ʿUbaidallah Ibn Buḫtīšūʿ on Apparent Death: The "Kitāb Taḥrīm dafn al-aḥyāʾ", Arabic Edition and English Translation

Description

With a Hebrew Supplement by Gerrit Bos. 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. ‎Preface ix Acknowledgements xiii Introduction 1 1. ʿUbaidallāh Ibn Buḫtīšūʿ 1 a. Life 1 b. Works 4 2. The Book on Apparent Death 7 a. The Arabic Manuscript 14 b. Sources 18 c. Discussion 21 d. Metrological Units 28 Plates 30 Text and Translation 33 Bibliography 253 Indices Introduction to the Indices 266 Index of Medicine and Pharmacy 267 Index of People and Places 297 Index of Work Titles 299 Index of Miscellaneous Terms 301 Index of Botanical Names 303 Appendix: The Pseudo-Galenic Treatise 306 1. The Arabic Recension 306 a. Version α 306 b. Version β 316 Plates 322 2. The Hebrew Recension (by Gerrit Bos) 324 Sigla 328 Plates 338