Seerah Ibn Abi Usaybi'a — Muwaffaq al-Din Abu al-'Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Qasim ibn Abi Usaybi'a al-Khazraji (1203-1270 CE): The Syrian Physician-Biographer Who Compiled 'Uyun al-Anba' fi Tabaqat al-Atibba' (Springs of Information on the Classes of Physicians — the Most Comprehensive Arabic History of Medicine and Biographical Dictionary of Physicians, Covering Greek Physicians, Islamic Doctors From al-Kindi to Ibn Rushd, and the Author's Own Contemporaries)

Seerah Ibn Abi Usaybi'a (سِيرَةُ ابنِ أَبِي أُصَيبِعَة; full name: Muwaffaq al-Din Abu al-'Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Qasim ibn Khalifa ibn Yunus al-Sa'di al-Khazraji, known as Ibn Abi Usaybi'a; born 600 AH / 1203 CE in Damascus; died 668 AH / 1270 CE in Salkhad [in modern southern Syria]; medical background: his father was a physician who served the Ayyubid princes; he studied medicine in Damascus and Cairo; he practiced in Cairo and later in Salkhad; his teacher in medicine included Ibn al-Nafis [who would later describe pulmonary circulation]; the major work: 'Uyun al-Anba' fi Tabaqat al-Atibba' [عُيُونُ الأَنبَاءِ فِي طَبَقَاتِ الأَطِبَّاء — Springs of Information on the Classes of Physicians]: the most comprehensive Arabic-language history of medicine and biographical dictionary of physicians ever compiled; coverage: [1] pre-Greek and Greek physicians: Hermes, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Dioscorides, Galen [extensive coverage of Galen, who dominated Islamic medical theory]; Hunayn ibn Ishaq and the Greek-Arabic translation movement; [2] physicians of Alexandria; [3] Arab and Islamic physicians by region: physicians of Syria, Iraq [Baghdad], Egypt, al-Andalus, the Maghrib, Khorasan; [4] biographies through the author's own time [13th century]; notable biographies: [1] Ibn Sina [Avicenna] — detailed account drawing on Ibn Sina's own autobiography; [2] al-Razi [Rhazes] — his method, his prolific writing, his alcoholism reportedly causing blindness; [3] Ibn Rushd [Averroes] — the philosopher-physician's last years; [4] Ibn Maymun [Maimonides] — the Jewish physician to Saladin's court; [5] Hunayn ibn Ishaq — the master translator from Greek; [6] the Banu Musa — the brothers who sponsored translation; the biographical format: education, teachers, published works [with titles], notable cures or medical achievements, death date and circumstances; Ibn Abi Usaybi'a often includes poetry and anecdotes; the historical significance: without 'Uyun al-Anba', the biography of hundreds of Islamic physicians from the 8th-13th centuries would be unrecoverable; he preserved titles of lost works; his accounts of the Greek heritage in Islamic medicine are essential for the history of science; his teacher Ibn al-Nafis: Ibn Abi Usaybi'a studied with Ibn al-Nafis [d. 1288], who is famous for describing the pulmonary circuit of blood [against Galen's view of blood passing through the septum of the heart]; 'Uyun al-Anba' does not discuss this discovery [which may not have been known or recognized until later]; Ibn Abi Usaybi'a was a contemporary and witness but not the vehicle for Ibn al-Nafis's primary medical legacy; the Ayyubid and Mamluk medical world: Ibn Abi Usaybi'a practiced in the court environment of the Ayyubids; his work reflects the high valuation of Greek-Islamic medicine in the Syrian-Egyptian scholarly world; legacy: 'Uyun al-Anba' was edited by the German orientalist August Mueller [1882-1884] and is cited in every study of Islamic medicine and the history of science) is Islamic medicine's principal biographer.