"""This book, the first volume of a planned three-volume project, is a pioneering survey of the G... more """This book, the first volume of a planned three-volume project, is a pioneering survey of the Galenic doctrine of the critical days. It presents the first scholarly edition of Galen’s De diebus decretoriis (Critical Days; Arabic: Kitāb ayyām al-buḥrān) since 1825, and the first English translation and detailed study of the same in modern times. In establishing the Arabic text, I have paid careful attention to both Arabic and Greek textual traditions. Moreover, I have inferred readings of the (non-extant) Greek manuscript used by the Arabic translator, which are included in a Greco-Arabic apparatus for use in preparing the Greek edition of this treatise (see next paragraph). In addition to the customary commentary wherein philological and conceptual issues are discussed, I have included a detailed historical and cultural Introduction.
This volume presents the first edition of the Arabic translation, by Hunayn ibn Ishāq, of Galen’s Critical Days (De diebus decretoriis), together with the first translation of the text into a modern language. The substantial introduction contextualizes the treatise within the Greek and Arabic traditions. Galen’s Critical Days was a founding text of astrological medicine. In febrile illnesses, the critical days are the days on which an especially severe pattern of symptoms, a crisis, was likely to occur. The crisis was thought to expel the disease-producing substances from the body. If its precise timing were known, the physician could prepare the patient so that the crisis would be most beneficial. After identifying the critical days based on empirical data and showing how to use them in therapy, Galen explains the critical days via the moon’s influence. In the historical introduction Glen Cooper discusses the translation of the Critical Days in Arabic, and adumbrates its possible significance in the intellectual debates and political rivalries among the 9th-century Baghdad elite. It is argued that Galen originally composed the Critical Days both to confound the Skeptics of his own day and to refute a purely mathematical, rationalist approach to science. These features made the text useful in the rivalries between Baghdad scholars. Al-Kindī (d.c. 866) famously propounded a mathematical approach to science akin to the latter. The scholar-bureaucrat responsible for funding this translation, Muhammad ibn Mūsā (d. 873), al-Kindī’s nemesis, may have found the treatise useful in refuting that approach. The commentary and notes to the facing page translation address issues of translation, as well as important concepts."""
The third volume, also in preparation, is a critical Arabic edition of Galen’s treatise De crisib... more The third volume, also in preparation, is a critical Arabic edition of Galen’s treatise De crisibus (Crises), and will appear in Brill’s Studies in Ancient Medicine series. It presents the Arabic text with a facing page Greek edition (that of B. Alexanderson), along with English translations (the first ever), philological and conceptual commentaries, and a Greek-Arabic glossary. This text was very important in the history of medicine for two reasons: 1) It presented a paradigm of healing that dominated for 1500 years, namely, the idea that diseases are caused by substances that must be purged from the body. (Vestiges of this theory are still with us); and 2) It shows how medical evidence and signs can be used to infer the type of illness and its changes in time, and this use of reason formatively influenced the modern scientific method.
Philip van der Eijk is the author of this project description for our 2019-2020 Einstein Centre C... more Philip van der Eijk is the author of this project description for our 2019-2020 Einstein Centre Chronoi research and project team.
