Pharmaceutical Prescriptions in the Mecmua-？ Saz ü S？z of Ali Ufki

Ali Ufki (aka Wojciech Bobowski and Albertus Bobovius, 1610?–1675?) was a Polish nobleman who has been taken captive during the Polish-Ottoman war of 1633-34. He lived for about twenty years in the Topkap？ Palace where he served as a musician, a music teacher and a dragoman. He compiled an anthology of the Ottoman music entitled Mecmua-i Saz ü S？z (Collection of Instrumental and Vocal Works) which contains pieces he both notated and composed. This article aims to examine the pharmaceutical prescriptions written on the marginalia of the London copy of Mecmua-i Saz ü S？z (MS BL–Sloane 3114), and to explore the use and effects of the plants and pharmaceutical drugs employed in these prescriptions. This study determined that the effects of most of them were supported by present-day scientific studies, and the uses of some prescriptions matched with current ethnobotanical uses. Formulated for both internal and external use, these remedies were prescribed for conditions such as pediculosis, headache, pertussis, lumbago, halitosis, diarrhea, and wounds. Pastes, decoctions, and ointments were among the pharmaceutical forms employed