The World of Pharmacy and Pharmacists in Mamluk Cairo

Chipman whose degree is in Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, specializes in Arabic pharmacology. Here she examines a work written in Arabic around 657/1260 by a Jewish pharmacist in Cairo. The work, based on Greek, Roman, earlier Arabic works and practical experience, remained in use until the 1960s. Chipman discusses the sources of the book, its organization and the context in which it was compiled. She also looks at sections in which the author states the ethics of the profession. The subject of uniform measurements and safe substitutions for unavailable ingredients is treated, emphasizing that this treatise was a tool for a working pharmacist. Chipman then looks at the status of the pharmacist in Mamluk society and his role in the transmission and creation of scientific information. The final chapter investigates how the pharmacist was seen in legal treatises and in popular literature. The latter, a source rarely considered, gives an indication of the place of the pharmacist is the community. An appendix gives a translation of many of the medical recipes. This will be of great use to those studying medieval medicine as well as to modern pharmacists, curious about the history of their profession. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Leigh Chipman, Ph.D. (2006) in Middle Eastern Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, works on the social and intellectual history of Islamicate medicine. She has published on Arabic pharmacology and on the materia medica of the Cairo Genizah.