Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Harawi (,

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

1492-1518 and died 1542) was a

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

n late 15th century

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

from

Herat Herāt (; Dari/Pashto: هرات) is an oasis city and the third-largest city in Afghanistan. In 2020, it had an estimated population of 574,276, and serves as the capital of Herat Province, situated south of the Paropamisus Mountains (''Se ...

Safavid Iran The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

, now part of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. In 1518 he composed, in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, an alphabetical

medical dictionary A medical dictionary is a lexicon for words used in medicine. The four major medical dictionaries in the United States are ''Mosby's Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing & Health Professions'', ''Stedman's'', ''Taber's'', and Dorland's Medical Diction ...

and encyclopedia. It covers

anatomical Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...

and

pathological Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...

terms and concepts, medicinal substances, and prominent physicians, with all the entries arranged alphabetically. This medical lexicon, titled 'Jawahir al-lughah wa-Bahr al-jawahir', has three chapters: the first explaining terminology for parts of the body (in alphabetical order), the second on the names of simple and compound drugs (also in alphabetical order), and the third on names of diseases, presented in order from head to toe according to their locations. An autograph copy of Jawahir al-lughah exists in which the author states that he completed the correction of the treatise in 1492 (London, Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, MS Arab. 143). His other work, “Ainul Hayat” is based on

Ageing Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming older until death. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi; whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biol ...

. The original manuscript of Ainul Hayat was written in 1532 by the author in

. There are four copies of this old manuscript reported in various libraries of the world. It is stated that this is the first text on ageing in the world. After collation of these four copies of the manuscript, Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman edited and translated the manuscript in 2007. In the edited book, one can find how the author 500 years back discussed all types of behavioral and lifestyle factors including diet, environment and housing conditions related to ageing. He also discussed what drugs could increase and decrease ageing.

References

See also