Jewish Medical Practitioners in the Medieval Muslim World

This book collects and analyses the available biographical data on 600 Jewish medical practitioners in the Muslim world in the 9–16th centuries. The biographies are based mainly on information gathered from the wealth of primary sources found in the Cairo Geniza (letters, commercial documents, court orders, lists of donors) and Muslim Arabic sources (biographical dictionaries, historical and geographical literature). The practitioners come from various socio-economic strata and lived in urban as well as rural locations in Muslim countries. Both the biographies and the accompanying discussion shed light on various views and aspects of the medicine practised in this period by Muslim, Jews and Christians, as well as issues such as professional, daily and personal lives; successes and failures; families; Jewish communities; and inter-religious affairs.