Name: An Introduction to Arabic Medical Tables
Location: Wellcome Collection

Join us for a quick cup of coffee and a pastry, afternoon tea, or a light meal with a glass of wine.

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/3062e92b-693f-4dd0-9435-f63d6bc370e7_SDP_20201005_0365-176-Edit.jpg?auto=compress,format

Café

Gallery tour

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/7657f9e9-0733-444d-b1b2-6ae0bafa0ff9_c7c94c39161dcfe15d9abd8b40256ea2b40f52b9_c0139861.jpg?auto=compress,format

Daily Guided Tours and Discussions

Come and browse a selection of our quirky gifts and books.

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection%2Fb9feb700-cb89-47cc-be19-75b37adc2061_shop.png

Shop

Join us to hear Meekyung MacMurdie discuss tabulated medical texts. Emerging in the Arabic writing sphere during the 11th century, these texts were inspired by astronomical charts and astrological horoscopes. The authors claimed that the tables streamlined extensive medical encyclopaedias into single volumes for the benefit of medical knowledge, not its theoretical proofs and definitions. 

You will discover how the striking medical tables required special planning, attention and skill on the part of the scribes. Dr MacMurdie will use examples from Wellcome Collection, and explore the significance of table layout and aesthetics as visual rhetoric, a space where the invisible cosmos and visible world converged. After the talk you will have the opportunity to ask questions. 

Meekyung is a newly minted PhD, having just completed her degree in art history at the University of Chicago. She specialises in medieval art of the Islamic world, with particular interests in artistic practices of ornament and design, knowledge transmission and exchange, and the historiography of Islamic art. She is currently a research fellow at the University of Bern, part of the European Research Council-funded project, ‘Global Horizons in Pre-Modern Art’. 

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/ebe032e9-a21c-4a3f-9f1f-f70248386db5_Meekyung+MacMurdie+bio.jpg?auto=compress,format&rect=0,0,200,200&w=3200&h=3200

Meekyung MacMurdie

Speaker

<p>Login and join the event online with others.</p>

Online event

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/921f5d44-6c7a-4b0a-891e-b6285e348442_EP_001402_012+Meekyung+MacMurdie+%28Final%29.jpg?auto=compress,format

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/921f5d44-6c7a-4b0a-891e-b6285e348442_EP_001402_012+Meekyung+MacMurdie+%28Final%29.jpg?auto=compress,format&rect=0,508,4896,2754&w=3200&h=1800

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/921f5d44-6c7a-4b0a-891e-b6285e348442_EP_001402_012+Meekyung+MacMurdie+%28Final%29.jpg?auto=compress,format&rect=0,682,4896,2295&w=3200&h=1500

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/921f5d44-6c7a-4b0a-891e-b6285e348442_EP_001402_012+Meekyung+MacMurdie+%28Final%29.jpg?auto=compress,format&rect=865,0,3264,3264&w=3200&h=3200

Booking a ticket guarantees you entry to the online event. You will be given joining instructions in your confirmation email. If you have any access requests or requirements, for example a transcript of the event, email us at access@wellcomecollection.org or call 020 7611 2222.

Guaranteed (online)

Join us to hear Meekyung MacMurdie discuss striking Arabic medical tables, using examples from Wellcome Collection.

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/7761f936ed24b642c9a10e208aaebf5e728f0a9c_ep_000277_015.jpg?auto=compress,format

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/cdfb484f81131001063fd356f29fa84448df8777_ep_000277_015.jpg?auto=compress,format

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/a8682841ccdee3e48b7cd960606c7a09799a755b_ep_000277_015.jpg?auto=compress,format

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/6ce6987afec63adcc0781836affeb745cc260219_ep_000277_015.jpg?auto=compress,format

Researcher talk in the Viewing Room

Hear about some of the latest projects that explore materials from our collections, ask questions and take inspiration for your own research.

Exploring Research

An Introduction to Arabic Medical Tables

At every turn the visitor will find something to fascinate.

This permanent gallery explores trust, identity and health in a changing world.

Being Human explores what it means to be human in the 21st century. It reflects our hopes and fears about new forms of medical knowledge, and our changing relationships with ourselves, each other and the world.

Featuring 50 artworks and objects, the gallery is divided into four sections: Genetics, Minds & Bodies, Infection, and Environmental Breakdown. Discover a refugee astronaut carrying their belongings to an unknown destination, sniff a perfumed bronze sculpture that smells of breast milk, listen to an epidemic jukebox, and watch a fast-food outlet slowly flood.

Exhibition highlights

We have recorded audio descriptions of every exhibit, plus a highlights tour of 11 stops with optional directions in between. These audio tracks are available on the VocalEyes website.

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/3eb4b341-6471-4610-9f12-c97f5c7be0bc_SDP_20201005_0278-81.jpg?auto=compress,format&rect=0,10,2955,1385&w=3200&h=1500

Being Human gallery

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/3eb4b341-6471-4610-9f12-c97f5c7be0bc_SDP_20201005_0278-81.jpg?auto=compress,format&rect=1185,0,1662,1662&w=3200&h=3200

Permanent

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/3eb4b341-6471-4610-9f12-c97f5c7be0bc_SDP_20201005_0278-81.jpg?auto=compress,format

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/3eb4b341-6471-4610-9f12-c97f5c7be0bc_SDP_20201005_0278-81.jpg?auto=compress,format&rect=0,0,2955,1662&w=3200&h=1800

We’ll be in the ‘Being Human’ gallery, which you can find by taking the stairs or the lift to level 1.

Being Human

Our new permanent gallery explores trust, identity and health in a changing world.

Drop in to find inspiration and indulge your curiosity. It’s a gallery, a social space, and a place to unwind.

https://images.prismic.io/wellcomecollection/1f71dfb0-c65e-4e35-affd-19a78545f0f1_SDP_20201005_0649-41-Edit.jpg?auto=compress,format

Wellcome uses cookies.

What's on

Exhibitions and Events

Try these too

Stay in the know

Wellcome collection

Finding us:

Opening times:

Today's opening times