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New Genizah Documents 17*

cure himself, particularly his eyes (T- S 12.364; T-S 13J26.4; T-S 10J10.24).
The letter from the Genizah33 which tells of the appeal made in Jerusalem to
obtain asphalt from Egypt might suggest that even though the writer lived near
the main source of asphalt in the Middle East, the Dead Sea, he needed a special
kind of the substance, which was collected on the sea shores of Egypt, for
medicinal treatment. In another letter, Amram b. Isaac asks Halfon b. Nethanel

˙

Halevi to forgive him for his bad handwriting for his eyes are so infected that
he can hardly see where to lay his pen.34

Eye diseases create major health problems in hot climates around the
world today35 and were prevalent in the ancient world as well.36 While there
were differences among the various cultures from which some evidence for
eye diseases and their treatment has survived, many of their ophthalmological
practices were similar.37 The vast majority of information regarding eye disorders
and their treatment in ancient times comes from Egyptian sources, which reveal
information on the ailments and their cures. For example, one chapter of the
original Papyrus Ebers (dated 1550 BCE) is devoted to eye conditions;38 several
eye conditions that were treated by different lotions and salves (collyrium) were
mentioned in this chapter.39

In the medieval Islamic world people continued to suffer from eye diseases
and doctors had to treat them accordingly. ‘Ali Ibn Ridwa¯n (d. 1068) wrote

33 Gil, Palestine (as in n. 26), p. 163, no. 479; p. 165, no. 480; p. 169, no. 481.
34 TS 13 J 15.16 + TS 13 J 15.20, published in M. Gil and E. Fleischer, Yehuda ha-Levi and

his Circle: 55 Geniza Documents (Hebrew). (World Union of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem,
2001), pp. 420y426; S. D. Goitein and M. A. Friedman, with the assistance of A. Ashur,
Halfon the Traveling Merchant Scholar — Cairo Geniza Documents, Ben Zvi Institute,

˙Jerusalem 2013 p. 389.

35 J. Sandford-Smith, Eye Diseases in Hot Climates (Wright, London, 1990).
36 J. Hirschberg, (F. C. Blodi trans.) The History of Ophthalmology (Wayenborgh, Bonn,

1985), 11 vols.
37 D. M. Albert and D. D. Edwards, The History of Ophthalmology (Blackwell Science,

Cambridge, Mass., 1996), p. 1.
38 C. P. Bryan, The Papyrus Ebers, from the German version by Cyril P. Bryan. with an

introduction by Professor J. Elliot Smith (G. Bles, London, 1930), p. 94.
39 G. Ebers, Papyrus Ebers (W. Engelmann, Leipzig, 1875).