For centuries the development of medical science was beholden to the world of Islamic culture for the discovery, classification, and recording of human ailments and the remedies available in medieval times. The 197 Arabic manuscripts—catalogued in this volume and containing 245 works devoted to the medicine and science of the medieval Muslim era—comprise part of the rich collection of Arabic manuscripts preserved in the Wellcome Library. The volume includes items from all the major medieval authors in the history of medicine in the Islamic world and describes the earliest examples of their work.

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The Arabic manuscript collection now in the Bodleian Library includes some of the oldest and most important scientific and medical medieval manuscripts preserved today. Emilie Savage-Smith describes 377 medical manuscripts representing 242 different treatises, including Arabic medical treatises written between the ninth and seventeenth centuries.