Commentary: On Ibn Sīnā’s Canon of Medicine

Hibatallāh ibn Zayn al-Dīn Ibn Jumay‘ al-Isrā’īlī was a Jewish physician and scholar active in Fustāt (Old Cairo). He was one of the private physicians of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn (Saladin, r. 1169–1193) and the preeminent physician at the Islamic court. Ibn Jumay‘ was, it appears, the first commentator on Ibn Sīnā’s Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn fī ’l-ṭibb). Among his other medical and scientific treatises, Ibn Jumay‘ wrote a popular medical compendium called Book on the Guidance of the Welfare of Souls and Bodies (Kitāb al-irshād li-maṣāliḥ al-anfus wa-’l-ajsād), and a treatise addressed to Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn on the revival of medicine.