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A History of Muslim Pharmacy:
Al-Biruni and His Work

Interestingly, among al-Biruni's some 130 books, large and small, his as-Saydanah fit-Tibb on pharmacy and materia medica is the last. Of this crowning achieve- ment only a few copies have come down to us from its first and only draft autograph. Al-Biruni died shortly hereafter, at the age of 78, before haying the chance to revise it. But in spite of old a e the manual represents one of the finest contributions to Our pharmaceutical knowledge during the Middle Ages, and a great masterpiece of all times. Indeed it stand as one of the most original texts in Arabic on the subject in authenticity, approach and objectivity.  But compared with al-Ghafiqi's manual, the latter had still more profound influence on Arabian herbalists and pharmacists than the former as evident from its circulation and the amount of quotations and citations derived from it and contained in later publications on the topic.

More distinctly than is observed in al-Ghafiqi's al-jami, al-Biruni's manual comprises two important, distinct and separate sections. The first, and most original, contains authentic definitions of the apothecary arts as well as pharmacology, therapeutics and related fields of the healing arts, lexicology and lexicography, toxicology, omissions and substitutions of drugs, and their synonyms. It also presents valuable historical and biographical information not found anywhcre else in Arabic literature. It is very probable that it surpassed any other in any language up to its time on this particular subject.

In addition, this first section explains the author's own motivations and objectives in writing his book and what the reader should expect from it. He further gives a timely, sententious and shrewd defense of the Arabic language as the lingua franca of the contemporary sciences and the arts during this period. Such deliberate and useful discussions and interpretations, the first of the kind ever recorded in an Arabic medico-pharmaceutical text, were almost lacking in al-Ghafiqi's introductory statements which centered on self-defense. Significantly, this allows al-Biruni the well-deserved title of 'Father of Arabic Pharmacy.'

The second section of as-Saydanah is devoted to materia medica. In it the author describes over seven hundred simples of the three natural kingdoms conveniently and scrupulously arranged in alphabetical order.  In several entries the discussions lead us to believe that the author observed the natural product that he and his collaborator, the physician-pharmacist ash-Shaykh Ahmad an-Nahsha'i, described : The latter, we are told in al-Biruni's words in the introduction, used to bring several varieties of drugs from herbalists and pharmacy shops at Ghaznah for their firsthand examination and study. Quite a few of these simples were never mentioned before by the Greco-Roman authors and their commentators prior to the Arabian period. Many of these, al-Biruni must have observed during his repeated travels (thirteen in all) in Pakistan-India Subcontinent, as can be easily detected from his writings.