Abstract Summary
Manuscripts of medical texts composed in medieval and early modern South Asia frequently included glossaries (“farhang”) of technical terminology. These were structured around entries for disease categories in Arabic, with translations in Persian and "hindī" (vernacular South Asian languages). Medical glossaries, titled “farhang-i ṭibb,” or less commonly “lughat-i ṭibb," were part of a broader literary practice of producing farhangs in Persian literature. Glossaries were composed to accompany a variety of texts, from the Quran to epics of poetry. The medical glossaries were iteratively produced through reading, citation, medical practice and writing. Translation in these glossaries is not just the “transfer” of knowledge from one language to another; rather, it acknowledges the continued use of multiple languages, and enables readers with different kinds of linguistic skills. I draw on manuscripts of medical texts composed between the 14th and 16th centuries in Yemen and India to investigate the iterative and collaborative process through which these glossaries were produced -- and their role in the formation of the medical tradition known as "ṭibb." Modern scholarship on ṭibb, called Graeco-Arabic or Islamic medicine, has focused on texts composed in Arabic in the Near East. However, this focus neglects the life of ṭibb around the Indian Ocean World, where it underwent some of its most lasting developments. By analyzing the profusion of multilingual glossaries transmission from the western Indian Ocean World, I aim to understand ṭibb across a fuller geography, in which physicians worked continuously across linguistic regimes to pursue efficacious knowledge.
