A Bestiary Tale: Text and Image of the Unicorn in the Kitāb Na‘t Al-ḥayawān (british Library, Or. 2784)
Year: 2003
Type: article
Abstract: In 825 the Caliph al-Ma'mun fell gravely ill.His physicians, among them Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, were unable to cure him, and he was advised to summon Jibra'il ibn Bakhtishu' ibn Jurjis, who "changed the treatment completely," after which the illness diminished so rapidly that in three days the caliph was cured.Al-Ma'mun rewarded Ibn Bakhtishu' with "a million dirhams and a thousand measures (kurr) of grain."'Like Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, Jibra'il ibn Bakhtishu' was a Nestorian, and despite the contrast in their approaches to this particular case, both had received their training at the famous School of Medicine at Jundishapur.2In fact, Jibra'il ibn Bakhtishu' belonged to an illustrious dynasty of doctors several generations of which were associated with the School, and he was by no means the only one to serve an Abbasid caliph, having been preceded by his grandfather Jurjis ibn Jibra'il (d.ca.771), who was personal physician to al-Mansur (r.754-75).3Of the later members of the
Source: Muqarnas Online
Author: Anna Contadini
Language: English
Subfield: History
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2032266448