A witty satire of the medical profession.The Doctors’ Dinner Party is an eleventh-century satire in the form of a novella, set in a medical milieu. A young doctor from out of town is invited to dinner with a group of older medical men, whose conversation reveals their incompetence. Written by the accomplished physician Ibn Buṭlān, the work satirizes the hypocrisy of quack doctors while displaying Ibn Buṭlān’s own deep technical knowledge of medical practice, including surgery, blood-letting, and medicines. He also makes reference to the great thinkers and physicians of the ancient world, including Hippocrates, Galen, and Socrates.Combining literary parody with social satire, the book is richly textured and carefully organized: in addition to the use of the question-and-answer format associated with technical literature, it is replete with verse and subtexts that hint at the infatuation of the elderly practitioners with their young guest. The Doctors’ Dinner Party is an entertaining read in which the author skewers the pretensions of the physicians around the table.
Ibn Buṭlān
Ibn Buṭlān (d. 460/1068) was a Christian physician and scholar from Baghdad.
Philip F. Kennedy
Philip F. Kennedy is Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and Comparative Literature at New York University, and General Editor of the Library of Arabic Literature. He is the author of Recognition in the Arabic Narrative Tradition.
Jeremy Farrell
Jeremy Farrell holds a Ph.D. from Emory University. His publications analyze diverse aspects of pre-modern Islamic society, including sarcastic speech acts, transgressive modes of piety, and the formation of cooperative networks.
Emily Gowers
Emily Gowers is a Fellow of St. John's College and a Professor of Latin, University of Cambridge. She is also a member of the Academy of Europe and a Fellow of the British Academy.
Editorial Reviews
 | “With Life of the Buddha, Hyangsoon Yi has rescued a manuscript translation from 1915 of a little-known popular Korean Buddhist book and places it firmly in the complex social, cultural, and religious changes of Korea in the early twentieth century. Readers interested in Buddhism, Korean religions, and the role of Christian missionaries at that pivotal moment in Korean history have much to learn from this fascinating book.”
—Gregory N. Evon, Senior Lecturer in Humanities & Languages, UNSW Sydney
|
| “Life of the Buddha is a true gem of Buddhist literature, both in Korea and beyond – a must-read for those interested in Buddhism, global Christian missions, modernity, and colonialism. It reveals that the significance of the historical Buddha was not merely a modern Western construct shaped by comparisons to the historical Jesus, but a product of rich interreligious and intercultural exchanges. This is exemplified through the meticulous translation by Canadian missionary James Scarth Gale, and further enriched by Hyangsoon Yi’s insightful introduction, which situates Gale’s work within broader religious, literary, and cultural contexts.”
—Hwansoo Kim, Professor of Korean Buddhism and Culture, Yale University
|
Books of related interest