Abstract: | Preliminary material -- Introduction -- Animals in Mamluk Society -- The Pre-Mamluk Veterinary Traditions -- Scholars, Equestrians, and Veterinarians -- The Veterinary Profession -- Theroretical Aspects -- Preventive Medicine and Diagnotics -- Non-Invasive Practises in Veterinary Treatment -- Invasive Methods of Treatment in Veterinary Medicine -- Conclusions -- Sources and Bibliography -- General Index -- Plates. Housni Alkhateeb Shehada's Mamluks and Animals: Veterinary Medicine in Medieval Islam is the first comprehensive study of veterinary medicine, its practitioners and its patients in the medieval Islamic world, with special emphasis on the Mamluk period (1250-1517). Based on a large variety of sources, it is a history of a scientific field that is also examined from social and cultural perspectives. Horses, as well as birds of prey used for hawking and falconry, were at the centre of the veterinary literature of that period, but the treatment and cure of other animals was not totally neglected. The Mamluk period is presented here as the time when veterinary medicine reached its pinnacle in medieval Islam and often even surpassed human medicine |
