24. The final page of a treatise on the
medicinal uses of opium by ‘Imad
al-Din Mahmud Shirazi (fl. mid-
16th century). According to the
colophon, written diagonally
alongside the bottom 9 lines of text,
the copy was completed in the city
of Kirman in the month of Rajab
999 (= April-May 1591). The
copyist is not named. It is possible
that this copy was made during the
author's lifetime or shortly
thereafter. At the bottom left of the
page there is the impression of an
undated oval owner's stamp which
reads: al-hakim ('doctor') and al-
Qur ..[?]. There are also recipes
written vertically at the lower right.
38. Razi's paper
Al-Shahid bin al-Hossein al-Balkhi wrote a letter to Razi (865-
925 AD) asking about the reason of the illness of Abu-Zeid bin
Ahmad bin Sahl al-Balkhi al-Katib. Razi replied to him:
'In the name of God, the Beneficient, the Merciful"
`I understood all that you asked about his illness, as to the cause
of the disease and why it becomes worse during pollinisation
(Spring season) when the smell Of flowers' amplifies the illness.
So I shall concentrate on the prophylaxis and treatment of the
disease very briefly (Figure 2).
39. Reflecting his own experience, ‘Imad al-Din Mahmud Shirazi
wrote a treatise in Persian on the medical and addictive
properties of opium and its use in compound remedies. The
National Library of Medicine has a copy of this treatise that was
made in Kirman in the month of Rajab 999 [= April-May 1591],
possibly during the author's lifetime or shortly thereafter; it
appears to