On Poisons and the Protection Against Lethal Drugs

Towering Cairo-based Jewish scholar Maimonides (1135-1204) wrote Kitab al-sumom wa al-mutaharriz min al adwiya al-qattala in 1199 at the request of al-Qadi al-Fadil, the famous counselor and secretary to Saladin. A medical handbook for lay readers, it was widely popular among Jews and non-Jews, and survives in several manuscripts in various languages. Bos (Jewish studies, U. of Cologne) provides the first publication of the Arabic text, facing pages of his own English translation, along with two Hebrew and three Latin translations. This volume is part of a larger project to produce critical editions of Maimonides' medical works that have not been edited at all or have appeared only in unreliable editions. That project in turn is part of the Middle Eastern Texts Initiative at Brigham Young. Distributed in the US by University of Chicago Press. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)