a medical encyclopedia written by Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari and completed around 850. It is one of the earliest Islamic medical encyclopedias, if not the earliest.
Contents
[edit ]In total, the Firdaws al-ḥikma has 360 abwāb or chapters.[3] The encyclopedia also has seven anwāʿ or parts covering a range of topics such as Aristotelianism; embryology; anatomy; dreams; psychology; nutrition; toxicology; cosmology; astronomy; and Indian medicine.[3]
al-Tabari offers a remedy for each disease he describes; for instance, he suggests, quoting Galen, that colic may be cured with wolf feces.[4] Apart from Galen, al-Tabari extensively quotes other Greek authorities including Alexander of Aphrodisias; Archigenes; Aristotle; Democritus; Dioscorides; Hippocrates; Pythagoras; and Theophrastus.[2] He also quotes several of his Arabic contemporaries.[3]
Additionally, the Firdaws is replete with al-Tabari's personal accounts of "peculiar phenomena"[5] like a monkey-like man who "coveted the coitus just like monkeys do",[6] a fire bolt that destroyed a Zoroastrian temple,[7] and a stone "that provokes abortion".[8]
Publication history
[edit ]Completed by Tabaristan-based physician Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari around 850 and dedicated to Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil,[9] the work is believed to be the "first all-inclusive medical compendium"[3] and one of the earliest Islamic medical encyclopedias,[10] if not the earliest.[11] [12] [13] According to University of Birmingham professor David Thomas, it became "a foundation text for medical practitioners in the Islamic world."[14] Al-Tabari later translated his work, which also included information and advice on medical ethics, into Syriac language.[15]
British Iranologist Edward G. Browne died in 1923, while editing and translating the encyclopedia; the project was subsequently completed and published by Browne's protege Muhammad Zubair Siddiqi in 1928.[16]
References
[edit ]Citations
[edit ]- ^ "Firdaws al-ḥikmah فردوس الحكمة Ṭabarī, ʿAlī ibn Sahl Rabban طبري، علي بن سهل ربن". Qatar National Library. 13 January 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
- ^ a b Raggetti 2020, p. 219.
- ^ a b c d Raggetti 2020, p. 220.
- ^ Raggetti 2020, pp. 220–222.
- ^ Raggetti 2020, p. 223.
- ^ Raggetti 2020, p. 225.
- ^ Raggetti 2020, p. 226.
- ^ Raggetti 2020, p. 229.
- ^ Ullmann 1978, p. 41.
- ^ Morrow 2013, p. 87.
- ^ Wallis 2012, p. 144.
- ^ Livingston 2017, p. 68.
- ^ Raggetti 2017, p. 47.
- ^ Thomas 2022, p. 23.
- ^ Kaya, Maymut. "Firdevsü'l-Hikme". İslâm Ansiklopedisi (in Turkish). Vol. 13. İstanbul: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı. pp. 131–132. Retrieved 7 May 2026.
- ^ Meyerhof 1931, p. 6.
Bibliography
[edit ]- Livingston, John W. (2017). The Rise of Science in Islam and the West: From Shared Heritage to Parting of The Ways, 8th to 19th Centuries. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781351589253.
- Meyerhof, Max (1931). "'Alî at-Tabarî's Paradise of Wisdom, one of the oldest Arabic Compendiums of Medicine". Isis . 16 (1): 6–54. doi:10.1086/346582. JSTOR 224348. S2CID 70718474.
- Morrow, John Andrew (2013). Islamic Images and Ideas. McFarland. ISBN 9780786458486.
- Raggetti, Lucia (2017). ʿĪsā Ibn ʿAlī's Book on the Useful Properties of Animal Parts: Edition, Translation and Study of a Fluid Tradition. De Gruyter. ISBN 9783110549942.
- Raggetti, Lucia (2020). "The Paradise of Wisdom: Streams of tradition in the first medical encyclopaedia in Arabic". In Ulrike Steinert (ed.). Systems of Classification in Premodern Medical Cultures: Sickness, Health, and Local Epistemologies. Routledge. pp. 219–232. ISBN 9780203703045.
- Thomas, David (2022). "ʿAlī l-Ṭabarī, The book of religion and empire". In David Thomas (ed.). The Bloomsbury Reader in Christian-Muslim Relations, 600–1500. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 23–29. ISBN 9781350214101.
- Ullmann, Manfred (1978). Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780852243251. JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctvxcrv7d.
- Wallis, Faith (2012). "The Ghost in the Articella: A Twelfth-century Commentary on the Constantinian Liber Graduum". In Anne Van Arsdall; Timothy Graham (eds.). Herbs and Healers from the Ancient Mediterranean through the Medieval West. Routledge. pp. 107–152. ISBN 9781315586601.