フナイン・ブン・イスハーク『医学問答集』の諸問題

第６章の構造と出典

抄録

While Questions on Medicine (Al-Masāˀil fī al-ṭibb) is generally known as a work of Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq (d. 873), sources inform us that it was completed by his nephew and pupil Ḥubaysh ibn al-Ḥasan who made the additions that now comprise the latter part of the work. An important question that remains unanswered is where exactly the additions by Ḥubaysh begin. This article attempts to shed some light on this question through an examination of the structure and the sources of the sixth chapter of the work, the last question of which has traditionally been held to be where the additions by Ḥubaysh start.

   The author of Chapter Six uses arguments taken from Galen and the Alexandrian Compendia (Jawāmiˁ) of Galenic works. The first part of the chapter contains sentences that closely parallel the summary of Galen's On the Temperament, Book III, as found in the Jawāmiˁ. The second part is composed essentially of citations from Galen's On the Properties of Simple Medicaments, Books I and IV. The close resemblance of this part to the Galenic treatise suggests that the author wrote it by translating the Greek text himself. The rest of the chapter, with the exception of the last question, is heavily dependent on On the Composition of Medicaments according to Kind, Books I and II.

   The style of argument in the chapter is different from the question-and-answer style used in the earlier chapters. The contents of the chapter closely reflect those of the above-mentioned pharmaceutical works of Galen. The expressions used in this chapter are characteristic of Ḥubaysh There is also a tradition that tells us that Ḥubaysh's contribution begins in the middle of Chapter Five. These considerations lead us to conclude that Chapter Six of Questions on Medicine was written by Ḥubaysh and not by Ḥunayn.