The great 11th-12th century Persian physician Seyed Esmail Jorjani (known as Hakim Jorjani) is known for his 750,000 word encyclopedia of medicine, the Treasure of King Khwarazm, which has been ranked along with Avicenna's Canon and the works of Haly Abbas. Translations of this work provide modern readers with a detailed insight into medical practice in medieval Persia. Parts of the Treasure are devoted to guidance about midwifery and perinatal care. In this article we present translations of excerpts from this part of the work.
Al-Jurjani wrote the Persian medical encyclopedia, Thesaurus of the Shah of Khwarazm (also known as The Treasure of Khwarazm Shah), some time after 1110, when he moved to the northern Persian province of Khwarezm. Much of his work was dependent on Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (c. 1025), along with al-Jurjani's own ideas not found in the Canon. The work is composed of ten volumes covering ten medical fields: anatomy, physiology, hygiene, diagnosis and prognosis, fevers, diseases particular to a part of the body, surgery, skin diseases, poisons and antidotes, and medicaments (both simple and compound). In endocrinology in particular, al-Jurjani was one of "the first to associate exophthalmos with goitre," which was not repeated until Caleb Parry (1755–1822) in 1825, and later by Robert James Graves (1796–1853) and Carl von Basedow (1799–1854). Al-Jurjani also established an association between goitre and palpitation.
On "Drugs recommended for lice control," Gorgani recommends the following method:
A) Keeping oneself clean
B) Wearing Cotton and Silk Clothing
C) Changing them Frequently
D) Using anointments composed of the following drugs which work as desiccating agents: 1) Fruits of sumac with Olive Oil. 2) leaves and roots of Rumex 3) Alum (vitriol) with olive oil. 4) leaves of Melia azedarach. 5) leaves of pomegranate; 6) leaves of colocynth 7) leaves of myrtle 8) leaves of Thymus Serpyllum 9) leaves of flax [Linum Usitatissimum] 10) leaves of Acorus Calamus. 9) Leaves of flax [Linum Usitatissimum] 10) leaves of Acorus Calamus and finally 11) Cinnamon with olive oil, specially with the oil of Cathamus Tinctorius and oil radish.
Most of the above botanicals have recently been shown to possess insecticidal properties.
Abu Hamed Muhammad Al Ghazzali Better Known as Alghazel
