Natural healing with the medicine of the prophet: from the Book of the provisions of the hereafter

qualities). On the same basis physical methods are additionally prescribed, such as dry-cupping of the neck, or massage of the head with warm oils (thereby offering modern "aromatherapy" a much-needed "rationale"). This is indeed a "fine" edition in the scholarly sense, including variant readings, glossaries, ample notes and bibliography, which are matched by the quality of its design and typesetting contributed by members of the Wellcome Institute. An additional index in English might, however, be useful. Yet, a far more serious question is raised by the choice of this particular text to herald the series. Can it really be considered as a "classic"? It has been given a high gloss by its editor, but is its content really deserving of such an expenditure of talented effort: particularly the attempt to interpret the names of the innumerable drugs listed in both Arabic and Hebrew? Far worthier texts of medieval medicine in Arabic and Hebrew, long and short, still remain untranslated because so few scholars are qualified for these tasks. Having long demonstrated such capabilities, let us hope that Dr Bos will now continue the pioneering efforts of Max Meyerhof and Franz Rosenthal to excavate new treasures from this much-neglected field, which will then be added to the series. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya, Natural healing with the medicine of the prophet: from the Book of the provisions of the hereafter, transl. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziya (d. 1350) was a renowned Damascene scholar and jurist of the Hanbali school. The author of many literary and doctrinal works, he was especially prominent as a preacher and theological popularizer, and it was in this capacity that he wrote his most important book, the Zld al-ma'ad ("Provisions for the Hereafter"), an encyclopaedic survey of the vast materials available in his day on the life of the Prophet Muh.ammad, his merits and distinctions, and traditions (6adith) concerning religious observances and law. This didactic work quickly became an authoritative text in Islamic devotional literature; among the HIanbalis in particular, it enjoyed a status comparable to that of the classic Ihiyati' 'ulum al-din ("Revival of the religious sciences") by al-Ghazali (d. 1111). One of the many topics considered in the Zld al-ma'aid is the Medicine of the Prophet, a fluid corpus claiming to record the sayings of Muhammad pertaining to medicine, but in fact representing a much broader range of material. Most of it originated in later times, and came to …