AMAR Z. (2007) The Significance of the Genizah's Medical Documents for the Study of Medieval.pdf

The Significance of the Genizah's Medical Documents for the Study of MedievalMediterranean TradeAuthor(s): Zohar Amar and Efraim LevReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 50, No. 4 (2007), pp.524-541Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25165209 .

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GENIZAH'S MEDICAL DOCUMENTS FOR THE STUDY OF MEDIEVAL MEDITERRANEAN TRADE1

BY

ZOHAR AMAR* AND EFRAIM LEV*

Abstract

The medical texts in the Genizah have been analyzed mainly as part of other subjects, like the various professional classes within the Jewish community in Old Cairo. Until now few have studied these documents in their own right, despite the fact that they offer valuable

insights into the medieval economy of the Eastern Mediterranean and beyond. Focussing on

saffron and myrobalan, this article offers a tentative investigation of the significance of med ical drugs for the study of Mediterranean trade in the Middle Ages on the basis of practical

medical fragments found mainly at the Taylor-Schechter collection in Cambridge.

L'exploitation des textes medicaux de la Geniza a surtout servi aux sujets tels que les divers

groupes professionnels de la communaute juive du vieux Caire. Jusqu'a present de rares chercheurs ont etudies ces manuscrits pour leur valeur intrinseque. Pourtant, leur lecture permet

d'approcher d'autres aspects de l'economie medievale de la Mediterranee orientale et au-dela. Cette contribution, qui traite des drogues medicales, particulierement le safran et le

myrobalan, propose une premiere recherche sur 1'importance des drogues medicales dans l'etude du commerce mediterranean au Moyen-Age. Elle est fondee sur les manuscrits incom

plets traitant des pratiques medicales conserves principalement dans la collection Taylor-Schechter a Cambridge.

Keywords: Genizah, trade, Middle Ages, Eastern Mediterranean, medical drugs, saffron, myrobalan

* Dr. Zohar Amar, Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archeology, Bar-Ilan

University, Ramat-Gan, Israel, [email protected] * Dr. Efraim Lev, Department of Eretz Israel Studies and School of Public Health University of Haifa, Haifa University, [email protected]

1 The authors would like to express their deepest thanks to Dr. Leigh Chipman, Ben

Gurion University, Beer Sheba; Prof. David Jacoby, Hebrew University, and Prof. Yaakob

Lev, Bar Ilan University, Israel for their helpful remarks. Special thanks to our colleagues at the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University Library, who shared

with us their enormous knowledge and experience and supported us with helpful remarks: Dr. Ben Outhwaite (head), and Prof. Stefan Reif. This research could not have taken place without the generous grant of St. John's College, Cambridge, which hosted Dr. Efraim Lev as an Overseas Visiting Scholar (2003-2004). The authors would like to thank the Syndicate of Cambridge University Library for permission to publish the Cairo Genizah fragments pre sented in this article.

? Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2007 JESHO 50,4 Also available online - www.brill.nl



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE GENIZAH'S MEDICAL DOCUMENTS 525

Although the medical texts in the Genizah have received considerable schol

arly attention, they have predominantly been used as a contextual background for a focus on the Jewish experience in Old Cairo.2 We, however, would like to stress that these practical medical fragments contain a wealth of information and merit close study; they do not only provide information on the actual usage of drugs but also function as an important source for the reconstruction of the economic patterns in Egypt and its neighboring countries.

This article offers a tentative investigation of the significance of medical

drugs for the study of Mediterranean trade in the Middle Ages on the basis of Isaacs's catalogue of medical and para-medical manuscripts in the Cambridge

Genizah collection,3 as well as 200 fragments that have since been identified as

having a medical content.4 Furthermore, in the Taylor-Schechter collection in

Cambridge some 1,500 fragments of medical titles have been identified so far,

along with 50 notebooks, 140 prescriptions, 70 lists of drugs, and a few dozen letters and other documents.5

However, not all these medical fragments should be treated as a single group. Instead, we propose to distinguish different types of documents based on their

2 A number of scholars have dealt with this topic, e.g. S. D. Goitein, "The Medical

Profession in the Light of the Cairo Genizah Documents." Hebrew Union College Annual 34

(1963): 177-94; S. D. Goitein, A Mediterranean Society (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1967-1988) vol. I: 267; C. F. Baker, "Islamic and Jewish Medicine in the Medieval Mediterranean World: The Genizah Evidence." Journal of the

Royal Society of Medicine 89 (1996): 577-80; P. Fenton, "The Importance of the Cairo Genizah for the History of Medicine." Medical History 24 (1980): 347-8; A. Dietrich, Zum Drogenhandl im Islamischen Agypten (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1954); M. R. Cohen, "The Burdensome Life of a Jewish Physician and Communal Leader: A Geniza Fragment from the Alliance Israelite Universelle Collection." Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 16 (1993): 125-36; E. Dvorjetsky, "The Contribution of the Geniza to the Study of the Medicinal Hot

Springs in Eretz-Israel." In Proceedings of the Twelfth World Congress of Jewish Studies, ed. Ron Margolin (Jerusalem: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1990) vol. II: 85-93; and espe cially D. H. Isaacs, "The Impact of Western Medicine on Muslim Physicians and their

Writing in the 17th Century." Bulletin of the British Association of Orientalists 11 (1979 1980): 52-7; D. H. Isaacs, "A Medieval Arab Medical Certificate." Medical History 35

(1991): 250-7. 3 D. H. Isaacs (with the assistance of Colin F. Baker), Medical and Para-Medical

Manuscript in the Cambridge Genizah Collection (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1994). 4 E. Lev and L. Chipman, Isaacs's Catalogue "Medical and Para-Medical Manuscripts in

the Cambridge Genizah Collection"?New Edition (Cambridge: University Library/Oxford: Archeopress, forthcoming 2008).

