A medieval hebrew treatise on obstetrics

Abstract

Recent years have shown an increasing interest in the history of medicine. This is no longer a distant, estranged branch of study, reserved for a handful of specialists, but an important part of the framework encompassing the study of the past. An especially vital facet of this discipline is the history of women's medicine, from which much can be learned concerning the ways in which our forebears viewed the physiological and mental differences between men and women, the formation of life within the womb, and the birth process itself. As in other areas of medieval science, researchers in this field must consider not only the ancient Greek and Latin sources, but the mutual influences and exchange of medical information among the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures. The gynaecological literature written in Latin Europe during the Middle Ages has, to date, been given considerable coverage in academic studies. This refers mainly to the two most popular treatises of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, both attributed to Trotula, a woman doctor and lecturer at the Salerno school of medicine: Trotula minor and Trotula major. The Muslim gynaecological literature has thus far not been studied nearly so widely as the Latin. Nevertheless, the most important treatise in this area, written in the tenth century by ‘Arib ibn Sa'id of Cordova, has been published and translated into French. © 1989, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.