Abu Mansur al-Hasan ibn Nuh al-Qumri () (also transliterated as “al-Qamari” and "al-Qumri") (fl. mid-10th century, died between 980 and 990) was a
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
court physician
A court is an institution, often a government entity, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and administer justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law.
Courts genera ...
to the
Samanid
The Samanid Empire () was a Persianate society, Persianate Sunni Islam, Sunni Muslim empire, ruled by a dynasty of Iranian peoples, Iranian ''dehqan'' origin. The empire was centred in Greater Khorasan, Khorasan and Transoxiana, at its greatest ...
Prince al-Mansur, and was based in the city of
Bukhara
Bukhara ( ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan by population, with 280,187 residents . It is the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara for at least five millennia, and t ...
. Qumri is theorized to be
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...
’s teacher.
Life
Little is known about al-Qumri’s life, however the thirteenth century biographer
Ibn Abi Usaibia writes in ''History of the Physicians'':
Abū Mansūr al-Hasan ibn Nūh al-Qamarī was the leading personage of his generation, celebrated as a fine physician who had praiseworthy methods and a thorough and wide knowledge of medical theory. He had, may God bless him, a good hand in treatment and was held in great esteem by the kings of his times. The Shaikh and Imam Shams al-Dīn `Abd al-Hamīd ibn `Isā from Khusroshah told me that the Grand Master Ibn Sīna had met this physician when he was very old. He used to attend his council and lessons and benefited from his medical knowledge. Abū Mansūr al-Hasan ibn Nūh al-Qamarī wrote the following books:
1) ''Wealth and Fate'', a fine compendium in which he summarized all the maladies and their treatments in the most perfect and concise way.
2) A collection of citations from the works of those who practiced medicine, especially al-Rāzī.
3) ''The Causes of Maladies''.
Usaibia’s brief biography suggests that
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...
would have directly attended lectures from al-Qumri, but upon comparing birth and death dates of the two, it seems that Avicenna may have heavily consulted his works in Bukhara.
Works
There are currently three known works attributed to Qumri,
and one is presumed to be missing. It is theorized that he may have written more, but if he did these works are lost.
The ''Ghina Wa Muna'', loosely translated as the “Book of Wealth and Wishes” is mentioned in Usaibia's biography. This work has approximately 220 folios and is divided in to three parts; “diseases from head to toe”, “external medicine”, and fevers/pharmacological recipes”.
''Ghina Was Muna'' is arranged in a formulaic manner suggesting that this manual would be used as a reference tool while working in the field rather than a theoretical work.
Approximately 44 extant copies survive many of them are well preserved suggesting that many of them were library copies, with any working copies too far degraded to survive.
Many of the ''Ghina Wa Muna'' manuscripts are either not digitized or accessible in online catalogue entries. The chart below is a selection of digitized or accessible manuscripts:
The ''al-Tanwir fi al-Istiliahat al-Tibbiyya'' (or ''al-''Tanwir is translated as “Book of Illumination Regarding Medical Technical Terminology”) is a short book on medical terms and tools.
This book is presumably designed to be a working reference book and is much shorter than the ''Ghina Wa Muna''. There are approximately 14 extant manuscripts,
and at least one critical edition.
Like the ''Ghina Wa Muna,'' the ''al-Tanwir’s'' manuscripts are difficult to access online, and unfortunately a similar chart could not be made.
''The Causes of Maladies'' is presumed missing.
See also
*
List of Iranian scientists
The following is a list of Iranian scientists, engineers, and scholars who lived from antiquity up until the beginning of the modern age.
A
* Abdul Qadir Gilani (12th century) theologian and philosopher
* Abu al-Qasim Muqane'i (10th century) ...
*
Avicenna
Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian peoples, Iranian ...
*
Ibn Abi Usaibia
*
Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age was a period of scientific, economic, and cultural flourishing in the history of Islam, traditionally dated from the 8th century to the 13th century.
This period is traditionally understood to have begun during the reign o ...
*
Medicine in the medieval Islamic world
In the history of medicine, "Islamic medicine", also known as "Arabian medicine" is the Science in the medieval Islamic world, science of medicine developed in the Middle East, and usually written in Arabic language, Arabic, the ''lingua franca ...
References
Further reading
*Manfred Ullmann, "Die Medizin im Islam", ''Handbuch der Orientalistik'', Abteilung I, Ergänzungsband vi, Abschnitt 1 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), pp. 147 and 236
Encyclopedia Islamica
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Qumri
10th-century Iranian physicians
Court physicians
Iranian courtiers
Scholars from the Samanid Empire
10th-century deaths
Year of birth unknown
Year of death unknown