Jewish Medical Practitioners in the Medieval Muslim World : A Collective Biography

Abstract

Explores the lives of over 600 Jewish physicians and pharmacists in medieval Muslim lands

• Offers a unique insight into the life of Jewish physicians and pharmacists, their families and communities in medieval Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, North Africa, Sicily and Andalusia

• Shows how Jewish practitioners participated in community leadership, in hospitals and in the courts of the Muslim rulers

• Analyses the biographical data to provide information on the relationships among Jews, Muslims and Christians, and between the common people and the elite

• Includes 6 maps, 29 family trees of key dynasties and 10 tables of main periods and dynasties, main Muslim rulers, practitioners serving in courts and hospitals, converts to Islam, Karaite and Samaritan practitioners

This book collects and analyses the available biographical data on Jewish medical practitioners in the Muslim world from the 9th to the 16th century. The biographies are based mainly on information gathered from the wealth of primary sources found in the Cairo Geniza (letters, commercial documents, court orders, lists of donors) and Muslim Arabic sources (biographical dictionaries, historical and geographical literature). The practitioners come from various socio-economic strata and lived in urban as well as rural locations in Muslim countries.

Both the biographies and the accompanying discussion shed light on various views and aspects of the medicine practised in this period by Muslim, Jews and Christians, as well as issues such as professional, daily and personal lives; successes and failures; families; Jewish communities; and inter-religious affairs.