Pharmacopoeias for the Hospital and the Shop r 195that work specifically limits itself to the practical and does not claim to
enable physicians to dispense with all other books.
* * *Ibn Abi ’l-Bayan is the author most quoted by al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar, with
eighty-two appearances of his name in the text of Minhaj al-dukkan. Al-
Kuhin al- ̔Attar uses a number of formulae to quote Ibn Abi ’l-Bayan: min
dustur ibn ’l-Bayan (5 mentions; all appear in Sbath’s edition); min lafz
ibn ’l-Bayan (2 mentions; neither appear in Sbath); min khatt ibn ’l-Bayan
(6 mentions; none appear in Sbath); min al-dustur (43 mentions; almost
all appear in Sbath); min (al-)dustur al-bimaristan(i) (22 mentions; 3 ap-
pear in Sbath); ̔an or li-’bn bayan (3 mentions; none appear in Sbath).
In short, about three-eighths of the recipes al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar seems to
quote from al-Dustur al-bimaristani are not present in Sbath’s edition.
While it is easy to explain the absence of some recipes, the fact that almost
no recipes quoted as taken from “al-dustur al-bimaristani,” appear in Ibn
Abi ’l-Bayan’s work is problematic. Without a doubt, al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar
had been in personal contact with Ibn Abi ’l-Bayan—recipes he received
orally (min lafz ibn ’l-Bayan; ̔an ibn ’l-Bayan) or as a kind of personal
communication (min khatt ibn ’l-Bayan) may very well not have been
included in the “official” compilation of recipes. But why is “al-dustur al-
bimaristani” quoted so often, if it is not Ibn Abi ’l-Bayan’s pharmacopeia?
Perhaps, contrary to what is generally accepted, rather than composing a
dispensatory himself, Ibn Abi ’l-Bayan selected recipes from an existing
one used at the Nasiri hospital.
Examination of the manuscript of Ibn Abi ’l-Bayan held in the library
of the Royal College of Physicians of London^19 revealed a slightly differ-
ent text than that published by Sbath. Most recipes can be found in both,
but some exist in Sbath that are missing in MS Tritton 38 and vice versa.
This is not unusual in medical manuscripts in general and pharmacologi-
cal ones in particular. What is unexpected, however, is that none of the
additional recipes should be one of those quoted by al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar as
coming from al-Dustur al-bimaristani. Part of the solution may be that
“al-Dustur al-bimaristani” can be construed as a generic title given to
books containing recipes that were used in hospitals, rather than the title
of a particular work written by one author.
Ibn Abi ’l-Bayan was the teacher of Ibn Abi Usaybi ̔a, who is al-Kuhin
al- ̔Attar’s contemporary. On the basis of the sheer number of quotations