Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn al-Husayn Ibn al-Kattani
al-Madhiji () (951–1029), sometimes nicknamed "al-Mutatabbib" (the physician), was a well-known
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
scholar, philosopher, physician, astrologer, man of letters, and poet.
Born in
Córdoba in the
Caliphate of Cordoba, he wrote books on logic, inference and deduction.
For some time he was the personal physician of
Al-Mansur Ibn Abi Aamir
Abu ʿĀmir Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn Abi ʿĀmir al-Maʿafiri ( ar, أبو عامر محمد بن عبد الله بن أبي عامر المعافري), nicknamed al-Manṣūr ( ar, المنصور, "the Victorious"), which is often Latiniz ...
, sultan of
al-Andalus
Al-Andalus translit. ; an, al-Andalus; ast, al-Ándalus; eu, al-Andalus; ber, ⴰⵏⴷⴰⵍⵓⵙ, label= Berber, translit=Andalus; ca, al-Àndalus; gl, al-Andalus; oc, Al Andalús; pt, al-Ândalus; es, al-Ándalus () was the M ...
, and wrote ''The Treatment of Dangerous Diseases Appearing Superficially on the Body'' (''Mu`alajat al-amrad al-khatirah al-badiyah `ala al-badan min kharij''). It was cited by later writers, but thought to be now lost, until a copy of it was discovered among the manuscripts now at the
National Library of Medicine
The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library.
Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...
. Much of the treatise is on the subject of poisonous bites.
[ Emilie Savage-Smith, The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, ''Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine']
(retrieved 23-09-2011)
Al-Kattani also wrote an anthology of
Andalusian Arabic, Andalusian poetry, and became especially famous by his book on metaphor in Andalusian poetry.
He died in
Saragossa
Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributar ...
in 1029.
References
Bibliography
By Ibn al-Kittani:
*''Kitab al-Tashbihat'' (translated by Wilhelm Hoenerbach 1973)
Secondary literature in Spanish:
* Bosch Vilá, J.: ''El Oriente Árabe en el desarrollo de la cultura de la Marca Superior''; Madrid, 1954.
*Tomeo Lacrué, M.: ''Biografía Cientifica de la Universidad de Zaragoza''; Zaragoza, 1962.
*Martínez Loscos, C.: ''Los orígenes de la Medicina en Aragón'', Cuadernos de Historia J. Zurita, n.° 6–7, Zaragoza, 1958.
In German:
* ''Dichterische Vergleiche der Andalus-Araber''. I und II by Wilhelm Hoenerbach
Review:
* Farida Abu-Haidar, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 37, No. 2 (1974), p. 460
External sources
Ibn Hazm of Cordova on Logic
11th-century Al-Andalus writers
Scholars of Al-Andalus
Physicians of Al-Andalus
951 births
1029 deaths
10th-century Arabs
11th-century Arabs
11th-century physicians
10th-century Spanish philosophers
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