al-Kalām al-yasīr fī ʻilāj al-maqʻadah wa-al-bawāsīr

The present manuscript preserves a copy of a brief medical treatise by the erudite polymath Aḥmad ibn ʻAbd al-Munʻim al-Damanhūrī (1690-1778). The name of al-Damanhūrī more traditionally is connected with his activity as a professor at Al-Azhar University in Cairo and with his numerous treatises on politics, Islamic law, logic, and rhetoric. One of his works, a fatwa in which he criticized the building of new churches and the reopening of old ones in 18th-century Cairo, recently has been published in English translation. The treatise in this manuscript shows a different aspect of al-Damanhūrī's intellectual activity: his medical knowledge. The Kalām al-yasīr fī ʻilāj al-maqʻada wa-al-bawāsīr (The little treatise on the medical treatment of the back and of hemorrhoids) is a medical work in which al-Damanhūrī addresses the treatment of calculi--in particular of kidney and bladder calcul--and deals briefly with cures for hemorrhoids and for back pain. A noteworthy feature of the work is the practical and straightforward style in which the author explains the possible remedies for these illnesses. World Digital Library. The text addresses the causes, diagnosis, and medical treatment by diet and drugs of calculi (stones) in the kidney, bladder, hemorrhoids, and hips. The text was written in 1169 H [1755]. The colophon is followed by a second incomplete text.