The 2nd International Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Symposium on History of Science in Islam Proceedings Book, 2023
The Iranian born Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (853-925 CE /239/40-313 H) was one of th... more The Iranian born Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (853-925 CE /239/40-313 H) was one of the earliest and finest examples of an empirical scientist, one who was attentive to data and skeptical of the theories he heard. Al-Rāzī was known for his iconoclastic approach to the solution of scientific or medical challenges, such as his brute force method for determining the best location for the new Baghdad Hospitalobserving rotting meat. Furthermore, his critique of Galen (al-šukūk 'alā Ǧālīnūs) shows his deep understanding of ancient Greek science-and was an early example of an important Arabic tradition of critiquing and correcting the sciences of the Greeks. One such theory was Galen's theory of the medical crisis, which was closely interwoven with diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. Between Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288 / 687 H), Galenic crisis theory underwent significant changes in Islamic medicine. Al-Rāzī is of interest because he represents the earlier period of critique and revision of Greek medicine. This paper will consider several examples of al-Rāzī's empirical approach to medicine, along with his critique of Galen that illustrate his understanding and revision of Galen's crisis theory. Influential examples of his data collecting are found in two works that will be referred to in this paper. First, by extending the case history tradition of the Hippocratics (which marked the beginnings of scientific medicine to begin with), his compilations of case histories are models for all generations (Kitāb al-taǧārib). Second, his Kitāb al-Ḥāwī compilation is a testament to his skill at collecting important passages from earlier authors. His example was later followed by other physicians, among whom was Moses Maimonides (Mūsā ibn Maymūn, d. 1204 CE). The Kitāb al-Ḥāwī was also a gift to posterity, since some of the quoted works are no longer extant.
The 2nd International Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Symposium on History of Science in Islam Proceedings Book, 2023
The Iranian born Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (853-925 CE /239/40-313 H) was one of th... more The Iranian born Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (853-925 CE /239/40-313 H) was one of the earliest and finest examples of an empirical scientist, one who was attentive to data and skeptical of the theories he heard. Al-Rāzī was known for his iconoclastic approach to the solution of scientific or medical challenges, such as his brute force method for determining the best location for the new Baghdad Hospitalobserving rotting meat. Furthermore, his critique of Galen (al-šukūk 'alā Ǧālīnūs) shows his deep understanding of ancient Greek science-and was an early example of an important Arabic tradition of critiquing and correcting the sciences of the Greeks. One such theory was Galen's theory of the medical crisis, which was closely interwoven with diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. Between Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288 / 687 H), Galenic crisis theory underwent significant changes in Islamic medicine. Al-Rāzī is of interest because he represents the earlier period of critique and revision of Greek medicine. This paper will consider several examples of al-Rāzī's empirical approach to medicine, along with his critique of Galen that illustrate his understanding and revision of Galen's crisis theory. Influential examples of his data collecting are found in two works that will be referred to in this paper. First, by extending the case history tradition of the Hippocratics (which marked the beginnings of scientific medicine to begin with), his compilations of case histories are models for all generations (Kitāb al-taǧārib). Second, his Kitāb al-Ḥāwī compilation is a testament to his skill at collecting important passages from earlier authors. His example was later followed by other physicians, among whom was Moses Maimonides (Mūsā ibn Maymūn, d. 1204 CE). The Kitāb al-Ḥāwī was also a gift to posterity, since some of the quoted works are no longer extant.
Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, 2018
Conceptualized as a relationship between the patient, his illness, its resolution, the celestial ... more Conceptualized as a relationship between the patient, his illness, its resolution, the celestial bodies, and the doctor, and expressed through metaphors, such as divine judgment, or effects of the stars, crises and critical days were important elements of Galenic therapy. While the early Arabic physicians maintained Galenic imagery, Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037ce) and his followers introduced new imagery that omitted supernatural influences, and emphasized physical agents. The crisis was now described as a separation instead of a verdict, and the critical days were caused by the lunar phases alone. The " body politic " metaphor was introduced to describe medical crises. By closely examining the writings of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288 ce) on the Canon of Ibn Sīnā and the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, these shifts in imagery are analysed in detail, and their implications for our understanding of a period that has been dismissed as " post-decline " and devoid of innovation.
Viewpoint: Magazine of the British Society for the History of Science, 2017
Brief survey of some of the main contributions of Muslim astronomers, via theoretical innovations... more Brief survey of some of the main contributions of Muslim astronomers, via theoretical innovations, observational methods, and, most importantly, through institutional developments.
