Ibn Usaibi‘A

Ibn Usaibi‘A [Muwaffaquddīn Abū-l-’Abbās Aḥmad ibn ul-Qāsim ibn Abī Usaibi’a] (1203-1270), Arabian physician, was born at Damascus, the son of an oculist, and studied medicine at Damascus and Cairo. In 1236 he was appointed by Saladin physician to a new hospital in Cairo, but surrendered the appointment the following year to take up a post given him by the amir of Damascus in Salkhad near that city. There he lived and died. He wrote ‘Uyūn ul-Anba‘fī Ṭabaqāt ul-Aṭibba‘ or “Lives of the Physicians,” which in its first edition (1245-1246) was dedicated to the vizier of Damascus. This he enlarged, though it is uncertain whether the new edition was made public in the lifetime of the author.