Book/Printed Material Abridgment of the "Limit of Improvement" to the Extent Attainable.

Title

• Abridgment of the "Limit of Improvement" to the Extent Attainable.

Summary

• The introduction to this work states that it is an abridgment of Ghāyat al-itqān (The limit of improvement), a 17th century medical text by Salih ibn Nasrallah al-Halabi ibn Sallum (died 1670). The author of the abridgment is listed as Abu Suʻad, a khadim (servant) of Ibn Sallum. The introduction states that the abridgment is of the first book of Ibn Sallum's work, and that it is organized into four treatises, each consisting of many chapters. However, these divisions are not marked in the table of contents that appears at the beginning of the book presented here, nor are they marked clearly in the body of the text itself. The first two of the four treatises in the original text probably concern diseases, respectively, that afflict specific organs and diseases that do not afflict a specific organ. The work is noteworthy because in addition to the standard medical authorities from the Hellenistic and Islamic world the author mentions "Frankish," i.e., Western, doctors. He states, for example, that Islamic doctors considered elephantiasis to afflict the legs only, whereas in the West it was considered to be a disease of the arms as well. The book has sustained damage and appears to be incomplete. It was partially repaired by having a number of pages appended to it, although this material is not consistent with the original table of contents as far as the chapter numbering is concerned. The scribe, who was from Aajaltoun in present-day Lebanon, has signed his name as Hanna ibn Najuri Hanna, and proclaims his Christian religious affiliation by the opening invocation: "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are but one." Shorter medical treatises have been appended to the end of the work, including one on cataracts of the eye. The scribe completed this manuscript in September 1820.

Names

• Abu Suʻad Contributor.
• Hannā ibn Najūrī Hannā Scribe.
• Ibn-Sallūm, Ṣāliḥ Ibn-Naṣrallāh, died 1670 Author.

Created / Published

• [place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 1820.

Headings

• -  1600 to 1671
• -  Arabic manuscripts
• -  Codex
• -  Diseases
• -  Medicine
• -  Medicine, Arab
• -  Naskh script

Notes

• -  Title devised, in English, by Library staff.
• -  Original resource extent: 661 pages.
• -  Original resource at: Wellcome Library.
• -  Content in Arabic.
• -  Description based on data extracted from World Digital Library, which may be extracted from partner institutions.

Medium

• 1 online resource.

Digital Id

• https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.wdl/wdl.17840

Library of Congress Control Number

• 2021667390

Online Format

• compressed data
• pdf
• image

LCCN Permalink

• https://lccn.loc.gov/2021667390

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• MODS Record
• Dublin Core Record

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