Volume 1

The book of the ten treatises on the eye, ascribed to Hunain ibn Is-hâq (809-877 A. D.) : the earliest existing systematic text-book of ophthalmology / the Arabic text edited from the only two known manuscripts, with an English translation and glossary, by Max Meyerhof.

  • Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq al-ʻIbādī, 809?-873.
Date:
1928
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The book of the ten treatises on the eye, ascribed to Hunain ibn Is-hâq (809-877 A. D.) : the earliest existing systematic text-book of ophthalmology / the Arabic text edited from the only two known manuscripts, with an English translation and glossary, by Max Meyerhof. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/528 (page 10)
    — X; ophthalmology, the Greek, Syriac and other special text¬ books being lost (1). It is written in bad Arabic,, with many Greek, Syriac and Persian technical terms, a rather confusing compilation without system, and doubtless intermixed with later interpolations. One complete MS. is extant in Taimur Pasha’s library (Cairo), another one in Leningrad. II. —Marijat Miknat al-Kahhdlinji U,Cl! (knowledge of the Oculists’ Examination), ascribed to the same Ibn Masawaih A small treatise in the form of questions and answers, not dealing with therapy. It cannot be attributed to Ibn Masawaih, as the technical terms bear the marks of a later period. Two complete MSS. exist in the above-mentioned libraries. III. —Al-'AsJir Maqdldt jil-'Ain j (The Ten Treatises on the Eye) composed by Hunain Ibn Is-haq (809 to 877 a.d.). This earliest systematic text-book on ophthalmology is the subject of the present publication. Two defective MSS. exist in the afore-mentioned libraries, one of them illustrated. IV. —Ritdb aVMasddil fi-l-'Ain j Jf Li I (The Book of the Questions on the Eye) ascribed to the same Hunain b. Is-haq L an extract from the first six treatises of the foregoing book, in the form of 207 questions and answers on the anatomy, physiology and pathology of the eye, without considering treatment. I am inclined to attribute this book to one of Hunain’s pupils, although all the later MSS. and Ibn Abi UsaibTa assert that Hunain composed it for his sons Dawud and Is-haq . I hope later on to publish the text with a translation in a European language. I know five O Analysis and extracts in German by M. Meyerhof and C. Prttefer, Die AugenheilJeunde des Juhanna ibn Masawaih. In Der Islam, vol. VI, 1915, p. 217-256. OY)