['The spirit has left the bottle': the medieval Arabic physician 'Abd al-Latĭf ibn Yŭsuf al-Baghdădĭ: his medical work and his bizarre affiliation with twentieth-century spiritualism].

Abstract

The Arabic physician 'Abd al-Latĭf ibn Yŭsuf al-Baghdădĭ, lived at the crossroads of the twelfth and the thirteenth century. His unbridled curiosity and his unquenchable thirst for knowledge of any kind brought him to far-away countries and regions and put him in contact with all sorts and conditions of people. The great Egyptian famine of the years 1200-1202 enabled him to study and examine thousands of human cadavers and skeletons at first hand. This led to a new understanding of the anatomical structure of the human body, and rejected the more or less antiquated ideas of the Greek doctor Galen of Pergamum. However, 'Abd al-Latĭf's vision was granted only a short life. After his death, his discovery sank into oblivion and as a consequence it was never again mentioned in Arabic medical manuals. From then on the Arabic physicians once more referred to the anatomical data which were developed and taught by Galen. Relatively few specimens of his remaining medical work were preserved for posterity. However, his Book of the two advices (or: K. al-Nasĭhatain) is of the utmost importance as a source for the medical thinking and the medical treatment in the late twelfth and the early thirteenth century A.D. During the years following World War I, 'Abd al-Latĭf's name reappeared within the spiritualistic movement in England. He became known as Abduhl Latif the great Persian physician and acted as a control of mediums. Until the late sixties, he practised the art of healing as the head of a medical mission somewhere in the Spheres.