The Convergence of Judaism and Islam. Religious, Scientific, and Cultural Dimensions

Pharmacopoeias for the Hospital and the Shop r 191

not least through its being quoted extensively in Minhaj al-dukkan, an-
other thirteenth-century manual of pharmacology and also with a Jewish
author, but aimed at private pharmacists rather than at hospitals.^5
Minhaj al-dukkan wa-dastur al-a ̔yan fi a ̔mal wa-tarakib al-adwiya
al-nafi ̔a lil-insan (The Management of the [Pharmacist’s] Shop and the
Rule for the Notables on the Preparation and Composition of Medicines
Beneficial to Man) was composed in 658/1260 in Cairo by the otherwise
unknown Abu ’l-Muna Dawud b. Abi Nasr al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar al-Haruni
al-Isra’ili, a Jewish druggist. The work has twenty-five chapters, beginning
with a moralizing exhortation to al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar’s “son,” and includes
chapters on simples, substitute drugs, and weights and measures. The

Table 11.1 Comparing the Contents of al-Dustur al-bimaristani and Minhaj al-dukkan

Topic Chapter for Chapter for
al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar Ibn Abi ’l-Bayan

Preface (khutba) √ √
Advice 1
Syrups (sharāb) 2 5
Robs (rubb) 3
Confections (murrabā) 4 5
Electuaries (ma ̔jūn) 5 1
Stomachic pastes (jawārish) 6 2
Powders (safūf) 7 4
Pastilles (qurs) 8 4
Lohochs (lu ̔ūq) 9 5
Pills (habb) 10 3
Hiera (iyārij) 11 3
Decoctions (matbūkh) 3
Eye salves (kuhl) 12 7
Eye powders (ashyāf) 13 7
Ointments (marham) 14 12
Oils (duhn) 15 10
Poultices (tilā’) 16 9
Dentifrices (sanūn) 17 11
Laxatives (mushilāt) 18 8
Plasters (dimād) 19 9
Errhines (sa ̔ūt) 6
Substitute 20
Glossary 21
Weights 22
Ethics 23
Simples 24
Testing 25