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ABSTRACT
Historians of sciences in the Muslim world have often overlooked the role of religious circles as places for the production and circulation of scientific materials. By focusing on the case of Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani (d. 1288/1871), this article explores how scientific learning is dealt with in the work of a leading master of the Shaykhi school. This article looks in particular at the Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj, an extensive medical treatise written in the years which saw the founding of the Dar al-Funun in Tehran. The main feature of this work is its eclecticism. It deals chiefly with Avicennian medical knowledge and is structured according to the patterns of Avicennian medical texts. In parallel, it set forth a theory of human constitution which incorporates the concepts of spagyric medicine originated from the work of the Renaissance scholar Paracelsus (d. 1541). Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani did not just translate Paracelsus’ ideas, he domesticated them in the epistemic framework of the receiving culture. Furthermore, the Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj includes a number of traditions on medical issues drawn from the collections of the imams’ hadith. The author uses the hadiths as a flexible device: they are quoted to endorse Avicennian medical and hygienic notions; moreover, they are also used in the part which introduces the Paracelsian concept of tartar.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Omid Rezai and Rasul Jafariyan for having provided them the copies of some Persian translations of Ibn Sallum’s work.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 For a critical discussion of this issue and the transmission of medical knowledge within Sufi circles in South Asia, see Speziale, Soufisme, religion et médecine. For the circulation of Galenic medical learning in the Shi’ite environment of Iran, see Speziale, “Introduzione;” on Baqir al-Majlisi and the Safavid period, see the articles by Newman (“Bāqir al-Majlisī and Islamicate Medicine” and “Bāqir al-Majlisī and Islamicate Medicine II.”)
2 See particularly works by Algar, Religion and State in Iran, Martin, Islam and Modernism, Kazemi Moussavi, Religious Authority in Shi‘ite Islam, and Litvak, Shi‘i Scholars of Nineteenth-Century Iraq.
3 Werner, What is a Mujtahid?; Kondo, Islamic Law and Society in Iran.
4 The Arabic text of the Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj is available online on the official website of the Kirmani Shaykhis who do not however specify the edition used, see: https://www.alabrar.info/library/DAQAYEQ, accessed 21/04/2020. The Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj has been translated into Persian by ʻIsa Ziyya Ibrahimi and this translation was published in 1367sh./1988–89, see Kirmani, Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj. We have chiefly used this printed translation for writing this article, and compared passages and terms with the Arabic version available online.
5 Hermann, Le shaykhisme à la période qajare, 49–51.
6 For an introduction to the Shaykhi school and its doctrines, see Hermann, Le shaykhisme à la période qajare, 69–109; Idem, “Shaykhism.”
7 Hermann, Le shaykhisme à la période qajare, 53–9.
8 Bamdad, Sarh-i hal-i rijal-i Iran, vol. I, 21.
9 On the doctrine of rukn-i rabi‘ among Kirmani Shaykhis, see Hermann, Le shaykhisme à la période qajare, 81–95; Amir-Moezzi, “An Absence filled with Presences.”
10 Hermann, Le shaykhisme à la période qajare, 61–8; Idem, “Quelques remarques.”
11 See Hermann, Le shaykhisme à la période qajare, 74–82 and 95–106; Idem, Kirmānī Shaykhism and the ijtihād; Idem, “Political Quietism.”
12 He emigrated to India and entered the service of the court of ‘Abd Allah Qutb Shah (r. 1626–1672) of Golconde, see Speziale, Soufisme, religion et médecine, 93–4.
13 Tadjbakhsh, History of Medicine, 258.
14 See Speziale, “Introduzione,” 52–3.
15 See Newman, “Bāqir al-Majlisī and Islamicate Medicine.”
16 On the composition of this treatise, see Speziale “La Risala al-dhahabiyya;” Idem, “Introduzione,” 26–34, on the translations of and commentary on Risala al-dhahabiyya, see Speziale, “Introduzione,” 43–58.
17 See Speziale, “Introduzione,” 50–1.
18 Shubbar, Tibb al-a’imma.
19 Speziale, “Introduzione,” 55.
20 Riza Husayn ibn Subhan ‘Ali Khan, Tarjuma-yi risala-yi dhahabiyya, Ms. Rampur, Kitabkhana-yi Riza, 1268b.
21 On Paracelsus and his followers, see Hartmann, The life; Pagel, Paracelsus; Waite, The Hermetic; Debus, The Chemical Philosophy; Multhauf “Medical Chemistry.”
