Majnūn: The Madman in Medieval Islamic Society

559 Pages·1992·38.208 MB·English

by  Dols, Michael W.

MA]NUN: THE MADMAN IN
MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC SOCIETY
MICHAEL W. DOLS
Edited by
Diana E. lmmisch
CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD
1992
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford ox2 6DP
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Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press, New York
© Estate of Michael W. Dols 1992
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without
the prior permission of Oxford University Press
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Dols, Michael W. (Michael Walters), 1942-89
Majun: the madman in medieval Islamic society I Michael W. Dols;
edited by Diana E. Immisch.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Mental illness-Islamic Empire-Public opinion. 2. Mentally
ill-Islamic Empire-Public opinion. 3. Public opinion-Islamic
Empire. 4. Psychiatry and religion-Islamic Empire. I. Immisch,
Diana E. //. Title.
RC449.I7D65 1992
616.89' 00917' 671-dc20 92-13296
ISBN 0-19-820221-0
Typeset by Hope Services (Abingdon) Ltd.
Printed and bound in
Great Britain by Biddies Ltd.,
Guildford and King's Lynn
To my brother and his wife,
Bill and Shirley.
FOREWORD
Michael W. Dols died on 1 December 1989, following a year in which he
battled ever increasing debilitation with a determination solely inspired
by his desire to complete the final draft of Majnun. At the time of his
death, the manuscript had been submitted to Oxford University Press
and the advisers' comments and suggestions had arrived in the mail. A
response to these reviews, plus final editing and footnote attribution, still
needed to be done.
The task of overseeing the book through the press had been charged to
me, Michael's long-time research assistant, student, and friend, in March
1989, when Michael realized how little time was left. It was my
privilege-and pain-to work with Michael through those last difficult
months. In the spring and early summer we would work at the kitchen
table; in the later months we would struggle to make progress in
the surreal setting of Michael's sick-room. Never once, no matter
how tenuous his grip on normalcy, did Michael's commitment and
determination waver.
Here then, is the final work of the meticulous and innovative scholar,
Michael W. Dols. As was the case with his previous works, so too does
this text illuminate an under-researched and little-understood aspect of
medieval Islamic society. Michael's research into contemporary writings,
some never before examined, revealed a wealth of first- and second-hand
accounts of insane men and women and. the familial, communal, and
legal attitudes toward them. The author's major objective was to place
the subject of insanity in its historical context, to examine its
significance, not only within the fields of medicine, theology, magic, and
law, but also within the social milieu of Islamic society. Every aspect of
madness is examined: the medical context and its relation to the
development of Islamic sciences and institutions; the practice of religious
healing, particularly among Muslim saints; and the phenomenon of the
holy fool as an expression of Muslim religiosity. The work concludes
with translations of three treatises, two by Ibn Sina, the third by
Sarabiyun ibn Ibrahim.
As a scholar, writer, and teacher, Michael's commitment was to the
truth. Once only have I known him to dissemble: throughout his
illness, he would attempt to comfort those close to him with the
Vlll Foreword
assertion that he had accomplished all that he had sought to do in life.
We who mourn know this assertion to be untrue. His book about the
history of the hospital in medieval Islamic society, the groundwork for
which had already been laid, and the drawings and paintings, the talent
for which was only just developing, are but two of the legacies ~f which
the world has been deprived by Michael Dols' untimely death.
Diana E. Immisch
October, 1991
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Like the Gerasene demoniac, my obligations are legion. Initially, the
project was boldly supported by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation Fellowship, at a time when the history of insanity was not a
popular subject. Subsequently, research in Egypt was aided by grants
from the American Research Center in Egypt and the American Council
of Learned Societies. I am very grateful for a sabbatical leave from
California State University, Hayward, and a fellowship from the
National Endowment for the Humanities (HR-20740-86); these grants
permitted me to carry out my work in the ideal conditions at Oxford
University, where I was associated with the Wellcome Unit for the
History of Medicine and was a visiting fellow of Corpus Christi College.
