A Persian Prescription Attributed to Kanuni Sultan Süleyman’s Padogra Disease

Abstract

A Persian document, numbered TSMA. E. 3146 and held at Topkapı Palace Archives, contains a prescription in which a physician describes his patient's disease. Although the preparer of it is not mentioned in the document clearly, it has been identified as a Persian prescription written for Kanuni Sultan Süleyman by an unknown Iranian physician. Based on the physician's identification of the disease and some recommendations by him, in parallel with the Kanuni's podagra disease, we will argue that the prescription might have been written for the sultan when he suffered from podagra disease, and at that time imperial physicians were not be able to cure him. Based on the fact that the physician did not possess the remedy himself, we will assert that the prescription might have been sent from Iran by the physician to contribute to the remedy of the sultan's podagra disease.