Syrups from the Apothecary's Shop: a Genizah Fragment Containing one of the Earliest Manuscripts of Minhāj Al-Dukkān*

摘要

Minhāj al-dukkān wa-dustūr al-a'yān fī a'māl wa-tarākīb al-adwiya al-nāfi'a lil-insān (‘The management of the [pharmacist's] shop and the rule for the notables on the preparation and composition of medicines beneficial to Man’) is a manual for pharmacists composed in the year 658/1260 in Cairo by the otherwise unknown Abū 'l-Munā Dāwūd b. Abī Naṣr al-Kūhīn al-'Aṭṭār al-Hārūnī al-Isrā'īlī, from his name a Jewish druggist. Minhāj al-dukkān was composed in the period covered by the Genizah, but hitherto no such manuscript has been identified. We were able to identify T-S Ar. 40.91 as a fragment of chapter two of Minhāj al-dukkān. In this article we will present a transcription and translation of T-S Ar. 40.91, followed by a description of the sources and materia medica referred to. Finally, we will show that this fragment is a remnant of one of the earliest manuscripts of Minhāj al-dukkān found so far.