Pharmaceutical literature in the medieval oriental world: the Arab recovery of the Medicines' Book in the Syriac language

Abstract

In this work we identify the literary parallels and the way of translation made of some medications from The Syriac Book of Medicines in Syriac on some selected medical medieval Arabic texts, whose appropriation was fundamental for the development of Islamic pharmacy. We also inquire about his origin in the classical tradition from two pharmaceutical texts. Thereby, we corroborate the importance that this tradition had for the development of medicine in the oriental Mediterranean during the Middle Ages. These medications, simple or compound, analyzed in this article by The Hiera of Logadios, were identified by their constitutive taxonomy. Our conclusions endorse the general assumption that Syriac-speaking Christians were earlier translators of classical medicine than those who did it in Arabic