Islamic astrolabes and astronomical tables (zijes) were improvements on Greek antecedents, and we... more Islamic astrolabes and astronomical tables (zijes) were improvements on Greek antecedents, and were employed both to educate non-specialists about basic astronomical concepts, and to enable faster calculations of planetary positions and other astrological parameters. Both astrolabes and tables encode a complex trigonometry, so the user needs merely to turn a dial, aligning certain marks and reading off the result from the astrolabe, or simply to perform basic arithmetic on the tables to derive planetary positions. In addition, the astrolabe was an important vehicle for the transmission of mathematics and astronomy to Europe, since not only was it a symbol of Muslim pre-eminence in science for medieval Europeans, but it also inspired them to acquire the mathematics and astronomy required to use it. Furthermore, one of the most significant engineering advances of medieval Europe, the mechanical clock, is shown to have been derived partly from the technology of the astrolabe. Lastly, astrolabes and zijes are useful in modern history of science courses, to help students grasp the technical sophistication of Muslim civilization. Three example assignments and workshops are discussed. 1) Students use tables to calculate selected features of their birth charts (positions of sun, Mars and Ascendant). 2) Students construct an astrolabe from scratch, using compass, pencil, card stock paper, and an acetate sheet. (Professor Saliba made me do this in graduate school, and it was one of the most important exercises I ever did). And 3) Students learn how to use the astrolabe for time-keeping and selected astrological calculations.
In its original Babylonian and Egyptian contexts, astrology was the interpretation of celestial s... more In its original Babylonian and Egyptian contexts, astrology was the interpretation of celestial signs and omens sent by the gods as warnings to rulers and the elite. Roman fondness for Stoicism fertilized the growth of astrology in the Greco-Roman world, which developed into a natural science, fully integrated with the prevailing cosmology. Astrology became popularized, and anyone who could afford some level of the service knew basic features of his natal chart. The chapter explains the various forms and purposes of judicial or divinatory astrology: “mundane” (heavenly effects on regions), “genethlialogical” (heavenly effects on a life from its birth or conception), “horary” (heavenly effects on the present moment), and “catarchic” (heavenly effects on the future). The chapter also provides an historical sketch of classical astrology, from Babylonian origins through the major surviving handbooks, and an elaborated ancient example of a natal chart (of the emperor Hadrian), its methods, and interpretation.
The author shows, from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq's translations of Galen's Crises and Critical Days, and b... more The author shows, from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq's translations of Galen's Crises and Critical Days, and borrowing a scheme from Sebastian Brock, that Ḥunayn's translation style was " reader-oriented, " in which he added whatever he thought necessary to help his readers understand the text and its complex subject matter, rather than " text-oriented, " which adhered closely to the original. Using several examples classified in a working typology, the author shows how caution must be used when deriving Greek textual variants from Arabic. Moreover, the author considers how the Arabic translations creatively distorted certain scientifically significant concepts.
Abstract: The Aldine edition of Galen’s works, prepared by humanists anxious to replace the medie... more Abstract: The Aldine edition of Galen’s works, prepared by humanists anxious to replace the medieval Latin translations with a purely Greek text, certainly represents an advance in scholarship. However, widespread anti-Arabic prejudices of the time precluded most humanists, including the Aldine editors, from perceiving anything of value in the Latin Galenic textual tradition, which was characterized as representing a Galen that had passed through the corrupting influence of Arabic. This paper considers the cost to the medical tradition of ignoring Arabic in the Aldine edition of 1525, and thereafter. Several examples of passages from the Arabo-Latin Galen are compared with the Aldine, and their differences are considered and evaluated with regard to their impact on medical knowledge. The conclusion is drawn that, although there were some real corruptions in the Arabo-Latin tradition, in the main it contained useful variant readings, which might have been used to the profit of Greek philology, as well as to the advancement of Galenic scholarship.
The article considers a brief catechistic presentation of a Galenic medical doctrine, the critica... more The article considers a brief catechistic presentation of a Galenic medical doctrine, the critical days, by the 9th C. translator and thinker, Qusṭā ibn Lūqā (d. 912/3), found in a manuscript in Iran. The piece is first shown to have been derived from Galen’s treatise on the critical days. Then, it is discussed section by section, in commentary form, to elucidate the medical doctrines Qusṭā propounds. Lastly, the piece is compared with an earlier attempt, by al-Kindī (d. ca. 870), to describe the critical days mathematically. The various medical doctrines behind the treatise are discussed, as are the varying approaches to scientific method. The article concludes with contrasting the a priori mathematical scientific method of al-Kindī with the a posteriori empirical method of Galen/Qusṭā, and offers suggestions about the chronologies of the appearances of these doctrines and texts in Arabic. A transcription of the Arabic text is appended.
