Corner of Religion Masʿūd (d. 7th Century AH) and His Methodology in the Manuscript Maqāṣid al-Aṭibbāʾ: Historical Study

Abstract

Islamic medical heritage represents one of the most significant scientific fields that flourished during the Middle Ages, particularly in periods marked by extensive intellectual interaction among Greek, Persian, and Arabic medical schools. Within this context, a number of medical works emerge that have not received sufficient scholarly attention or critical editing, despite their scientific value and lasting impact on the history of medical practice. Among the most notable of these works is the manuscript Maqāṣid al-Aṭibbāʾ, attributed to the physician Rukn al-Dīn Masʿūd ibn Ḥusayn                                        .

Rukn al-Dīn Masʿūd remains one of the understudied figures in the history of Islamic medicine, as his biography has not been adequately documented, despite the appearance of his name in the catalogues of major Arabic manuscript libraries. The extreme scarcity of available information about Rukn al-Dīn Masʿūd renders the study of his life and thought a dual scholarly task. First, it involves the reconstruction of the biography of a physician who belonged to a period rich in intellectual production yet limited in historical documentation. Second, it requires an analytical examination of a medical text that presents a distinctive epistemological framework concerning therapeutic methods, pharmacology, and concepts of health and disease..

Medical writings of this period were not merely theoretical expositions or compilations of therapeutic recipes; rather, they constituted integrated intellectual projects that reflected the scientific environments in which they emerged, the methodological approaches of physicians to the human body, and their engagement with prevailing medical traditions