22 On Paracelsus’ anti-Avicennian views, see Debus, The Chemical Philosophy, 48, 51–2.
23 Debus, Chemical philosophy, 54, 68–9, 78–9, 87.
24 See Savage-Smith, “Drug Therapy”; Shefer, “An Ottoman Physician”; Bachour, “Healing with Mercury,” 857–61.
25 See Munzawi, Fihristwara, 3550–2; Storey, Persian Literature, 252–3, 259–60.
26 For the manuscript copies of this work, see Munzawi, Fihristwara, 3550–1.
27 See Ashkevari, Fihrist, 187.
28 MacEoin, “From Shaykhism to Babism,” 147.
29 Ekhtiar, Modern Science.
30 Ebrahimnejad, “Religion and Medecine,” 403. On this government hospital, see Floor, “Hospitals in Safavid and Qajar Iran,” 47–9.
31 Ebrahimnejad, “Religion and Medicine,” 404, 411–2, 415; Idem, “Épidémies, médecine,” 120–1, 123.
32 Ebrahimnejad, “Religion and Medicine,” 409.
33 Ebrahimnejad, “Épidémies, médecine,” 120–1, 127.
34 On the Gardane mission, see Calmard, “Gardane mission.”
35 Mahdavi, “Shahs, Doctors,” 171.
36 Afkhami, A Modern Contagion, 15–7.
37 Afkhami, A Modern Contagion, 15; Ekbal and Richter-Bernburg, “Cormick, John.”
38 Afkhami, A Modern Contagion, 21.
39 Concerning the career of Joseph D. Tholozan, see Hellot-Bellier, “Joseph Désiré Tholozan;” Mahdavi, “Shahs, Doctors,” 177, 183. Among the reports sent by Joseph D. Tholozan to the Qajar sovereign, see Rapport à Sa Majesté, Observations sur le choléra and Prophylaxie du choléra en Orient.
40 Mahdavi, “Shahs, Doctors,” 185.
41 Ebrahimnejad, “Religion and Medicine,” 415.
42 Mahdavi, “Shahs, Doctors,” 181.
43 For instance, see the anti-constitutionalist treaty of Shaykh Abu al-Hasan Najafi Marandi, “Dala’il bar barahin al-firqan.”
44 Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani, Tadhkirat al-awliya’, 55–58.
45 de Groot, “Kerman in the Late Nineteenth Century,” 142.
46 Corbin, En islam iranien. vol. IV, 237–8. These writings, like most that Kirmani composed during his adolescence are today lost.
47 Manoukian, “Fatvas as asymmetrical dialogues,” 164–166.
48 Hermann, Le shaykhisme à la période qajare, 118–20.
49 Hermann and Rezai, “Le rôle du vaqf.”
50 Abu al-Qasim Khan Ibrahimi, Fihrist-i kutub, 440–577.
51 This expression is not to be confused with the religious group ahl-i haqq also known by the name of yarsan.
52 Muhammad Khan Kirmani himself was also the author of a voluminous compilation of hadiths entitled Kitab al-mubin.
53 The text of the Fasl al-khitab is available online on the official website of the Kirmani Shaykhis. See: https://www.alabrar.info/library/FASL, accessed on 21/04/2020.
54 On the polemics surrounding astrology and astronomy in the second half of the 19th century in Iran, see Arjomand, “The Emergence,” see particularly 16–20.
55 Ibid., 499–500.
56 The Arabic text of the Haqa’iq al-tibb is available online on the official website of the Kirmani Shaykhis who do not however specify the edition used, see: https://www.alabrar.info/library/J479_M85/f0000, accessed 21/04/2020.
57 The town of Tehran may have lost between 10% and 25% of its population in 1847 (Afkhami, A Modern Contagion, 19). And in 1855–6 Comte de Gobineau estimated that a third of the inhabitants of the town died of cholera (Trois ans en Asie, 234). Several decades later the epidemics of 1889 and 1904 were particularly devastating (see Afkhami, A Modern Contagion; Idem, “Disease and Water Supply,” Burrel, “The 1904 Epidemic.”).
58 Kotobi, “L’émergence d’une politique,” 262–4.
59 His Nusrat al-din composed in 1850 is a refutation of the polemics directed against Islam by Christian missionaries present in Iran in the Qajar era. On this treatise, see Hermann, “Nuṣrat al-dīn.”
60 See Zayn al-‘Abidin Khan Kirmani, “Maqala dar javab-i ruznama-yi Habl al-matin,” 438. For an analysis of this treatise, see Hermann, “La défense de l’enseignement.” This backing of learning French in order to consult medical reference works belongs in the context of disputes between ulama about European language teaching in Iran. Thus in 1324/1906 a group of ulama from Karbala and Najaf issued a collective fatwa prohibiting the teaching of European languages (see Ringer, Education, Religion, 141).
