ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, the Surgeon

In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
From the Sustainer of the cosmos I seek assistance. Praise be to God, who granted this community healing in the medicine of Muhammad. He healed the diseases of its understanding through His truthful tradition, after they had stood at the edge of the abyss in the sickness of falsehood. I praise Him with a praise by which the weak grows strong. And I thank Him with full thanks, which may be for us the best remedy with the All-Wise, the Kind.
I bear witness that there is no god but God alone, without partner. He has made bloodletting and cupping among the most beneficial treatments for the bodies, for through both the harmful heat and the bad mixture of the humours are brought to a halt. And we bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger, who severed the vein of polytheism. Blessings be upon his family and his companions, the pious lords. Through knowledge and eloquence they united wisdom and decisive judgement. They treated the age of ignorance with their good guidance, so that it recovered, remained healthy and fared well.
To proceed: I have examined this significant treatise and noble writing. It bears the title “The Healing of Pains in the Art of Bloodletting and Cupping”. It is a didactic poem by the most perspicacious of his time and the shrewdest of his age: Shams ad-Din Muhammad, known as al-Qayyim, a surgeon by profession and by skill.
Its base text comes from the excellent Shaykh Shams ad-Din Muhammad ash-Sharbini, the surgeon, a man of all virtues. May the rain of mercy and good pleasure fall upon his grave morning and evening, and the fragrance of narcissus and basil stream from his resting place. His work bears the title “The Highest Aim concerning What Is Incumbent upon the Bloodletter and the One Bled”, for in this art it is the highest of aims.
The author read this work with him thoroughly and in depth and clarified the difficult words and meanings. He saw no other way than to put it into verse, so that these benefits would be more easily retained and these rules more easily learned. Thus arose a work more radiant than the light of the rivers and brighter than the light of nightly conversations, like poured gold or streaming rain.
The poet has achieved excellence in examining the material and has spent great effort on elaboration and precision. He has joined the words with care and dived into the depth of the meanings. He has raised the precious pearl from the base text and brought together the separate with the connected, so that the work shines in its meanings like a bride.
In this craft it has become the authoritative work, and the expert acknowledges that it is a guide and a direction. Beside it the “Tadhkira” fell into oblivion, and no other praiseworthy textbook remained to this discipline. Before it every learned scholar held back, and the history of the physicians bears witness that it reproduces what stands in the “Canon” of Ibn Sina.
When the result of this selection became visible in question and answer, the work was counted off on the fingers as the best. Its author drew from the purest core. Ibn al-Akfani, it is true, also wrote a treatise on it, but what a difference between his treatise and the treatise of Muhammad! This work strikes the core of what is sought and records what is incumbent upon the bloodletter and the one bled. Therefore the maker of its pattern and weaver of its garment deserves to be crowned with the crown of the ijāza.
So I asked God, the Exalted, for the right choice and granted him permission to practise of the art of the surgeon that which he has thoroughly mastered, so that success and good fortune may be granted to him. He may treat wounds that heal by incision, and remove arrowheads and spearheads that are visible without an incision. He may let blood and sever arteries, extract carious and corrupted teeth, close gaping wounds with thread and other means, and circumcise boys.
All this on the condition that he continues to consult the experienced heads of this discipline and the expert teachers and to serve them, with fear of God and sincerity in the craft. Then he need not fear that his craft will find no takers.
We ask God, glorified and exalted is He, to help us and him to good deeds, in every state and at every outcome. O God, I ask You out of Your immense grace for the forgiveness of our sins and for well-being for our bodies. There is no god but You, and nothing is hoped for but Your good, Lord of the worlds.
Written in his own hand by the least of the servants of the Opener, the one in need of the Truth: Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ali, the surgeon, servant of the poor and weak in the House of Healing in Egypt the well-protected. He wrote it praying, asking for blessing and peace, with the words “There is no power and no strength except with God”, and asking for forgiveness, in the blessed month of Safar of the year 1011 after the Hijra of the Prophet, upon him the best blessing and peace. And all praise belongs to God alone.

ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad, ijāza for al-Qayyim, Cairo 1602