East Meets West in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, vol. 12 of series: Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, ed. by Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge, Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2013
"""This book, the first volume of a planned three-volume project, is a pioneering survey of the G... more """This book, the first volume of a planned three-volume project, is a pioneering survey of the Galenic doctrine of the critical days. It presents the first scholarly edition of Galen’s De diebus decretoriis (Critical Days; Arabic: Kitāb ayyām al-buḥrān) since 1825, and the first English translation and detailed study of the same in modern times. In establishing the Arabic text, I have paid careful attention to both Arabic and Greek textual traditions. Moreover, I have inferred readings of the (non-extant) Greek manuscript used by the Arabic translator, which are included in a Greco-Arabic apparatus for use in preparing the Greek edition of this treatise (see next paragraph). In addition to the customary commentary wherein philological and conceptual issues are discussed, I have included a detailed historical and cultural Introduction.
This volume presents the first edition of the Arabic translation, by Hunayn ibn Ishāq, of Galen’s Critical Days (De diebus decretoriis), together with the first translation of the text into a modern language. The substantial introduction contextualizes the treatise within the Greek and Arabic traditions. Galen’s Critical Days was a founding text of astrological medicine. In febrile illnesses, the critical days are the days on which an especially severe pattern of symptoms, a crisis, was likely to occur. The crisis was thought to expel the disease-producing substances from the body. If its precise timing were known, the physician could prepare the patient so that the crisis would be most beneficial. After identifying the critical days based on empirical data and showing how to use them in therapy, Galen explains the critical days via the moon’s influence. In the historical introduction Glen Cooper discusses the translation of the Critical Days in Arabic, and adumbrates its possible significance in the intellectual debates and political rivalries among the 9th-century Baghdad elite. It is argued that Galen originally composed the Critical Days both to confound the Skeptics of his own day and to refute a purely mathematical, rationalist approach to science. These features made the text useful in the rivalries between Baghdad scholars. Al-Kindī (d.c. 866) famously propounded a mathematical approach to science akin to the latter. The scholar-bureaucrat responsible for funding this translation, Muhammad ibn Mūsā (d. 873), al-Kindī’s nemesis, may have found the treatise useful in refuting that approach. The commentary and notes to the facing page translation address issues of translation, as well as important concepts."""
The third volume, also in preparation, is a critical Arabic edition of Galen’s treatise De crisib... more The third volume, also in preparation, is a critical Arabic edition of Galen’s treatise De crisibus (Crises), and will appear in Brill’s Studies in Ancient Medicine series. It presents the Arabic text with a facing page Greek edition (that of B. Alexanderson), along with English translations (the first ever), philological and conceptual commentaries, and a Greek-Arabic glossary. This text was very important in the history of medicine for two reasons: 1) It presented a paradigm of healing that dominated for 1500 years, namely, the idea that diseases are caused by substances that must be purged from the body. (Vestiges of this theory are still with us); and 2) It shows how medical evidence and signs can be used to infer the type of illness and its changes in time, and this use of reason formatively influenced the modern scientific method.
Philip van der Eijk is the author of this project description for our 2019-2020 Einstein Centre C... more Philip van der Eijk is the author of this project description for our 2019-2020 Einstein Centre Chronoi research and project team.
