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

Pharmacopoeias for the Hospital and the Shop r 203

literate Jewish physicians of the medieval Islamic world, like their

Muslim and Christian colleagues, were to base their ideas essentially

on the writings of Galen and, through them, on the Hippocratic

corpus—that is, on pagan Greek concepts. And the same held for

the medicine of Christian Byzantium.

This international, or rather interfaith, unity of medicine was

made possible by the fact that it was essentially untouched by theo-

logical considerations.... The Bible or Talmud are hardly ever in-

voked in medieval Jewish medical writings; just as the Koran makes

little intrusion into the mainstream of Islamic medicine.^34

Lieber’s point seems certainly to hold true of the physician Ibn Abi ’l-
Bayan. But what of the pharmacist al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar? Unlike al-Dustur
al-bimaristani, Minhaj al-dukkan contains two chapters (1 and 23) de-
voted to ethics, a large part of which have a religious flavor. In chapter
1, al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar immediately reminds his son that God has created
men as intelligent beings and given them free will, thus enabling them to
do good. The emotion uppermost in one’s soul should be reverence for
God.^35
Chapter 23 begins with a passage reminiscent of the Jewish prayer re-
cited upon wakening: “I thank Thee, Everlasting and Eternal King, Who
hath returned my soul unto me in mercy.” Al-Kuhin al- ̔Attar tells his son:

Know that on each day the creation is renewed,^36 and know that

sleep is the lesser death. When a person wakens from sleep, it is as if

he had been newly created, and it is incumbent upon him to thank

exalted God for His power and His keeping him alive and able to

thank Him for His grace.^37

There is constant mention of God throughout this chapter: One must
aim to be worthy of God’s reward; all profits are a gift from God; one must
have faith in God, for it is He who provides livelihood, not human cus-
tomers; be grateful to God always, no matter what your situation: if it is
good, that it is good, and if bad, that it is not worse. The chapter ends with
the words: “May God make you one of those who keep and fulfill [His
laws], and not make you one who forgets and is neglectful. God directs
all courses.”^38
Both in form and content, these chapters of Minhaj al-dukkan are
very similar to the ethical wills found in medieval Jewish literature. Two