Selected Everyday Diseases in the Work of Paul of Aegina and Their Reception in the Oriental Tradition
Łukasz Karczewski
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw , Polandhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-5654-040X
Abstract
The article examines selected everyday diseases described by Paul of Aegina (7th century) in his Epitome medicae, with particular attention to their practical treatment within the context of late Byzantine medicine. Three groups of conditions are discussed: eye diseases (ophthalmía and hypóchyma), tropical parasitic infections (dracunculus medinensis), and musculoskeletal injuries (fractures and dislocations). Through these examples, the study highlights the pragmatic nature of Paul’s medical practice, which ranges from simple household remedies to complex surgical interventions. The second part of the article focuses on the reception of Paul’s work in the Syriac and Arabic medical traditions, especially in the writings of Bar Bahlūl, Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, al-Rāzī, and Qusṭā ibn Lūqā. This comparative perspective demonstrates how late antique Greek medical knowledge was transmitted, adapted, and further developed within the Islamic world. The article underscores Paul of Aegina’s role as a key intermediary in the transfer of medical learning from Greek to Syriac and Arabic traditions and as a physician firmly rooted in the realities of everyday clinical practice.
Keywords:
Paul of Aegina, Byzantium, everyday medicine, ophthalmology, dracunculus medinensis, trauma, Qusṭā ibn Lūqā, al-RāzīReferences
Aristoteles, Historia animalium, w: Aristotelis Opera, t. 1, ed. I. Bekker, Berlin 1831, tł. A.L. Peck, Aristotle: Historia Animalium, Loeb Classical Library 437-438, Cambridge – London 1965.
Ar-Rāzī, Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī l-ṭibb, ed. H.S. al-Ḥaddād, Beirut 1955-1970.
Bar Bahlūl, Lexicon Syriacum, ed. R. Duval, Paris 1888-1901.
Dioscurides, De materia medica, t. 1-3, ed. M. Wellmann, Berlin 1906-1914.
Galenus, Opera omnia, t. 1-20, ed. C.G. Kühn, Leipzig 1821-1833.
Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq, Kitāb al-Masāʾil fī l-ṭibb, ed. G. Bergsträsser, Leipzig 1925.
Paulus Aeginae, Epitome medicae libri septem, ed. I. Heiberg, CMG 9/1-2, Leipzig – Berlin 1921-1924.
Qusṭā ibn Lūqā’s Medical Regime for the Pilgrims to Mecca. The Risāla fī tadbīr safar al-ḥaǧǧ, ed. G. Bos, Frankfurt 1992.
Barry S.G., Was Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq the Author of the Arabic Translation of Paul of Aegina’s Pragmateia? Evidence from the Arabic Translations of the Hippocratic Aphorisms and the Syriac Lexicons of Bar Bahlul and Bar ‘Ali, „Journal of Semitic Studies” 63/2 (2018) s. 457-465.
Cooper G.M., Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq’s Galen translations and Greco-Arabic philology: some observations from the crises (De crisibus) and the critical days (De diebus decretoriis), „Oriens” 44/1-2 (2016) s. 61-88.
Karczewski Ł., Oftalmologia, czyli nauka o oczach, w wybranych tekstach od IV w. przed Chr. do VII w. po Chr. Studium historyczne, Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego, Warszawa 2023 (praca doktorska).
Magnus H., Die Augenheilkunde der Alten, Breslau 1901.
Marganne M.H., L’ophtalmologie dans l’Égypte gréco-romaine d’après les papyrus littéraires grecs, Leiden 1994.
Pormann P.E., The Oriental Tradition of Paul of Aegina’s Pragmateia, Leiden – Boston 2004.
Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5654-040X
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Papers published in Vox Patrum are covered by the Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) licence. Authors and users can use published works licensed under the CC-BY-ND since 2018. For earlier publications, copyrights are available under fair use rights in accordance with the Act of February 4, 1994 on copyrights and related rights.