5 The Taylor-Schechter Collections, which is held in the Cambridge University Library,

will hereafter be referred to as T-S.



526 ZOHAR AMAR AND EFRAIM LEV

use. The principal distinction is between what we call "theoretical medical

knowledge," which mainly derived from books, and "practical knowledge," which is primarily reflected in prescriptions, list of drugs, letters, and notebooks.

The Genizah documents suggest that the work of the Jewish court physician in Cairo, Abu '1-Fadl Da'ud Ibn Abi '1-Bayan (born in 556/1161), entitled al

Dustur al-bimdristdni fVl-adwiya al-murakkaba, appears to have been popular

among the medical practitioners and drug sellers in the city. The same appears to be true for the Minhdj al-dukkdn by the Jewish druggist, Abu 31-Muna al

Kuhin ibn al-cAttar, who lived in Cairo around 658/1260.6 While these works

were evidently consulted by medical practitioners as well as patients them

selves, it is also interesting to examine which drugs were actually prescribed.

Being remnants of medical reality, the prescriptions offer interesting infor

mation which is not found in other sources. In most cases they are written in

Arabic (we have found 92 specimens) and Judaeo-Arabic (47 specimens), which

were the most widely used languages and dialects in the daily life of medieval

Cairo. Prescriptions also inform us about the prevailing diseases and the symp toms that members of the community actually suffered from. An analysis of

these texts and some of the notebooks shows that eye diseases were the most

prevalent ailments. The several dozen fragments from various medical books

relating to ophthalmology testify to this.7 Other common complaints included

skin diseases, headaches, fever, internal diseases (liver), intestinal problems, and

haemorrhoids, as well as urinary trouble, ulcers, swellings, coughs, and gynae

cological illnesses. Lists of drugs appear in various types of documents: inventories of pharma

cies compiled for establishing or dissolving partnerships, commercial orders for

drugs, texts concerning taxation, pharmacists' invoices, and order lists of sub

stances, especially those of wholesalers sent to retailers, or of pharmacists sent

to wholesalers. These are among the best sources for the reconstruction of the

range of "practical drugs"; S. D. Goitein, for example, points to two lists he

identifies as consignments, one consists of 54 items, the other of 34 (T-S Ar.30.274). The medicaments listed are also known from other sources, but in this case

were all carried at the same time by one retailer. The fragments also mention

weights and prices.8 Invoices to individuals are common, and they teach us

6 C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der Arabischen Literatur (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1937-1949)

vol. I: 491, 492; L. Chipman and E. Lev, "Syrup from the Apothecary's Shop: A Genizah

Fragment Containing One of the Earliest Manuscripts of Minhaj al-dukkan." Journal of Semitic Studies 50 (2006): 137-67.

7 Isaacs, Medical and Para-Medical Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collection.

8 Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: vol. II: 268.




about transactions, payments, and the medicinal substances actually used. Some

of them note quantities and prices, while others only record prices (T-S

Ar.30.165). The 70 original lists found in the Genizah generally lack headings that might

explain their uses. However, since they are different from merchants' letters

dealing with trade in materia medica and give no instructions for the use or

preparation of formulas (as is usually found in prescriptions), they were

identified as lists of drugs. They were apparently used by pharmacists for pro fessional and business purposes as inventories of materia medica, records,

orders, or even receipts. Orders to the sharabi (sellers of potions) were also

found (T-S Ar.54.19). Some lists written in Arabic and Judaeo-Arabic mention

quantities in Arabic words (T-S AS 179.56) but some also include Hebrew

script (T-S Ar.43.315), and in a few cases Coptic numerals are used (T-S Ar.39.487).

The Most Commonly Used Drugs

Our substantial collection of prescriptions and lists of drugs allows, for the

first time, for the reconstruction of the range of medicaments actually used by the Jews of medieval Cairo. In total 278 substances were identified. The great

majority, 223 in number (80.2%), are of plant origin, while 31 (11.2%) are of

inorganic origin, and the remaining 24 (8.6%) are of animal origin.9 The occur

rence of non-indigenous drugs?for the practical use of which we have found

evidence?indicates that there must have been a trade in these substances; some

of these could otherwise not have found their way to the shelves of the phar macies in the lanes and alleys of the Jewish quarter of Cairo.

Table 1 lists the medicinal substances which were most frequently used by members of the Jewish community of old Cairo according to the Genizah frag ments. All these substances are of plant origin. The sugar cane may have been

of local, i.e. Egyptian origin, but others?the almonds, rose, and endive, for

example?were brought in from elsewhere in the Levant. Moreover, saffron and mastic were clearly imported from the western Mediterranean, while pepper,

myrobalan, and spikenard came to Egypt from Southeast Asia.

