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This fourth volume of the critical edition of the medical aphorisms compiled by Maimonides (1138-1204) covers treatises sixteen to twenty-one. The central subjects of these treatises include women's diseases, physical exercise, bathing, foods, and the consumption of drugs. Most of the aphorisms featured in this volume are based on the works of Galen, but Maimonides also quotes from other ancient and medieval physicians, including some whose work does not survive in any other source. This edition provides both the Arabic text and an authoritative English translation by Gerrit Bos in parallel-column format.

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The Yaysmawurk' is an Armenian liturgical collection of brief saints' lives arranged according to the day on which they were celebrated in the annual church calendar. The first Yaysmawurk' was translated from an existing Greek liturgical collection, the Synaxarion, "where the lives are all collected." In fact, it is common knowledge that this Greek collection was the basis for nearly all such liturgical collections of the lives of the saints throughout the early Christian world; however, it was not a mere translation. Rather, it constituted a logical culmination of a long and steady development in the Armenian Church of what scholars today like to call the "cult of the saints." This volume in the On This Day series collects the entries for March.

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Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) wrote many philosophical, legal, and medical works. Of these, Medical Aphorisms is among his best known. Consisting of approximately fifteen hundred maxims from the ancient Greek physician Galen, it is arranged as twenty-five treatises organized according to traditional medieval subspecialties such as gyoecology, hygiene, and diet. Because the source texts no longer survive, Maimonides' version provides vital clues about Galen's thought that would otherwise remain unknown. This critical edition includes both the definitive Arabic text and a masterly English translation.

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Maimonides, one of the most celebrated rabbis in the history of Judaism, was a prolific author of influential Arabic philosophical and medical treatises as well as two of the most important works on Jewish law. "Medical Aphorisms" is the best-known and most comprehensive of his medical works, and "Gerrit Bos" offers here a masterful English translation with detailed annotations. "Medical Aphorisms" consists of approximately 1,500 maxims compiled by Maimonides from the treatises of Galen, the renowned ancient Greek physician. Maimonides arranges the aphorisms into twenty-five treatises, organizing them by traditional medieval subspecialties such as gynecology, hygiene, and diet. He also includes a section examining unusual cases from Galen and offers a critical analysis of Galen's theories. The second of six volumes, "Medical Aphorisms: Treatises 6-9" provides tantalizing insights into the work of Galen and the world of medieval medicine. It will be a rich and valuable resource for students and scholars working in the history of medicine, Jewish studies, and medieval Arabic culture.

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Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi was born around 1154, probably in Northwestern Iran. Spurred by a dream in which Aristotle appeared to him, he rejected the Avicennan Peripatetic philosophy of his youth and undertook the task of reviving the philosophical tradition of the "Ancients." His philosophy grants an epistemological role to immediate and atemporal intuition. It is explicitly anti-Peripatetic and is identified with the pre-Aristotelian sages, particularly Plato.

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The Yaysmawurk‘ is a liturgical collection of brief saints’ lives arranged according to the day on which they were celebrated in the annual church calendar. The name comes from the first words of most of the daily entries: Y-aysm awur, that is, “On this day . . .” The collection was part of the great and varied Armenian liturgical tradition from the turn of the first millennium. The first Yaysmawurk‘ was translated from an existing Greek liturgical collection (the Synaxarion, “where the lives are all collected”). In fact, it is common knowledge that this Greek collection was the basis for nearly all such liturgical collections of the lives of the saints throughout the early Christian world. However, it was not a mere translation. Rather, it constituted a logical culmination of a long and steady development in the Armenian Church of what scholars today like to call the cult of the saints.

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The literary works of ninth-century scholar Dawud al-Muqammas, who converted from Judaism to Christianity and then back to Judaism, reflect his pioneering approaches during a formative time in Jewish and Muslim medieval philosophy. A master of diverse genres, he composed in the ninth century, among other works, the thoughtful Twenty Chapters, which is not only the first known Jewish Kalam text, but also the earliest extant theological summa written in Arabic. This authoritative edition includes the full Judeo-Arabic text in Arabic letter transcription with a facing English translation, as well as an introduction, notes, bibliography, and index.

