No Access

How Galen's "Sixteen Books" Came to China in the Tenth Century AD

Institute of Asian and African Studies, The Hebrew University, 91905, Jerusalem, Israel

Correspondence to: Dr. Felix Klein-Franke, Mevissenstr. 16/9, D-50668 Köln, Germany. Tel: (+49) 221-739-3020, Fax: (+49) 221-739-547.

Search for more papers by this author

and

Zhu Ming

Medical Institute, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine and Pharmacology, 100029, Beijing, China

Search for more papers by this author

https://doi.org/10.1142/S0192415X05002941Cited by:1 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

Ibn an-Nadīm, the famous 10th century bookseller and bibliographer of Baghdad and author of the "Fihrist" (Catalogue), tells the story of an unnamed Chinese student who found in the library of the famous physician and philosopher ar-Rāzī the so-called "Sixteen Books," i.e. the Arabic summary of the most influential books written by Galen, and translated them into Chinese. We do not know if this Chinese translation was safely transported to China.

Keywords:

References

E. G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia 1 (Cambridge University Press, 1929) p. 383. Google Scholar
Grand'Henry, J. Le Livre de la Méthode du Médecin de cAli B. Ridwān, 1979, pp. 998–1067 . Google Scholar
Ibn an-Nadīm, ed. Gustav Flügel, Halle, 1872, p. 16 f.; transl. Bayard Dodge, The Fihrist of al-Nadīm. New York, 1970, Vol. I, p. 31 . Google Scholar
Klein-Franke, F. Vorlesungen über die Medizin im Islam. In: Sudhoffs Archiv. Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Beiheft 23, Wiesbaden, 1982, p. 72 . Google Scholar
F. Klein-Franke, M. Zhu and Q. Dai, Am. J. Chin. Med. 29(3-4), 559 (2001). Link, Web of Science, Google Scholar
Pines, S. What was original in Arabic science? In: Studies in Arabic Versions of Greek Texts and in Medieval Science. Jerusalem/Leiden, 1986, p. 341 . Google Scholar
Steinschneider, al-Farabi. St. Petersburg, 1869/Repr. Amsterdam, 1966, pp.163–174 . Google Scholar
Ullmann, M. Die Medizin im Islam. Leiden/Köln, 1970, p. 65 . Google Scholar
Walzer, R. Greek Into Arabic. Oxford, 1963, p. 135 . Google Scholar