Kapronczay Károly szerk.: Orvostörténeti Közlemények 194-195. (Budapest, 2006)

TANULMÁNYOK — ARTICLES - KÁROLY, László: A Seventeenth-Century Chaghatay Treatise on Medicine

2. The author and his work The author of the treatise is Sayyid Subhän Quit Muhammad Bahadur khan, born in 1624 as one of the last members of the famous Astrakhanide dynasty. His ancestors had emigrated from Astrakhan in about 1554 because of the Russian invasion. They founded a dynasty in Transoxiana and then played an important role in Bukhara. Subhân Qulï ruled as khan in this town from 1680 to 1702 (Hofman 1969: 262). Similarly to many rulers in the Middle Ages, he had a wide range of interests: he patronized every art and science, protected the clerics and dervishes, wrote poetry in Persian and Chaghatay, devoted attention to the hygienic situation by means of his hospitals, gathered together the most important medical books of his time, practised as a physician, and wrote a treatise on medicine (Hofman 1969: 268-271). The MS of the treatise was discovered by Ármin Vámbéry: during his scientific expedition in Central Asia between 1862 and 1864, he found a late copy of the original work in Herat. The MS now forms part of his bequest in the Oriental Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, under the number Török Oktáv 38. The entire MS consists of 132 folios, measuring 195 x 125 mm, each page containing 13 lines.

5 The title of the chapters and some sentences or words that were of importance for the author were written in red ink. The treatise begins on folio 8v and continues to the end of the MS. However, this is not the full version of the original treatise, because the last chapter is incomplete. 3. The structure of the treatise At the beginning of the treatise, Subhân Qulï provides information about his family and why he wrote the book. We additionally learn that the author did not know of any other medical book written in the rür£íTanguagc.

6 8v0 Introduction

7 Subhân Qulï's work consists of 53 chapters.

8 Chapters 1 and 2 are on generalities concerning the human body.

9 The author teaches us that diet and moderation determine the state of health: if a man is moderate in eating (yämäk), lying (yatmaq), speaking (sözlämäk) and love-making (kad-hudäliq etmäk), his body will be protected against illnesses. Otherwise, he will fall sick. 5 Apart from folios 17r and 17v, which contain 14 lines. 6 ötkän wa bolgan hukamälar hikmat bayän'ida özigä

yarasa 'arabi wa farsl tili birlä kitäb-lar tasnîjqïlïb-turlar ammä türk! tili birlä hikmat bayän'ida kitäb nazarïmïzga kirmädi 'former and present physicians have written books on medicine, suitable for themselves, in Arabic and Persian so books on medicine in Türk! language did not come to our field of vision' (8v7-9). 7 I have divided the treatise into 8 sections. After a short description of each, I cite those chapters which belong in the given section. The sequence is: the beginning of the chapter (folio number and line number), the transliteration of the title and the English translation. 8 Chapters 22 to 26 are missing. 9 Chapter 2 bears the title 'On Going to the Bath'; however, only one-third of it deals with this subject.