The Arabic treatise edited and translated here was written in the middle of the 9th century CE by ʿAlī ibn Sahl Rabban aṭ-Ṭabarī, a Christian convert to Islam and one of the most remarkable thinkers of his time. The text can be described as a manual towards the preservation of health, addressed directly to the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Mutawakkil and his household. It represents not only the oldest extant specimen of its kind, but is also distinguished by its largely non-technical language, as well as by a narrative style that creates an unusual interface with classical Arabic prose...
The Arabic treatise edited and translated here was written in the middle of the 9th century CE by ʿAlī ibn Sahl Rabban aṭ-Ṭabarī, a Christian c...
ʿAlī ibn Sahl aṭ-Ṭabarī's Indian Books, completed in Samarra in 850 CE, offer a unique, interpretative summary of Ayurvedic medicine, as he understood it on the basis of now lost Arabic translations from Sanskrit.
ʿAlī ibn Sahl aṭ-Ṭabarī's Indian Books, completed in Samarra in 850 CE, offer a unique, interpretative summary of Ayurvedic medicine, as...