Key passage(s)
The quotation is from Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah, ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ [The Best Accounts of the Classes of Physicians], a thirteenth-century history of physicians.
It can be found in the printed edition: Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah, ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ, ed. A. MüIler. 2 vols. (Cairo: al-Maṭbaʿah al-Wahbiyyah / Königsberg: Selbstverlag, 1882–4). Volume I, p. 314 (five lines from bottom).
Transcribed into a modern Arabic typeface:
Translation
“The physician, even though he has his doubts, must always make the patient believe that he will recover, for the state of the body is linked to the state of the mind.”
It is shown in a manuscript copy of the treatise that was completed in 1372 (773 Hijrah) by a copyist who had access to the author’s ‘draft copy’ written in his own hand.
Istanbul, Şehid Ali Paşa MS 1923, fol. 171a.
Translation by Selma Tibi
Portrait(s)
Al-Razi (c.854CE-c.932CE)
Acknowledgements
The editors are indebted for help in obtaining this record to:
Emilie Savage-Smith, Senior Research Associate at the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, and Selma Tibi.
The editors are grateful to:
The Wellcome Trust for making available the portrait of Al-Razi (c.854CE-c.932CE).