9 These numbers are the sum of those mentioned in our earlier articles, E. Lev and

Z. Amar, "Reconstruction of the Inventory of Materia Medica used by Members of the

Jewish Community of Medieval Cairo according to Prescriptions found in the Taylor Schechter Genizah Collection, Cambridge." Journal of Ethnopharmacology 108 (2006): 428-44, and E. Lev, "Drugs Held and Sold by Pharmacists of the Jewish Community of

Medieval (11th-14th Centuries) Cairo according to Lists of materia medica Found at the

Taylor-Schechter Genizah Collection, Cambridge." Journal of Ethnopharmacology 110

(2007): 275-93.




Table 1: Ten medicinal substances most frequently used by members of the

Jewish community of old Cairo according to the Genizah fragments.

No. English Name Scientific Name Arabic name(s) No. of references

1. Myrobalan Terminalia sp. ihliladjdt 79

(Cherry plum) yellow myrobalan Terminalia citrina halaylaj asfar

black myrobalan Terminalia chebula halaylaj aswad

Indian myrobalan Retz Terminalia arjuna halaylaj hindi

Belleric myrobalan Terminalia belerica balaylaj

Emblic myrobalan Terminalia emblica amlaj

Chebulic myrobalan Terminalia chebula ahalaylaj,

halaylaj (ahalaylaj) kabdli]

2. Rose Rosa sp. ward 71

3. Almond Amygdalus communis lawz 41

4. Saffron Crocus sativus zacafran 34

5. Pepper Piper nigrum fulful; bahdr 34 6. Endive (Chicory) Cichorium intybus hindiba3; hundabd3 34 7. Spikenard (Sunbul, Nardostachys jatamansi ddr shishfdn 32

Nard) 8. Liquorice Glycyrrhiza glabra sus 32

9. Sugar cane Saccharum officinarum qasab al-sukkar

qasab al-mass

qasab hulw 31 10. Mastic Pistacia lentiscus mastaqd 31

So what do the medical texts in the Genizah tell us about the demand for these drugs, their financial importance, and trade trends at that time? In order to answer these questions, this article focuses on two substances with medical

uses, which were the subject of wide commercial activity and impressive cash

circulation: saffron and myrobalan.

The Geographical Origins of Medical Substances

The Genizah's medical documents do not inform us about the geographical

origins of the drugs, nor do they indicate along which trade routes they arrived in Cairo. However, we may overcome these problems by making a phytogeo

graphical (geo-botanical) analysis, on the basis of a comparison of the lists with other documents, such as merchants' letters, which occasionally include infor

mation about the origins of certain drugs. These letters thus shed a more gen




eral light on the routes and other aspects of the drug trade of the mediaeval era.

This is illustrated by Dietrich's book which?on the basis of one such fragment

(Heidelberger Inv. Ar.Pap.nr.912)?describes trade in medicinal substances between India and other countries in the Far East with Egypt.10 Furthermore, the mer

chants' letters and documents mention large amounts of various medicinal sub stances that were used by the Jewish community in Cairo as foodstuffs, spices, and condiments; but they also served industrial purposes in the tanning and dye ing business.

It seems that Egypt was one of the production centers of alum, cassia, flax, gum Arabic, purging cassia, and sugar, but these represent a minority within the range of drugs used. Ingredients for drugs were also exported from Egypt to North

Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia, but in this article we will limit the discus sion to medicinal substances that were imported, traded, and used in Egypt.11

From the eastern Mediterranean the merchants in Cairo imported asphalt, almonds, roses, dried fruits, endive, gull nuts, scammony, olive oil, soap, sumac, and wax. Cheese and dodder of thyme were brought in from Crete, while Sicily supplied coral, lead, sulphur, and silk. From further west honey, saffron, mas

tic, copper, iron, lead, mercury, and silver were imported in Egypt. Other substances with medical applications came from the east. Frankincense and

myrrh arrived through the Arabian Peninsula, while Yemen supplied Cairo with alum, mineral mummy, screw pine (Pandanus odoratissimus), and wars

(Memecylon tinctorium; a dye-yielding plant). From India and Southeast Asia

10 Dietrich, Zum Drogenhandl im Islamischen Agypten. 11 The following (ingredients for) drugs were exported from Egypt: to Southeast Asia, dod

der of thyme and saffron; to North Africa, flax, and various spices; to Sicily, flax, indigo, pepper, cinnamon, clove, and sal ammoniac; to Europe, alum, pepper, cinnamon, clove, and

sugar; to other parts of the Levant, safflower, meadow saffron, henna, purging cassia,

mummy, salep, and aniseed. E. Ashtor, "Spice Prices in the Near East in the 15th Century." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1 (1976): 26-41; E. Ashtor, "Europaischer Handel im

spatmittelalterlichen Palastina." In Das Heilige Land im Mittelalter Begegnungsraum zwis chen Orient und Okzident, eds. W. Fischer and J. Schneider (Neustadt: a.d. Aisch, 1982): 107-26; E. Ashtor, "II regno dei crociati e il commercio di Levant." In / Communi Italiani

nel Regno Crociato di Gerusalemme. Atti del Colloquio, eds. G. Airaldi and B. Z. Kedar

(Genoa: University of Genoa, 1986): 15-56; Menachem Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825 1068 (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1991); M. Gil, Palestine during the First Muslim Period

(634-1099) (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University and the Ministry of Defense, 1983); Goiten, A Mediterranean Society; N. A. Stillman, "The Eleventh Century Merchant House of Ibn

'Awkal.'" Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 16 (1973): 15-88; D. Jacoby, Trade, Commodities and Shipping in the Medieval Mediterranean (Brookfield: Variorum, 1997); D. Jacoby, Commercial Exchange across the Mediterranean: Byzantium, the Crusader Levant, Egypt and Italy (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate/Variorum, 2005).




