This is a first part of the new catalogue of medical manuscripts preserved in the Wellcome Library. It serves not only as a guide to the collection of the manuscripts, purchased by the Wellcome Library in 1986, but is also an independent research tool, which can be used by various specialists: librarians, historians, paleographers, art historians, conservators, etc. This catalogue comprises detailed indices and many illustrations on cd-rom, which help researchers to consult in detail each codex prior to coming to the Wellcome Library in London to consult the manuscript per se.

Catalogue of all Arabic manuscripts in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library. Plates are facsimiles from selected Arabic works.

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.

Among many other treasures, the Oriental Department of the Wellcome Library houses a small, but important, collection of Islamic calligraphy. Unlike many modern catalogues on Islamic calligraphy, which primarily comprises of illustrations and their physical description, this volume includes full details of each item described. The diversity of topics, languages and styles of calligraphy represented in the Wellcome collection, together with the contributions by various scholars, will make this volume an important reference on Islamic calligraphy for many years to come.

In this volume amulets and talismans are studied within a broader system of meaning that shapes how they were manufactured, activated and used in different networks. Text, material features and the environments in which these artifacts circulated, are studied alongside each other, resulting in an innovative approach to understand the many different functions these objects could fulfil in pre-modern times. Produced and used by Muslims and non-Muslims alike, the case studies presented here include objects that differ in size, material, language and shape. What the articles share is an all-round, in-depth approach that helps the reader understand the complexity of the objects discussed and will improve one’s understanding of the role they played within pre-modern societies. Contributors Hazem Hussein Abbas Ali, Gideon Bohak, Ursula Hammed, Juan Campo, Jean-Charles Coulon, Venetia Porter, Marcela Garcia Probert, Anne Regourd, Yasmine al-Saleh, Karl Schaefer and Petra M. Sijpesteijn.

This is the first detailed analysis of an immensely popular 13th c. Arabic guide for pharmacists, from a time in which Jewish physicians and pharmacists worked alongside Muslim and Christian practioners. "Minh j al-dukk n" ("How to manage a pharmacy"), by Ab l-Mun al-K h n al- A r (fl. 1260) is the first attempt to explore the full spectrum of pharmacy in the medieval Arabic world: identification of the materia medica and methods of preparation; pharmacy's place within the sciences and particularly its relationship with medicine; the social position of the pharmacist and his role in the marketplace and the hospital; the economics of pharmacy; legal aspects of pharmacy; and the image of the pharmacist in literature and drama. The result is a full and nuanced picture of a section of society usually invisible.