ABU’L MAKARIM HIBATALLAH IBN JUMAY’ AL’ISRA’ILI (D.1198 AD), KITAB AL-IRSHAD LI-MASALIH AL-ANFUS WA'L-AJSAD, ('GUIDANCE FOR THE WELFARE OF SOULS AND BODIES'), A MEDICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA, NEAR EAST, MAMLUK, 15TH CENTURY

Ibn Jumay’ al’Isra’ili was the court physician of Salah al-Din and mentor of Ibn Abu’l-Bayan. He dedicated his Kitab al-irshad li-masalih al-anfus wa'l-ajsad to al-Qadi al-Fadil, secretary of Salah al-Din although unfortunately he died before finishing it, leaving this task to his son, Abu Tahir Isma’il. This medical encyclopedia is divided into four sections (maqalas): the first maqala talks about the general principles of medicine, the second about materia medica, the third deals with diseases and the last one with their remedies. Further information on the text and its influence on later medical texts can be found in Chipman 2010, pp.18-21. This manuscript is particularly interesting as it was clearly a working copy which has been passed from doctor to doctor. Several remedies are written in Persian at the beginning and end, one mentioning an unnamed physician who had gone to Yerevan by the request of Ahmad Khan Biglar Baygi to treat Mahdi Quli Khan Qajar the Governor, dated 1220 AH/1805-06 AD. A year later the manuscript is recorded in Yeravan, where a remedies for wounds is added.

Two copies, dated 622 AH/1263 AD and 960 AH/1553 AD respectively, are now in the Biblioteca Vaticana, Roma (inv.no.Arabo878 and Arabo308); another copy dated to the beginning of thirteenth century (circa 1200) is now in the U.S. National Library of Medicine (inv.no.9404636, published in Smith-Savage 1996, pp.91-92). Other copies, including a complete text dated 949 AH/1542 AD (inv.no.Ms.Huntington 19), are in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; see also Brockelmann, GAL, I. 189 and S., I. 892.