My cardinal objective is to introduce a comprehensive and up-to-date document covering the most important aspects of the historiography of Arabic Medicine. The lack of scholarly material on this subject strengthened my determination. This work presents the History of Arabic Medicine during the Golden Ages of Muslim learning, approximately from the seventh through to the thirteenth Century, based on the work of the bibliography of Ibn Abi Unaybelah Ahmad. Although the main objective of this thesis is to trace the history of Arabic Medicine some-effort is made to explain the history of medicine during the ancient civilization as an introduction. In Chapter two, a full explanation of the development of Arabic Medicine during the various periods, pre Islam, during Islam, the Prophet medicine, the medicine during the various caliphates, and. at the end of Chapter three, some effort is made to explain the situation of hospitals during the heyday of Arabic Civilization. As the whole work is based on the work of Ibn Abi Usaybelah Ahmad, an in-depth discussion is made to give a full picture about his life, his work and the evolution of the work. To give an example of his writing, a translation is made of the fifteenth Chapter . of his masterpiece "Yun al Anb Fi Tabakat al Attebalt (sources and information of the classes of physicians). The fourth Chapter of this thesis is devoted to an extensive study of the present situation of the Arabic medical historiography and to present some proposals for future development.

Al-Asbāb wa-l-ʿalāmāt « Les causes et les symptômes » de Nağīb al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (m. 619/1222) est un traité de médecine qui a fait la renommée de son auteur. Toutefois, et malgré le fait qu’il ait été signalé dès 1935 par l’historien des sciences Max Meyerhof comme l’un des ouvrages « à publier de préférence », il est resté inédit. C’est une édition intégrale de ce traité que nous proposons.Il s’agit d’un vademecum dont l’auteur a fondé la rédaction sur trois sources, notamment le Canon d’Avicenne. Il a ainsi respecté la tradition médicale de l’époque qui classifiait les maladies d’une part en pathologies spécifiques à chacun des organes du corps, d’autre part en affections non spécifiques « générales », celles qui touchent tout le corps telles les fièvres. Il a aussi traité de la cosmétologie, des poisons, des maladies de la peau, des blessures, des fractures et luxations, cela dans un esprit d’exhaustivité. La description des pathologies est assortie de l’exposé des symptômes auxquels notre auteur préconise des remèdes à base de médicaments simples ou composés. Nous avons édité le texte en arabe en veillant à respecter l’orthographe et la grammaire du manuscrit de base.Cet ouvrage riche en vocabulaire technique nous a permis d’établir plusieurs glossaires, représentant la première classification détaillée du vocabulaire médical arabe médiéval en langue française. Nous voulons contribuer par cette édition à enrichir le corpus des textes médicaux, en particulier celui du XIIIe siècle, et lutter contre les idées reçues qui font de cette époque une période historique de décadence, sinon le début d’une sclérose culturelle et scientifique dans le monde arabe. / Al-Asbāb wa-l-ʿalāmāt "The causes and symptoms" by Nağīb al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (d.619 / 1222), is a medical treatise which made its author famous. However despite the fact that in 1935 it was acclaimed by science historian Max Meyerhof as a book that "should be published", it never made it to print. This work, the object of this thesis, is a critical edition of a complete version of the treatise.The redaction of this vade mecum was based by the author on three sources, particularly the "Canon" of Avicenna. He therefore respected the medical tradition of the time, which classified diseases on the one hand by pathologies specific to each organ of the body, and on the other hand by non-specific conditions (which we could qualify as general) affecting the entire body such as fevers. He also examined cosmetology and poisons, skin diseases, wounds, fractures and dislocations in a spirit of completeness. For every disease described, the author included its associated symptoms, advocatingtreatments based on simple or compound remedies.We edited the Arabic text while strictly observing the spelling and grammar of the original manuscript.This book, rich in technical terms specific to the field of anatomy and pathology, has allowed us to establish several glossaries that represent the first detailed classification of medieval Arabic medical vocabulary in French.Our aim, in this text edition, is to contribute to enrich the corpus of medical texts and in particular that of the thirteenth century and to counter the accepted ideas claiming that this era was a historical period of decline, if not the beginning of a cultural and scientific sclerosis in the Arab world.