The 2nd International Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Symposium on History of Science in Islam Proceedings Book, 2023
The Iranian born Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (853-925 CE /239/40-313 H) was one of th... more The Iranian born Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (853-925 CE /239/40-313 H) was one of the earliest and finest examples of an empirical scientist, one who was attentive to data and skeptical of the theories he heard. Al-Rāzī was known for his iconoclastic approach to the solution of scientific or medical challenges, such as his brute force method for determining the best location for the new Baghdad Hospitalobserving rotting meat. Furthermore, his critique of Galen (al-šukūk 'alā Ǧālīnūs) shows his deep understanding of ancient Greek science-and was an early example of an important Arabic tradition of critiquing and correcting the sciences of the Greeks. One such theory was Galen's theory of the medical crisis, which was closely interwoven with diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. Between Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288 / 687 H), Galenic crisis theory underwent significant changes in Islamic medicine. Al-Rāzī is of interest because he represents the earlier period of critique and revision of Greek medicine. This paper will consider several examples of al-Rāzī's empirical approach to medicine, along with his critique of Galen that illustrate his understanding and revision of Galen's crisis theory. Influential examples of his data collecting are found in two works that will be referred to in this paper. First, by extending the case history tradition of the Hippocratics (which marked the beginnings of scientific medicine to begin with), his compilations of case histories are models for all generations (Kitāb al-taǧārib). Second, his Kitāb al-Ḥāwī compilation is a testament to his skill at collecting important passages from earlier authors. His example was later followed by other physicians, among whom was Moses Maimonides (Mūsā ibn Maymūn, d. 1204 CE). The Kitāb al-Ḥāwī was also a gift to posterity, since some of the quoted works are no longer extant.
The 2nd International Prof. Dr. Fuat Sezgin Symposium on History of Science in Islam Proceedings Book, 2023
The Iranian born Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (853-925 CE /239/40-313 H) was one of th... more The Iranian born Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī (853-925 CE /239/40-313 H) was one of the earliest and finest examples of an empirical scientist, one who was attentive to data and skeptical of the theories he heard. Al-Rāzī was known for his iconoclastic approach to the solution of scientific or medical challenges, such as his brute force method for determining the best location for the new Baghdad Hospitalobserving rotting meat. Furthermore, his critique of Galen (al-šukūk 'alā Ǧālīnūs) shows his deep understanding of ancient Greek science-and was an early example of an important Arabic tradition of critiquing and correcting the sciences of the Greeks. One such theory was Galen's theory of the medical crisis, which was closely interwoven with diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy. Between Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288 / 687 H), Galenic crisis theory underwent significant changes in Islamic medicine. Al-Rāzī is of interest because he represents the earlier period of critique and revision of Greek medicine. This paper will consider several examples of al-Rāzī's empirical approach to medicine, along with his critique of Galen that illustrate his understanding and revision of Galen's crisis theory. Influential examples of his data collecting are found in two works that will be referred to in this paper. First, by extending the case history tradition of the Hippocratics (which marked the beginnings of scientific medicine to begin with), his compilations of case histories are models for all generations (Kitāb al-taǧārib). Second, his Kitāb al-Ḥāwī compilation is a testament to his skill at collecting important passages from earlier authors. His example was later followed by other physicians, among whom was Moses Maimonides (Mūsā ibn Maymūn, d. 1204 CE). The Kitāb al-Ḥāwī was also a gift to posterity, since some of the quoted works are no longer extant.
Intellectual History of the Islamicate World, 2018
Conceptualized as a relationship between the patient, his illness, its resolution, the celestial ... more Conceptualized as a relationship between the patient, his illness, its resolution, the celestial bodies, and the doctor, and expressed through metaphors, such as divine judgment, or effects of the stars, crises and critical days were important elements of Galenic therapy. While the early Arabic physicians maintained Galenic imagery, Ibn Sīnā (d. 1037ce) and his followers introduced new imagery that omitted supernatural influences, and emphasized physical agents. The crisis was now described as a separation instead of a verdict, and the critical days were caused by the lunar phases alone. The " body politic " metaphor was introduced to describe medical crises. By closely examining the writings of Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288 ce) on the Canon of Ibn Sīnā and the Aphorisms of Hippocrates, these shifts in imagery are analysed in detail, and their implications for our understanding of a period that has been dismissed as " post-decline " and devoid of innovation.
