Introducing popular medicine in the Zinat -al Majāles; A valuable collection of stories from the Safavid period

A number of the old Persian reference books generally known as Da’erat al-Ma’āref (encyclopedia) are little known to Persian speaking researchers. The Zinat al- Majāles is one of such works. Majdoddin Majdi had originally intended to compile a historical-religious book, but as he had a remarkable command of various sciences, he transformed the Zinat al-Majāles into a peripheral source of ancient science of medicine. Based on a descriptive-analytical approach, this article, by classifying and examining the medical observations throughout the Zinat al-Majāles, intends to address the applications of the science of ancient medicine in one of the less recognized works from the Safavid times. In this way, in addition to demonstrating the breadth of the author’s knowledge of different sciences, remarks indicating the presence of medical beliefs and the old methods of treatment in this work are underlined.