Ibn Hubal Baghdadi

Ibn Hubal al-Baghdadi (1122–1213 CE), born Muhadhdhab al-Dīn Abū'l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Habal, was a distinguished Arab physician, poet, and scholar from Baghdad during the late Abbasid era. He received extensive training in medicine, literature, and Islamic law, practicing in various cities including Baghdad, Mosul, and Mardin. Ibn Hubal is primarily renowned for his monumental medical compendium, كتاب المختارات في الطب (Kitab al-Mukhtarat fi al-Tibb), also known as 'The Book of Selections in Medicine'. Written around 1165 CE in Mosul, this four-volume work synthesizes Greco-Arabic medical traditions with his own clinical observations, covering medical theory, preventive health, pharmacology, anatomy, physiology, and treatments organized from head to toe. The text, which emphasizes practical clinical methods, was published in Hyderabad in the 1940s and is still a significant resource in the study of Islamic medicine.