Judaism and Islam, a project on medicine and religion

Our Community, the Department of Humanities of the University of Turin and the Dar al Hikma Cultural Center have come together for a project on medicine and religion.
On November 4th, the second meeting of the project—under the scientific direction of Professor Chiara Pilocane—took place. The proceedings, introduced by Younis Tawifiq, began with a presentation by Professor Francesco Grande, who outlined the state of medieval Arab medicine. Rooted in the works of Greek and Latin civilization, this tradition went on to incorporate empirical studies, achieving notable results in fields such as blood circulation and ophthalmology.
Chiara Pilocane then took the floor to explain how medicine and the importance of medical science were welcomed into the Jewish tradition and then illustrated two works by Jewish scholars from two different medieval eras: the Sefer Assaf or Sefer Refu’ot, of the 7th-7th century was a vulgar oath which contains among other things an oath similar to the Hippocratic one but imbued with references to Torah, and the Ma’ase Tuviyyah published in Venice in 1708 by Tobias Cohen.
The event drew a large audience, who followed the proceedings with interest. Afterwards, a culinary offering was provided for the attendees at the Dar al Hikma restaurant, featuring appetizers, couscous, and mint tea served with pastries.

Bianca Gardella Tedeschi