THE LAWḤ-I ṬIBB

A PROVISIONAL TRANSLATION   WITH OCCASIONAL NOTES

STEPHEN N. LAMBDEN

 

INTRODUCTION

        What follows is a slightly revised translation of  Lawḥ-i ṭibb  ("Tablet of Medicine") which first appeared more than ten years ago in BSB 6:4-7:2 (October 1992), 18-65. Corrections to the translation and notes (to follow) or other parts of the article would be much appreciated. It is due to be revised and reprinted on this Website (BSB second editions; copyrighted Athens, Ohio / Newcastle upon Tyne: Hurqalya Publications) and should not be cited without due acknowledgement. The introduction and commentary/ notes were written by myself while Khazeh Fananapazir (UK) and I did the translation jointly. I will be reworking the whole paper in due course.

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         The Arabic-Persian text of Bahā'-Allah's   Lawḥ-i ṭibb  (Tablet of Medicine) [fn 1] is to be dated to the early Acre [ `Akkā'] period of his ministry (early 1870's?). It was addressed to a Baha'i named Mīrzā Muhammad Ridā'-yi Ṭabib-i Yazdī, a physician of the traditional school. The text is translated and selectively annotated below. The tentative translation is highly provisional. The notes are designed to clarify what is a sometimes difficult text which could, at certain points, have been translated in quite a number of different ways. Only a few of the verses or terms contained within the  Lawḥ-i ṭibb  are commented upon. It is hoped that the translation and notes will be of interest to Baha'is in general and to those who are practitioners of modern medicine. Doubtless, in the future, scholars expert in both Baha'i doctrine and in the history of science / medicine will write learned and comprehensive commentaries upon this important Tablet.

    As indicated, not all of the numerous Baha'i texts which might have an expository bearing on the Tablet of Medicine can be cited below. The following letter of Shoghi Effendi makes some centrally important points:

"The Tablet to a Physician was addressed to a man who was a student of the old type of healing prevalent in the East and familiar with the terminology used in those days, and, He addresses him in terms used by the medical men of those days. These terms are quite different from those used by modern medicine, and one would have to have a deep knowledge of this former school of medicine to understand the questions Baha'u'llah was elucidating.. Baha'u'llah has recommended that people seek the help and advice of experts and doctors: He does not say which school they should belong to.

Likewise there is nothing in the teachings about whether people should eat their food cooked or raw: exercise or not exercise: resort to specific therapies or not: nor is it forbidden to eat meat.

Baha'u'llah says teaching is the greatest of all services, but He does not mean one should give up medicine to teach." [fn 2]

        Shoghi Effendi indicated in a letter dated 14th January 1932 that the first few Arabic paragraphs of the Tablet of Medicine contain useful advice for the maintenance of good health (see II:1ff). ^[3] They echo those medical maxims and pieces of useful advice (fawā'id) found in a variety of Greek and Islamic literatures -- generally speaking, a considerable proportion of Islamic medicine has Greek roots. Ullmann has written in the introduction to his Islamic Medicine, "`Islamic medicine' did not grow up on Arab soil. Rather it is the medicine of later Greek antiquity which was formulated in the Arabic language in the south and west of the Mediterranean from the ninth century A.D." (p.xi). While the Qur'an contains little or no explicit medicine. Neither the word doctor/ physician nor medicine are mentioned in the Qur'an (cf. Ullmann, 4; Dols, review of Rahman, 417). This is more than made up for in the Sunnī and Shī`ī ḥadīth  literatures.

        From the early Islamic centuries compilations of medical wisdom attributed to the Prophet Muhammad were made by Sunni and Shi`i writers (see the various Ṭibb al-nabī / Ṭibb al-nabawī works). ^[4] Such major Sunni canonical collections of hadith as that of al-Bukhhari (810-870 CE) contain their own *Kitab al-tibb*("Book of Medicine"). Many medical or quasi-medical traditions were attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. It is nonetheless the case that "The hadith directly related to medicine are relatively few, usually late, and frequently contradictory." ^[5]

