Ibn Butlan

Background

Ibn Butlan was born around 1038 in Baghdad.

Education

Ibn Butlan's master, Abu’l-Faraj ibn al-Tayyib, was also a Christian. He taught at a hospital founded in Baghdad by Adud al-Dawla, who held him in high esteem and who made him study a great many medical works. Ibn Butlàn also knew well Abu’l-Hasan Thàbit ibn Ibrahim al-Harrâni and felt that the latter had taught him most of the practical medicine he knew.

Career

In 440/1049 Ibn Butlàn left his native city, and came to Fustat, Egypt, by way of al-Rahba, al-Rusafa, Aleppo, Antioch, and Lattaquié. There he met the physician ‘All ibn Ridwân with whom he engaged in sharp controversy. Then he continued on to Constantinople, where the plague was rampant. From there he returned to Antioch. Finally, tired of his wanderings and disappointed by his associations with ignorant people, he retired to a monastery in that city where he remained as a monk until his death.

Achievements

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  Ibn Butlàn's major achievement was in his work the Taqwim al-Sihhah (The Maintenance of Health), which dealt with matters of hygiene, dietetics, and exercise. The main emphasis was made on the benefits of regular attention to personal physical and mental well-being. Later it obtained profound popularity and publication of this medieval text of Middle Eastern origin into the sixteenth century is thought to demonstrate the influence that Arabic culture had on early modern Europe.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Das Ärztebankett
  • The physicians dinner party
  • Medieval Health Handbook: Tacuinum Sanitatis 1663

Religion

Ibn Butlan was an Arab Nestorian Christian.

Views

Among the many questions Ibn Butlàn dealt with, mention can be made of (1) the difficulty of eradicating prejudices and doubts brought about by a purely book-oriented concept of science; (2) the obligation not to condemn the ancients merely by superficial reflection on seemingly contradictory statements: interesting observations on the logic of interpreting texts and the essence of languages and problems of Galen and Aristotle and obvious inconsistencies in works by Aristotle himself; (3) the discussion with a student of Ibn Ridwân who, in treating everyday fever, practiced purges to treat blood thickness and bleedings to counteract bile; (4) anomalies in the relationship of food and disease to warm and cold climates (i.e., winter and summer), the internal temperature of the body, and why the need to urinate wakes one up when one dreams that this urge has been satisfied, whereas in an erotic dream there is a discharge of sperm during sleep itself.

In developing this theme, Ibn Butlàn first grapples with questions of physics (the nature of the attraction of iron to magnets), geometry (Euclid’s negative definition of the point), an examination of Aristotle’s definition of place (if there is no place outside of this world, then the enveloping sphere moves in local motion but not in one single place).

He also defended Hunayn ibn Ishâq against the obtuseness of Ibn Ridwân. Thus it is clear that Ibn Butlàn had scientific and philosophical knowledge that extended beyond his knowledge of medicine. Besides Aristotle and Galen he refers to Themistius, Porphyry, and Anebo. He was part of an era that came out of the era of translations, but which, by means of clinical experimentation and observation, sought to verify, extend, and correct the heritage of the Ancients by applying it according to the tradition introduced a century earlier by Râzï.

Personality

Ibn al-Qiftl has preserved for us an account Ibn Butlàn made of his trip (which was later used by Yâqüt). In it he displays his curious, observing, open-minded character; in particular, his description of Antioch is both interesting and precise (sites, monuments, fortifications).

He furnishes us with a specific recollection of the coexistence between Christians and Moslems in Lattaquié, and of the customs practiced in that city. He shows himself to be hungry for contacts with men of learning in all the lands he visited. But it appears that his somewhat difficult, overbearing personality did not make for prolonged relationships. Ibn al-Qiftl recalls that in Aleppo he was an utter failure with the Christians, whose community he wanted to dominate and whose religious life he wanted to reform.

But it is his controversy with Ibn Ridwân (excerpts of which have been preserved by Ibn al-Qiftl) that proves how cunning and tough he was beneath a facade of gentleness. He reminded his adversary that on Judgment Day his patients would demand justice against their poor physicians and that he would have to face his accusers, who would be much more unmerciful than Ibn Butlàn himself was. He prayed to God that Ibn Ridwân should be enlightened.

References

• Le Taqwim al-Sihha (Tacuini Sanitatis) d'Ibn Butlan: un traite medical du XIe siecle
  1990
• Reponses Aux Questions Posees Par Ibn Butlan Dans Le Banquet Des Medecins
  2011
• Die Eucharistielehre Des Nestorianers Al-Muhtar Ibn Butlan
  2010