Jewish medicine is the practice of medicine among the Jewish people, which includes writing in both Hebrew and Arabic. As of 2024, 28% of Nobel Prize winners in medicine have been Jewish, even though Jews make up approximately 0.2% of the world's population.
History
Ancient There are no extant texts of ancient medicine, as a first subject, of Hebrew origin.H Friedenwald - The Bibliography of Ancient Hebrew Medicine - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, Bull Med Libr Assoc, v. 23(3); Jan 1935. There was no medicine distinctly Jewish and instead Jewish practitioners had adopted Greek and later Graeco-Roman knowledge as practice.GB Ferngren - Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity, JHU Press, 2009
A text known as the "Book of Remedies" is recorded of in the Babylonian Talmud twice, and the baraita,DJ Halperin - The Jewish Quarterly Review New Series, Vol. 72, No. 4 (Apr., 1982), pp. 269-292 The "Book of Remedies," the Canonization of the Solomonic Writings, and the Riddle of Pseudo-Eusebius. Retrieved 2012-12-20definition of baraita - jewishencyclopedia.com and mishnah - jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2012-12-20 evidently dating from at least the reign of Hezekiah. Likewise, a text known as Sefer Refuot, which means "book of remedies," is known. However, its composition has been dated roughly to the time of the Byzantine Empire, anywhere from 1,000 and 1,700 years after Hezekiah.
Middle Ages
Jewish Medicine in the Early Middle Ages
Unlike with the Greeks and Arabs, there was not a specifically Jewish medical tradition in antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Jewish medical authors were influential in their translation of Greek, Latin, and Arabic texts into Hebrew to create a unique Hebrew Medical corpus. A main exception to this is The Book of Remedies (Sefer 'Asaph), the earliest medical text written in Hebrew, by Asaph the Jew, although the definitive identity of the author and time period in which it was written remains a subject of debate among historians. The text comprises four parts; a story of the transmission of medicine from God to mankind, a medical survey, a Materia medica and a list of medical aphorisms. This book connects Jewish talmudic tradition to dominant medical theories and represents one of the earliest examples of a Jewish medical practice. While there is no knowledge of the writer himself or where the text was written, it circulated widely in Jewish communities during the Medieval period, and it can be assumed that it was of great influence to Jewish practitioners during this time. Similarly, Shabbetai Donnolo authored The Book of the Precious (Sefer ha-Yaqar) in Italy, detailing different medicines and remedies based on Greek medical practice, indicating some degree of Jewish medical practice in Christian Europe.
Jewish Scholarship and Practice in the Islamic Medical World (8th-14th Centuries) In the medieval Islamic world, medicine was one of the most prominent and respected professions among Jews. The Cairo Genizah has preserved over 2,500 fragments related to medicine. There is clear evidence of Jewish students training under Muslim physicians, as well as Jewish practitioners serving non-Jewish patients, including in Islamic hospitals. These hospitals, secular in nature and often royal foundations, admitted patients regardless of religious affiliation and allowed non-Muslims to practice medicine within their walls.
While Jews did train with Muslim medical practitioners, they contributed to the development of medical knowledge by participating in the Arabic translation movement as early as the eighth century. Through this movement, Jewish medicine saw significant development in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain). From the 10th through early 12th centuries, Jewish physicians were active participants in the region's medical life, sometimes collaborating with Christian and Muslim counterparts. Ḥasday ibn Shaprut, a minister at the court of Caliph Abd al-Rahman III of Córdoba, was involved in translation work. He is known for successfully treating the obesity of Sancho of León, the grandson of the queen of Navarre. 11th-century Toledan qadi Said al-Andalusi later listed him among noteworthy Jewish scientists, describing him as a physician "whose cures were successful and his praise on everyone's lips." Also notable was Jonah ibn Janāḥ, who produced a pharmacological treatise (Kitāb al-Talkhīṣ) listing drugs in multiple languages. His work influenced Jonah ibn Biklārish, who composed a multilingual medical dictionary (Kitāb al-Mustaʿīnī) for the Muslim court in Zaragoza, in which he recorded hundreds of drugs and their properties. Joseph ibn 'Aqnīn, possibly born in Barcelona, later moved to Fez, Morocco, where he abridged Galen’s commentary on Hippocrates' Aphorisms, showing the transmission of classical medicine into Jewish scholarship.
Prominent Jewish physicians are also attested in North Africa and the Levant. Isaac Israeli (d. c. 955), originally from Faiyum, Egypt, served the Aghlabid and Fatimid courts in Kairouan (in modern Tunisia). He authored influential Arabic treatises on fevers, the pulse, urine, and materia medica, many of which were later translated into Latin, by Constantine the African, and Hebrew. His Kitāb al-Bawl (Book on Urine) was innovative in its physiological analysis and diagnostic use of uroscopy. He also wrote an ethical guide for physicians (Musar ha-Rof'im), emphasizing both moral conduct and bedside manner, integrating Talmudic traditions with Greek medical philosophies.
