writings on the Hebrew tongue, Ebn Djanah held one of the highest places among the most ancient Hebraists of Spain.

These very learned and curious works have remained up to the present time in manuscript, as also his book on Simple Medicines, which has been quoted with great praise by Ebn Abi Osaiba. We pass over in silence his philosophical works, and will content ourselves with saying, he has written against the eternity of matter. As regards the history of his life, we only know that he lived at the beginning of the eleventh century, and died about the year 1068. Ebn Djanah was one of the colleagues of the learned astronomer and physician Jehuda ben Dekufa,* or as he is called by others, Isaac ben Dekufal.† He practised the profession of medicine with distinction, but we are not informed if he has left any work on the healing art.

It is probable that we should rank among the Spanish physicians of the eleventh century, Joseph ben Zebed,‡ a philosopher and physician, who should not be confounded with Rabbi Joseph ben Zabedeh, a celebrated poet in the Tackemoni of Charizi. He was allied in the bonds of friendship with Abdel Melek Eb Zohar, son and pupil of a physician, who flourished at Penaflor near Seville. This last physician distinguished by his science, united with it a modesty but seldom found.§ All his children were imbued with a taste for the sciences; but one only, the celebrated Abou Merwan Ebn Zohar, of whom we shall speak afterwards, was educated in the art of healing.

$ XXVI.

ABOU SAID, ISAAC AL BAGDADI. ASAF.

The reputation that the Jews had acquired in medicine in the eleventh century was a remarkable circumstance. We find their

* ABRAHAM BEN CHIJA, Sefer ha Ibur, 11, 8.

129.

ISRAELI, Tesod Olam, iv. 7. Compare Assaria de Rossi, Meor Enaïm, xl, p.

Hebrew MSS. of the Royal Library of Paris. ancien fonds, No. 245. § EBN ABI OSAIBI, 1. c.

physicians established at that period in all countries, Christian as well as Musselman. In Germany, in France, in Italy, in Spain, in Egypt, every where the Jewish physicians were held in high repute. To the distinguished men we have already noted, we will add another, Abou Said Ebn Hosaïn, surnamed El Thalib, who flourished in Egypt about the year 1070. This is probably the same Abou Said, son of Abou Hosaïn, son of Abou Said, a Samaritan doctor, who is the author of an Arabico Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, which he undertook with a view of making a substitute for the Arabic version of the celebrated Saadia Gaon, which is used by the Samaritans. In some marginal notes Abou Saad criticises many portions of the version of Saadia, and gives the reasons which have influenced him to give a different translation of the text.*

However that may be, Abou Said Ebn Hosain, has written a compilation on the diseases of the human body, and the means to prevent them, a work which is preserved in MSS. in many of the public libraries.

Another physician, Isaac of Bagdad, composed about the same time, a medical work, which bears the title of Adoniat el Mofredat, on the simple medicines. This physician practised his science at Bagdad with great reputation. He is generally known under the name of Ben Amran,† and is considered to be that one of the oriental Jewish physicians who has exerted the greatest influence over the healing art during the eleventh century.

But let us bring into view before finishing this epoch, a Jewish physician named Asaf. He was a historian and philosopher; he published a book on medicine, entitled Sefer Refuoth, the manuscript of which is found in many of the public libraries of Europe. He among physicians, is the best known to the European Rabbis, because he wrote his work in Hebrew. They often quote him, and from these quotations we discover that the work contains historical notices which merit to be more extensively known, although many of them may be fictitious.

* See our life of Saadia Gaon, p. 21.

† See D'HERBELET, Bibliothèque Orientale, word Amran.

See ELIESER, BEN NATHAN, Sefer ha Raben, p. 53. Mosch ben Nachman, Schaar ben Ghemul p. 17; Aldabi, Schebilie Emuna, p. 117, &c.

§ XXVII.

MESCHULAM THE PHYSICIAN, RASCHI.

We now arrive at the great literary age of the Hebrews; a study as vast as it is interesting opens before us. Almost all the

arts and sciences were cultivated with success. Among them were found at the same period great theologians, great philosophers, great mathematicians, great astronomers, great jurists, great poets, and also distinguished musicians. This happy age also produced many celebrated physicians.

France presents to us the first, with titles as numerous as they are imposing. The name of Meschulam, the physician, is not without merit in the eyes of the medical muses. He was probably of the Montpelier school, from whence he came, doubtless to Troyes in Champagne, the residence of Raschi; for the latter states that he is indebted to him for an explanation of some part in his commentary on the Holy Scripture.* Be that as it may, it is certain that Meschulam flourished in France at the beginning of the twelfth century, and that he knew Raschi personally, or as was his entire name, Rabbi Saloman ben Isaac.