Viewpoint: Magazine of the British Society for the History of Science, 2017
Brief survey of some of the main contributions of Muslim astronomers, via theoretical innovations... more Brief survey of some of the main contributions of Muslim astronomers, via theoretical innovations, observational methods, and, most importantly, through institutional developments.
Islamic astrolabes and astronomical tables (zijes) were improvements on Greek antecedents, and we... more Islamic astrolabes and astronomical tables (zijes) were improvements on Greek antecedents, and were employed both to educate non-specialists about basic astronomical concepts, and to enable faster calculations of planetary positions and other astrological parameters. Both astrolabes and tables encode a complex trigonometry, so the user needs merely to turn a dial, aligning certain marks and reading off the result from the astrolabe, or simply to perform basic arithmetic on the tables to derive planetary positions. In addition, the astrolabe was an important vehicle for the transmission of mathematics and astronomy to Europe, since not only was it a symbol of Muslim pre-eminence in science for medieval Europeans, but it also inspired them to acquire the mathematics and astronomy required to use it. Furthermore, one of the most significant engineering advances of medieval Europe, the mechanical clock, is shown to have been derived partly from the technology of the astrolabe. Lastly, astrolabes and zijes are useful in modern history of science courses, to help students grasp the technical sophistication of Muslim civilization. Three example assignments and workshops are discussed. 1) Students use tables to calculate selected features of their birth charts (positions of sun, Mars and Ascendant). 2) Students construct an astrolabe from scratch, using compass, pencil, card stock paper, and an acetate sheet. (Professor Saliba made me do this in graduate school, and it was one of the most important exercises I ever did). And 3) Students learn how to use the astrolabe for time-keeping and selected astrological calculations.
In its original Babylonian and Egyptian contexts, astrology was the interpretation of celestial s... more In its original Babylonian and Egyptian contexts, astrology was the interpretation of celestial signs and omens sent by the gods as warnings to rulers and the elite. Roman fondness for Stoicism fertilized the growth of astrology in the Greco-Roman world, which developed into a natural science, fully integrated with the prevailing cosmology. Astrology became popularized, and anyone who could afford some level of the service knew basic features of his natal chart. The chapter explains the various forms and purposes of judicial or divinatory astrology: “mundane” (heavenly effects on regions), “genethlialogical” (heavenly effects on a life from its birth or conception), “horary” (heavenly effects on the present moment), and “catarchic” (heavenly effects on the future). The chapter also provides an historical sketch of classical astrology, from Babylonian origins through the major surviving handbooks, and an elaborated ancient example of a natal chart (of the emperor Hadrian), its methods, and interpretation.
The author shows, from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq's translations of Galen's Crises and Critical Days, and b... more The author shows, from Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq's translations of Galen's Crises and Critical Days, and borrowing a scheme from Sebastian Brock, that Ḥunayn's translation style was " reader-oriented, " in which he added whatever he thought necessary to help his readers understand the text and its complex subject matter, rather than " text-oriented, " which adhered closely to the original. Using several examples classified in a working typology, the author shows how caution must be used when deriving Greek textual variants from Arabic. Moreover, the author considers how the Arabic translations creatively distorted certain scientifically significant concepts.
Abstract: The Aldine edition of Galen’s works, prepared by humanists anxious to replace the medie... more Abstract: The Aldine edition of Galen’s works, prepared by humanists anxious to replace the medieval Latin translations with a purely Greek text, certainly represents an advance in scholarship. However, widespread anti-Arabic prejudices of the time precluded most humanists, including the Aldine editors, from perceiving anything of value in the Latin Galenic textual tradition, which was characterized as representing a Galen that had passed through the corrupting influence of Arabic. This paper considers the cost to the medical tradition of ignoring Arabic in the Aldine edition of 1525, and thereafter. Several examples of passages from the Arabo-Latin Galen are compared with the Aldine, and their differences are considered and evaluated with regard to their impact on medical knowledge. The conclusion is drawn that, although there were some real corruptions in the Arabo-Latin tradition, in the main it contained useful variant readings, which might have been used to the profit of Greek philology, as well as to the advancement of Galenic scholarship.