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Moshe ben Maimon, better known as Moses Maimonides, is among the most celebrated rabbis in the history of Judaism, and the author of works in Arabic on many subjects, including influential philosophical and medical treatises. "On Hemorrhoids" is one of these texts, written for a young man of a noble family who was seeking a regimen to help him treat his hemorrhoids. While not the first writing on this subject, Maimonides' work bears his personal stamp with his emphasis on dietetics, which plays a primary role in so many of his other medical writings. He warns against hastily treating the painful condition with drastic measures such as bleeding and surgery, instead encouraging more cautious treatments like a change in diet. He also advises his patient that if more extreme actions need to be taken, then Maimonides himself must be present. Unlike other modern editions of this important work, this edition of "On Hemorrhoids" takes into account all the extant Arabic and Judeo-Arabic manuscripts. The book includes critical editions of medieval Hebrew and Latin translations and a glossary of medical terms.

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Education has always been an important pursuit in Islam. The Prophet Muhammad enjoined his followers to 'seek knowledge, even unto China.' Within the religion, educational theory and practice were founded on the work of itinerant teachers who taught the fundamental tenets of the faith in exchange for lodging and other services; Qur'anic schools where masters of the Qur'an tutored pupils; and centers of higher learning in Baghdad, Damascus, Alexandria, and elsewhere, where Islamic theology and jurisprudence were developed and taught. In this volume, Bradley J. Cook, with assistance from Fathi H. Malkawi, has drawn together and introduced selections from the writings of eminent Islamic thinkers on the subject of Islamic educational efforts, presenting the original Arabic texts alongside their annotated English translations.

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The second-century physician and philosopher Galen is not known for brevity. Although his writings on medicine are famously verbose and numerous, for centuries they constituted much of the standard syllabi for medical students. About fourteen hundred years ago, one or possibly several professors put together a series of epitomes of Galen's work. In contrast to Galen's rambling and argumentative style, these epitomes present the material dryly but clearly, offering systematic categorizations of concepts, symptoms, diseases, and organs. Originally written in Greek, The Alexandrian Epitomes of Galen can also be found in Arabic and Hebrew translations, and the epitomes have had a particularly profound influence on medical literature in the Arab world. This edition presents the Arabic and English versions side by side, with a fresh, modern, and authoritative translation by scholar John Walbridge. Often cited in medical texts in the following centuries, these epitomes present an admirably clear survey of Galenism as it was understood at the very end of antiquity.

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Averroës (Ibn Rushd, 1126-1198) emerged from an eminent family in Muslim Spain to become the first and last great Aristotelian of the classical Islamic world; his meticulous commentaries influenced Christian thinkers and earned him favorable mention (and a relatively pleasant fate) in Dante's Divina Commedia. The Book of the Decisive Treatise was and remains one his most important works and one of history's best defenses of the legitimate role of reason in a community of faith. The text presents itself as a plea before a tribunal in which the divinely revealed Law of Islam is the sole authority; Averroës, critical of the anti-philosophical tone of the Islamic establishment, argues that the Law not only permits but also mandates the study of philosophy and syllogistic or logical reasoning, defending earlier Muslim philosophers and dismissing criticisms of them as more harmful to the Islamic community than the philosophers' own views had been. As he details the three fundamental methods the Law uses to aid people of varied capacities and temperaments, Averroës reveals a carefully formed and remarkably argued conception of the boundaries and uses of faith and reason.

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Averroës, the greatest Aristotelian of the Islamic philosophical tradition, composed some thirty-eight commentaries on the "First Teacher's" corpus, including three separate treatments of De Anima ("On the Soul"): the works commonly referred to as the Short, Middle, and Long Commentaries. The Middle Commentary—actually Averroës's last writing on the text-remains one of his most refined and politically discreet treatments of Aristotle, offering modern readers Averroës's final statement on the material intellect and conjunction as well as an accessible historical window on Aristotle's work as it was interpreted and transmitted in the medieval period.

