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42* Summaries

New Genizah Documents:
Three Fragments on Practical Medicine
in Medieval Egypt

Amir Ashur

The Interdisciplinary Center for the Broader Application of Genizah
Research, University of Haifa and Department of Hebrew Culture, Tel
Aviv University

Efraim Lev

Department of Eretz Israel Studies, University of Haifa

The Genizah contains thousands of letters on various subjects, some of which
are directly concerned with issues of medical interest. In this study we present
three unpublished fragments that deal with the medieval practice of medicine.
The first fragment was identified as belonging to a new ‘consilia’ genre,
i.e. a communication between two Jewish Egyptian "health" practitioners. Its
main characteristics are a long opening, praising and flattering of the other
colleague, detailed descriptions of symptoms, medical conditions and the
efforts to treat them, and quotations from Jewish sources. The genre of the
second fragment is that of medical ‘responsa,’ i.e. a communication between
a doctor and his patient; these are short, less detailed, and less professional,
without — or containing very brief flattering quotations. The third fragment
belongs to the newly defined genre of practical prescriptions.

All three fragments are important first-hand accounts of actual medical
problems faced by the Jewish community of Medieval Cairo, forming a
historical record of ailments suffered and treatments prescribed. We argue
that each fragment represents a different genre of medical document, providing
diverse insights into medieval practical medicine.