This remarkable man possessed in the highest degree, those distinctive literary marks, which in the annals of all nations characterize the great literary geniuses, and make them the living type of an epoch. This it is which immortalizes their memory as a symbol of the eternal principles which they have taught, and of the imperishable works which they have left to posterity. Born in the year 1043, at Troyes, he died Thursday, 29th of Tamuz, 4968 of the creation,† which corresponds with

* JOB, vi. 7.

+ Hebrew MSS. of the Royal Library of Paris, ancien fonds, No. 3, p. 344. "The ark of the Lord was taken, he is the saint of saints, the profound sage, the great master, our Rabbi Solomon, son of the holy Rabbi, Isaac the French, of happy memory, in the year 4868, on Thursday, 29th day of the month of Tamuz, at the age of sixty-five years, &c." This inscription which decides exactly the epoch of Raschi, is found both in one of the manuscripts of De Rossi, as he has translated it in his catalogue and in his historical dictionary; he has erred only in con

July 1108 of the common era, at the age of sixty-five years. The French who reverence his merit, style him generally the prince of commentators, and this title is justified by the eulogies which the savans bestow on the great erudition of his commentaries, in which he has discoursed of the various sciences on established principles. It is thus that in his commentary on the Talmud, Raschi informs us, how to perform the Cæsarian as a substitute for natural delivery, he, besides, quotes the medical work of the founder of the school of Montpelier, as we have already had occasion to remark. If we can credit the author of the Rabbinical library, he has also written a Sefer Refuah, book of medicine which was never published.

*

§ XXVIII.

EBN ZOHAR.

While France boasted of her great man Raschi, Spain on the other hand attained the highest point of literary and medical glory. To name Abou Merman Ebn Zohar, is to designate the physician par excellence, of the twelfth century.†

Born at Peneflor about the year 1070, his father Abd-el Melek began to instruct him in medicine at the early age of ten years. After finishing his medical studies at Seville with great credit, his father made him take an oath, never to employ poison. This oath while it surprises us, yet shows to what extent poisonings were increased among the Saracens.

founding the chet, which denotes 8 with the he, which marks 5, a mistake very natural, from the resemblance between those letters, but which can easily be rectified by the calendar, by which it appears that the 29th, Tamuz 4868, and not 4865, falls on Thursday. From this observation it becomes necessary to correct the biographers of Raschi, even including doctor Zung, who nevertheless prides himself on being very accurate on this chapter, and who in giving a long list of writers who are in error on this point, has forgotten to include the doctor himself in their number.

* Traite Nidda, chap. iv.

† EBN ABI, OSAIBA, 1. c. LEO AFR. ibid, p. 279; ANTON, Bibl. vel. Hisp. t. II. p. 232; CASTRI, Bibl. Arab. Hisp. Esc. t. II. p. 132.

Ebn Zoher had practised for some time his profession, when he was appointed physician to Ali ben Temin, king of Seville. He devoted himself with great zeal to the duties of his station, and cured the brother of his master who had been poisoned by his own family, but the offended relatives persecuted him with imprisonment, and kept him a long time in prison. Singular return on the part of this vindictive family, for having saved the life of one of its members. Ebn Zohar yet languished in prison, when Joseph ben Tachefyn, prince of Morocco, drove Ali with the other petty tyrants, from Spain. He recovered his liberty, and entered the service of this generous prince, who heaped upon him riches and honors. Having been complimented with a medical chair, he taught this science for a long period, and contributed to spread among the Arabs the true science of medicine. He was the preceptor among other distinguished physicians, of the celebrated Ebn Roschid, better known by the name of Averroes, and of his son of whom we shall speak afterwards. The constant demands made by his professional labors. on Ebn Zohar, did not prevent him from devoting his moments of leisure to literature, a taste for which he had imbibed in the brilliant society of his father and grandfather. He was in continual correspondence with the most renowned physicians of his time, who regarded him as a second Hippocrates. He was in truth a great observer of nature, and profoundly learned, was perfect master of the Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic languages, and had no less talent for poetry than for prose, he was honored as a sage during the fourteenth century.* By his temperance and strength of constitution he was enabled to live to extreme old age, without having ever suffered any other disease than that which terminated his days, in the 557th year of the Hegira, (1161st of the common era,) at the age of ninety-two years.

* MSS. in our Library, No. 142.