This thesis takes up the question of the part played by Syriac sources in the composition of early Arabic translations of the Hippocratic Aphorisms. In it, I compare the four major extant Syriac and Arabic translations of the Aphorisms with continual reference to the content of Syriac lexicons composed by the translator Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq and his students and successors. Through detailed treatments of both the definitions and translations of scores of individual Greek terms found in these sources, as well as through analysis of the translations of the Aphorisms, I weigh the relative importance of Greek and Syriac scholarship for Ḥunayn's translation praxis. In doing so, I specify the value of the Syriac lexicons for the study of Greek-to-Arabic translation while clarifying several outstanding issues in the broader history of Syriac and Arabic medicine.

La mélancolie, comprise à la fois comme une affection de l'âme apparentée à la folie et un état émotionnel caractérisé par la tristesse et la peur, occupe une place importante dans les traités médicaux écrits en arabe aux IXe et Xe siècles. À cette époque, comme dans l'Antiquité grecque, la figure du mélancolique constitue un domaine où médecins et philosophes conjuguèrent étroitement leurs efforts. En effet, les questions soulevées par la mélancolie, telles que l'interaction entre l'âme et le corps, la nature de l'âme, ou encore le siège de la partie dirigeante de l'âme, traversent les deux disciplines. Les médecins arabes s'appuient en grande partie sur les auteurs grecs, en particulier Rufus d'Éphèse et Galien. Mais la conception de la mélancolie subit aussi des variations en passant chez les auteurs arabes. La première partie de la thèse entend reconstruire la conception de la maladie chez al-Rāzī, en se fondant sur l'analyse des textes médicaux consacrés à la mélancolie chez ce dernier. Cette partie montre que le diagnostic et le traitement de la mélancolie placent le médecin face à de nombreuses difficultés méthodologiques: il doit en effet comprendre l'infinie variété des symptômes de la maladie, leur caractère à la fois physique et psychique, mais aussi expliquer comment sont découverts les pouvoirs adoucissants, échauffants et purgatifs des substances utilisées contre la maladie, et leur mode d'action dans le corps. C'est pourquoi la seconde partie de la thèse entend restituer à la conception de la mélancolie d'al-Rāzī son arrière-plan épistémologique. Elle fait apparaître qu'al-Rāzī modifie la "méthode logique" de Galien dans deux directions en apparence opposées, mais complémentaires: il replace l'expérience au centre de la méthodologie médicale, et il étend les fondements théoriques de la médecine. Cette position épistémologique conduit al-Rāzī à participer activement aux discussions philosophiques, notamment au sujet de l'âme. Dans cette perspective, la troisième partie étudie la psychologie d'al-Rāzī à partir de son interprétation de la mélancolie. / Melancholy—understood both as a mental disease akin to madness and a state of the mind characterised by sadness and fear—figured prominently in the works of physicians living in the Islamic world in the ninth and tenth centuries. In this context, like in Greek Antiquity, the case of the melancholic was of common concern for physicians and philosophers, because melancholy raised questions that belonged to both disciplines, for instance about the interaction between body and soul, the nature of the soul, the seat of the governing part of the soul and so on.Arabo-Islamic physicians drew heavily on the Greek tradition, and especially on Rufus of Ephesus and Galen. But the notion of melancholy evolved when it came under their scrutiny. The first part of the thesis starts by investigating al-Rāzī's medical writings, in order to understand the theoretical and practical underpinnings of melancholy in these works. This part shows that the diagnosis as well as the treatment of melancholy confronts the physician with many methodological difficulties, such as recognising the multiple symptoms of the disease, explaining their physiological and psychological foundations, but also discovering the purgative, heating and soothing power of the substances used against melancholy and exposing the way in which they fight the disease in the body. Therefore, the second part of this thesis aims at reconstructing the methodological background of those difficulties. It appears that al-Rāzī modifies Galen's "logical method" in two opposite directions: first, he increases the part of experience in medical reasoning; second, he expands the theoretical knowledge needed by the physician. This epistemological position results in al-Rāzī's active participation in philosophical debates, in particular about the soul. In this perspective, the third part of the thesis studies the role played by the interpretation of melancholy in al-Rāzī's psychology.

