Letter: T-S AS 146.164

Description

Small fragment of a certificate or possibly a letter concerning the licensing of an ophthalmologist: "[X and Av?]raham testify in his favor that he is qualified for prac[tice and] for the treatment of diseases of the eye, and the document/signature of the revered qāḍī Fatḥ al-Dīn the [[former]] supervisor of the physicians and his colleagues. . . . before the pious sulṭān. . . and may [God] make his reputation mighty." The authority mentioned here, Fatḥ al-Dīn, is probably identical with Fatḥ al-Dīn b. Jamāl al-Dīn ʿUthmān b. Hibatallāh Ibn Abī l-Ḥawāfir also known simply as Fatḥ al-Dīn al-Qaysī (d. 1240s or 1250s), who served al-Malik al-Kāmil (r. 1218–38) and al-Malik al-Ṣāliḥ (r. 1240–49). The Judaeo-Arabic hand is consistent with this dating. See Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa (https://doi.org/10.1163/37704_0668IbnAbiUsaibia.Tabaqatalatibba.lhom-tr-eng1), section 14.45, and see Brockelmann, Supplement, vol. 1, pp. 897–98. This Fatḥ al-Dīn wrote an ophthalmology treatise called "Natījat al-fikar fī ʿilāj amrāḍ al-baṣar." IAU does not mention that he was a qāḍī or that he was the supervisor of the physicians (mushārif al-aṭibbāʾ), though he does state that both Fatḥ al-Dīn's father Jamāl al-Dīn and his son Shihāb al-Dīn held the position chief physician (raʾīs al-aṭibbāʿ). (Information in part from CUDL.)