A Physician on the Nile
Описание книги
Flora, fauna, and famine in thirteenth-century Egypt A Physician on the Nile begins as a description of everyday life in Egypt at the turn of the seventh/thirteenth century, before becoming a harrowing account of famine and pestilence. Written by the polymath and physician ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī, and intended for the Abbasid caliph al-Nāṣir, the first part of the book offers detailed descriptions of Egypt’s geography, plants, animals, and local cuisine, including a recipe for a giant picnic pie made with three entire roast lambs and dozens of chickens. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf’s text is also a pioneering work of ancient Egyptology, with detailed observations of Pharaonic monuments, sculptures, and mummies. An early and ardent champion of archaeological conservation, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf condemns the vandalism wrought by tomb-robbers and notes with distaste that Egyptian grocers price their goods with labels written on recycled mummy-wrappings.The book’s second half relates his horrific eyewitness account of the great famine that afflicted Egypt in the years 597–598/1200–1202. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf was a keen observer of humanity, and he offers vivid first-hand depictions of starvation, cannibalism, and a society in moral free-fall. A Physician on the Nile contains great diversity in a small compass, distinguished by the acute, humane, and ever-curious mind of its author. It is rare to be able to hear the voice of such a man responding so directly to novelty, beauty, and tragedy.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.
Оглавление
ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī. A Physician on the Nile
Letter from the General Editor
Acknowledgements
Introduction
From Aristotle to Infinity: the life and work of ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī
The Eye Atop the Pyramid: the historical context of the book
Promethean Fire: the intellectual and literary background to the book
From the Sublime to the Pit: ʿAbd al-Laṭīfʼs panoptic gaze
The Tale of a Text
Maps. 1. The Cairo Conurbation
2. Egypt
3. Egypt and Surrounding Lands
4. The Levant
Note on the Text. The Manuscript
Previous Arabic Editions
This Edition
This Translation
Appendix: The Egyptian Calendar
Notes to the Introduction
إحصاء فصول الكتاب. The Chapters of the Book
الفصل الأوّل في خواصّ مصر العامّة لها. Chapter One: General characteristics of Egypt
الفصل الثاني فيما تختصّ به من النبات. Chapter Two: Characteristic plants and trees of Egypt
الفصل الثالث فيما تختصّ به من الحيوان. Chapter Three: Characteristic features of the animal world in Egypt
الفصل الرابع في اقتصاص ما شوهد من آثارها القديمة. Chapter Four: A description of the ancient Egyptian monuments examined by the author
الفصل الخامس فيما شوهد بها من غرائب الأبنية والسفن. Chapter Five: Unusual Egyptian buildings and boats examined by the author
الفصل السادس في غرائب أطعمتها. Chapter Six: Unusual Egyptian foods
الفصل الأوّل في النيل وكيفيّة زياداته وإعطاء علل ذلك وقوانينه. Chapter One: The Nile and the manner of its annual rises, with an explanation of the causes of this phenomenon and the laws of nature governing it
الفصل الثاني في حوادث سنة سبع وتسعين وخمس مائة. Chapter Two: The events of the year 597 [1200–1]
الفصل الثالث في حوادث سنة ثمان وتسعين وخمس مائة. Chapter Three: The events of the year 598 [1201–2]
Notes
Glossary of Names and Terms
Bibliography
Index
About NYU Abu Dhabi Institute
About this E-book
Titles Published by the Library of Arabic Literature
English-only Paperbacks
About the Editor–Translator
Table of Contents
Landmarks
Отрывок из книги
كتاب الإفادة والاعتبار في الأمور المشاهدة والحوادث المعاينة بأرض مصر
عبد اللطيف البغداديّ
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ʿAbd al-Laṭīf is thus both an autopsist and an empiricist, someone who can form “a hypothesis constructed on the basis of evidence observed” (§1.2.20). It doesnʼt matter that his hypotheses can sometimes be wrong—that, for example, we know no one could have planted a date stone in a taro corm and grown a banana. You can be wrong and still be scientific, as he is in his marshaling of the data on those plants, and in his refusal to come to a dogmatic conclusion on the relationship between them (§§1.2.15–28). As Karl Popper put it, it is “not the verifiability but the falsifiability of a [scientific] system” that matters.41 Again, ʿAbd al-Laṭīf tries to correct another possible error of the venerable Galen—his description of the human sacrum—and half succeeds, then admits in a marginal afterthought, “I am not . . . certain of this, however . . .” (§2.3.32). By saying that, he is admitting his own falsifiability (as well as Galenʼs). Certainty is pre-scientific; it is ʿAbd al-Laṭīfʼs doubt that makes him scientific.
With the authorʼs historical and intellectual background in mind, it is now time to look at his book with fresh eyes.
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