A History of Indian Medical Literature v1.c18.2

v1.c18.2

The *Carakasaṃhitā* was translated into Persian¹ by an Indian physician, usually referred to as Manka,² whose actual name is supposed to have been Maṅkha or Māṇikya.³ This Manka came from India to the ‘Abbāsid court at Baghdad on the request of the caliph Hārūn al-Rashīd, who was suffering from a disease which his own physicians were unable to cure. After successfully treating his royal patient, Manka apparently stayed in Iran and may have embraced Islam. He was appointed chief physician of the royal hospital in Baghdad and rendered a number of Indian scientific treatises into Persian.⁴ Works he is said to have translated are the *Carakasaṃhitā*, *Suśrutasaṃhitā*, Śānāq’s Book on poisons (*Kitāb al-sumūm*),⁵ and a book on the names of Indian medicinal plants.⁶