Vernacular Languages and Invisible Labor in Ṭibb

Abstract

Glossaries providing the names of materia medica across languages are ubiquitous in medical manuscripts composed in the Islamic world. These anonymous medical glossaries were produced by physicians who sought out regional names for materia medica from nonliterate people, verifying them for local use in a process called taḥqīq. In early modern South Asia, glossary entries were Arabic or Persian terms, while translations were offered in Persian, Hindavi, or other vernacular Indian languages. Translation was a dynamic process, demonstrating the continuous use of multiple languages in ṭibb, or learned medicine, not often acknowledged by historians of science in Islam. I focus on four glossaries accompanying a Persian medical text composed by Shihāb Nāgaurī in 1388 in Western India. While affirming the hierarchy of certain languages over others, the glossaries offer us a glimpse into how the experiential knowledge of nonliterate people constituted ṭibb.