Islamset - Al-Biruni's as-Saydanah and Al-Ghafiqi's al-Jami

A History of Muslim Pharmacy:
Al-Biruni's as-Saydanah and al-Ghafiqi's al-Jami'

The breakthrough came soon thereafter in several independent works of which the two most important and original are selected here for comparison. The first and possibly the foremost was of Abu ar-Rayhan al-Biruni (362-442/973-1051 ) on pharmacy and materia medica, also entitled as-Saydanah fit-Tibb, whose first draft was only completed in 441/1050. In it Arabic pharmacy was adequately and technically defined. The second, authored over a century later, was al-Jami' al-Adwiyyah al-Mufradah by Abu ja'far al-Ghafiqi (d. 560/1165). In these two manuals, I believe, Arabic contribution, in this field, reached its highest expression with authentic methodology in approach, experimentations and observations. This point was emphasized by Meyerhof and Sobhy in Egypt during their investigation of the abridged copy of al-Ghafiqi's al-Jami'. But is in view of the important places these two works occupy in the history of Arabian pharmacy and materia medica that this attempt of a brief comparison of the two authors and their respective texts was undertaken.

By and large, medieval cultural contacts and the ties between the eastern and western parts of the Islamic world were not only favorable but rather strong, dynamic and challenging. Books, political and religious trends, as well as ideas traveled back and forth over the great expanse of the Islamic world from the borders of India in the east to the farthest parts of al-Maghrib and al-Andalus in the west. There were also an exchange of authors, educators and wandering scholars. This was true and obvious regarding the technical and scientific output.

The difficulties and factors Involved were both technical as well as economic. But most importantly was the time-consuming copying of Arabic books of technical or scientific nature which require expertism, special skills, and attentive concentration. The greater part of such copying was done for personal use and not for public consumption. This explains the reason why a most significant book as al-Biruni's, drafted most probably at Ghaznah in mid-fifth/eleventh century, was almost unknown a century later in al-Andalus. Moreover, copies were extremely rare and hardly accessible in the east as well. This serves as a good example of the missing link in scientific contacts not only between one region and another, but even within the borders of the same area also. This may explain why al-Ghafiqi of Muslim Spain never knew of al-Biruni's work on such a vital topic that concerned them both.

By the same token numerous technical works mentioned in medieval bibliographical records are known only through very rare copies, if any. Those unavailable now, may be lost forever. Fortunately, a few copies of the two works of al- Biruni and al-Ghafiqi which are now under consideration are extant, a fact that helped make this attempted comparison possible.