4 spain ( slc^\f\ ^ CI V. y\

j^^'~*m^ Tr^j ^Baghdad.__-*Kabul / AFRICA TUNISIA^^C:--_^C^DaiK/ /Damascu^ ^--^PERSlX J AhKlLA ^^^^^.X^^AlexandriaC^y / V^J\

'Isfahan

) ^\7"

~--^^Qj?? '/Jerusalem

Ba^raS^ (FustartlA/ \ \

EGYPT S\\ \Gul/\r \ INDIA J \\ ARABIA \.

^r 5 |\\* Mecca d ^/

Myrobalan <- f' J \ \ )

YEMEN^^ Arabian Sea \ J /\GhaydabVA\ ^ \ Saffron --* M XlA(^/~^__?_\

Map 1: Trade routes of saffron and myrobalan according to Genizah fragments

cinnamon, clove, galingale, indigo, pepper, myroblan, camphor, and spikenard were imported to Egypt, while cubeb came specifically from the island of Socotra.12

The Commercial Aspects of Two Medicinal Substances

This section focuses on the commercial aspects of two widespread practical drugs referred to in the Genizah. The first is saffron, which was well known and

widely used in the Mediterranean from ancient times. The second is myrobalan, a name which covers a group of fruits of the genus Terminalia. Our research

suggests that myrobalan had become one of the most frequently used drugs in

Cairo by the eleventh century.

Saffron

Saffron is a small herbaceous plant with lilac-colored flowers which are typ ical of irises, the larger group to which it belongs. The floral stigmas of saffron,

which are orange-hued, are of great value. Seventy varieties of saffron can be

found in the northern hemisphere. The medieval medical literature mentions a wide variety of applications for

this plant. For example, saffron was believed to release urine and cure women's

ailments, to inhibit urine, and to be beneficial for the kidneys.13 According to

12 Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: vol. I: 153-4, 209-24.

13 S. Muntner, "Assaph (Harofe) the Physician, 'Sefer Refuoth.'" Korot 4 (1967-1969): 397.




Maimonides, who died in al-Fustat in 1204, saffron could be used as a mild

purgative, a sexual stimulant, and as a cure for intestinal ailments.14 The Andalusian

scholar, Ibn al-Baytar (d. 1248), asserts that it also improves the general state

of mind and dispels headaches, while it can also be used for the treatment of

the liver, the throat, and the mouth, including the teeth and gums. He further notes the use of saffron for eye diseases and epilepsy.15 Zakariya3 b. Muhammad

al-Qazwini (d. 1283) wrote that the drug could be used as a diuretic, to accel erate childbirth, and to strengthen the heart, although high doses of it are poi sonous.16 The works of Ibn al-Baytar and the sixteenth-century physician, Da'ud

al-Antaki (d. 1599) also list that saffron sharpens the senses, prompts the

memory, slows the heartbeat, improves eyesight, relieves aches, stops haemor

rhages, strengthens the internal organs, cures inflammations, stimulates the appetite, and works as a contraceptive.17

By no means all these applications are mentioned in the Genizah texts, which

document saffron's use as an ingredient for medicines, perfumes, and as a dyestuflf.18 It figures in Genizah documents in 21 lists of drugs,19 and in 13 prescriptions for eye diseases, for a plaster, and for other uses.20

14 Moshe (Maimonides) Ben Maimon, Regimen Sanitatis: Letters on the Hygiene of the

Body and of the Soul (Hebrew Translation ofMoshe Ibn Tibbon, ed. SUssman Muntner (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 1957): 3:2; Moshe (Maimonides) Ben Maimon, The Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides, eds. F. Rosner and S. Muntner (New York: Yeshiva University Press,

1970): 9:46; 20:86; 21:76. 15 cAbd Allah b. Ahmad Ibn al-Baytar, Kitdb al-jdmic li-mufraddt al-adwiya wa-al-aghdiya

(Cairo: Bulaq Press, i874) vol. II: 162-3; Da'ud b. cUmar al-Antaki, Tadhkirat uli al-albdb

wa-l-jdmic li-al-ajdb al- cujdb (Cairo: Bulaq Press, 1935): 178-9; M. Levey, The Medical

Formulary of the Aqrdbddhin of al-Kindl (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966): 275; C. A. Wood, Benevenutus Grassus of Jerusalem, De Oculis, eorum egritudinibus et curis

(California: Stanford University Press, 1929): 37. 16

Zakariyya' b. Muhammad al-Qazwini, cAjd3ib al-makhluqdt wa-gard'ib al-mawjuddt (Beirut: Dar al-Sharq al-cArab"i, 1981): 250. On al-Qazwini, see Brockelmann, GAL: vol. I: 481.

