Medicine and the Commentary Tradition in Early Modern India

Medical study in the early modern Islamic world, like that of law, required that its students be well-versed in both theory and practice. Without the former, a physician’s education on the foundations of Ṭibb (medicine) was not considered complete. But, without the latter, medical applications and interventions would fail. Contrary to the longstanding belief that commentaries written in the pre-modern Islamic world were simply repetitions of their original sources, this research aims to demonstrate that the Indian commentary tradition on the thirteenth-century, Central Asian scholar, Najīb al-Dīn al-Samarqandī’s (d. 619/222) medical encyclopedia - al-Asbāb wa al-ʿAlāmāt (The Causes and the Symptoms) - was a ground for the development of Yūnānī Ṭibb (Greek medicine) in Mughal and colonial India, as well as a way for Indian medical scholars to gain higher standing within their intellectual and social spheres.

From the year 1700 until around 1815, seven major commentaries were produced in India on the Asbāb. These commentaries demonstrate the ways in which Ṭibb developed and adapted in relation to its Indian environment, one that was largely foreign to its Greco-Arabic origins. And, while much of the intellectual production during this period is assumed to have been written in Persian, this research also explores the role that Arabic played in the study and teaching of Ṭibb in the region through its eighteenth- and nineteenth-century commentaries. This approach therefore seeks to show how early modern Indian medical commentaries, written largely in Arabic, offer a window into the social, educational, and practical implications of Ṭibb in Mughal and colonial India.