In 12th-century Egypt, Maimonides (1138–1204) became the physician to Qadi al-Fadil, chief counsellor to Saladin. He authored a range of medical works in Arabic, including clinical consilia (personalized medical advice) and treatises on preventative care, convalescence, and specific conditions such as asthma, hemorrhoids, and poisoning. His Sharḥ Asmāʾ al-ʿUqqār is a medical glossary listing drug names in Arabic, Greek, Persian, Spanish, Moroccan, Egyptian, and Berber, showing the multilingual environment of Jewish medical scholarship. He did not include the Hebrew drug names, despite using them in other texts. Maimonides also produced a summary of Galen's works and a commentary on Ḥunayn ibn Ishāq. Another noteworthy physician, Ibn Jumay' (d. c. 1198), served as private doctor to Saladin and wrote both a commentary on Avicenna's Canon of Medicine and a medical encyclopedia (Kitāb al-Irshād) focused on the welfare of body and soul.
Jewish physicians remained active in both clinical and scholarly medicine under the Mamluks. In Egypt, Al-Sadīd al-Dimyāṭī and Faraj Allāh ibn Saghīr, members of a long-serving Karaite family of court doctors, worked under Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad. In Syria, Asad al-Yahūdī served Mamluk emirs. Earlier, Abū al-Faḍl Ibn Abī al-Bayān directed the Nāṣirī hospital in Cairo and authored a handbook on compound drugs for hospital use (al-Dustūr al-Bīmāristānī), while Abū al-Munā al-Kūhin al-ʿAṭṭār compiled a pharmacist's manual in 1260 (Minhāj al-Dukkān). Jewish medical scholarship also included works like Nuʿmān al-Isrāʾīlī's commentary on Abū Sahl al-Masīḥī's Book of the Hundred, and Solomon ibn Yaʿīsh's philologically rigorous commentary on Ibn Sīnā's Canon of Medicine.
In the early fourteenth century, a Jewish physician working under Ferdinand IV of Castile wrote the Book of Royal Catilian Medicine (Kitāb al-tibb al-qastālī al-malūkī). This book was composed of two sections, with the first one detailing medical theory and the practice of physicians, and the second part describing the treatments for common medical conditions in Castile.
Jewish Medical Practice in Western Europe and the Creation of a Hebrew Medical Corpus (12th and 13th Centuries) In the mid-twelfth century, Jews from Al-Andalus moved to Christian-run northern Spain and southern France after the Almohads came to power in southern Iberia. They participated in significant cultural exchange with the Hebrew-speaking local Jewish community, leading to the translation of Arabic medical texts into Hebrew language. In the late twelfth century, this shift toward Hebrew language led to the creation of an organized Hebrew medical corpus. This not only emphasizes the centrality of Jews to the medical movement, but also the transmission of Arabic medical knowledge to Western European communities by way of Jewish practitioners. Not only were Arabic texts being translated into Hebrew, but also instrumental medical texts in Latin, Greek, and other vernacular languages.
With this increase in Hebrew translation in Western Europe, there was also a rise of Jewish physicians despite estimations that, from the mid-twelfth century on, Jews made up about one percent of society in Western Europe. Jewish physicians were desirable to Christians because they were seen as highly knowledgeable in medical theory. Jewish practitioners were often learned in both Greek and Arab medicine, and they built a reputation for "professional medicine," through the creation of the Hebrew medical corpus.
The translation of medical texts into Hebrew across Northern Africa, the Arab Empire, and Christian Europe represents the importance of medical literature to the Jewish community. Because, as Jews were denied admission to universities, they learned and trained from Hebrew medical texts. However Hebrew was less-developed than its Arabic and Latin counterparts, and was unable to provide the same amount of linguistic specification in medical texts. Physicians and scholars relied on Arabic and Latin terms to supplement the works, but Jewish scholars continued to translate works into Hebrew to benefit Jewish physicians who relied on these translations.
Jewish Physicians in Christian Europe (14th and 15th Centuries) Jewish physicians in esteemed positions were not uncommon in the Medieval period, as Jews often served aristocracy and even Christian clergy members. This allowed them a greater degree of influence, not only confined to the medical sphere. Highly regarded Jewish physicians would act as unofficial political advisors, and would sometimes even advocates for the Jewish community.
Jewish physicians in Western Europe would serve both Jews and non-Jews. Throughout the fourteenth century, Jews were faced with increased restrictions on their practice, such as a physician licensing process through universities, which Jews were not allowed to enroll in. Contrary to this, documentation indicates that many Jews were still able to obtain licensing through private instruction. In Jewish communities, medical apprenticeships studied Hebrew literature on Arabic and Greek medical theory. These trainings were passed down from father to son or son-in-law, forming extensive Jewish "medical dynasties." There were instances where marriage contracts included agreements with a bride's father to teach medicine to his son-in-law, such as between Moses Bonsegnor and Bonjuda Durant in France. In 1337, the Council of Avignon and Robert of Provence enacted various restrictions on Jewish medical practice and licensing. Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, bans on Jewish medical practice were passed by both church and secular authorities. These were later revoked due to a shortage of physicians, demonstrating the need for Jewish physicians to serve Christian communities.