17 Ibn al- Bay tar, Kitdb al-jdmic li-mufraddt al-adwiya wa-al-aghdiya: vol. II: 162-3;

al- Antaki, Tadhkirat uli al-albdb wa-l-jdmic li-al-ajdb al- cujdb: 178-9. Cf. E. Lev, "The Contribution of the Turkish Physician, Daud al-Antaki (16th Century) to the Research of Medieval

Medical Substances in al-Sham." Turkish Journal of Medical Ethics, Law and History (2005) 13: 74-80.

18 Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: vol. IV: 174-5.

19 T-S Ar.30.274; T-S Ar.30.291; T-S Ar.35.82; T-S Ar.35.229; T-S Ar.35.252; T-S Ar.35.326;

T-S Ar.39.136; Ar.39.139 [2]; T-S Ar.39.487; T-S Ar.43.317; T-S AS 153.51; T-S AS 176.151; T-S AS 176.22; T-S AS 177.139; T-S AS 179.132; T-S AS 182.3; T-S NS 306.106; T-S NS 306.117; T-S NS 321.49; T-S NS 325.127; T-S Ar.39.136.

20 T-S Ar.44.162, T-S NS 222.34, T-S Ar.30.227; T-S Ar.34.305; T-S Ar.41.81; T-S Ar.42.152;

T-S AS 177.40; T-S AS 177.39; T-S AS 181.127; T-S AS 214.96; T-S NS 151.52; T-S NS 297.17; T-S NS 306.134.




According to medieval geographical sources, saffron was cultivated in

Muslim Spain,21 in Jadiya22 and Damascus,23 in Bilad al-Sham, in the region of

Isfahan and elsewhere in Iran,24 and in Afghanistan. Several Genizah fragments further indicate that it was also cultivated in Kermanshah, east of Baghdad,25 Tunisia,26 and probably also in Sicily.27 According to many eleventh-century Genizah fragments, saffron was brought from the countryside to major towns in

the cultivation areas and from there was transported along the trade routes to

other commercial centers of the medieval world. For example, in North Africa commerce was concentrated in the city of Qayrawan.28 The commodity was then

carried to al-Mahdiyya (in Tunesia) and shipped to Sicily, or to the Egyptian

ports of Alexandria, Rosetta, and Damietta, and from there to al-Fustat.29 A

merchant in mid-eleventh century al-Fustat, for example, wrote to his partner somewhere in North Africa that saffron was in great demand. In his letter he

asks him to send "as much as you can buy and as much as you can find in the

markets . . . and send it overland or by sea."30 Saffron was also imported in

Egypt from Italy, mainly from the region of San Gimignano, while during the

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was also brought into the eastern Mediterranean

region from other locations in southern Europe.31 Furthermore, "zafferano" is

listed among the products which residents of Italian cities traded in cAkka

(Acre), Beirut, and Ramlah,32 as well as in Aleppo and Alexandria.33

21 al-Idrisi, Opus Geographicum, eds. E. Cerulli et al. (Naples: Istituto Universitario

Orientale, 1974): 553, 569. 22

Yaqut, b. cAbd Allah al-Hamawi, Kitdb mu'jam al-bulddn, ed. F. Wustenfeld (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1866-1873) vol. II: 5.

23 H. M. Said, ed. Al-Biruni's Book on Pharmacy and Materia Medica (Karachi: Hamdard,

1973) vol. I: 95. 24

al-Jahiz, Kitab al-Tabassur bi-al-Tajara (Cairo: Bulaq Press. 1935): 31; al-Idrisi, Opus Geographicum: 195, 675, 677.

25 M. Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael (Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University and the Ministry of

Defense/Jerusalem: The Bialik Institute, 1997) vol. II: 42, No. 12. 26

Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: vol. IV: 173. 27

Ibid.: vol. I: 153. 28

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. II: 302. 29

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. II: 521; vol. Ill: 172, 901, 912, 940; vol. IV: 412; Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068: 197, 499; At that time saffron was exported from

Spain and Byzantium; Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068: 128; Stillman, "The

Eleventh Century Merchant House of Ibn 'Awkal'":72-3. 30

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. IV: 628-9. 31 D. Abulafia, "Crocuses and Crusaders: San Gimignano, Pisa and Kingdom of

Jerusalem." In Outremer: Studies in the History of the Crusading Kingdom of Jerusalem Presented to Joshua Prawer, eds. B. Z. Kedar, H. E. Mayer, R. C. Smail (Jerusalem: Yad Yizhak Ben

Tsvi, 1982): 227-43. 32 Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, La Pratica Delia Mercatura, ed. A. Evans (Cambridge,

MA: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1936): 64, 69, 90, 101; E. Ashtor, "The Crusader




Saffron was expensive, because for the production of one gram, no less than

150 stigmas had to be collected and dried. The gathering of the flowers and the

separation of the stigmas were manual labor, which required many skilled work ers. Saffron was therefore dispatched in boxes or special packages.34

