‘Like a Virgin’: A Sogdian Recipe for Restoring Virginity and the Sanskrit Background of Sogdian Medicine

Abstract

Among the fragments of Sogdian medical texts is what seems to be a collection of gynaecological prescriptions, including a recipe for the restoration of virginity. In addition to providing an edition and translation of the text, we attempt to set it within a comparative context including recipes for virginal simulation occuring in Arabic, Chagatai, Greek, and Latin medieval works. Finally, we identify the text as, like much of Sogdian medicine, possible Sanskrit origin, and give an overview of the Sogdian medical fragments so far identified.