How to easily memorize large amounts of medical information? Make it rhyme!

Medical poetry was popular in the Classical Islamic World and many copies survive today.

A small thread on Arabic & Persian medical poems 1/

One of the most popular poems was Ibn Sīnā's Urjūzah fī al-ṭibb, Poem on Medicine.

Here is the first folio of a (probably) 17th-century copy.

(ms NLM A 34, fol. 1v, https://nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/poetry_2.html…)

It is a poem in Rajaz metre in which Ibn Sīnā discusses a lot of the material of the Canon.

Under the heading Taqāsīm al-ṭibb, Ibn Sīnā gives his definition of medicine:

الطب حفظ صحة برء مرض
من سبب في جسم عنه عرض

"Medicine is the maintenance of health and the cure of disease

Arising from causes in the body"

This poem was widely known. Ibn Rushd wrote a commentary on the poem, the Sharḥ urjūzat Ibn Sīnā fī al-ṭibb

Here is the colophon of a 16th-century copy:

(MS NLM MS A 59 https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/poetry_3.html#a59)

The poem was also translated into Latin. First by Gerard de Cremona & and in the 16th century also by Johannes Faucher.
Here is the front page of an edition of Faucher's translation from 1630:
(Bavarian State Library)

Another Arabic poem is this one by Ibn Makkī.

It discusses the blood vessels used in phlebotomy and is called the Urjūzah wajīzah fī ʿadād al-ʿurūq al-mafṣūdah
(A Short Poem on the Number of Vessels for Bloodletting)

(MS NLM A 34, fol. 58v)
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/poetry_9.html#a34item5

Not so much is known about Ibn Makkī today but he probably lived before the 17th century and wrote a number of medical poems.

Now let's look at a Persian poem!

This is a medical poem on therapeutics by Shihāb al-Dīn ibn ‘Abd al-Karīm Qivām Nāgawrī (fl.14th century AD).

It was known both as the The Healing of Disease and The Medicine of Shihab

(MS NLM MS P 16.1, fol. 14a https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/poetry_8.html#p161item2)

Interestingly, Shihāb made his living as a trader and not as a physician. The poem contains a considerable amount of biographical material at the beginning.

Last one.. One more poem by Ibn Sīnā. This one discusses the ways to keep healthy throughout the year.

It's called "Urjūzah fī tadbīr al-ṣiḥḥah fī al-fuṣūl al-arba‘ah" or the Poem on the Regimen of Health in the Four Seasons

(MS NLM A 34, fol. 54b https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/poetry_4.html#a34item4)

As you may have noticed, I used mss in the collection of the National Library of Medicine. This is a great recourse, and completely open access: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/getstarted.html