61 Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani, Risala-yi mijmara dar sanʻat-i ityab.
62 Shaykh ʻAli Bahrani, Nuzhat dar adab-i hammam raftan wa libas pushidan wa safar kardan.
63 On the management of these lands by the Qajar state see Ettehadieh, “The Khāliṣah of Varamin.”
64 This treatise was composed in 1296/1878–89. Muhammad Khan Kirmani, Risala dar ‘ilm-i falahat, Ms. A1578, St. Petersburg, Institute of Oriental Manuscripts, ff. 126a-166b; see also Miklukho-Maklai, Persidskie Tadzhiskie rukopisi, 261.
65 See Hajj Sultan Husayn Gunabadi, Nabigha-yi ‘ilm wa ‘irfan dar qarn-i chahardahum, 191–2.
66 The durus, where the term literally means lessons, are traditionally the summary of the ulamas’ teaching and are generally jointly produced from their students’ notes. They can therefore be quite voluminous but do not necessarily constitute major works by the great ulama.
67 Rezai, “Des particuliers,” 127–8.
68 Hermann and Rezai, “The Institutionalisation,” 189.
69 Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj, vol. 1, 1–2.
70 Pagel, Paracelsus, 100–5; Hartmann, The life, 247, 278–9, 293.
71 See Pagel, Paracelsus, 84, 101, 340; Waite, The Hermetic, vol. 1, 150, 153.
72 See Hartmann, The life, 47; Holymard, Makers, 114.
73 Or perhaps al-ghulbat. According to the translator of the text into Persian, who quotes the Mi‘yar al-lughat, it is a term from the alchemical lexicon which indicates a solid substance that has been sublimated. Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj, vol. 1, 8, note n. 2.
74 Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj, vol. 1, 8.
75 Pagel, Paracelsus, 153–61; Waite, The Hermetic, vol. 2, 130.
76 Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj, vol. 1, 15.
77 Ibid., 4, 31–2.
78 Ibid., 22–5. On Baha’ al-Dawla Razi Nurbakhshi, see Tadjbakhsh, History of Medicine, 225–6.
79 Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj, vol. 1, 73.
80 Ibid., 201–6.
81 Ibid., 221.
82 Ibid., 245.
83 Ibid., 264.
84 Ibid., vol. 2, 2–84.
85 Ibid., 85–349.
86 Ibid., 350–623.
87 Ibid., 350–69, 370–421.
88 Ibid., 421–32.
89 Ibid., 447–52, on the chub-chini.
90 Ibid., 458–511.
91 ibid 485.
92 Ibid., 622.
93 See al-Jawziyya, al-Tibb al-nabawi; Elgood, “Tibb-ul-Nabbi.” On the texts dealing with the tibb al-nabi, see Perho, The Prophet's Medicine; see also Speziale, Soufisme, religion et médecine, 193–204.
94 See Tadjbakhsh, History of Medicine, 238; Speziale, “Introduzione,” 54.
95 See Speziale, “The Encounter.”
96 Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj, vol. 1, 36.
97 Thus, Abu al-Qasim Khan Ibrahimi associated the emergence of reason as a “principle of law” in the Usuli rationalist faction as a consequence of Greek influence on Muslim thinking in the Abbasid period. Abu al-Qasim Khan Ibrahimi, Ijtihad wa taqlid, 71, 224–5, 231. See Hermann, Kirmānī Shaykhism, 31–2.
98 Munzawi, Fihristwara, 3460–1.
99 Abu al-Qasim Khan Ibrahimi, Fihrist-i kutub, 502.
100 Calmard, “Atābak-e A‘ẓām, Amīn al-Solṭān.”
101 On the development of “modern schools” in Iran at the end of the 1890s which proposed teaching influenced by the European models, integrating disciplines absent from the traditional maktab, see Ringer, Education, Religion, 145–86; Anwār, “Anjoman-e Ma‘āref.”
102 This manuscript (Malik 4570) is mentioned by ʻIsa Ziyya Ibrahimi, in his introduction to the Daqa’iq al-‘ilaj (vol. 1, xii).
103 Shefer, “An Ottoman Physician,” 142–3.
104 Persian Literature, 252, 260.
105 On these traditions see, for example, the Tibb al-aimma by the Ibn Bistam brothers, Tïbb al-a’imma.
106 Speziale, “Introduzione,” 55.