Prince of Medicine
The Life of Ibn Masawayh, Physician to the Golden AgeBy Narin Hikma
Length7h 50m
About this audiobook
He stood between two worlds and belonged fully to neither. That made him irreplaceable.
You may never have heard of Yuhanna ibn Masawayh, yet if you have ever been treated by modern medicine, you are connected to him through a chain twelve centuries long.
In ninth-century Baghdad, this Nestorian Christian physician served four caliphs, directed translation at the House of Wisdom, and wrote the earliest Arabic treatise on eye diseases. Known in Europe as Mesue, his works were taught alongside Galen for five hundred years.
Prince of Medicine is a narrative biography by Narin Hikma grounded in the historical record.
• Find the shape of your own experience of being between
• Discover how ancient medical knowledge survived to reach us
• See what it costs—and yields—to be the bridge between civilizations
This is for the quietly indispensable—anyone who has built something lasting in conditions never designed for them.
Open the first page. The rest will find you.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.4 (17)
Includes Goodreads
GenreBiography and Memoir, Science and Nature
Length7 hrs 50 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateOct 8, 2026
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Dedication
1410. The Student Who Asked Too Many Questions
2Epigraph
1511. The Anatomy of Power
3Prologue
1612. Faith in the Palace
4Introduction
1713. Rivals and Rumors
51. The Dispensary of His Father
1814. The Student Returns
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62. The City That Invented the Future
1915. The Teacher's Art
73. Learning at the Feet of Masters
2016. Al-Ma'mun and the Golden Years
84. The Outsider at the Gate
2117. Four Caliphs, One Life
95. Harun al-Rashid's Physician
2218. Samarra
106. The Art of the Aphorism
2319. The Healer's Paradox
117. What the Eye Sees
2420. Mesue in Latin
128. The House of Wisdom
25Epilogue
139. The Work of Translation
2621. Author's Note
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