A few Genizah documents mention the price of saffron, which generally appears to have been stable, with small fluctuations caused by international

events, the season, product quality, and supply and demand. According to one

Genizah document, the price of a gram of saffron was 3.5 dirham.35 Another

text mentions the purchase of saffron for home use at 9.5 dirhams for one

wiqiya (37.5 g.).36 Between 1050 and 1080 wholesalers usually used a weight unit called a mann, paying 2-2.3 dinars37 for one mann of saffron38 which they sold for 5-7 dinars.39 The price at which saffron was sold was thus two to three

times as high as the purchasing price, but this does not mean that the net profit was necessarily high, because the sale's price also covered expenditures like obtain

ing selling permits in the ports and bribes.40

It is sometimes difficult to assess the cost of saffron in the Genizah docu

ments, because they occasionally switch between measurements and prices (dinars and dirhams), both of which terms could refer to a coin and a mea

surement. For example, a document by Nathan Ben Solomon Ha-Kuhin, which

refers to saffron as medication, notes only its price of 1/4 dirham;41 however, in

order to make aromatic wine, various spices, including half a dirham [worth

of?] saffron, were used according to another document.42

Kingdom and Trade in the Levant." In The Crusaders in Their Kingdom, ed. B. Z. Kedar

(Jerusalem: Yad Yitshak Ben Zvi, 1978): 52; W. Heyd, Histoire du Commerce du Levant au

Moyen-Age (Leipzig: Otto Harrassowitz, 1936) vol. II: 668-9. 33

Abulafia/'Crocuses and Crusaders." 34

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. Ill: 940; vol. IV: 600-1. 35

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. II: 990. 36

Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: vol. II: 269. 37

The dinar was a gold coin weighing, according to the official exchange rate, 4.2 grams and the dirham a silver coin weighing 3.1 grams. Their value changed according to the polit ical, economical, or other circumstances. "In Egypt. . . some spices were weighed by the

mann, which was equal, according to the Arabic sources, to 260 dirhams, i.e. 803.348 g,

according to Pegolotti to 840 g, and according to other Merchants' Guides to 2 1/2 light Venetian pounds, i.e. 753 g." See E. Ashtor, "Makayil 1. In the Arabic, Persian and Turkish

Lands." In Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition, eds. C. E. Bosworth et al. (Leiden: E. J.

Brill, 2001) vol. VI: 119. 38

Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068: 264, 272. 39

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. IV: 272, 412, 531; Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068: 421.

40 Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. Ill: 172.

41 Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: vol. IV: 232-3.

42 Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: vol. IV: 260.




Considering the high price of saffron it is not surprising that attempts were

made to forge the product, and the sources record many such instances.43

Myrobalan (cherry plum)

The Terminalia genus has 200 species. The trees are tall and their fruit con

tains 30% tannin which is used for remedial and industrial purposes. The use

of the myrobalan fruit as a remedy had been well known in India and China

since early times, but Greek and Roman medical treatises neither allude to the

tree nor to its fruit.44 The Muslim conquests removed political borders and broke

down barriers, thus creating favorable conditions for the transfer and circulation

of traders, knowledge, and products from India to Spain. A. M. Watson, who

has named this process "agricultural innovation," mainly mentions domesticated

plants, such as sugar and lemon, which played an important part in medieval

pharmacology.45 This process was not restricted to agricultural crops and trees,

however, for it also included exotic spices and medicinal products and sub

stances. This development dramatically changed the distribution pattern of the

myrobalan, from the Far East to the Middle East, and later to the West.

In the Middle East the plant is mentioned from the early Islamic period in

connection with the medicinal use of its fruit. In Europe there is no information

about this plant until this time, when trade in its fruit began.46 Most myrobalan

species were imported in Egypt from tropical Asia and Africa where they were

cultivated, including India, Burma, and Madagascar.47 From Egypt the cherry

plum was then exported again to Europe.48 The Kabuli species was imported from Kabul in Afghanistan.49

Several species of Terminalia are mentioned in the medieval medical litera ture (see Table 1, above)?including the works of Maimonides, Ibn Slna, Ibn

al-Baytar, and al-Antakl?which prescribes them as a cathartic drug, which also

43 Z. Amar, The Book of Incense (Tel-Aviv, 2002) (in Hebrew): 115. 44

Levey, The Medical Formulary of the Aqrdbddhin of al-Kindi: 342. 45 A. M. Watson, Agricultural Innovation in the Early Islamic World: The Diffusion of

Crops and Farming Techniques, 700-1100 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983); Z. Amar, Agricultural Produce in the Land of Israel in the Middle Ages (Jerusalem: Yad

Izhak Ben-Zvi, 2000): 334-6. 46 A. Dietrich, Die Ergdnzung Ibn Gulgul's zur Materia Medica des Dioskurides

(Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1993): 7. 47 M. Zohary, The Plant World: Morphology, Taxonomy, Evolution, Biology (Jerusalem: ?Am Oved, 1978): 459; A. F. Hill, Economic Botany (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952): 123-4.

