Last update:

   11-Sep-2020
 

Arch Hellen Med, 37(Supplement 2), 2020, 250-256

ISLAMIC MEDICINE

A study on chapters related to nephrology in Qıṭaʿātu neqāve fī tercemeti kelimāti Boerhāv
by Ṣubḥī-zāde ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Efendi in the eighteenth century

A. Aciduman,1 A. Balat2
1Department of History of Medicine and Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara
2Department of Pediatric Nephrology and Rheumatology, Faculty of Medicine İstanbul Aydın University, İstanbul, Turkey

OBJECTIVE Ṣubḥī-zāde ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Efendi (1735–1783), a chief physician, translated the famous Dutch physician Hermann Boerhaave's (1668–1738) Aphorisms, known as Aphorismi de cognoscendis et curandis morbis in usum doctrinae domesticae digesti, into Turkish as Qıṭaʿātu neqāve fī tercemeti kelimāti Boerhāve (1769). Turkish medical historians have found this work important because it is one of the "first complete translations of European medicine" for Ottoman medicine. This study aims to identify and evaluate the topics related to nephrology in Qıṭaʿātu neqāve fī tercemeti kelimāti Boerhāve.

METHOD In this study, manuscripts of Qıṭaʿātu neqāve fī tercemeti kelimāti Boerhāve registered in Süleymaniye Manuscript Library, Esad Efendi Collection, nr. 2462 and Beyazıt State Library, Veliyüddin Efendi Collection, nr. 2484 were examined. First, sections on nephrological diseases were identified, and then Turkish texts written in Arabic letters were transliterated into the contemporary Turkish alphabet. English translations of Boerhaave's Aphorisms were used for comparison.

RESULTS The subjects related to nephrology in this work are examined under the headings of "kidney pain" and "urolithiasis". The section on "pain of the kidneys" or "nephritis" consists of 14 aphorisms (993–1006), explaining the causes, signs, symptoms, and treatments of nephritis. The section on "urolithiasis" contains 26 aphorisms (1414–1439), elaborating the causes, signs, symptoms, treatments, and interventional methods, e.g., lithotomy, for kidney and bladder stones.

CONCLUSIONS Qıṭaʿātu neqāve fī tercemeti kelimāti Boerhāve on the approach of European medicine to nephrological diseases was almost immediately transferred to Ottoman medical literature. In this book, Latin and Greek medical terms, such as nephritis, pelvis, ureter, calculus, and a surgical intervention called lithotomy by Europeans, are probably used for the first time in Ottoman medical literature.

Key words: Aphorisms, Boerhaave, Nephrological problems, Qıṭaʿātu neqāve fī tercemeti kelimāti Boerhāve, Ṣubḥī-zāde ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz.


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