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"Preparing Medicine from Honey", from a Dispersed Manuscript of an Arabic Translation of De Materia Medica of Dioscorides

dated 621 AH/1224 CE
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 454
One of the most influential medical treatises handed down to Muslims was De Materia Medica, by a first-century B.C. Greek physician in Cilicia (southern Anatolia). The left page concerns making medicine from honey and water, prescribed to cure weakness and loss of appetite. A doctor holds a gold cup while stirring the boiling honey and water in a cauldron as he prepares to scoop it up for the seated patient. The architectural setting suggests that the drugs are being produced in a pharmacy like those attached to hospitals in the Seljuq lands. In the illustration on the right, a doctor and his assistant or patient stand on either side of a sieve through which grapes are pressed and then combined with brine and an onion-like herb to produce a medicine to cure digestive disorders.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: "Preparing Medicine from Honey", from a Dispersed Manuscript of an Arabic Translation of De Materia Medica of Dioscorides
  • Calligrapher: 'Abdullah ibn al-Fadl
  • Date: dated 621 AH/1224 CE
  • Geography: Attributed to Iraq, Baghdad
  • Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
  • Dimensions: H. 12 3/8 in. (31.4 cm)
    W. 9 in. (22.9 cm)
  • Classification: Codices
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Cora Timken Burnett, 1956
  • Object Number: 57.51.21
  • Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

More Artwork

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"Physician Preparing an Elixir", Folio from a Materia Medica of Dioscorides, 'Abdullah ibn al-Fadl, Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
"Physician Preparing an Elixir", Folio from a Materia Medica of Dioscorides
'Abdullah ibn al-Fadl
dated 621 AH/1224 CE
"Men Treading Grapes", Folio from a Materia Medica of Dioscorides, Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
"Men Treading Grapes", Folio from a Materia Medica of Dioscorides
dated 621 AH/1224 CE
Folio from a Qur'an Manuscript, Ahmad ibn al-Suhrawardi al-Bakri, Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
Folio from a Qur'an Manuscript
Ahmad ibn al-Suhrawardi al-Bakri
Muhammad ibn Aibak ibn 'Abdallah
dated 707 AH/1307–8 CE
Opening Folio of the 26th Volume of the "Anonymous Baghdad Qur'an", Ahmad ibn al-Suhrawardi al-Bakri, Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
Opening Folio of the 26th Volume of the "Anonymous Baghdad Qur'an"
Ahmad ibn al-Suhrawardi al-Bakri
Muhammad ibn Aibak ibn 'Abdallah
706 AH/1306–7 CE
Section from a Qur'an Manuscript, Ink, gold, and opaque watercolor on paper
Section from a Qur'an Manuscript
dated 588 AH/1192–93 CE

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