48 F. R. Farag, "Why Europe Responded to the Muslims' Medical Achievements in the

Middle Age." Arabica 25 (1975): 292-309. 49

al-Idrisi, Opus Geographicum: 195.




cures ear diseases and throat pains, counteracts swellings in the mouth, and is an ingredient in an abortive medication. Furthermore, these works claim that

myrobalan prevents diarrhoea and strengthens the gums, teeth, and brain, while

it also improves breathing, stimulates coitus, hardens the penis, and increases

sperm production.50

Various kinds of myrobalan are recorded in 24 lists of drugs in Cairo

Genizah collections.51 It also appears in 55 prescriptions for eye diseases, hal

lucinations, problems with the stomach and digestion, weak eyesight and

migraine, and as an aphrodisiac.52 Several documents testify to the lively trade

in dried cherry plums in medieval Cairo.53 The Genizah documents also indicate

that myrobalan was imported through the trading routes of the Indian Ocean; from Aden it was transported to Egypt through the port of cAidhab.54

From Egypt cargoes of Indian and yellow myrobalan were exported to

Qayrawan55 and, through al-Mahdiyya,56 to Sicily.57 The product was also sent from

50 Levey, The Medical Formulary of the Aqrdbddhin of al-Kindi: nos. 68, 70-1, 75, 211;

al-Husayn b. ?Abd Allah Ibn Sina, al-Qanun fi 'l-tibb (Cairo: Bulaq, 1877): 270-1; Said, Al-Biruni's Book on Pharmacy and Materia Medica: vol. I: 76, vol. II: 80, 104; Ibn al

Baytar, Kitdb al-jdmic li-mufraddt al-adwiya wa-al-aghdiya: vol. IV: 190, 196-8; al-Antaki, Tadhkirat uli al-albdb wa-l-jdmic li-al-ajdb al- cujdb: 62; Moshe (Maimonides) Ben Maimon, Sexual Life: Hygiene and its Medical Treatment: Collection of Mediaeval Treatises, ed.

S. Muntner (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kook, 1965): 1:5; M. Meyerhof and P. G. Sobhy, (eds.

trans.) The Abridged Version of 'The Book of Simple Drugs" of Ahmad Ibn Muhammad Al-Ghafiqi by Gregorius Abul-Farag (Barhebraeus) (Cairo: El-Ettemad Printing Press, 1932

1940): no. 124; Ben Maimon, The Medical Aphorisms of Moses Maimonides: 21:73. 51 T-S Ar.30.274; T-S Ar.43.317; T-S AS 152.131; T-S AS 181.109; T-S Ar.35.328; T-S

Ar.39.450; T-S Ar.39.451; T-S Ar.39.487; T-S Ar.30.274; T-S Ar.39.450; T-S AS 182.73; T-S AS 184.234; T-S Ar.30.291; T-S Ar.39.307; T-S Ar.39.451; T-S Ar.43.317; T-S

Ar.51.53; T-S AS 179.80; T-S AS 181.109; T-S Ar.39.451; T-S Ar.39.487; T-S Ar.43.315; T-S Ar.43.317; T-S AS 184.34.

52 T-S AS 159.241; T-S 16.291; T-S AS 180.15; T-S Ar.30.286; T-S Ar.41.71; T-S

Ar.42.189; T-S NS 164.159; T-S AS 147.192), (T-S Ar.40.141; T-S Ar.39.184; T-S Ar.30.291; T-S Ar.30.65; T-S Ar.41.81; T-S AS 173.3; T-S NS 305.76(75); T-S NS

306.41; T-S 13J6.14; T-S Ar.30.291; T-S Ar.30.65; T-S Ar.41.81; T-S Ar.43.338; T-S AS

173.3; T-S 13J6.14; T-S K25.212; T-S Ar.30.291; T-S Ar.40.141; T-S Ar.41.81; T-S Ar.43.338; T-S Or.1081J.39; T-S AS 155.365; T-S AS 173.3; T-S AS 177.31; T-S NS

83.28; T-S NS 327.40; T-S NS 327.97; T-S 12.33; T-S NS J38; T-S 13J6.14; T-S Ar.40.141; T-S AS 177.31; T-S NS J38; T-S 12.33; T-S 13J6.14; T-S Ar.40.141; T-S Ar.41.81; T-S AS

177.40; T-S Ar.42.67. Cf. The letters between merchants based in al-Fustat and Alexandria

dealing with the trade in myrobalan in Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. Ill: 16. 53

Goitein, A Mediterranean Society: vol. Ill: 903, 912; Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068: 266, 273.

54 S. D. Goitein, The Yemenites (Jerusalem: Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi): 110. 55

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. Ill: 170; vol. IV: 101. 56

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. Ill: 276. 57

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. II: 465, No. 158; Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068: 626.




