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

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

After the 53 chapters, the author begins a new section on the benefit of animals. 65v9 hätima'l-kitäb mancifi-i haywänät-nih The Last Part of the Book on the Benefit bayän'ida of Animals 3.1. Physicians and other persons cited in the treatise While writing his treatise, Subhân Qulï made use of the most important medical books of his time. This conclusion can be drawn from the fact that he frequently cites practical advice from these works and gives the name of the authors. The authors can be divided into two groups: 1. Famous Greek and Islamic physicians, such as Hippocrates (Buqrät), Galenus (jälinüs), Avicenna (Ibn-i Sïna) and Rhazes (Ibn-i Zakariyya); 2. famous persons who did not practise as physicians, but touched upon the field of medicine: Sulaymän b. 'Abd at-Malik, Mawlänä Tläfiz ad-Din and Luqman.

u • Buqrät hakim aytur har kirn qurugan it aïiasa andïn son suw icsä mi

'da-sï za'ïf olgay wa ta 'äm-n ï sihür-almagay 'Hippocrates the physician says: if a man eats dried meat and then drinks water, his stomach will become weak and he will not be able to digest food' (10v2-4) Numerous generally-accepted forms of treatment are also mentioned by Subhân Qulï. If the physicians whose works he read agreed on the method of treatment, he begins his description with one or other of the following phrases: • barca hukamanïh mazhabïda... 'in the doctrine of all physicians...' (9r5) • hukamä wa atibbä ittijaq ilä avtïb-turlar

... 'physicians state in agreement that...' (34vl011) 4. The medical system used by Subhan Qulï 4.1. The Graeco-Islamic medical theory As mentioned above, Subhân Qulï frequently cites the best-known representatives of Greek and Islamic medicine, the quotations containing practical advice on how to treat diseases, how to use medicaments, and what their effects are. However, Subhân Qulï did not completely adopt their approach to medicine, or at least this cannot be deduced from his work. Nonetheless, traces of Graeco-Islamic medical theory can be observed in the treatise. Graeco-Islamic medical theory held that the human body is created from the four humours: yellow bile (safra), blood (qari), phlegm {balgáin) and black bile (sawdä). Each of these corresponds to a basic element which has special qualities (UHmann 1978: 56-60, Perho 1995: 45). " For detailed information on these persons, see Dietrich (1981), Waltzer (1965), Goichon (1971), Goodman ( 1995), Eisener ( 1997), Chaumont ( 1997), Wickens (1971) and Heller-Stillman ( 1986).