I am appreciative of Charles Webster, the former director of the
Wellcome Unit, and the Presidents of Corpus, Sir Kenneth Dover and
Sir Keith Thomas, for facilitating my study. At the Unit, I am
particularly indebted to Thomas Patterson, Andrew Newman, Irvine
and Jean Loudon, and Anne Marie Rafferty, and at Corpus, to Elizabeth
Rawson, Isobel Harvey, and James Howard Johnston. Furthermore,
I am very grateful to the following friends and colleagues for reading
parts of the manuscript: Patricia Crone, Julie S. Meisami, Gary Leiser,
Peter Brown, Emilie Savage-Smith, Sebastian Brock, Donald Richards,
and especially Peregrine Horden and Nicholas ...
It was at this point that Michael became too ill to write, and his last,
hand-written, notes do not reveal the names of other colleagues and
friends he might have acknowledged. I know that he would wish to
honour his neighbour Ralph Wooton, and his brother and sister-in
law, Bill and Shirley, for their care and support during that last, difficult
year. Indeed, it is to Bill and Shirley that the book is dedicated. On my
own behalf, I would like to thank Bill for his trust in me, Sandra Threlfall
for her word-processing skills, Gary Leiser for his help and encourage
ment, Dean Alan M. Smith, Ann Jamison, Claire David-Shaw, and Rose
Carrillo for their invaluable assistance, and Barbara Kwan for all her help
in the library of California State University, Hayward.
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xm
ABBREVIATIONS XIV
TRANSLITERATION XVI
Introduction
I
/. Healing, Natural and Supernatural: Medicine, Religion, and Magic
I. Galen and Mental Illness 17
2. Galen into Arabic 38
3· The Reformulation of Greek Medicine 48
4· Medical Madness 62
(a) al-Majiisi 62
(b) ls}:iaq ibn 'Imran 70
(c) Ibn Sina 73
( 1) Pathology 91
(2) Syndromes 92
(3) Treatment 102
5· Other Causes of Insanity 104
6. The Treatment of the Insane 112
(a) Hospital Care 112
(b) Familial Care 135
(c) Psychotherapy 157
7. Religious Healing: TheJudaeo-Christian Background 174
8. Religious Healing in Islam 211
(a) Mu}:iammad and the Demons 211
(b) Holy Healing 223
(c) Prophetic Healing 243
XU Contents
9. The Theory of Magic in Healing
10. The Practice of Magic in Healing 274
I I. Perception: Profane and Sacred
11. The Romantic Fool 313
(a) Majniin and Layla 320
(b) Zulaykha and Joseph 340
(c) Kamar az-Zaman and Budiir 345
12. The Wise Fool 349
13. The Holy Fool 366
(a) The Fool for Christ's Sake 366
(b) The Fool for God's Sake 374
( 1) Ascetic Aesthetes 375
(2) Feigned and Cultivated Madness 379
(3) Mystical Madness 388
(4) Latter-day Saints 410
Ill. Unreason: Privilege and Deprivation
14. Insanity in Islamic Law 42 5
(a) Background 425
(b) Islamic Law 434
5. The State and the Insane 4 56
1
Conclusions 475
Appendices: Translations
Sarabiyiin ibn Ibrahim, al-Fusul al-muhimmah, Bodl. Hunt.
1.
MS 461, eh. 9, fos. 39b-4oa: Three Cases of Melancholia by Rufus
of Ephesus 479
2. Ibn Sina, al-Qanun, Bulaq edn., vol. ii, pp. 63-5: On Mania
and Rabies 48 1
3. Ibn Sina, al-Qanun, Bulaq edn., vol. ii, pp. 71-3:
Lovesickness 484
BIBLIOGRAPHY 486
INDICES 517
LIST OF ILL UST RATIONS
Between pp. 272 and 273
1. Plan of al-Man~uri Hospital, Cairo, by Pascal Coste (Architecture
arabe ou monuments du Kaire (Paris, 18 39 ), plate 15 ) .
2. Visit to the lunatic asylum: miniature f~om the Album of Ahmed I
(early 17th century), detail. (A. Siiheyl Unver, 'L'Album d'Ahmed
Ie", Annali dell' I stituto Universitario Orientale di Napoli, NS 3
1
(1963), 162.)
