On Smallpox and Measles according to works of the Islamic world in the Middle Ages-Age of Decline-I: Kitāb al-Mukhtārāt fī al-Ṭibb

Objective: The aim of this study is to translate the chapter on smallpox and measles in Ibn al-Nafīs’ al-Mūjaz fī al-Ṭibb into Turkish and evaluate it in the light of the literature of the period. Materials and Methods: In this study, a printed copy of al-Mūjaz fī al-Ṭibb and a manuscript copy, nr. A 1437, of its Turkish translation of Surūrī of Gelibolu found in the National Library in Ankara were used; a printed copy of Ibn Sīnā’s al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭıbb and the Turkish translation of the aforementioned work made by Musṭafā Efendi of Tokat under the title Takhbīz al-Maṭḥūn found in Istanbul Süleymaniye Manuscript Library, Hamidiye Collection, nr. 1015 were analyzed. In addition, the manuscript of Emir Çelebi’s Anmūdhaj al-Ṭibb in Istanbul Süleymaniye Manuscript Library, Mihrişah Sultan Collection, nr. 342/1 was also included in the study. The translation of the relevant sections of the Arabic texts and the transcription of the relevant sections of the Turkish manuscripts were done by the author. Results: Comparing what is written about smallpox and measles in Ibn al-Nafīs’ al-Mūjaz fī al-Ṭibb, which was translated into Turkish twice in the 16th century by Surūrī of Gelibolu and Ahī Çelebi, with what is written in the relevant sections of Ibn Sīnā’s al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb, Ibn al-Nafīs seems to have taken some of the information in al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb and created a very brief chapter on smallpox and measles in his own work; this chapter, in turn, appears to have been the source of the relevant chapter in Emir Çelebi’s Anmūdhaj al-Ṭibb. Conclusion: It seems possible to say that what Ibn al-Nafīs wrote about smallpox and measles in his al-Mūjaz fī al-Ṭibb is a summary of what Ibn Sīnā wrote about the subject in his al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb, and this chapter in the work, which has been translated into Turkish twice before, was the source of the chapter on smallpox and measles in Emir Çelebi’s Anmūdhaj al-Ṭibb.