This volume uniquely looks into the "practice" of medical care in the medieval world, particularly amongst the Jewish communities of Egypt. It examines the medicinal prescriptions, lists of materia medica and letters between physicians, pharmacists and patients found in the Cairo Genizah. Most histories of medieval medicine of the eastern Mediterranean are based upon theoretical Arabic writings. Here the authors examine, analyze and contextualize these medieval prescriptions also from the perspective of ethnobotanists, and as a result, provide an innovative insight into the everyday practice of medieval medicine and the historical use of the medicinal substances in the Medieval Mediterranean world. The result is a much needed contribution to medical-historical scholarship interested in the everyday practice of medicine of the common people of the medieval period.
Efraim Lev, B.A, Ms.C., Ph.D. (1999), is a senior lecturer at the Dept. of Eretz Israel Studies and School of Public Health at the University of Haifa, Israel. He has published extensively on ethnopharmacology and history of medicine and pharmacology in the Levant.
Zohar Amar, B.A, M.A., Ph.D. (1996) is a senior lecturer at the Dept. of Land of Israel and Archaeology at Bar Ilan University. He has published extensively on the history of nature in Israel, Ancient medicine and realia in the Levant according to Jewish and Muslim sources.