Description
Book SynopsisThe 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.
Trade Review"K. hat mit seiner philologisch soliden Edition, die durch ausführliche Indizes bereichert ist, ein frühes und wertvolles Zeugnis der gräko-arabischen Komponente der arabisch-islamischen Kultur zugänglich gemacht...Darüber hinaus enthält der Kommentar des ʿUbaidallāh eine Fülle interessanter Einzelheiten zu Zeitgenossen und weitere persönliche Reminiszenzen, auch zur eigenen ärztlichen Praxis." Gotthard Strohmaier, in Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 114/4–5 (2019): 351–381
Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Introduction 1 ʿUbaidallāh Ibn Buḫtīšūʿ 2 The Book on Apparent Death Plates Text and Translation Bibliography Indices Introduction to the Indices Index of Medicine and Pharmacy Index of People and Places Index of Work Titles Index of Miscellaneous Terms Index of Botanical Names Appendix: The Pseudo-Galenic Treatise 1 The Arabic Recension 2 The Hebrew Recension (by Gerrit Bos)
