According to my research Maimonides wrote twelve medical books. Two of the books are often considered as one volume. Some manuscripts show “Maqāla Fī Bayān al-Aʿrāḍ” (Discourse on the Explanation of Fits) as the fifth and final chapter of “הנהגת הבריאות” (Healthy Conduct). This would make the tally eleven. Except for part of his "קיצורי גלנוס" (Excerpts from Dr. Galen) all of Maimonides' medical writings have been preserved. All of them were originally written in Arabic and all of them were subsequently translated into Hebrew. All but two of them have been translated into English. The majority of them were translated into Latin. To give the reader a sense of time in 1174 Maimonides, at age 39, was appointed Court Physician to Visier Alfadhal, Regent of Egypt. I am more or less following the order found in Wikipedia.
1. קיצורי גלנוס, “Al-Mukhtaṣarāt”, “Extracts from Dr. Galen” - Galen was the prime medical textbook in the days of Maimonides. Galenus first name Aelius or Claudius was a prominent Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher in the Roman Empire. He lived from 129 AD to c. 200/c. 216). One of Galen's major works, “On the Diagnosis and Cure of the Soul’s Passion”, described how to approach and treat psychological problems. In this book the Rambam extracts only treatments that he had tested and proved successfully. He excludes information and theories that appear to him as illogical or baseless. It’s basically an update of an earlier large group of texts that had been in use for over 900 years.
2. "פירוש לפרקי אבוקרט" - “Commentary on the Chapters of Hippocrates” - This is the Rambam’s extracts and commentary. Hippocrates lived in Classical Greece from c. 460 – c. 370 BC and is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine. He is referred to as the "Father of Modern Medicine". His texts had been in use for over 1500 years. It has the famous aphorism which has been called the motto or credo of the art of medicine: ―Life is short, and the art long, the occasion fleeting, experience fallacious and judgment difficult. The physician must not only be prepared to do what is right himself, but must also make the patient, the attendant and the externals co-operate.
3. "פרקי משה" - “Fuṣūl Mūsā”, “Chapters of Moshe” - In some aspects this is the principal medical work of Maimonides. It is the most voluminous of all of them. This book is comprised of 1,500 aphorisms divided into 25 chapters based mainly on Greek medical writers. It opens with anatomy and physiology. Concerning ailments it goes from appearance, symptoms, causes, and diagnosis to the appropriate remedy and cure. Drugs and surgery are studied. Preventative medicine such as hygiene, exercise, bathing, and diet is studied. Topics include diarrhea and enemas, vomiting, disorders of the hands, gynecology, and other diseases. It is about the general practice of medicine. As I recall this is the book from which he gave lectures to his medical students.
TO BE CONTINUED
לע"נ הסבתא טויבע בת יואל לייב ז"ל נלב"ע כה שבט תשכגו
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