3. The equestrian figure of Mar Thaumasios (?) fighting the Spirit of
Lunacy: illustrated in The Book of Protection, Being a Collection of
Charms, ed. and trans. Hermann Gollancz (London, 1912), p. 20 of
Codex A, probably 16th century. (The original manuscript was given
by Gollancz to the Library of University College, London, and was
destroyed in World War II.)
4. Instructions for exorcising the possessed from a~-Sanaubari al
Hindi's ar-Raf?ma fi t-tibb (Cairo, 1959), 172-3.
5. BL Add. MS 25900, fo. 114b. Majnun at the Ka'ba with his father
and other pilgrims. Inscription above the door reads: 'Hasten to
prayer before food', and a Qur'anic text is at the top. Laila u M ajnun
from Niiami's Khamseh, Herat, AD 1492-3. (N. M. Titley, Miniatures
from Persian Manuscripts (London, 1977), no. 311.)
6. BL Or. MS 2265, fo. 157b. Majnun brought in chains before
Layla's tent. Painted by Mir Sayyid 'Ali. Laila u Majnun from
Niiami's Khamseh, Tabriz-Safavid, 946-50/i 539-4 3. (Titley, Mini
atures, no. 3 5.)
1
7. BL Or. MS 6810, fo. 128b. Majnun visited by Salim in the desert.
Laila u Majnun from Niiami's Khamseh, Herat-Timurid, AD 1494-5.
(Tidey, Miniatures, no. 319.)
8. Bodleian MS Marsh 431, fo. 35b. Zulaykha, mad with love for
Yusuf, has to be restrained with chains in the women's quarters of the
palace, Shiraz, c. AD 15 75. (B. W. Robinson, A Descriptive Catalogue
of the Persian Paintings in the Bodleian Library (Oxford, 1958), no.
865.)
ABBREVIATIONS
BHM Bulletin of the History of Medicine (Baltimore).
csco
Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium: Scriptores
Arabici (Paris, 1903- ); Scriptores Syri (Paris, 1907- ).
Dozy R. P. A. Dozy, Supplement aux Dictionnaires Arabes
(2 vols.; Paris, 1967), reprint.
DSB Dictionary of Scientific Biography, ed. Charles C. Gillespie
(16 vols.; New York, 1970-80).
Elr The Encyclopaedia of Islam (4 vols.; Leiden-London,
1913-34).
Eh The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edn. (Leiden-London,
1960- ).
EI Supplement The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Supplement (Leiden, 1980- ).
Elr Encyclopaedia Iranica (London, Boston, Henley, 1982- ).
GAL Carl Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur,
2nd edn. (2 vols.; Leiden, 1945-9); Supplement (3 vols.;
Leiden, 1937-42).
GAS Fuat Sezgin, ed., Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums
(Leiden, 1967- ).
/]MES International Journal of Middle East Studies (Cambridge).
IM Manfred Ullmann, Islamic Medicine (Islamic Surveys, II;
Edinburgh, 1978).
fi
'lmran Isl:iaq ibn 'Imran, 'Maqala 1-Malikhuliya' (Abhandlungen
uber die Melancholie) und Constantini Africani, 'Libri
duo de melancholia', ed. and trans. Karl Garbers
(Hamburg, 1976).
]AOS Journal of the American Oriental Society (New Haven,
Conn.).
]HBS Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (Brandon,
Vt.).
]HMAS journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
(Minneapolis).
Kiihn Carolus Gottlob Kiihn, ed., Claudii Galeni Opera omnia
(20 vols.; Leipzig, 1821-33; repr. Hildesheim, 1965).
Lane E.W. Lane, An Arabic-English Lexicon (8 vols.; London,
1886-93; repr. New York, 1955-6).
MD Stanley W. Jackson, Melancholia and Depression: From
Hippocratic Times to Modern Times (New Haven,
Conn., 1987).
MI Manfred Ullmann, Die Medizin im Islam (Handbuch der
Orientalistik, ed. B. Spuler, vol. i, no. 6, pt. 1; Leiden,
1970).