Tag: Ibn Abi Usaibia

Getting Ibn Abi Usaibia into electronic form

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Some time back I discovered that in 1956 the US government commissioned a translation of the great history of medicine by the medieval Arabic writer Ibn Abi Usaibia.  The translation completed by Arabist Lothar Kopf in Israel, was filed, and forgotten.  I discovered that it existed quite by accident when I was doing a Google search for something — anything — on this author.  It’s almost certainly public domain as well.

Yesterday, to my astonishment, a DVD with photographs of all the pages of the typescript appeared through my letter box.  The photographs were taken by Douglas Galbi, who read my notes about this on my blog, hied down to the US National Library of Medicine to take a look, and — we should all thank him! — did the back-breaking task of photographing the whole lot! 

Looking at the images — which are better than I would have managed! — I grew rather excited.  A very large proportion of the material covers the classical and patristic period.  The translation is obviously a very sound piece of work, as you can tell at once by reading it.  This is a text that begs to be online.

I converted these into 7 PDF’s — the translation is almost 1,000 pages — and have sent a copy to Adam McCollum, Librarian of the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library.  Adam is an excellent Arabist, and interested in the author.  He’s promised to take a look and verify the general standard of the translation, and also whether it includes all the material in the Arabic text.

Meanwhile we really need something other than a gigabyte of PDF’s.  I was in negotiation with the NLM for a copy, and we’ll see where that goes.  In a sense it’s unnecessary now; but something monochrome and rather smaller might still be useful.

I’ve also posted a job on PeoplePerHour.com to see if I can hire some data entry skills.  I’m offering 40 GBP for 100 pages.  I did look at OCR, but OCR software tends not to like typescript, and the number of errors was sufficiently high that I’d rather someone else corrected it.  Alas, the days when I could do such things myself seem to be gone, and I just do not have the time.

UPDATE: I have modified the job, which has yet to be submitted, hours later.  It looks as if no-one on PeoplePerHour works at the weekend!  The delay is rather unwelcome, but useful in this case.  Because I have tried OCR again, and got rather better results.  The images that I first tried at the start of the book were not as good as those later on.  This book is OCR-able, so I have revised the ad with that in mind.  Eight hours at £5 an hour ought to cover quite a lot of OCR proof correction.  Although I do have a memory of once trying to hire people, long ago, and being disappointed at how slow they were.  Hum.  Maybe I will do this after all.

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More on Ibn Abi Usaibia

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’m interested in the references to the Christians that appear in the works of the 2nd century medical writer Galen.  I discovered that a bunch of them appear only in the medical dictionary of the Arabic writer Ibn Abi Usaibia. 

A while back I discovered that an unpublished English translation exists in typescript at the US National Library of Medicine (see also here and here).  Since then I have been in contact with the NLM, to try to obtain a copy.

My initial contacts were very unpromising, but things have improved and I learn that the translation was made under a US-Israeli government contract back in the 1960’s, and  that the translation is probably in the public domain.  This is because US-government commissioned stuff is automatically public domain, and quite right too.

A reader contacted me and said that he has been to the NLM and inspected the manuscript.  It’s in typescript, and about 1,000 pages.  But from the look of it, it’s all  good stuff.  There’s no footnotes or commentary; but what do we care?

Here’s hoping that I can lay hands on a copy of this object! 

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A thousand page English translation of Ibn Abi Usaibia at the US NLM

Posted on by Roger Pearse

A little while back I discovered that an English translation of the dictionary of medical writers by Ibn Abi Usaibia might exist at the US National Library of Medicine, and I sent an enquiry.  The enquiry was ignored; but my second enquiry got a response!

Firstly, apparently I can’t have a copy.  The thing is typewritten, about 1,000 pages, and dates from 1971.  So it might be in copyright, and that means that I am allowed to see if — if I travel across continents! — but am not allowed to have a copy.  This is a novelty to me, as one used to getting copies of PhD theses, but the library staff are very insistent that not letting me have a copy is not equivalent to denying access.  They’re not sure who is the copyright holder, either.

But I’ve now found out a bit more about the manuscript.  It was on the online page all the time, but hidden under the “finding aids” menu at the top:

Finding Aid to the English translations of History of Physicians (4 v.) and The Book of Medicine of Asaph the Physician (2 v.) originally written by Ahmad ibn al-Q asim ibn Ab i Usaybi’ah, 1971
Archives and Modern Manuscripts Program, History of Medicine Division
Processed by HMD Staff
Processing Completed 2005
Encoded by Jim Labosier

Summary Information
Title: English translations of History of Physicians (4 v.) and The Book of Medicine of Asaph the Physician (2 v.) originally written by Ahmad ibn al-Q asim ibn Ab i Usaybi’ah
Creator: Ibn Ab i Usaybi’ah, Ahmad ibn al-Q asim, d. 1269 or 70
Dates:      1971
Extent:     0.84 linear feet (2 boxes)
Abstract:  English translations of two 13th century Arabic medical treatises.

Call number: MS C 294
Language: Collection materials primarily in English.

