IBN W?FID, AB? AL-MUTARRIF ?ABD ALRAHMAN

also known as Abenguefit, Abenguéfith, Albenguéfith, Abel Nufit (fl. Toledo, Spain, ca. 1008 – 1075), pharmacology.

Ibn W?fid studied the works of Aristotle, Dioscorides, and Galen. At the demand of the king of Toledo, Al-Ma’m?n, he planted a botanical garden in the king’s orchard, which extended between the Galiana and Tajo palaces in front of the bridge of Alcántara. Ibn Luengo, a disciple of Ibn W?fid, and possibly Ibn Bas?s?al studied in the king’s garden.

For twenty years Ibn W?fid worked on the Kit?b al-adwiya al-mufrada (“Book of the Simple Medicines”), a synthesis, with some new data, of Dioscorides and Galen. The structure of the book confirms what Ibn S??id (Ibn W?fid’s friend and bibliographer) had stated, that is, that Ibn W?fid did not like to prescribe compound medicines, but simple ones; and, if possible, he abstained from prescribing the latter and tried to cure his patients by following a dietary treatment.

Ibn W?fid’s Kit?b al-rashsh?d f? al-tibb (“Guide to Medicine”) is a pharmacopoeia and manual of therepeutics. On account of an incorrect reading of the title by Casiri, who confused the letter r?' for w?w thereby reading wis?d, the title was translated as “Book of the Pillow.”

Ibn W?fid’s other works are the following: Mudjarrab?t f? al-tibb (“Medical Experiences”); Tadq?q al-nazar fi ?ilal h?ssat at-basar (“Observations on the Treatment of Eye Illnesses”), which might be the one preserved in the anonymous manuscript 876 at El Escorial; Kit?b al-mug?th (“Book of Assistance”), the title of which alludes to the drug mug?th, valuable for the treatment of many diseases: and Madjm??al-fil?ha (“A Compendium of Agriculture”), which is in a medieval Castilian translation and fragment.

J. M. Millás Vallicrosa found various Arabic manuscripts, in which Ibn W?fid avoids discussing the pharmacologic properties of plants, and insists on his proper method of tillage. This book was made good use of by Gabriel Alonso de Herrera in his Agricultura General (Madrid, 1513; repr., 1819). Ibn W?fid also wrote a treatise on balneology preserved in a Latin version as De balneis (Venice, 1553).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

On Ibn W?fid and his work, see J. M. Millás Vallicrosa, “La traducción castellana del ‘Tratado de Agricultura’ de ibn W?fid,” in Al-Andalus, 8 (1943), 281 – 332; and G. Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, I (Baltimore, 1927), 728.

J. Vernet