THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE IN HAFSID TUNISIA

The Hafsids were a Berber dynasty of North Africa that ruled in Ifrighiyah (Western Tripoli, Tunisia, and Eastern Algeria) from 625 to 983 A.H. The Hafsid period medicine, which was a mixture of the traditional Gheyruwan School and the Andalusian and Iranian Medicines, became the highway for the transfer of Muslim medical knowledge to Europe; and in fact had been a final stage in the advancement of the history of Islamic medicine. In this article, topics such as pharmacology, anatomy, description and diagnosis of diseases, health care, and spa-therapy are discussed. Also, the onset of cholera and plague in Europe and Ifrighiyah are two important events that occurred during the Hafsid rule and that had scientific, political and figh'hi (legal) consequences in this period.