Religion:Paradise of Wisdom

Short description: Early Islamic medical encyclopedia

Paradise of Wisdom

Author	Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari
Original title	Firdaws al-ḥikma
Country	Abbasid Caliphate
Language	Arabic
Genre	Encyclopedia
Publication date	850

The Firdaws al-ḥikma (فردوس الحكمة), known in English as the Paradise of Wisdom, 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

In total, the Firdaws al-ḥikma has 360 abwāb or chapters. 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.

al-Tabari offers a remedy for each disease he describes; for instance, he suggests, quoting Galen, that colic may be cured with wolf feces. Apart from Galen, al-Tabari extensively quotes other Greek authorities including Alexander of Aphrodisias; Archigenes; Aristotle; Democritus; Dioscorides; Hippocrates; Pythagoras; and Theophrastus. He also quotes several of his Arabic contemporaries.

Additionally, the Firdaws is replete with al-Tabari's personal accounts of "peculiar phenomena" like a monkey-like man who "coveted the coitus just like monkeys do", a fire bolt that destroyed a Zoroastrian temple, and a stone "that provokes abortion".

Publication history

Completed by Tabaristan-based physician Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari around 850 and dedicated to Abbasid Caliph al-Mutawakkil, the work is believed to be the "first all-inclusive medical compendium" and one of the earliest Islamic medical encyclopedias, if not the earliest. According to University of Birmingham professor David Thomas, it became "a foundation text for medical practitioners in the Islamic world."

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.

References

Bibliography

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