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Although Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali lived a relatively short life (1058-1111), he established himself as one of the most important thinkers in the history of Islam. The Incoherence of the Philosophers, written after more than a decade of travel and ascetic contemplation, contends that while such Muslim philosophers as Avicenna boasted of unassailable arguments on matters of theology and metaphysics, they could not deliver on their claims; moreover, many of their assertions represented disguised heresy and unbelief. Despite its attempted refutation by the twelfth-century philosopher Ibn Rushd, al-Ghazali's work remains widely read and influential.

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The Armenian Church Synaxarion is a collection of saints' lives organized by the day of the year on which each saint is celebrated. Part of the Armenian liturgical tradition from the turn of the first millennium, the first Armenian Church Synaxarion represented the culmination of a long and steady development of what is today called the cult of the saints. This Armenian-English edition is the first of a twelve-volume series - one for each month of the year - and is ideal for personal devotional use or as a valuable resource for anyone interested in saints.

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On Rules Regarding the Practical Part of the Medical Art had been labeled a copy of On Asthma by bio-bibliographer Moritz Steinchneider, but a closer examination of the manuscript by Gerrit Bos and Tzvi Langermann has revealed the treatise to be a previously unrecognized work of the great philosopher-physician Moses Maimonides. The publication of this translation marks the first time the Arabic manuscript with English translation has been available to a modern audience in any form. It is in Maimonides' favored aphoristic format and contains some unique advice on serious abdominal wounds, which is most likely a reflection on Maimonides' own experience with battlefield casualties.

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Moses Maimonides is among the most celebrated rabbis in the history of Judaism and the author of enduring works on philosophy, law, and medicine. "Medical Aphorisms" is the best-known and most comprehensive of his works, and Gerrit Bos offers here a masterly English translation with detailed annotations. "Medical Aphorisms" consists of approximately 1,500 maxims compiled by Maimonides arranges the aphorisms into twenty-five treatises, organizing them by traditional medieval subspecialties such as gynecology, hygiene, and diet. The central subjects of the treatises presented in this volume include fevers, periods and crises of a disease, and surgery. Because the original texts that Maimonides drew from have not survived, these aphorisms provide tantalizing clues about aspects of Galen's thought that are otherwise unknown. They thus serve as a window onto the ancient medical theories of Galen, as well as on the medieval practice of Maimonides.

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Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali's philosophical explorations covered nearly the entire spectrum of twelfth-century beliefs. Beginning his career as a skeptic, he ended it as a scholar of mysticism and orthodoxy. The Niche of Lights, written near the end of his illustrious career, advances the philosophically important idea that reason can serve as a connection between the devout and God. Al-Ghazali argues that abstracting God from the world, as he believed theologians did, was not sufficient for understanding. Exploring the boundary between philosophy and theology, The Niche of Lights seeks to understand the role of reality in the perception of the spiritual.

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"Avicenna's Physics" is the very first volume that he wrote when he began his monumental encyclopedia of science and philosophy, "The Healing". Avicenna's reasons for beginning with "Physics" are numerous: it offers up the principles needed to understand such special natural sciences as psychology; it sets up many of the problems that take center stage in his Metaphysics; and it provides concrete examples of many of the abstract analytical tools that he would develop later in "Logic". While "Avicenna's Physics" roughly follows the thought of "Aristotle's Physics", with its emphasis on natural causes, the nature of motion, and the conditions necessary for motion, the work is hardly derivative. It represents arguably the most brilliant mind of late antiquity grappling with and rethinking the entire tradition of natural philosophy inherited from the Greeks as well as the physical thought of Muslim speculative theologians. As such, "Physics" is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding Avicenna's complete philosophical system, the history of science, or the history of ideas.

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