Medieval Islamic physicians recorded autobiographical memoirs as moral lessons.

Evidence

Quite a number of remarkable personal statements by medieval physicians are included in this and other biographical dictionaries, and some entries are preserved from earlier periods. From as early as 873, we have a kind of memoir by Hunayn ibn Ishaq, a translator, who talks about his work, his rivals, and his critics; a memoir by the great physician Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, who died in 925; and another by an Egyptian physician called Ibn Ridwan, who tells the heartbreaking story of his impoverished childhood and hard times, his inability to study prop­ erly because he had no money, and his success in completing his studies all the same: an intensely personal statement also offered as a moral lesson for others. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1904

Categorization

• XREF: The self-narratives embedded in biographical dictionaries parallel the pre-Islamic ‘Days of the Arabs’ tradition Lewis already traced, giving a mechanism for how indigenous voices reached later European readers. — connects to: A Persian physician’s autobiography shaped later Islamic autobiographical fragments — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1888; Islamic autobiography serves oneself, others, and posterity.; Medieval Islamic historians wrote frankly yet still suppressed shameful stories
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: A Persian physician’s autobiography shaped later Islamic autobiographical fragments — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1888; Islamic autobiography serves oneself, others, and posterity.; Medieval Islamic historians wrote frankly yet still suppressed shameful stories