Hajji Zayn al-Attar

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Ali ibn Husayn Ansari Shirazi, known as Hajji Zayn al-‘Attar, was a 14th century Persian physician.

He served for sixteen years as the court physician to the Muzaffarid ruler Shah Shuja, who ruled from 1358 to 1384. Shah Shuja is famous for being the patron of the famous poet Hafez of Shiraz.

Haji Attar's comprehensive Persian pharmacopoeia of simple and compound remedies, the Ikhtiyarat-i Badi‘i was apparently composed for the Muzaffarid princess Badi‘ al-Jamal, who is named in the title of the treatise but of whom very little is known.

He died in 1403.

[edit] Sources

For sources regarding his life, see:

Lutz Richter-Bernburg, Persian Medical Manuscripts at the University of California, Los Angeles: A Descriptive Catalogue, Humana Civilitas, vol. 4 (Malibu: Udena Publications, 1978), p. 32.
C.A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-Bibliographical Survey. Volume II, Part 2: E.Medicine (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1971), pp. 220-3 no. 380.