קד עלמת קול אלאטבא קוי׳ נפסאניה וקוי׳ חיואניה וקוי׳ טביעיה.
ולנפס אנא אלאן פי הדה אלאצטלאח גמיע אפעאל בדן אלאנסאן אלאפעאל
אלבדניה [ואשרף אלאפעאל אלתנפש ובעדה אלנבט[377]] ובעדה אל אחסאס.
ואשרף אלחואס אלבצר. תם אלסמע ובעד אלאחסאס שהוה אלטעאם
ואלשראב. ובעד דאלך אלכלאם. ובעד דאלך אלתמייז. אעני בה אלתכייל
ואלפכר ובעד דאלך חדכה סאיר אלאעצא עלי מעתאדהא והדה אלרטבה(sic)[378]
פי אלשרף אנמא הי בחסב צרוריה אלחיאה או צלאחיה אסתמראהא״
ובעד הדה אלמקדמה פלתעלם אן אלטביעה אסם משתרך יקאל עלי
מעאני כתירת ומן גמלה תלך אלמעאני אלקוה אלמדברה לבדן אלחיואן
פאנהא אלאטבא יסמונהא איצי טביעה והדב אלקוה הי איצי . . . . . .
פאן גלבת ען דלך בדלת מא הוא אשרף ותמסכת באלשרף פאלאשרף
.ובחסב הדה אלתרתיב יעלם אלמרץ אלח׳
‘Thou knowest the opinion of the physicians [concerning] animal
power, vital power, and natural power. But it is my intention
here to call all the functions of man’s body by the one name of
“bodily functions”. [The noblest of the functions is breathing,
next the pulse,[377]] and lastly the senses. Of the senses, the
noblest is sight, which is followed by hearing. Following on the
senses is the appetite for food and drink, after it being speech
and then the mind, by which I mean the thoughts and the intellect.
Next comes the motion of the other parts of the body according to
their customary manner. This arrangement in order of nobility is
only according to the requirements of life or the health of its
faculties.
‘From this preface you will recognize that “nature” is an equivocal
term which can be used in many meanings. One of these meanings [for
example] is “the motive power in the bodies of animals” which the
physicians call “nature” too.... And if you discover this, you will
exchange that which is nobler and retain that which is noblest. By
means of this process of arrangement, a disease can be recognized,’
&c.
This introduction was added when the folios stood in a state of
disorder different from their present one. The catchword at the bottom
of the page [وهذا = and this] points forward to the title already
mentioned,[379] which appears on folio thirty-nine of the present
arrangement. The text below this title is part of the chapter on
discharges and catarrh, so that the folio once followed immediately on
the introduction, being then, too, out of its proper place.
The last page, written in the same hand as the introduction, bears a
piece of some unidentified work and a colophon which reads:
وقد تم هذا الكتاب الشريف تاليف موسى ابن ميمون القرطبى
الاسرايلى رحمه الله مما الف وجرب هذا الكتاب المبارك وعدد فصوله
امراض البدن مما رتبه على اوضاعه (_sic_)مائة وست فصول للجميع
سبع مالة وخمسة وستين (_sic_)٦٥٢٧ تم الكتاب فى سنة
‘This noble book is finished; the composition of Mûsa ibn Maimûn
the Cordovan, the Israelite, to whom God be gracious. This blessed
book is part of that which he composed and tested. The number of
its chapters is 106, dealing with all the diseases of the body,
which he arranged in their proper order.
‘The book was completed in the year 765.’[380]
The number 106, which according to the colophon is the number of
chapters in the book, is really the number of titles in the MS. written
in large hand. Fragments of many chapters whose titles are lost still
remain in it however, while many of the chapters that have preserved
their titles are no longer complete.
Again it may be pointed out that all the known medical works of
Maimonides were written in Arabic and therefore did not need to be
translated into that language as the Bodleian MS. claims to have been.
The spurious title-page thus further betrays itself by saying that this
work was translated from _Hebrew_.
Finally, the identification of the real contents of the Paris MS.
disposes of the last foundation of the idea that Maimonides wrote any
compendium of medicine known as كتاب الاسباب والعلامات (_Tractatus de
Causis et Indiciis Morborum_), and clears up the confusion caused by
the faulty entries in the Paris and Bodleian catalogues.