Graeco-Arabic medicine in Jewish attire: An early Judaeo-Arabic version of Qusṭā ibn Lūqā’s On Numbness from the Cairo Genizah

A Judaeo-Arabic version of Qusṭā ibn Lūqā’s On Numbness found among the manuscript fragments of the Cairo Genizah is edited and translated here for the first time ; a comparison with the only extant complete Arabic manuscript of the treatise identifies textual variants and provides materials for the reconstruction of the missing portions of the severely damaged text. The very existence of this fragment and its contents are discussed in relation to the cultural context of the Jewish communities living in the Medieval Islamicate world and the vivid exchange of scientific and medical ideas between Muslims, Jews, and Christians during the Middle Ages. After more than 100 years following their re-discovery, Genizah fragments still hold the promise of future discoveries, within particular in the understudied fields of natural philosophy and medicine.