Journal of Research on History of Medicine

Journal of Research on History of Medicine

Challenges in Verifying Historical Ophthalmological Texts: The Case of a Turkish Book Derived from a Persian Source

Document Type : Conference Paper

Authors
Mahnaz Sadat Mortazavi 1
Fuat Ince 2
Shahrzad Irannejad 3
Arman Zargaran 1
1 Department of History of Medicine, School of Persian Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Department of History of Medicine and Ethics, Faculty of Medicine, Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkiye
3 Institute for History of Pharmacy and Medicine at the Philipps University of Marburg, Germany
10.30476/rhm.2025.108947.1372
Abstract
This study aims to describe the challenges of authenticating and establishing the uniqueness of historical ophthalmological treatises by way of comparative analysis of two significant texts: the Persian “Zaḫīre-ye Ḫāwarizmšāhī” authored by Isma’īl Ibn Ḥusayn Ğurğānī (1040-1136 AD) and the Turkish “Mīftāḥ al-Nūr wa-Ḫazāʾīn al-Surūr” of Muʾmin Ibn Muqbil, a 15th-century Ottoman oculist from Sinop (present-day Turkey). Although the latter claims independent scholar merit, investigation confirms that it is an adaptation and translation of the Ğurğānī’s work. It raises major issues in medical historical scholarship, such as proper source material identification, translation concerns, and the consequences of misattribution in the history of ophthalmology. It accentuates the importance of rigorous source authentication protocols in ensuring scholarly integrity and generating more understanding of the transmission of medical knowledge in the Islamicate world, specifically in the Iranian plateau and Anatolia. It also addresses implications of broad significance for historians examining the development of ophthalmological knowledge in different cultures.
Keywords
Ophthalmology
History of Medicine
Eye diseases
Persian Medicine
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Journal of Research on History of Medicine
Volume 14, Suppl. 1
The 2nd History of Medicine Meeting: Entangled Histories: Contribution of Iran and Türkiye to the Development of Medical Sciences; 2025 Oct 7-10; Shiraz, Iran
October 2025
Pages 31-36