        The medical wisdom of the twelver Shī`ī Imams, the Ṭibb al- a'immah  was likewise assiduously compiled (see Agha Buzurg al-Tihrani, al-Dhari`a ila tasanif al-shi`a 25 Vols Tehran / Najaf 1355/1936, 15:135-144). <sup>[6]</sup> A great many statements are attributed to the Twelver Imams that, in one way or another, have to do with medical matters or with bodily health. To the eighth Imam `Ali al-Rida' (c.768-818 CE) is attributed  al-Risala al-dhahabiya / al-mudhahhaba fi'-tibb ("The Golden Treatise..") a treatise on medical cures and good health written for and at the request of the `Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur (text in Majlisi, Bihar al-anwar (2nd ed) LXII: 308-328).     Commentaries are said to have been written on this aforementioned Arabic treatise which have been translated into Persian and Urdu (Madelung, Ali al-Reza, EIr. 2:877-8). ^[7]

        There exists furthermore, a treatise in the Jabirean corpus -- writings attributed to Jabir ibn Ḥayyān (c.103/721-c.200/815) -- certain of which Baha'-Allāh drew upon -- entitled Kitab al-ṭibb al-nabawi`ala ahl al-bayt  ("The Book of Prophetic Medicine according to the people of the Household of the Prophet"). A multitude of other Shi`i works, which cannot possibly be even listed here, are relevant to the study of the background to the Lawh-i ṭibb. The Lawh-i ṭibb cannot be fully or adequately commented upon without some reference to its (Shī`ī) Islamic background; not forgetting its pre-Islamic antecedents which will only at certain points in the notes below be cursorily indicated.

        Sources known to the present writer only allow the  Sitz im leben ("setting in life") of the Lawh-i ṭibb to be inadequately sketched. In volume three of his Ṭhe Revelation of Baha'u'llah* (Oxford: George Ronald, 1983) Adib Taherzadeh gives something of a summary of key points regarding the Tablet of Medicine (RB3: 358-360). He translates a passage from Haji Muhammad Tahir-i Malamiri's memoirs, the Khatirat-i-Malamiri, about Āqā Mīrzā Muhammad-Riḍā' (the recipient of the Lawh-i ṭibb) :

"One of the early believers who embraced the Faith when Siyyid Yahyay-i-Darabi, known as Vahid, came to Yazd, was Āqā Mírza Muammad-Riḍāy-i Ṭabíb. He was a skilled and distinguished physician, and an embodiment of grace and steadfastness. The Pen of the Most High revealed the Lawh-i-Tibb in his honour. In that exalted Tablet, Baha'u'llah states that the mere visit of a physician who has drunk deep of the wine of His love will cure the patient. Mirza Muhammad-Rida was truly the fulfillment of these words of Baha'u'llah. He used to cure the patient by administering very simple remedies. Truly, he possessed wonderful qualities which made him a very special person in the community of the Most Great Name. Owing to his intense piety he became highly disturbed when Mirza Yahya broke the Covenant. As a result he was bewildered and stunned; he even became hesitant in the Cause for a short time. Then it was as though Divine Providence sent Mulla Zaynu'l-` Abidin, a native of Najafabad (he was entitled by Baha'u'llah as Zaynu'l-Muqarribin) to Yazd in order to calm his agitation and dispel his doubts. Zaynu'l-Muqarribin at first stayed in the house of this servant in the district of Malamir, but when he learned of the intense anguish and distress that Mirza Muhammad-Rida was subjected to, he changed his residence and stayed in his home instead. Consequently, Mirza Muhammad-Rida became fully aware of the circumstances of the Revelation of Baha'u'llah. He later received many Tablets from the Pen of the Most High, and served the Faith of Baha'u'llah with devotion and love till the end of his life. He was about eighty years old when he passed away." ^[8]

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 FOOTNOTES TO INTRODUCTION

[1] The  Lawh-i ṭibb  was first published in  Majmu`a-yi alwah-i mubaraka (Cairo, 1920, Rep. Wilmette, Illinois: BPT., 1981, 222-226 (Reproduced and translated below).

[2] From a letter written on on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, December 18, 1945 cited UHJ:1984 -- see also the letter printed in BSB 4:3-4 (April 1990), 58.

