The medical compendium entitled Zād al-musāfir wa-qūt al-ḥāḍir (Provisions for the Traveller and Nourishment for the Sedentary) and compiled by Ibn al-Jazzār from Qayrawān in the tenth century is one of the most influential handbooks in the history of western medicine. In the eleventh century, Constantine the African translated it into Latin; this translation was the basis for several commentaries compiled from the twelfth century on. The text was also translated into Byzantine Greek and three times into medieval Hebrew. The present publication includes a new critical edition of the Arabic text of books I and II, along with an annotated English translation, as well as critical editions of Constantine’s Viaticum and the Hebrew versions by Ibn Tibbon, Abraham ben Isaac, and Doʿeg ha-Edomi.

This work has been edited by Michael R. McVaugh, Gerrit Bos, and Fabian Käs.

Gerrit Bos, Ph.D. (1948), is Professor Emeritus of Jewish Studies at the University of Cologne. He has published extensively on Arabic, Judeo-Arabic, and Hebrew medical literature in the Middle Ages, including the critical edition and translation of Maimonides’ medical works.

Fabian Käs, Ph.D. (1985), is Research Fellow at the University of Cologne. His publications include Die Minoritaten in der arabischen Pharmakognosie (Wiesbaden 2020) and Materia Medica Iudeo der Muslime (Leiden: Brill 2023).

Michael R. McVaugh, Ph.D. (1938), is Wells Professor of History (emeritus) at the University of North Carolina. He has published widely on medieval European medicine, and is an editor of the Latin medical writings of Arnau de Vilanova.

All interested in the history of medicine, Arabic scientific literature, medieval Latin translations of scientific texts and medieval Jewish medicine and Hebrew translations, will find this publication relevant.