Access Restrictions:   Collection is not restricted. Contact the Reference Staff for information regarding access.
Copyright:                   NLM does not possess copyright to the collection. Contact the Reference Staff for details regarding rights.
Preferred Citation:     Ibn Ab i Usaybi’ah, Ahmad ibn al-Q asim. English translations of History of Physicians (4 v.) and The Book of Medicine of Asaph the Physician (2 v.) originally written by Ahmad ibn al-Q asim ibn Ab i Usaybi’ah. 1971.
Located in: Modern Manuscripts Collection, History of Medicine Division, National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD; MS C 294.
Provenance: Unknown.

Collection Scope and Content Note

Contains English translations of Ibn Abi Asaybi Ah’s “History of Physicians” by Dr. L. Kopf and of “The Book of Medicine of Asaph the Physician” by Sussman Muntner and Fred Rosner.

Contents List
Box | Folder Title
 Series I: English Translations, 1971 [series]: 

1.1″History of Physicians” – pp. 1-195, 1971
1.2″History of Physicians” – pp. 196 – 455, 1971
1.3″History of Physicians” – pp. 456 – 599, 1971
1.4″History of Physicians” – pp. 600 – 946, 1971
2.1″The Book of Medicine of Asaph the Physician” – vol. 1, 1971
2.2″The Book of Medicine of Asaph the Physician” – vol. 2, 1971

Now this is all very useful.  My idea, faced with a refusal of access on copyright grounds, is to locate the copyright holder and get permission.  The question is who this “Dr. L. Kopf” might be.  I’ve enquired.

The authors of the other item appear in a Google search, as authors of articles in the Annals of Internal Medicine.  Rosner appears “From the Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Maimonides Medical Center, Brooklyn, N. Y.; and the History of Medicine Section, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.”  Sussman Munter is also given as Suessman Munter, visiting professor of the History of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in the Encyclopedia Judaica.

Googling, I find references to “Dr. L. Kopf” such as “When this article was already in print, I received the July, 1959 issue of Veins Testamentum (IX/3) in which Dr. L. Kopf has an article entitled “Arabische…” and “Dr. L. Kopf, Hebrew University Library, was so kind as to explain to me that the term sudd’ is the usual word for headache….”  He was the author of “Studies in Arabic and Hebrew Lexicography”

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From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Out after work this evening, and bought a new, disposable laptop which I can take to Oxford and lose without heartburn.  Now setting this up.  At the moment it is creating recovery disk(s), and taking ages to do so.  Next I shall have to remove all the crapware and install the stuff I want to take.  That’ll be a while!

I’ve been obtaining copies of the Mueller edition of Ibn Abi Usaibia’s dictionary of medical writers.  The interesting bit of this is Galen.

I’ve also heard back from the US library that has an English translation (unpublished) of at least part of this (in 4 vols) that they can’t possibly supply me with a copy because they don’t control the copyright.  I’ve replied with a query as to who DOES own the copyright, then.  Librarians can be so stuffy sometimes.  But the fault, of course, lies with those who don’t ensure that they are properly directed.

Volume 2 of Vermaseren’s Corpus of inscriptions and monuments about Mithras has arrived at my local library, for collection tomorrow. 

I’ve also read through Walzer’s monograph, Galen on Jews and Christians.  I need to decide what to do with this.  The Arabic quotes all come from Ibn Abi Usaibia’s chapter on Galen, it turns out, although other Arabic writers also have some of them.

I’ve also sold my first copy of the Eusebius book direct — i.e. through Chieftain Publishing, rather than through Amazon — for a kind reader in Australia.  Interestingly postage from the UK is cheaper than from the US.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes to get down under!

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An unpublished English translation of Abd al-Latif?

Posted on by Roger Pearse

It’s always worth doing a Google trawl.  You never know what you may find.

This evening I was idly looking to see what I could find in English by Galen.  I kept hitting “next page”.  Much of it was dross.  But then… I struck gold.

I found myself looking at a page at the British National Archives.  It turned out to be a catalogue of papers held at the Royal College of Physicians in London, once belonging to a certain Dr Greenhill.  Greenhill, whoever he was, was interested in Galen and in the Arabic material about him.

There are translations of extracts from the great biographical dictionary of medical writers by Ibn Abi Usaibia.  These are probably good themselves, tho brief.

But then I stumbled across this:

Translation of Account of Egypt by Abd Al Latíf Ibn Yúsuf  MS-GREEW/264/153  n.d

These documents are held at Royal College of Physicians of London

In two Folders; 1st Folder 120pp; 2nd Folder pp. 131 – 140; Unbound

Now as far as I know there is no published English translation of this work, although of course I am no Arabist and I might be quite mistaken.  But here is 140 pages of translation in manuscript!  This, surely, needs to be copied and placed online?

I’ve enquired about the possibilities here.

But I also see various standard works in German on the subject, bound interleaved with blank paper on which the good doctor has written notes.  These too might be very interesting!

Mind you, a thought has struck me.  Given the notorious badness of the handwriting of members of the medical profession, will we be able to read any of what he wrote?

