eJIM 3,2 (2010)

Abstract: This paper discusses the ʿIlājāt-i Dārā Šikōhī by Nūr al-Dīn Šīrāzī which is one of the largest Persian medical manuals composed in Mughal India (1526-1857). Šīrāzī was a physician attached to the Mughal court and dedicated his work to the Mughal prince Dārā Šikōh (d. 1659). A major characteristic of the ʿIlājāt-i Dārā Šikōhī is its incorporation of Indian knowledge and it can be considered as one of the most important attempts of describing in the same volume both the features of Muslim and Indian medical arts. Another important intellectual feature of the ʿIlājāt-i Dārā Šikōhī is its synthesis of secular and religious medical traditions of Islam and it is certainly not fortuitous that a book like this was dedicated to a personage such as Dārā Šikōh, both a Sufi scholar and an eminent student of Indian traditions.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to begin an examination of the sources mentioned by Jajjaṭa in his Nirantarapadavyākhyā, an early commentary on the Carakasaṃhitā, dating perhaps from the seventh or eighth century C.E. The identification and analysis of these sources will provide a better understanding of the background of this rather enigmatic and important medical commentator, who is often mentioned by later medical commentators.