Little is known about Abu al-Faraj 'Ali ibn al-Husayn ibn Hindu except that he seems to have been well known as a physician but more so as a poet, and that his son reported that he died in
1032/423. In this treatise, he discusses what a student should know about medicine and other necessary disciplines such as philosophy and logic; defines and discusses medical terms; lists and
briefly describes diseases; and lists simple and compound drugs, foodstuffs, unusual terms of disease, and material not mentioned in earlier chapters. Aida Tibi, a scholar of Arabic and Islamic
history now living in England, translates mostly from the recent edition edited by 'Ali al-Manuri, printed in Beirut in 2002, but drawing on other editions as well. Distributed in North America
by ISBS. Annotation 穢2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
