Since it’s almost Valentine’s day, a thread on the malady of LOVE (ʿishq) in pre-modern Islamic medicine, including some of Ibn Sīnā's matchmaking activities

(ms Vat Arab 368 f.10r) 1/

There is a lot of literature on love in the classical Islamic world, but I will focus specifically on medical ideas on the topic. I will give some references at the end. 2/

The term ʿishq in Arabic as used by medieval physicians refers to intense love that is usually unanswered. Ibn Bakthīshūʿ (d. after 1058) defined it as love that is out of control, beyond the limits of natural love (maḥabba), and connected with a desire for sexual pleasure. 3/

Not to dampen the mood, but Islamic physicians generally considered passionate love to be a disease that could have very negative consequences. Different ideas regarding passionate love existed, many of which positive, but physicians did not really share this. 4/

Al-Rāzī, for instance, considered ʿishq something that happened mostly to the less intelligent, and something that made one’s soul ‘ugly’. 5/

ʿIshq could lead to grief, sleeplessness, depression and loss of judgment. 6/

This type of love also came with physical symptoms such as weight loss and dry skin, tearful eyes and a yellow skin colour. 7/

(ms Vat Arab 368)

Lovesick patients would sigh frequently and their pulse was irregular as a result of the patients thoughts: when hopeful his pulse would get stronger but when he lost hope it would become weaker again. Suddenly seeing or hearing the beloved especially made the pulse irregular. 8/

Even if passionate love was answered, it could still, according to some, be dangerous: a lover might obtain his desire and die of happiness. Or, he might sigh so deeply that his spirit would leave his body for 24 hours, and he'd be considered dead and buried alive. 9/

(Ibn Abī Uṣaibiʿa attributes this view to Hippocrates: https://dh.brill.com/scholarlyeditions/reader/urn:cts:arabicLit:0668IbnAbiUsaibia.Tabaqatalatibba.lhom-tr-eng1:4.1-4.5/) 10/

Many physicians, such as al-Mājūsī and Ibn Sīnā, considered passionate love one of the diseases of the soul. Al-Majūsī includes it in his kunnash among other mental diseases and offers different treatments which are later adopted by Ibn Sīnā. 11/

They thought passionate love originated in the brain due to intense thinking and emotions, and was therefore a disease of the rational soul, similar to melancholy. 12/

(Uncontrolled emotions were often considered dangerous. This did not just apply to negative emotions such as anger or grief, but also to joy. Ibn al-Qayyim believed excessive joy could lead to death.) 13/

For Ibn Bakthīshūʿ, on the other hand, ʿishq was not caused by psychological factors, related to the mind, but by passions derived from the animal soul located in the heart. He therefore thought it was different from other affections such as melancholy. 14/

Intense passion was thought to burn blood and inflame yellow bile which turned into black bile. Too much black bile led to excessive and impaired thinking and desire for the unattainable. 15/

Physicians provided several treatments, but also tips to avoid passionate love. 16/

(Ms Vat 368)

Al-Rāzī recommends living a balanced life to avoid ʿishq. He discourages listening to love songs or reading love stories. He also thought that it was good to have sexual intercourse with anyone, even if not the beloved, to tone down the passion. 17/

Ibn Bakthīshūʿ advises to treat the mind and the body of the lovesick, the mind needs to be distracted, and listening to music is useful. 18/

Ibn Sīnā lists drugs, but if nothing worked, he thought it best to bring the lovers together: ‘if the only treatment that you can find is to bring the two together in a way that religion and law allow, do it. For we have seen [patients] to whom health and strength returned.’ 19/

In his Canon, Ibn Sīnā describes that he tried to cure lovers many times by feeling the pulse and mentioning the name of potential beloved, when the pulse quickened, he figured out the beloved. 20/

The Persian intellectual Nizāmī Arūdī Samarqandī (d. after 1152), author of the Four Discourses (Chahār maqāla), relates a story about a relative of the king of Gurgān, who was ill with a mysterious illness. 21/

Ibn Sīnā was summoned. He felt the pulse and examined the patient’s urine. He then asked someone who knew Gurgān well to come in and mention the cities of the region. 22/

When one city was mentioned, the pulse of the patient became very agitated. Next streets were named, and then the houses in the street, and again the pulse would intensify. Finally the people in the house were named and Ibn Sīnā found out the young man loved a young woman. 23/

They then got married and the patient was cured.

Different versions also circulate in later literature, such as the Masnavi. They are also found in older Greek literature.24/

Galen for instance had treated a woman suffering sleeplessness by checking her pulse and discovering she was in love with a dancer. This led some to doubt whether there is truth in them, while others defend it as a possibility. 25/

Here are some English sources on the topic:
Biesterfeldt and Gutas, “The Malady of Love” (1984)
Jalal Abd al-Ghani, “Medieval Arabic Love Theory Between Dissonance and Consonance” (2014)
Irmeli Perho has a section on love in her work on Prophetic Medicine
26/

Both Pormann and Álvarez-Millán wrote about Ibn Sīnā’s love curing engagements.
A comprehensive work beyond medical thought is Lois Anita Giffen,(1971): Theory of Profane Love Among the Arabs
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