Ibn al-Jazzar on women's diseases and their treatment.

Abu Ja'far Ahmad b. Abi Khalid Ibn al-Jazzar, born in Qayrawan, the medieval capital of Tunisia, hailed from a family of physicians. ' His father IbrThim was a doctor, as was his paternal uncle Abu Bakr. He studied with the famous Jewish philosopher and physician Ishaq b. Sulayman al-Isra'ili (c. 243/855-343/955),2 who had been a student of Ishaq ibn 'Imran (d. 296/908),3 and who at the age of fifty emigrated from Egypt to Qayrawan, where he was appointed court physician by the Fatimid caliph 'Ubaydallah al-Mahdi. Ibn al-Jazzar led an austere life, devoting himself to the study and practice of medicine. Every summer he used to travel to al-Munastir on the Mediterranean coast where he would stay in a famous Sufi-cell. Unlike many of his colleagues, he did not look for a position, at one of the princely courts. As part of his medical practice he received and examined his patients during the hours of consultation, and analysed their urine. His servant Rashiq would then administer to them the required medicines, free of charge. When he died in 980, well over eighty years old, he left 24,000 dindrs and twenty-five qintars4 weight of books on medicine and other subjects.