The Doctors' Dinner Party / Ibn Buṭlān, Philip F. Kennedy, and Jeremy Farrell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Buṭlān, Ibn, author.

Kennedy, Philip F., author.

Farrell, Jeremy, author.

Series:

Library of Arabic literature ; Volume 85.

Library of Arabic Literature Series ; Volume 85

Standardized Title:

Daʻwat al-aṭibbāʼ. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Persecution--Juvenile fiction.

Persecution.

Families--Juvenile fiction.

Families.

Physicians--Juvenile fiction.

Physicians.

Communism--Juvenile fiction.

Communism.

Genre:

Novellas.

Satirical literature.

Satirical literature

Novellas

novellas.

Satire.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : New York University Press, [2023]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

A witty satire of the medical profession The 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.

Contents:

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:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4798-1879-8

OCLC:

1371573373