The article considers a brief catechistic presentation of a Galenic medical doctrine, the critica... more The article considers a brief catechistic presentation of a Galenic medical doctrine, the critical days, by the 9th C. translator and thinker, Qusṭā ibn Lūqā (d. 912/3), found in a manuscript in Iran. The piece is first shown to have been derived from Galen’s treatise on the critical days. Then, it is discussed section by section, in commentary form, to elucidate the medical doctrines Qusṭā propounds. Lastly, the piece is compared with an earlier attempt, by al-Kindī (d. ca. 870), to describe the critical days mathematically. The various medical doctrines behind the treatise are discussed, as are the varying approaches to scientific method. The article concludes with contrasting the a priori mathematical scientific method of al-Kindī with the a posteriori empirical method of Galen/Qusṭā, and offers suggestions about the chronologies of the appearances of these doctrines and texts in Arabic. A transcription of the Arabic text is appended.
East Meets West in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, vol. 12 of series: Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, ed. by Albrecht Classen and Marilyn Sandidge, Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2013
Traditional Times: Essays in Ancient and Medieval History, 2011
"Argues that Galenic medicine, with its emphasis on prognostication from carefully gathered and s... more "Argues that Galenic medicine, with its emphasis on prognostication from carefully gathered and sifted empirical data, contains within it the seeds of modern empirical science."
Islamic civilization served as the main source of science and philosophy for the West for the cen... more Islamic civilization served as the main source of science and philosophy for the West for the centuries between 1000 and 1600 CE. During the Renaissance, an influential group of Humanists strove to erase that narrative, promoting instead a fictitious narrative of Western origins directly from Greece and Rome.
Glen Cooper worked on the Islamic Translation Series at BYU’s Maxwell Institute, and then taught Middle Eastern history and history of science at BYU. Cooper received a PhD in the history of Islamic science and culture from Columbia University.
Co-sponsored by Ancient Near Eastern Studies, European Studies, and Middle East Studies/Arabic.
RADIO INTERVIEW: A discussion of some of the intellectual debts the West owes to the Islamic worl... more RADIO INTERVIEW: A discussion of some of the intellectual debts the West owes to the Islamic world, during the period that corresponds to the Western Middle Ages. (August 3, 2017)
This paper discusses the religious and linguistic tensions between the Syriac Christian physician... more This paper discusses the religious and linguistic tensions between the Syriac Christian physicians and the Islamic Arab establishment during the 9th C. Baghdad period of the Greco-Arabic translations. The Syriac Christians used their language and religion as a way to maintain a monopoly on the practice of medicine, and thus as a way of keeping themselves separate from the dominant Muslim group. The pivotal figure in the discussion is Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a Syriac speaking Christian Arab who transgressed the linguistic and religious boundaries by translating key Greek medical works into Arabic. As context, I would also discuss how the tension between religious communities helped to spur the translation movement on, especially regarding the translation of philosophical texts, which could give someone an edge in theological debate.
The body politic metaphor is very old, having been given its canonical form by Plato, and has be... more The body politic metaphor is very old, having been given its canonical form by Plato, and has become so much a part of our thinking as to seem almost obvious. For complex, socially stratified societies, the metaphor helps us grasp the functions and relationships of their parts. It is a “conceptual metaphor” of the sort that George Lakoff described, in that it exists not in isolated poetic expressions, but in the very fabric of our language and concepts. Such metaphors can be so multifaceted that, like an iceberg, they conceal much of their potential comparisons. Exploring these other aspects has led to new insights about either entity being compared. I argue that the ancient body politic metaphor existed at a relatively superficial level until the Middle Ages. Even Plato did not plumb the depths of its richness. With John of Salisbury, Nicole Oresme, and Christine de Pizan in the Middle Ages, attention was paid to the medical dimensions of the comparison, sending political philosophy in fruitful new directions. I survey the origins of this metaphor, its enriching transformations as it passed between four Mediterranean civilizations. Relevant parts of Greek medical theory are integrated with the political discussion. Galen, whose comprehensive medical system dominated these civilizations for about 1500 years, provides a vivid way to describe political revolt and its quintessentially medieval Christian form, heresy. I survey the subject up through the Enlightenment, and examine modern vestiges of the metaphor in both everyday and political discourse. In the course of the discussion, I show how the richest application of the metaphor appears in the historians, especially Anna Comnena.