Egypt to other parts of the Levant, including the ports of cAsqalan (Ascalon),58 Sur (Tyre),59 and Tripoli in Lebanon,60 from where it was transported overland

into the interior. According to Genizah documents from the eleventh century,

myrobalan of Egyptian origin was sold in Jerusalem, where it had probably arrived via Ramlah. In a letter sent from Ramlah to Jerusalem, on which the

signature of cAmaram ha-Roffe was identified, the addressee was asked to send

some medicinal substances including kuhl (antimony sulphide) and myrobalan.61 In another letter, sent from Jerusalem to al-Fustat in 1053, Naharay Ben Nissim

is asked to send myrobalan for the treatment of the sender's wife.62

Some indication of prices can also be obtained from the documents. Yellow

myrobalan was the best kind and therefore the most expensive, the Indian

species were second best, while Chebulic was the least expensive variety.63 As

with other substances, the price of myrobalan varied according to market con

ditions. For example, in 1059 ten manns were sold in al-Fustat to a middleman

in Sicily for 3.3 dinars, whereas one qintar (463 g) of yellow myrobalan sold

for 1.25 dinars.64 In the summer of 1062 a merchant from Alexandria wrote in

a letter that "Chebulic myrobalan is not in demand."65 A document from al

Mahdiyya dated a year later indicates that the market was rising and the price of Chebulic myrobalan was 2.5 dinar per mann, while yellow myrobalan was

ten dirhams per qintar.66 In 1065 the price of yellow myrobalan in Alexandria was 5-6 dinars, the concentrate of fine Chebulic myrobalan fetching one dirham

per mann61

As with saffron, the difference between the price for which merchants bought myrobalan and the price it fetched in the marketplace was probably considerable.

58 Gil, Palestine during the First Muslim Period (634-1099): vol. Ill: 187-8.

59 Gil, Palestine during the First Muslim Period (634-1099): vol. Ill: 210.

60 Gil, Palestine during the First Muslim Period (634-1099): vol. Ill: 217.

61 Gil, Palestine during the First Muslim Period (634-1099): vol. II: 421.

62 Gil, Palestine during the First Muslim Period (634-1099): vol. Ill: 106, 108; The plant is also mentioned in a list of substances traded by the Crusaders in Acre during the 13th cen

tury; A. A. Beugnot, Les Assises de Jerusalem. Recueil des Historiens des Croisades. Lois

I-II (Paris: Imprimerie Royale; 1841-1843): 176. 63

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. Ill: 905, No. 574; 912, No. 474; Ben-Sasson, The

Jews of Sicily 825-1068: 226, 273. 64

Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068: 159, 163. In Egypt the qintar used for

spices?known as rati fulfuli, the pepper rati?consisted of 150 dirhams, and weighed 463

g. Ashtor, "Makayil 1. In the Arabic, Persian and Turkish Lands": vol. VI: 118-9. 65

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. IV: 447. 66 In both cases only small quantities were sold. Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. Ill:

252; Ben-Sasson, The Jews of Sicily 825-1068: 401. 67

Gil, In the Kingdom of Ishmael: vol. IV: 586, 589; Goitein, The Yemenites: 110.




CONCLUSION

Medical handbooks tell us a great deal about the materia medica of the

medieval Islamic world, but they do not inform us which drugs were actually

prescribed in practice. The Genizah documents form a unique source for the

study of what we propose to call "practical medicine," because they contain

lists of medicaments, as well as prescriptions by physicians, and evidence of

commercial transactions involving drugs. In the top-10 of most popular medicinal substances used among the Jews of

medieval Cairo we find saffron, a traditional spice which was well-known in the

ancient world for its various uses, was cultivated in the Mediterranean region and exported to the east. With 34 occurrences in the Genizah documents saf

fron shares the fourth place in our top-10 with pepper and endive. More sur

prisingly, at the top of the list is myrobalan, a drug which reached the Mediterranean

only after the Muslim conquests, arriving in Egypt along the trading routes from

Southeast Asia.

The Genizah documents show that saffron was cultivated in several locations in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, but the substance was also

imported from Italy and Iraq. This suggests that the demand for saffron in Cairo was so high that it could not be met by regional production alone. The harvest

of saffron was a labor-intensive, and therefore costly process; the fact that it

also had to be imported from abroad?and packaged specially to preserve the

quality?further drove up the price, making it an expensive commodity. The cherry plum (myrobalan), which contains 30% tannin, was prescribed in

Cairo for a wide variety of ailments by the eleventh century. This medical sub

stance was unknown to the Greeks and Romans and was introduced in the

Mediterranean only after the spread of Islam. Myrobalan is thus an example of a medical substance which spread through what Watson has called "agricultural innovation"?which appears to have had a wider scope than he realized, includ

ing spices and drugs. The Genizah documents show that the cherry plum was

imported in Egypt from tropical Asia and Africa. Various kinds of myrobalan are recorded in no less than 24 lists of drugs in the Genizah collections, but the

commodity was not imported for the market of Cairo alone. On the contrary,

by the eleventh century Egypt exported myrobalan throughout the Eastern

Mediterranean, and to Europe, particularly through Sicily. Our evidence was produced by the Jewish community in Cairo between the

eleventh and thirteenth centuries. But these local sources offer valuable insights in the lively trans-regional trade in saffron, myrobalan, and other medical sub

stances in which Jews in medieval Cairo actively took part. Jewish merchants,

physicians, and pharmacists may have had an advantage over Muslims and




Christians owing to the widespread diaspora of Jews all over the medieval

world. After all, many of the ports and cities that were important for the trade

in saffron and myrobalan?from Sicily to Syria and India?had thriving Jewish

communities during this period.

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Illustration 1: Genizah fragment T-S-Ar 43 338v. Courtesy of the Taylor-Schechter Collection, ? Cambridge University Library.

