Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Obviously the first and very critical stage in the transmission of knowledge
is the actual transfer from bearer to recipient. This can be done orally,
person to person. The bearer may belong to the transmitting culture, but
may also be someone who belongs to the recipient culture, who has visited
and witnessed phenomena belonging to the transmitters. Transmission can
also be carried out in writing, by producing a translation (or summary, or
report) of a book written in the language of the transmitting culture.
This is the sum of the discourse (Kalm) of the Jahmiyya. They were
called after Jahm, because Jahm b. Safwn was the first who derived this
discourse from that of the Samaniyya, who are a subdivision (sinf) of the
Iranians (al-ajam ) in the region called Khursn. They induced him to
have doubts with regard to his religion in such a way that for forty days he
stopped praying. For he said: I will not pray to someone whom I do not
know. (p. 2, from al-Ash'ari, ed Ritter, p. 280)
al-Tabari
I propose to look today not only at direct literary translation, but at later
stages of transmission, where the received knowledge becomes
embedded, seamlessly, in texts of the recipient culture. This belongs to the
phase that Professor Sabra called "naturalization", though he did not use
the term in this specific manner. Both of these processes may be illustrated
from the work of Ali bin Rabban al-Tabari.
I mentioned earlier that we know, from the bibliography given by Ibn al-
Nadim in particular, that several medical treatises were translated from
Sanskrit into Arabic; Ibn al-Nadim names about ten. However, almost none
of the translations are extant. Extensive citations, or perhaps paraphrases--
I cannot say, and it does not matter much for the present discussion--are
found in the writings of one medical writer and historian Ali b. Rabban al-
Tabari.
There has been some controversy about his biography. At one time it was
thought that he was born a Jew, but now it is quite clear that he was born
into a Christian family; in any event, he did convert to Islam later in life. He
worked in the first half of the ninth century. It is now thought that he died
around 864, which means that reports that he was the teacher of Abu Bakr
al-Razi--one of the most important Arabic writers, who also had access to
Indian medical texts--these reports must be taken to refer to al-Tabari's
enormous influence on al-Razi (Sezgin, 237). Both al-Tabari and al-Razi,
as far as we know, relied on the Arabic translations that had been prepared
earlier.
I have looked at the materials drawn from India in two of al-Tabari's
writings. His mini-encyclopedia, Firdaus al-Hikma, which was edited nearly
a century ago by Siddiqi, and his treatise on the preservation of health
(Tadbir al-Sihha), which is found in a single manuscript at Oxford, and has
not yet been studied at all. It is interesting to compare the way the Indian
science is presented in the two books
I would now like to look at one particular part of the daily routine, and
suggest--with all due caution, as a possibility at best--that a rule was
absorbed, transformed , and naturalized. I am sharing with you a research
question that is in its infancy; what I am about to suggest is at best highly
speculative. However, I think it worthwhile, especially to share with you how
I define the problem, and try to tackle it.
The daily routine is that of brushing one's teeth with the siwak, a toothbrush
made from a twig. It is an ancient practice, widespread in the East, and
mentioned inter alia in pre-Islamic poetry. Clearly one brushes one's teeth
in order to have clean teeth, sweet-smelling breath, and other benefits for
the teeth, mouth, and gums. However, some texts--Indian and Islamic--
ascribe to the use of the siwak benefits that go far beyond dental hygiene. I
think it not wild to suppose that these extra-dental benefits were taken over
from Indian sources; however, no route of transmission can be sketched
yet.
Let us first look at the passage from al-Tabari's Tadbir al-Sihha:
"We have now explained what the Romans have said about hygiene. As for
the Indians, they say [as follows]. Whoever desires health ought to arouse
from his sleep in the final seventh of the night. He should then perform his
ablutions, put on his cleanest garment, and begin to praise Allah and
beseech Him to [provide him with] his needs. He should clean himself from
contact with anything bitter or spicy; the siw?k should be moist, even (?),
with few knots, as wide as the pinky finger and as long as a handspan. It
should not be from a trees that are unknown, because one cannot be sure
that it is not poisonous. Moreover, it should be neither rotten nor very old.
He should brush along the breadth of the teeth, gums, and tongue. In
summertime he should wash his mouth with cold water, and in wintertime
with hot water. The benefits of the siw?k include cleaning the mouth,
liquefying the phlegm, freeing the tongue and making it sweet, clarifying
speech, and whetting the appetite. Someone suffering from indigestion
should not clean [with the siw?k], nor someone who is vomiting, or suffers
from cough, facial paralysis, thirst, ophthalmia [eye disease], or palpitations
of the heart."
The use of a twig as a sort of toothbrush was part of the dental hygiene of
many cultures in the East. There is evidence that it was practiced by the
pre-Islamic Arabs. The Prophet was scrupulous about its practice.
However, the ahadith that mention the siwak or miswak do not specify the
medical benefits of its use, especially those that are not related directly to
the teeth or even to the mouth. These are, however, mentioned by later
medical writers, especially scholars like Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, in his al-
Tibb al-Nabawi:
Still, I hope that my methodology is clear and sound. Finding the same or
very similar idiosyncratic extra-dental benefits ascribed to the siwak in both
traditions indicates a transmission. The inclusion of these benefits in a book
on the medicine of the Prophet is about as much as one can ask for as far
as naturalization.
Amrtakunda
I do not know to what extent al-Qazwini drew directly from Indian (Sanskrit)
sources. Rasayana are mentioned in a few earlier Arabic books (including
al-Birunis book in India) but they are not the ones described by al-Qazwini.
The only book he cites by name in this chapter is another Arabic text, 'Uyun
al-Shifa' (The Wellsprings of Healing), also unknown--but again, I may
have found a copy in a different manuscript at Teheran. He does, however,
transcribe in another chapter a mantra that is to be chanted when preparing
the sulfur rasayana; so there is a good chance that he is drawing directly
from Indian sources. Nine rasayanas are described. Most of the rasayanas
are mineral-based, using mostly sulfur, mercury, and, yes, arsenic; and
rasayana is a term used in Indian alchemy. However, I would not classify
the text under consideration as alchemical; medicine and alchemy have a
had a long working relationship. The last two recipes are different: a recipe
for bil oil, prepared from the pit of the Bengal quince; we know from other
sources that that is a sacred tree to which magical properties have been
ascribed. The last item is for a drug which is said to fortify vision, but
functions also as an anti-toxicant. The Carakasamhita, one of the most
important compilations of Indian medicine, lists eye-medication as one of
twenty-four therapeutic measures that are to be taken against poisoning.