Page 236 - GQ-9

28* Amir Ashur and Efraim Lev

present here a new practical medical prescription we have identified in the T-S
Genizah collection.

Document C
T-S 12.307v
Paper; one leaf; 20.5 x 15; Verso contains a poem. Probably 12thy13th century.

The medical recipe in our fragment is a practical prescription since it fits
some of the criteria applied for the identification of such prescriptions in the
Genizah: it includes names of medicinal substances and quantities; it gives
instructions on preparation; it is written on one page, on one side only; and it
has instructions for use (how many times a day, special diet, and quantities).83
This prescription lacks benedictions, the names of both physician and patient,
and contains no details regarding the illness or its symptoms.

The purpose of this prescription is not mentioned explicitly; however, it
seems to be a powder; the materia medica used indicates that it was a purgative
or a stomachic.

A powder (safu¯f in Arabic) is a solid medication, usually finely ground or
powdered. According to Samarqand?, the medical powders are compounded
according to ‘the weights of their constituents only and not according to their
strengths’. Powders were used immediately as they deteriorated quickly, and
usually served as dry astringents. Powders were taken by mouth to dry the
moistness of the stomach and the intestines, as well as to relieve blockage
and retention of urine.84 According to Said, a sufuf is a ‘dry medicament or a
mixture of several medicinal ingredients which have been ground or triturated
and sieved.85

A similar recipe is given for a purgative black powder86 that contains chebulic
and Indian myrobalans, borage, Cretan dodder, Armenian stone and lapis lazuli,

83 Lev, Medieval Egyptian (as in no. 21).
84 Levey and al-Khaledy, The Medical Formulary (as in n. 51), p. 122.
85 Said, Hamdard (as in n. 50), p. 152.
86 Al-Ku¯h¯ın al-‘Atta¯r, Minha¯j (as in n. 44), p. 89.

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