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18* Amir Ashur and Efraim Lev

regarding this subject that medieval doctors were ‘general practitioners but

might also have a special skill in ophthalmology, bone-setting, pharmacology,

or surgery’.40 Savage-Smith stated that ophthalmology was the only area, beside

pharmacology, that could be called a specialty, and it is no wonder that an

extensive specialist literature was developed in the diagnosis and treatment of

eye diseases.41 Nearly every medical compendium has chapters dealing with

eye diseases, and a large number of monographs were devoted to this field of

medicine.

One of the most highly regarded of all the ophthalmological manuals was the

Tadhkirat al-Kaha¯l¯ın, covering one hundred and thirty eye ailments, written
˙
by ‘Al¯ı b. ‘I¯sa¯ 1010) who practiced in Baghda¯d.42 This Jewish oculist
(d.

was clearly well regarded in the Genizah world, as a few dozen fragments in

the Taylor-Schechter Cairo Genizah Collection have been identified as parts of

Tadhkirat al-Kaha¯l¯ın.

˙

The medical formularies all contain at least one chapter, if not more,

devoted to eye-powders and eye-salves; moreover, eye medicines can be

divided into chapters on eye powders and eye ointments,43 or appear together

in a single chapter.44 The chapters on eye medicines in Minha¯j al-Dukka¯n,

al-Dustu¯r al-B¯ıma¯rista¯n¯ı and Ibn al-Tilm¯ıdh’s Aqra¯ba¯dh¯ın45 include many

recipes containing some combination of the materia medica appearing in our

40 M. W. Dols, (trans.) and A. S. Gamal (ed.). Medieval Islamic Medicine, Ibn Ridwa¯n’s Treatise

‘On the Prevention of Bodily Ills in Egypt’ (University of California Press, B˙erkeley, 1984),

p. 36.

41 E. Savage-Smith, ‘Medicine’, in Encyclopaedia of the History of Arabic Sciences, (ed. R.

Rashed) (Kluwer Academic Publishers, London, 1996), III, 903y962, pp. 948y950.

42 C. A. Wood, Memorandum Book of a Tenth-Century Oculist: a Translation of the Tadhkirat

of Ali ibn Isa of Baghdad (Northwestern University Press, Chicago, 1936).

43 PA(D.ba¯Su¯rbMaalt-haMn(a¯ue˙hndia¯.l),,aBl‘-eLKieruu¯ htF,¯ıon1r9ma9lu2-‘l)aA,i˙prt˙etpa¯.rd,1e3Ms5iyHn1hoˆ5ap¯2jit.aaul-xDdu’kIkba¯nn wa-Dustu¯ r al-A‘ya¯ n, ed. H. al-‘A¯ s¯ı
44 abil Bayan, Me´dicin du
˙˙

Bimaristan

Annacery au Caire au XIIIe Sie`cle’, Bulle´tin de l’Institut d’Egypte 15 (1932y1933), pp.

9y78, pp. 53y60.

45 O. Kahl, The Dispensatory of Ibn at-Tilm¯ıd (Brill, Leiden, 2007), nos 245y79.