Oliver Kahl and Henrietta Sharp Cockrell present a facsimile edition of a newly discovered medieval medical text attributed to the famous physician Ab Bakr Muammad ibn Zakariyy al-Rz (Rhazes, d. 925 CE). This unique Arabic manuscript comprises a work in the health regimen genre titled Book of the Crown (Kitb al-Ikll). Copied in 1220 CE and bound parallel to the text (flip-bound), it is highly unusual, both in terms of physical appearance and topical choices. The edition is accompanied by an annotated English translation en regard, a detailed introduction including a codicological study, and bilingual indices.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1 Preliminary Notes
2 Rhazes
3 The Present Work
4 Authorship
5 Manuscript Format
6 Text Layout
7 Illuminated Heading
8 Measurements and Script
9 Paper
10 Binding
11 Conclusion
Plates
Facsimile Edition and Translation
Bibliography
Index of Substances and Products
Index of Proper Names
Oliver Kahl, Ph.D. (1993), University of Manchester, is Research Fellow at the Department of Semitic Studies, University of Marburg, Germany. He has published several books (mostly with Brill) and numerous articles on the history of Arabic science and medicine.
Henrietta Sharp Cockrell, formerly a specialist in the Islamic department at Christies, has contributed to several publications on Islamic art and manuscripts. She is currently cataloguing the National Trust Collections corpus of Islamic manuscripts.
