Theoretical Rules Of Medicine: A Comparative Study Of Al-Dhahabi’s Al-Ṭibb Al-Nabawi And Ibn Sina’s Al-Qanun Fi Al-Ṭibb

Abstract

Ibn Sīnā (d. 427AH/1037CE)’s Galenic account of medicine was remarkably significant on medieval natural philosophy and religious thought in the Islamic world. Just as one might split philosophy in the Islamic world into an era before and post-Avicennian tradition, so one could periodise medical history into the time before and after his glorious al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb (Canon of Medicine). This paper will compare the medical theory in Ibn Sīnā’s al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb and alDhahabī’s (d. 748/1348) al-Ṭibb al-Nabawī to determine if medieval al-Ṭibb al-Nabawī genre was influenced by the post-Avicennian tradition. In order to assess this theoretical impact on the writing of prophetic medicine genre, the paper will analyse first the introductory part of both writings from their similarity and some of the subsequent developments in al-Ṭibb al-Nabawī writings. This will form our comparative view of anatomical and philosophical classical positions. Given the focus of the al-Ṭibb al-Nabawī genre is traditional prophetic medicine, the paper will turn to the question of medical theory; Did al-Dhahabī really observe this topic? What role does medical ḥadīth play in determining how Muslims should approach classical theory of medicine? By providing comparison between the two works, one can see al-Dhahabī’s al-Ṭibb Al-Nabawī developed in interaction and extended to the al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb as well as an attempt to bring forth a new form of medicine, that would integrate Ibn Sīnā’s medical theory with Prophetic ḥadīth.