Die Schulmedizin ist zwar das offizielle und anerkannte Gesundheitssystem in Tunesien, jedoch findet der Beobachter zahlreiche traditionelle und moderne alternative Heilmethoden, die miteinander koexistieren. Dazu gehört die spirituelle Heilung bzw. die tibb ruhani, die im letzten Jahrzehnt zunehmend eine zentrale Stellung im „health seeking behavior“ der Jugendlichen eingenommen hat. Viele der älteren Heilpraktiken standen in der Öffentlichkeit im Schatten der Schulmedizin und des offiziellen Islam. Dabei spielte der Bezug auf die religiösen Texte und die übernatürliche Welt und ihre Kräfte sowie auf die traditionelle Medizin eine wichtige Rolle. Meine zehnmonatige Feldforschung bzw. meine Interviews mit den Jugendlichen zeigen die Bedeutung der spirituellen Heilung für diese Altersgruppe, die Heilung von ihren Krankheiten und Lösung für ihre sozialen Konflikte und Probleme sucht. Auch die Medien richten heute mehr Interesse auf diesen Bereich, in dem sie eher kritische Artikel darüber veröffentlichen und die Werbung der Heiler publizieren. Diese Ambivalenz zeigt, dass der Umgang mit der spirituellen Heilung in der Öffentlichkeit einen interessanten Wandel erlebt. Die Bedeutung der traditionellen Medizin und der volksislamischen Heilpraktiken war zwar immer in der Gesellschaft verankert, blieb allerdings bis jetzt nur im Hintergrund. Eine Transformation und eine öffentliche Anerkennung erhalten sie erst durch die moderne spirituelle Heilung. Die mediale Präsenz der spirituellen Heilung zeigt, dass Krankheit und soziale Konflikte nicht mehr als lediglich die Privatsphäre betreffen. Dies impliziert eine staatliche Strategie als eine Art Sicherheitsventil für die sozio-wirtschaftlichen Probleme vor allem der Jugendlichen (Arbeitslosigkeit, Perspektivlosigkeit, Migrationswunsch) und ebenso gegenüber dem politischen Islam. Abschließend ist die spirituelle Heilung ein fester Bestandteil des medizinischen Pluralismus in Tunesien geworden und es bestehen Bestrebungen, mit der Schulmedizin zu kooperieren. / In addition to modern medicine, traditional medicine plays an important role in the medical system of Tunisia. There are different healing methods which characterize the medical landscape of the country and they coexist in an interesting way. This variety has a remarkable impact on the health seeking behavior of the Tunisians and especially of the younger generations (17-30), who have become increasingly interested in spiritual healing (tibb ruhani). This healing method deals with illnesses including modern methods of treatment and, additionally, it focuses on a number of issues and problems which concern this age group such as social conflicts, unemployment and migration. The image of spiritual healing has changed considerably over the past ten years. This transformation has led to a new understanding of illness and healing and to the development of new strategies regarding the health seeking behavior. Spiritual healing is based, on the one hand, on religious texts, the supernatural world and its agents and, on the other hand, on traditional healing methods and modern medicine. Up to recently, the traditional healing methods only played a marginal role in the medical system and they were hardly attractive to the young generations. My fieldwork, however, clearly shows that spiritual healing has deeply aroused the interest of this age group and, at the same time, it has met with public recognition. The mass media have also become interested in the phenomenon of spiritual healing and are publishing increasing numbers of articles about the spiritual healers and their methods and by giving them the opportunity to participate in a variety of TV-shows. This new attitude towards illness, healing and social problems underlines that these topics are no longer private concerns. The spiritual healing has incorporated the current social and economic transformations. The healers have become important contacts for this age group who consult them to find adequate solutions to a wide range of their concerns. The government profits from this new role of the spiritual healing and it uses it for various purposes such as to alleviate social tensions. The importance of the spiritual healing in Tunisia is also underlined by the serious attempt to develop an official cooperation between spiritual healing and modern medicine.