ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ
1 . Download Link (PDF file)
→ Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa, History of Physicians, trad. L. Kopf ←
This file is updated on a regular basis.
2 . Preliminary remark
The aim of this project is twofold:
- bring L. Kopf's translation to a large audience and enhance its value;
- present the full Arabic text on facing pages.
As such, this project is not about making a new critical edition of the Arabic text.
However, this edition will be published as a TEI xml compliant file that can be searched in many ways. The Arabic text and the parallel English translation will be gradually segmented and correlated with other sources and parallel redactions. It will also be possible to insert in this online edition scholarly notes and comments.
3 . Overview of the project
L. Kopf's translation of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa's Sources of Informations on the Classes of Physicians (عيون الأنباء في طبقات الأطبّاء) represents for us a masterpiece of paramount importance. It can be found as a typescript in the collections of the U.S. National Library of Medicine under the call number MS C 294.
We know it thanks to Roger Pearce's and Douglas Galbi's works. Douglas Galgi took the photographs of each of the 976 pages of the typescript. Then Roger Pearse processed the images with computer-driven OCR and put the text online on the web site of the Tertullian Project.
I present here the text in one suitable PDF formatted file, with a Table of Contents including hyperkinks that point to the appropriate pages and sections. I also included M. Plessner's annotations as particular footnotes in which the original pagination is preserved. At the end of the volume, I put two attempts at indexing some words and proper names. Footnotes numbers, headings of the Table of Contents, as well as the numbers of the pages in the indices are all hyperlinks making easy to navigate from one page to another.
The text contains a number of typos that usually occur in OCR processed texts; there are also a number of errors of vocalization in the proper names. Besides, L. Kopf did not translate all the text, and not all the verses are translated. However, this translation, just as L. Kopf left it, will be of invaluable help to the scholars.
Moreover, L. Kopf's translation makes possible to achieve a complete edition of Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa's text. This project, which I am working on under the aegis of the French CNRS UMR 8167 Unit «Orient et Méditerranée», will be performed according the following steps:
- correction of typos and errors of vocalization;
- correction of L. Kopf's translation whenever necessary;
- indexing proper names and toponyms;
- indexing quoted passages/works;
- typesetting Arabic text on facing pages.
The passages left aside by L. Kopf will also be translated as the text is corrected.
