Favaed-al-Afzalieh: a treatise on medicine and its standing in the Safavid era

Ali Afzal Ghate’ Ghazvini was a renowned physician، scholar، and calligrapher of the Safavid era whose personality and efforts in the field of medicine have not been fully recognized thus far. Among his works، three medical treatises can be of use in researching the medicine of the Safavid era. The present article adopts a descriptive-analytic method to introduce one of these treatises، Favaed-al-Afzalieh، and present a survey of its content in addition to the author’s biography. The findings here are based on the three chapters of this medical classic، which indicates the encyclopedic nature of this treatise. Favaed-al-Afzalieh reveals details on a variety of practical medical issues prevalent in the Safavid era، and is considered outstanding due to the volume of all the medical information it contains. The present study discusses the standing of this treatise in the history of medicine along with a suggestion to revise and publish this valuable، comprehensive work and reintroduce it to the world of medicine.