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Anatomy and Therapy of Eye-Diseases in Esmā῾īl Gorgānī Compared to Syriac Sources

from Social and Cultural Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2018

Philippe Gignoux
Affiliation:
France
Anna Krasnowolska
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
Renata Rusek-Kowalska
Affiliation:
Jagiellonian University, Krakow
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Summary

SUMMARY

In the Proceedings of a congress held in Beirut in 2004, I published an article on « La transmission de l'héritage grec aux Arabes par les Syriaques » (pp. 53–65), and I briefly compared the three parts of eye in the treatise of E. Gorgānī (1042–1135/1140), who distinguished three humours, to those of one anonymous Syriac treatise edited by E.A. Wallis Budge. This work would be necessarily prior to the Persian ophtalmologist's book. First it is interesting to note that the two treatises attest the same anatomic theory. Though the author of the anonymous Syriac was not particularly aware of the eye anatomy, I would like to add some other points of comparison, namely in studying the names of medicinal plants and products mentioned in both of authors.

INTRODUCTION

On ne doit pas oublier en effet que, de même que la civilisation russe s'est développée à partir de Byzance, de cette merveilleuse cité où nous sommes réunis aujourd'hui, – et je profite de cette allusion pour remercier vivement les organisateurs d'y être si bien accueillis –, de même la culture arabe est largement redevable à la médecine grecque et à la pharmacopée, depuis Dioscoride, Galien et la tradition hippocratique.

Mais, – et je tiens à le souligner –, il n'y a pas eu comme trop d'arabisants l’écrivent, un passage direct du grec à l'arabe. C'est pourquoi il n'est pas pertinent de comparer directement les 133 produits de la liste de Gorgānī à ceux connus chez Dioscoride, comme le fait T. de Crussol, le traducteur du Discours sur l'oeil d'Esmā īl Gorgānī, qui estime que 126 de ces médicaments sont déjà présents chez Dioscoride. N'ayant pas vérifié cette assertion à partir des données du médecin grec, je me suis attaché, comme je le montrerai dans la seconde partie de mon exposé, à l'appellation proprement linguistique des noms de médicaments, pour constater qu'un très petit nombre dans le traité arabe (12 seulement) proviennent du grec sans intermédiaire.

Type
Chapter
Information
Studies on the Iranian World
Medieval and Modern
, pp. 341 - 346
Publisher: Jagiellonian University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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