Born in Konya, Ḥācı Paşa was educated in Cairo where he studied the religious
sciences with the famous Hanafi scholar al-Bābartī
(ca. 1310-1384) and medicine at the Manṣūriyya medical complex. In 1370 [1370 CE] he travelled to Ayasuluk in the western Aegean region of Anatolia and
entered the service of the Aydınid ruler, Faḫreddīn ʿİsā Bey (r. ca.
760s-789/1360s-1389). Under ʿİsā Bey, Ḥācı Paşa served as qadi, madrasa
professor, and court physician, and authored medical texts and religious works. We
know nothing about Ḥācı Paşa’s
whereabouts and activities following Bayezid I’s
deposition of the Aydınid ruler, ʿİsā Bey in 1389 AH [1389 CE]. Although we do not know the
date of Ḥācı Paşa’s death, he continued to
compose works well into the early years of Murad
II’s reign.
Ḥācı Paşa dedicated this voluminous
Qurʾān commentary or tafsīr of ten volumes to Murad
II after his ascension to the Ottoman throne in 1421. Show more
Defective at the beginning and end: from Fatiha sura to Âl ‘Imran sura, verse
132
Ḥācı Paşa’s Münteḫāb-i şifā’ is a simplified, abbreviated and
vernacularized version of his Arabic medical works, generally following the
structure of Ibn Sînâ’s Qânûn. This practical therapeutic compendium is
meant to assist those who are not expert in medicine in the absence of a trained
physician, as Ḥācı Paşa
states in the introduction. The work consists of three sections or baḫş: 1) a brief summary of medical theory in one
folio followed by a discussion of regimen sanitatis, or the maintenance of health,
with advice on diet, exercise and rest, sleeping and waking, repletion and
excretion, as well as bathing, temperate use of hot springs, sexual relations,
excesses, convalescing, pregnancy, drug treatment, bloodletting, steam therapies,
and the interpretation of good and bad symptoms. Section two discusses the different
humoral characteristics of and medicinal treatments provided by basic food such as
breads, meat, oils, milk, yogurt, cheese, grains and seeds, dried fruits (figs and
dates), soups, and sweets. The bulk of the work, however, falls in section three
which provides sixty-two sections on different diseases, illnesses, and disorders,
following the traditional head-to-toe order and giving their causes, symptoms and
treatment with medicinal substances (mu‘ālece). Recipes for different ma‘cûn (electuary) are provided as well as information on
bloodletting.
Dedicated to Aydınoğlu ʿİsā Bey in 780-81, Ḥācı Paşa’s
Ḥāshiya al-ṭawāliʿ al-anwār fī ʿilm
al-kalām (Commentary on the Rays of Dawnlight according to the Science of
Dialectal Theology) explicates the Ilkhanid scholar Nāṣir al-Dīn al-Bayḍāwī (d.
716/1316)’s theological work, Ṭawāliʿ
al-anwār wa maṭāliʿ al-anẓār (طوالع الانوار و مطالع
الانظار) (Rays of Dawnlight and the Ascent of Reasoning), a
summation of the scholastic Ashʿarite theology underlying his famous Qurʾānic
commentary, Anwār al-tanzīl wa asrār al-taʾwīl
(انوار التنزيل و اسرار التأويل) (The
Illuminations of Revelation and the Secrets of Interpretation). A note at the end of
the earliest surviving manuscript dated 1383 informs us that, following its completion, Ḥācı Paşa gave a public reading of
the work in Ayasuluk in Muḥarram 781. Show more
Composed in 1380 for Faḫreddīn ʿİsā Bey
(r. ca. 760s-789/1360s-1389) of Ayasuluk, the Shifā’ al-asqam wa dawā’
al-ālām is Ḥācı Paşa’s
best known medical work and exists in many manuscripts. The content of the Shifā’ al-asqam reveals similiarities with
Ibn Sīnā’s Qanūn fī’l-ṭibb, albeit in abbreviated form and
likewise reflects the structure as his earlier work, al-Taʿlīm fī ʿilm al-ṭibb: it consists of four maqāla, or discourses, beginning with an overview
of the theoretical aspects of humoral medicine, touching upon the particular
characteristics of each organ and body part, and the symptons of disorders and
illnesses connected with them. The second maqāla covers simple drugs, drawing mainly on Ibn Sīnā and Ibn al-Bayṭār’s al-Jāmi‘ li-mufradāt al-adwiyya, and the third
maqāla discusses the treatment of
illnesses, beginning with the most common and basic illnesses, and proceeding
according to each organ, limb or body part. Illnesses that affect the whole bodily
system are dealt with in the fourth maqāla,
among which are fever-inducing conditions, leprosy, the plague and rabies;
orthopedic treatments for broken bones and dislocations; and conditions requiring
surgical intervention, such as cataract surgery, kidney stones, boils, tumors and
other swellings that require surgical removal. Treatments for systemic problems such
as hair loss and dermatological disorders are likewise provided. Two manuscripts of
the work were copied by Ḥācı Paşa’s
student, Yūsuf b. Muhammad b. Osman while Ḥācı
Paşa was still alive. Show more
According to A. Süheyl Ünver, Ḥācı Paşa compiled the Teshīl in 1408, when he no longer had the support of a patron. Known sometimes under
the name of Teysīr, the Teshīl is an abbreviated version of the author’s
Münteḫab-i şifāʾ, and its conciseness may
explain the its greater popularity vis-à-vis the Münteḫab-i şifāʾ. The Teshīl
retains, with minor modifications, more or less the same introduction as that of the
Münteḫab-i şifāʾ, adopting the same
structure of three sections (baḫş), and much
of the same wording throughout the text. The Teshīl ends abruptly, indicating that Ḥācı
Paşa may have never completed it.
This work is an epitome of Ḥācı Paşa’s
earlier work, Shifāʾ al-Asqām, employing the
same organization divided into four qawl or
discourses, but with one third of the content. Ḥācı
Paşa composed the work in 800, almost a decade after the Ottoman
conquest of the region from the Aydınids. In 1507 the work was translated into Turkish for Bayezid
II.
