Maṣādir Muʼallafāt Aṭibbāʼ ʻUmān khilāl al-Qarn al-ʻĀshir al-Hijrī / al-Sādis ʻAshar al-Mīlādī min khilāl al-Makhṭūṭāt al-Ṭibbīyah bi-Khizānat Wizārat al-Turāth wa-al-Thaqāfah bi-Salṭanat ʻUmān - Khālidī, Masʻūd; al-Muʼtamar al-Duwalī al-Sābiʻ bi-Mālīziyā: al-Turāth al-Ṭibbī al-ʻUmānī (2020) (Kuwālā Lumbūr) (Kuwālā Lumbūr : Markaz Dhākirat ʻUmān, 2020)
During the tenth Hijri / sixteenth century CE a number of physicians rose to prominence in Oman whose reputation spread across the Islamic world, among them Rāshid ibn Khalaf and ʿUmayrah ibn Rāshid. They left behind a cultural heritage in the form of numerous writings, the most celebrated of which is Fākihat al-Sabīl by Rāshid ibn ʿUmayrah al-Rustāqī. There is no doubt that these physicians had studied the works of their predecessors, whether Muslim or Greek, such as Hippocrates, Galen, al-Rāzī, Ibn Sīnā and Ibn al-Nafīs, all of whom did much to advance scientific knowledge. This paper asks which medical sources, theoretical and practical, Omani physicians relied upon; whether those sources were available within Oman; what scientific standing they held in the medical field; and how far they contributed to the medical achievements of their age. Working from the medical manuscripts held by the manuscripts department of the Ministry of Heritage and Culture, the study offers a historical and scholarly answer to these questions.
Permanent citation identifier: MHF-2020-004.
Text in Arabic; title also romanized (ALA-LC); abstract and keywords in English.
Keywords: Omani physicians; Medical manuscripts; History of Islamic medicine; Sixteenth century; Ministry of Heritage and Culture; Source studies