Traces one strand of the history of the Galenic doctrine of the critical days from its introducti... more Traces one strand of the history of the Galenic doctrine of the critical days from its introduction into Arabic thought in the era of al-Kindi, through the time of Ibn Sina (d.1037). Ibn Ezra's writings as a link to the later Western critique of the critical days is discussed. (Revised Handout attached below)
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Books by Glen M Cooper
This volume presents the first edition of the Arabic translation, by Hunayn ibn Ishāq, of Galen’s Critical Days (De diebus decretoriis), together with the first translation of the text into a modern language. The substantial introduction contextualizes the treatise within the Greek and Arabic traditions. Galen’s Critical Days was a founding text of astrological medicine. In febrile illnesses, the critical days are the days on which an especially severe pattern of symptoms, a crisis, was likely to occur. The crisis was thought to expel the disease-producing substances from the body. If its precise timing were known, the physician could prepare the patient so that the crisis would be most beneficial. After identifying the critical days based on empirical data and showing how to use them in therapy, Galen explains the critical days via the moon’s influence. In the historical introduction Glen Cooper discusses the translation of the Critical Days in Arabic, and adumbrates its possible significance in the intellectual debates and political rivalries among the 9th-century Baghdad elite. It is argued that Galen originally composed the Critical Days both to confound the Skeptics of his own day and to refute a purely mathematical, rationalist approach to science. These features made the text useful in the rivalries between Baghdad scholars. Al-Kindī (d.c. 866) famously propounded a mathematical approach to science akin to the latter. The scholar-bureaucrat responsible for funding this translation, Muhammad ibn Mūsā (d. 873), al-Kindī’s nemesis, may have found the treatise useful in refuting that approach. The commentary and notes to the facing page translation address issues of translation, as well as important concepts."""
Papers by Glen M Cooper
This volume presents the first edition of the Arabic translation, by Hunayn ibn Ishāq, of Galen’s Critical Days (De diebus decretoriis), together with the first translation of the text into a modern language. The substantial introduction contextualizes the treatise within the Greek and Arabic traditions. Galen’s Critical Days was a founding text of astrological medicine. In febrile illnesses, the critical days are the days on which an especially severe pattern of symptoms, a crisis, was likely to occur. The crisis was thought to expel the disease-producing substances from the body. If its precise timing were known, the physician could prepare the patient so that the crisis would be most beneficial. After identifying the critical days based on empirical data and showing how to use them in therapy, Galen explains the critical days via the moon’s influence. In the historical introduction Glen Cooper discusses the translation of the Critical Days in Arabic, and adumbrates its possible significance in the intellectual debates and political rivalries among the 9th-century Baghdad elite. It is argued that Galen originally composed the Critical Days both to confound the Skeptics of his own day and to refute a purely mathematical, rationalist approach to science. These features made the text useful in the rivalries between Baghdad scholars. Al-Kindī (d.c. 866) famously propounded a mathematical approach to science akin to the latter. The scholar-bureaucrat responsible for funding this translation, Muhammad ibn Mūsā (d. 873), al-Kindī’s nemesis, may have found the treatise useful in refuting that approach. The commentary and notes to the facing page translation address issues of translation, as well as important concepts."""
Glen Cooper worked on the Islamic Translation Series at BYU’s Maxwell Institute, and then taught Middle Eastern history and history of science at BYU. Cooper received a PhD in the history of Islamic science and culture from Columbia University.
Co-sponsored by Ancient Near Eastern Studies, European Studies, and Middle East Studies/Arabic.