The Regimen of Elders in the Writings of Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrāwī (Albucasis, 936–1013)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.58600/eurjther2918Keywords:
Al-Zahrāwī, Abulcasis, Kitāb al-Taṣrīf, regimen of elders, history of medicineAbstract
Objective: This study aims to explore the section on the regimen of elders in Kitāb al-Taṣrīf li-man ʿajiza ʿan al-taʾlīf written by Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn ʿAbbās al-Zahrāwī (936–1013), and to contribute to the literature from a perspective of the history of medicine.
Methods: The section on the regimen of elders in Kitāb al-Taṣrīf was translated from Arabic into English by the authors and subsequently analyzed. The content was then compared with, and evaluated in the context of, contemporary medical texts from the same period that addressed elderly care and preventive health measures for the elderly.
Results: Topics related to the regimen of elders are found in the second chapter of the handwritten manuscript of Kitāb al-Taṣrīf, under the subheading “Tadbīr al-Shuyūkh”. In this section, al-Zahrāwī provides a detailed discussion of various preventive and therapeutic measures concerning the temperament of elderly individuals, their diet, bathing and massage practices, use of pleasant scents, physical exercise, sexuality, medications, and laxatives.
Conclusion: The approach of al-Zahrāwī to the regimen of elders aligns with the medical paradigm of his time—humoral pathology theory—and exhibits similarities with the views of both his predecessors and other physicians within the medieval Islamic world. Furthermore, his explicit discussion of the sexual life of elderly individuals distinguishes him from other medical scholars of his era and constitutes a significant contribution to the history of medicine.
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