Rasalat Dawat al-Ataba (The Doctor’s Feast) Manuscript by Ibn-Butalan

Syria, 13th century, sealed watercolors, gold and ink on paper, leather binding, 14 cm. x 18 cm.

The manuscript contains 12 chapters, each comprising 3 sections and 13 partly deleted miniatures. It tells the story of a young doctor eh left Baghdad to gain professional experience in the villages where life was less expensive than in the city. When he reaches the village of Diarbachar the doctor meets a healer sheikh, and a conversation develops between them. The following chapters are devoted to a sketch of the character of the aged sheikh, whose sole aim is to make money and who has a more open grasp off medicine than the young doctor. After that there is a description of a feast to which other doctors are invited, and the last chapter gives a true picture of the sheikh until, at the end of the story, he hides away in his house. Ibn Butalan, a Christian doctor and theologist from Baghdad (died in 1066) was different from many of his professional colleagues, and worked to introduce medical innovations. He believed that the doctor should not just learn the teachings of Greek and Roman philosophers, whose works were translated into Arabic in Baghdad in the 9th and 10th centuries. He should also learn from the practical experience accumulated over the centuries, and to augment his own expertise with the knowledge offered by that experience. The differences of opinion between him and his counterparts and contemporary doctors culminated in the debates he conducted with the Egyptian doctor Ibn-Radwan. After a long series of arguments and counter arguments, Ibn-Radwan accused Ibn Butalan of lacking knowledge of, and misunderstanding, medicine. Ibn Butalan’s book reflects a growing interest in scientific literature, and in particular, books on medicine and associated fields. The illustrations in the manuscript indicate that the 13th century artist sought to disseminate this new knowledge to Muslims.