Enjoyed learning this week about the practice of iatrochemistry (chemical medicine) in the Ottoman Empire, through the Bidâatü’l-mübtedî of Ali Münşi (d. 1146/1733), Chief Physician of the infirmary at the Galata Sarayı. This copy previously belonged to the imperial treasury.
Chemical medicine was pioneered by Paracelsus, (1493-1541), a controversial German-Swiss physician who disparaged traditional medicine, and first introduced into the OE by Salih b. Nasrallah of Aleppo (d. 1081/1670). Ali Münşi was at the forefront of its practice in the 18th c.
This copy may be from the late 12th/18th c, and can be found at @BLAsia_Africa Or 14557. A note from 1290/1874 tells us that it was in the hands of a Hacı Hüseyin of Edirne, perhaps a bookseller.
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