Nawab Khair Andesh Khan: A polymath of Mughal period
Author(s): Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed and Heena Goswami
Abstract: The article aims to conceptualize the idea of health in the Mughal India. It historicizes the various attempts by statesmen and scholars to canonize and propagate the art of healing in India since the early days of Islam. It describes the trajectory of unani art of healing as it developed in Arab and passed on to Hindustan, where it received special attention and lauding from the courtly circles who patronised it and established institutions to further propagate it. The unani medicine reached its zenith under the Mughal reign, where each emperor contributed to train specialists in the art of healing. By the reign of Aurangzeb, unani had become so widespread that hospitals were found across the length and breadth of the empire, not just by the emperor but by various state functionaries. One such was Nawab Khair Andesh Khan, an army commander under Aurangzeb, whose efforts to make easily available unani led to Khair al Tajarib, being written in 1095 AH/1684-85 AD. He lists in the treatise the various treatments available in unani. Taking cue from this treatise, the article argues that unani as it developed in India had an indelible impression of local elements on it. In India unani also had an inclusivist approach and was enrichened by contributions from multi-dimensional personalities who also combined in medicine norms of good conduct and made efforts to make unani accessible to large masses of people.
Pages: 100-106 | Views: 526 | Downloads: 253Download Full Article: Click HereHow to cite this article:
Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed, Heena Goswami. Nawab Khair Andesh Khan: A polymath of Mughal period. Int J Hist 2022;4(1):100-106.
