A History of Indian Medical Literature v3.c42.s24.3

v3.c42.s24.3

Abū’l Ḥasan ‘Alī ibn Sahl al-Ṭabarī completed his *Firdaws al-ḥikma* fī ṭibb in Sāmarrā in the third year of the reign of the caliph al-Mutawakkil, i.e., in 849/850. It is a work of large scope, giving a survey of the Greek, Syrian and Indian systems of medicine as known to the Muslims. Its arrangement is less methodical than that of later medical works in Arabic, but it is often quoted by al-Rāzī and others. Particularly important is the thirtieth and last section of the *Paradise of Wisdom*, which deals with Indian medicine. In thirty-six chapters, the majority of which are rather short, it succinctly describes the theory and general therapeutic principles of Indian medicine, while at the end a number of recipes are found. The translation of Sanskrit medical terms into Arabic is usually correct, 228 which indicates that ‘Alī ibn Sahl made use of the translations of Sanskrit medical works executed by order of the first ‘Abbāsid caliphs, in particular Hārūn al-Rashīd (768–809), and encouraged by the Barmakids.²²⁹