[3] Part of this letter of Shoghi Effendi reads,

With the appearance of every Revelation a new insight is created in man  and this in turn expresses itself in the growth of science. This has happened in past dispensations and we find its earliest fruits in our present day. What we see however is only the beginning. With the spiritual awakening of man this force will develop and marvelous results will become manifest. Among other phases of human learning the medical science will have a place. There is a Tablet of Medicine that Baha'u'llah has revealed and which is translated into English. That does not contain much of scientific informations [sic.] but has some interesting advices for keeping healthy.  (cited LDG 2:21 )

 

[4] Refer, for example, Cyril Elgood, `Tibb al-Nabi or Medicine of the Prophet, Being a Translation of Two Works of the same Name: I. The Ṭibb-ul-Nabbi [Ṭibb al-Nabi] of Al-Suyuti; II. The Tibb-ul-Nabbi of Mahmud bin Mohammad al-Chaghhayni' [= the scientist-astronomer Mamud ibn `Umar Chagmini] in *Osiris* Vol.14 (1962) 33-192. With respect to the al-Chaghmini's medical tract Elgood writes,"Next is the version by Mahmud bin `Umar Jaghmini [=Chaghmini] of which I also present a translation as a contrast to the much longer version of al-Suyuti and as a specimen of the aphoristic form of writing which was once so popular in Persia. this is written in Arabic. Mahmud also wrote in Persian a book called Qanunchi fi al-Tibb, being an extract from the Canon of Avicenna. The edition that I used for my translation is a small book lithographed in Teheran in I888/89 and is in my private collection." (p.43).

    On page 40 of the aforementioned article Elgood writes, "A reference to the Encyclopaedia of Hajji Khalifa [written 1658 CE] shows that he devotes a special section in his work to what he calls `Ilm al-Tibb al-Nabbawi or The Science of Prophetic Medicine. Here he mentions seven different works on this subject which were existing in his day and were known to him. The authors whom he names as having made these collections are

    [1] Nu`aym Aḥmad of Ispahan [948-1038 CE];

    [2] Abu al-`Abbas,Ja`far Mustaghfiri;

    [3] Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti  (1445-1505 CE);

[4] Abu Ḥasan `Ali al-Riḍā', the 8th Imam, Imam al-Riḍā' (see below),

    [5] Ḥabīb Nishapuri,

    [6]Ḥabīb al-Thānī, and

    [7] `Abd al-Malik bin Ḥabīb" (transliteration altered).

    In the Islamic books of Ṭibb al-nabawī  ("Prophetic Medicine") innumerable inauthentic traditions were attributed to the Prophet Muhammad. Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) as noted by Ullmann "alone has said clearly that essentially this is bedouin medicine and can have no claim to be divine revelation and therefore cannot be obligatory under religious law." (p.5).

[5] M.W. Dols, review of Rahman in *Hist. Sci.* xxvi (1988), 417.

[6] The recently published Batool Ispahany (trans.) & Andrew J. Newman (Ed.), *Islamic Medical Wisdom, The Tibb al-A'imma* ([= Medicine of the Imams] London: The Muhammadi Trust 1991) is a collection of statements of certain Twelver Imams compiled by Abu `Atab `Abd Allah and al-Husayn, the sons of Bistam b. Sabur;  Bistam was a companion of the sixth Imam Abu Abd Allah Ja`far b. Muhammad al-Ṣādiq (d. 148/765) and the seventh Imam Abu al-Ḥasan Musa b. Ja`far al-Kāẓim (d. 183/799) (cf. al-Dhari`a 15:139-140). In the preface to this work Newman writes,

"There is no dearth of Twelver Shi`i medical texts. Agha Buzurg al-Tehrani (d. 1389/1970) in his massive bibliography of Twelver texts [see above] devoted several pages to listing texts on medicine completed from the earliest years following the disappearance of the Twelfth Imam up to the last century" (for further details see ibid p. xxxiv ff).

[7] See also Muhammad `Ali al-Baqir,  al-Imam `Ali al-Riḍā' wa risalat fi al-tibb al-nabawi, al-risala al-dhahabiya, awwal risala fi al-tibb al-nabawī, (Beirut: Dar al-manahil, 1412/1991). This volume commences with material highlighting the glories of the "people of the House of the Prophet" (Pt.I ,11-68) followed by an hagiographical biography of `Ali al-Rida' (Pt.II., 69-110); the text of Imam Rida's "Golden Treatise" (Pt.III.,111-126) and two further sections; a prolegomenon to the understanding of ancient medical books and books of the medicine of the Prophet (Pt.IV, 27-137) the  Risala dhahabiya and an exposition and glosses on some of its terms (Pt. V 139-183).

[8] See Khatirat-i- Malamiri. Hoffheim-Langenhain: Baha'i-Verlag, 149/1992, 58-9 cited in translation in A. Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah Vol. 3 (Oxford: George Ronald, 1983), 359.

 و اگر استقامت نباشد نَفَس ذاكر مؤثّر نخواهد بود  [226]   بگو ای دوستان خوف و اضطراب شأن نسوان است