Die Ergänzung Ibn Ğulğul's zur Materia medica des Dioskurides

This work is the latest product of Albert Dietrich's investigations into the transmission and expansion of the Materia medica of Dioscorides in the medieval Islamic world; here he publishes, with German translation and commentary, a text by the renowned Andalusian physician Ibn Juljul (d. c. 384/994) describing 62 items not mentioned by Dioscorides. Such works were important contributions to the development of Arabic pharmacology, which eventually saw the original corpus of Dioscorides expanded several times over to include new drugs collected from throughout the vast expanse of the Islamic world and unknown in Graeco-Roman medicine. Dietrich's text is based on two manuscripts: an Oxford MS. (Bodleian MS. Hyde 34) bearing Ibn Juljul's essay, and an Istanbul MS. (Nuruosmaniye MS. 3589) containing a later version with additional comments by 'Abd Allih ibn Salih. The latter describes only fifteen items, differs in the reading of names and sometimes in its choice of wording, and in general requires treatment as a separate text. Dietrich resolves this problem by providing the complete texts of both versions in the relevant sections in both the text and translation, which renders their differences immediately evident and easy to compare. These and other matters relating to the two versions are clarified in Dietrich's introduction. Several aspects of this text seem worthy of some comment. There is nothing surprising in the fact that Ibn Juljul, a native of Cordoba, adds to Dioscorides materia medica found in Spain and North Africa; more striking, however, is the significant number of items from such remote regions as the Caspian provinces, Afghanistan, and especially India, the land of origin of nearly half of the items listed. Here one can see the impact of the facility with which goods and information travelled across the Islamic world; at one point (no. 40; cf. also no. 50) Ibn Juljul states that Persian traders were his source. Also noteworthy is Ibn Juljul's section on stones (nos. 45-49). Arabic discussions of materia medica often include stones: powdered and drunk, or used to rub affected parts of the body, these were considered effective as, for example, heart stimulants, poisons, or antidotes. It is worth observing, however, that in Ibn Juljul's text the account of stones is the only part of the book identified as a specifically named section, which may reflect use of a written source. Dietrich's text is superbly edited, and his translation is excellent; only a few …