A mirror for medicine : some resources of the Wellcome Institute Library an exhibition, Monday 19 October - Friday 18 December 1987.
- Wellcome Historical Medical Library
- Date:
- 1987
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: A mirror for medicine : some resources of the Wellcome Institute Library an exhibition, Monday 19 October - Friday 18 December 1987. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![4. Sharh Qanlinca. 'Commentary on K. Qaniinfca,' a resume by al-Jaghmlnl of K. al-Qanun. K. QanunCa, a once popular medical work written by Mahmud b. 'Umar al- JaghmTnT [d. 1344]. The Arabic commentary shown here was written by 'All b. Kamal al-Dln Mahmud Muhammad Tahir of Constantinople. It is transcribed in the Naskh style and dedicated to the Ottoman Sultan, BayazTd Khan b. Muhammad Khan b. Murad Khan. 5. 'AlTb. al-'Abbas al-MajusT (fl. 10th century). Kami! al-sina'a al-tibbiyah, 'Complete art of medicine*. Undated (14th century) Arabic manuscript copied by Hanna, a physician, in Naskh and containing Book I (treatises one to five inclusive). 'AEr b. al-'Abbas al-MajusT, commonly known in the west as Haly Abbas, dedicated his great medical work to the ruler of Shiraz 'Adud al-Dawla. For this reason the work is often known by its alternative title - al-MalakT - 'the royal book', known in medieval Latin translations as Liber Regius. The table of contents belonging to the fifth book, relating to the effect of en- vironment on health, is displayed. 6. Ikhtiyarat-i Badi*I Persian manuscript containing a materia medica composed by Zayn-al-DTn 'Ali b.al-Husayn al-AnsarT [1329-1403] and completed in 1368/9. It comprises two parts, the first on simple medicaments in alphabetical order, the second on com- pound medicaments in sixteen sections. The manuscript exhibited was copied in 1669/70 in Naskh script within gold rules. The opening displayed is from the first section. It describes simple medicines beginning with the Arabic letter sin. 7. Svami Hamsasvarupa, Satcakranirupanacitram (Muzaffarpur, Bihar: Tri- kutivilas Press, [n.d.]. The Satcakranirupanacitram or 'pictures illustrating the six cakras' is a rel- atively modern edition of a medieval Sanskrit work, probably published at the turn of the century. The illustrations and commentary demonstrate particularly clearly the collision of two completely different scientific world views. On the one hand we have the modern medical view of human anatomy, imported to India by the East India Company doctors and British education, while on the other there is the yogic view of the body as containing a series of cakras. A cakra (literally 'wheel' or 'circle') is described both as a physical point of junction in the vertical axis of the body (e.g., the upper cerebrum as illustrated) and as the locus of particular physical and spiritual experiences, in this case the sense of spiritual liberation. The cakra of the 'thousand-petalled lotus' in the right-hand illustration has the full moon in the middle of the lotus, enclosing a triangle. It is here that the final integration of the person is believed to take place. The path of energies from lower in the body is called the brahmanadi, 'conduit of the spirit', and is](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b20456852_0027.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
