‘On the Diseases of the Head’ in theScale of Medicineby Muhammad Akbar Arzānī [d. 1722]

Abstract

This Classic Text examines the Mīzān-e Tibb (Scale of Medicine), an influential medical text by Muhammad Akbar Arzānī which circulated widely throughout South Asia. The success of Arzānī's text rests in its simple prose and the translation of Graeco-Arabic medical knowledge into Persian, the language of educated discourse throughout South Asia. His chapter 'Dar Amrā-e Ras' (On the Diseases of the Head) presents the classification and treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders within South Asian, Islamic medicine. The excerpt below is taken from a critically edited text published in 2001 in Iran.