The Doctors' Dinner Party / / Ibn Buṭlān; ed. by Jeremy Farrell, Philip F. Kennedy.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2023 English
• VerfasserIn: Buṭlān, Ibn,
• HerausgeberIn: Farrell, Jeremy,; Kennedy, Philip F.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Library of Arabic Literature ; 85
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

A witty satire of the medical professionThe Doctors’ Dinner Party is an eleventh-century satire in the form of a novella, set in a medical milieu. A young doctor from out of town is invited to dinner with a group of older medical men, whose conversation reveals their incompetence. Written by the accomplished physician Ibn Buṭlān, the work satirizes the hypocrisy of quack doctors while displaying Ibn Buṭlān’s own deep technical knowledge of medical practice, including surgery, blood-letting, and medicines. He also makes reference to the great thinkers and physicians of the ancient world, including Hippocrates, Galen, and Socrates.Combining literary parody with social satire, the book is richly textured and carefully organized: in addition to the use of the question-and-answer format associated with technical literature, it is replete with verse and subtexts that hint at the infatuation of the elderly practitioners with their young guest. The Doctors’ Dinner Party is an entertaining read in which the author skewers the pretensions of the physicians around the table.A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Letter from the General Editor -- Table of Contents -- Abbreviations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Map: The World of Ibn Buṭlān -- Note on the Text -- Notes to the Introduction -- The Doctors’ Dinner Party -- Introduction -- Part the First: The “Opening Chapter” of the Book, in Praise of Baghdad and Denigration of Mayyāfāriqīn for Its Stagnation -- Part the Second: Concerning the Offering of a Meal, and the Presentation of Decisive Arguments against Eating the Foods Provided -- Part the Third: A Description of the Symposium and its Pleasures, and a Conversation among the Doctors Present -- Part the Fourth: In Which the Physiologist Probes the Extent of the Guest’s Competence, Thereby Exposing His Ignorance -- Part the Fifth: The Ignorance of the Guest Revealed by the Questions of the Oculist -- Part the Sixth: In Which the Surgeon Considers the Guest’s Knowledge of Anatomy and Physiology -- Part the Seventh: The Examination of the Phlebotomist on the Requisite Knowledge of the Physiology of Venesection -- Part the Eighth: The Examination of the Apothecary on the Guest’s Knowledge of Remedies and Medicines -- Part the Ninth: Concerning Slanderous Doctors who are Scornful of the Sick -- Part the Tenth: A Defense of the Devoted Doctor and a Denigration of the One Who Displaced Him -- Part the Eleventh: The Public’s Denigration of the Medical Profession and the Riposte -- Part the Twelfth: The Conclusion of the Book and a Return Visit Rebuffed -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Further Reading -- Index of Materia Medica -- Index of Verse -- Index -- About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute -- About the Typefaces -- Titles Published by the Library of Arabic Literature -- About the Editor–Translators