Kitab al-abniya ?an haqa?iq al-adwiya

This is a facsimile edition of the oldest dated manuscript in Persian, a pharmacological handbook by Abu Mansur Hirawi. It was written between 430/1038 and 445/1054 for the local ruler of Taram in the province of Zanjan in north-western Iran, Abu Nasr Jastan. The present copy was executed in 447/1055 by the poet Asadi Tusi, author of the epic poem Garshasp-nama and the oldest Persian dictionary based on samples from poetry, the Lughat-i Furs. Written in a beautiful Khurasani Kufic hand, it contains the descriptions and medical properties of 584 simple substances, derived from minerals, animals and plants. Organized on the basis of the Arabic alphabet, it cites besides the Arabic names also many synonyms in Greek, Syrian, Persian, and what is said to be Indian terminology, with several Indian authors referred to by name. Its technical prose combined with local terminology make it a primary source on the history of medicine in Persia.