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Searching for Ibn Abi Useibia’s work on medical writers

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Using the form of the name “Ibn-e-Abi Useibia”, I was able to find a bunch of matches for “ibn abi usaybiah” in Worldcat.  We’re looking, of course, for his ʻUyūn al-anbāʼ fī ṭabaqāt al-ʼaṭibbāʼ.  It has things to say about Hippocrates and Galen, and also about Hunain ibn Ishaq.

There are several publications listed in Worldcat.  The catalogues indicate that he lived between 1203-1270.

First, there is “Abdollatiphi bagdadensis vita”, 1808, Oxford, ed. J. Mousley, here.  This is a Life of `Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, by our man.  The latter also wrote, I find, a Historiae Aegyptiae Compendium, which I think we came across when looking at Bar Hebraeus and exists in Latin in the same sorts of places.

There is a German publication Geschichte der Aertze, published “Königsberg : Selbstverlag, 1884” — is that “self-published?” — by  August Muller, who turned up yesterday as the editor of the Arabic text in Cairo in 1882.  This sounds very like a translation; but the record says “principally in Arabic”.  There are no UK locations for it, nor US, nor even German!  The latter, I think, probably reflects a lack of upload from German libraries, rather than lack of holdings.  There is a copy in Paris, tho.

There also seems to be a 1995 publication at Frankfurt-am-Main, in two volumes — I would guess this is a reprint of the 1882 edition.

The 1882 edition exists in the British Library — so useless to us — and in three US libraries, including California and Chicago  universities.

There is a curious publication Oyūn-al-anbā fi tabaqat-al-attebba, Ahmad ibn al-Qasim Ibn Abi Usaybi`ah; trad. et commenté par Seyed Dja’far Ghazban et Mahmoud Nadjmabadi, Publisher: Tehran : Imprimerie Organization de l’Universite de Tehran, 1970-.  Language is French.  The only copy seems to be in “Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen” in the Netherlands.

But then … I find a mysterious item, with no copies held.  “English translations of History of Physicians (4 v.), and The Book of Medicine of Asaph the Physician (2 v.). 1971.”  What can this be?  A web search quickly turns up a source — in manuscript! — here.  It’s MS C 294, a manuscript at the US National Library of Medicine!  There’s no indication of any further information.

It is a pity that WorldCat is so slow.  But it has given several leads to the material we want.

I shall now compose an email enquiring about that manuscript!

UPDATE (5th August 2011): I was able to get PDF’s of the Muller publication, which is entirely in Arabic.  No response ever appeared on the US item.

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Ibn Abi Useibia and his history of medical writers

Posted on by Roger Pearse

R. Haddad wrote an interesting article Hunayn ibn Ishaq, apologiste chrétien (1974), which I was reading this evening, thanks to the kind gift of a bunch of articles over the weekend.  

On p.293-4 he gives details of the appalling treatment of the great translator by the Caliph al-Mamun, which apparently come from a History of medical writers by a certain Ibn Abi Useibia.  The Arabic text was published in Cairo in 1882 by A. Müller.  I won’t attempt to give the Arabic title, but Muller, Cairo, 1882 was enough for me to find the book in COPAC.  This contains, on p.190-197, a long extract from On his own misfortunes.  

I can’t find any sign of an English translation of Useibia’s work.  The nearest I can come is an extract from it, from 1834, by William Cureton, on physicians from India.  It’s here.  I don’t know how we could get access to the Arabic text; and what other version exists? 

Here is what Haddad says: 

When he returned to Baghdad after a long period in the country of the Rums, Hunayn ibn Ishaq quickly became famous.  Al-Mamun, learning of his ability as a doctor, wanted to make use of him.  But, afraid, in case Ibn Ishaq had been bribed by the Byzantine emperor to kill him, he decided to put him to the test.  After giving him many gifts, he asked him to supply a violent poison, good enough to kill an enemy.  Hunayn put him off by saying that he only concerned himself with useful medicaments, to the exclusion of lethal poisons.  Threats having no effect, the Caliph threw him in prison.  A year later, he was brought out and the demand repeated with strong threats and promises.  But faced with the obstinate refusal of Hunayn, al-Mamun then revealed what he was really thinking, and reassured him, and then he asked to know what were the reasons for such behaviour.  Hunayn replied: 

“Religion and medicine.  Religion, in fact, commands us to do good to our enemies, still more to our friends.  And medicine forbids us to do harm to men… That is why I could not disobey these two noble obligations, and am resigned to die, believing in the God who will not abandon anyone who risks his life to obey him.” 

The words quoted are from Ibn Abi Useibia’s work, apparently, pp.187-8 of the Cairo edition. 

Arabic literature is so unknown in the west.  I’m interested; yet the only guide I can hear of is Brockelmann’s Geschichte der arabischen Literatur, which is multi-volume and, worse, in German.  Why isn’t there an English translation?  Why aren’t all these texts online in English? 

UPDATE: It seems that something does exist in English, in Dwight F. Reynolds, Interpreting the self: autobiography in the Arabic literary tradition.  2001, p.107-118.  This covers the episode when he was entangled by his enemies in a palace intrigue under the Caliph Mutawakkil, and once again ended up in prison. 

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