The Physician

The Physician

Author: Noah Gordon

Pages: 712

The theme of the book is the extra ordinary journeys done by a 11^th century boy in search of knowledge. Robert Jeremy Cole was orphaned when he was 9 years old. He had an unusual sense of impending death by feeling the hands of sick people. He had the same experience with his parents and he was sure that they would soon die. Since his father was a carpenter, the guild took care of the children and distributed them among various people for upkeep. Young Rob was assigned to a barber surgeon. In those days, these barber surgeons traveled far and wide, displaying juggling and magic to draw the crowd, entertain them, sell medicine named Universal Specific, which is mostly liquor and provide consultation to patients, also including some of the surgical procedures. Rob was bothered by the lack of their knowledge and he craved for knowledge. The barber died some time later and Rob continued alone. One day, he met a Jew, and from him, learned of a place called Ispahan in Persia which is famous for its medical hospital, Maristan and the master physician there named Avicenna or Ibn Sina in Persian.

Rob earned enough and decided to undertake the travel. He crossed the Channel and entered France. With a local man he traveled up to Germany. The book is resplendent with the absence of rule of law at those times. He joined a caravan bound for Constantinople and traveled along with them. During the journey he came across a Scot family and came across Mary Cullen whose father was traveling to Anatolia to buy exotic sheep. They fell in love and by the time they were to separate at the end of the journey, Rob was in a dilemma whether to enter marriage with Mary and go to Scotland and become a land lord there or to go as planned before to Persia. His career ambitions prevailed and he forsake love for knowledge. In those days, caravans used to break journey during winter months and he had stayed with three Jews he had made friends of, during the journey. Jews were a despised lot in Europe at that time and were subject to the worst forms of reprisals. He learned the Jewish ways during the stay and decided to pretend to be a Jew in Persia, because Christians were forbidden to enter the academy at Ispahan. He reached Ispahan after a long and tiresome journey which lasted 18 months.

Ala al Daula was the ruler of Persia and he had saved Rob’s life from a tiger during the last stages of his travel. To Rob’s dismay, he found that the academy didn’t admit students simply to study medicine, but they had to study Philosophy, theology, jurisprudence and Quran. He had an altercation with the administrator and was sentenced to a day of torture. Released, he went straight to the Shah’s court and demanded asylum claiming that it was the Islamic duty of the king who saved his life. Ala gave him a calaat, which entitled him to a house, a horse and some money. He was enrolled as a student at the academy. He slowly rose to the rank of Hakim (Professor), but not before attending to a Plague epidemic and accompanying a campaign to India. He came to know of a European father and daughter stranded nearby and was glad to find that it was the Cullens. The father had died of ‘side sickness’ (Appendicitis) and he wed Mary Cullen. He became the favourite student of Ibn Sina. Opening up human body was proscribed by all three religions, but Rob did some, to study the side sickness.

Ala al Daula made a disastrous campaign against Mahmoud of Ghazni. The Afghan army occupied Ispahan and Rob fled with his wife and two sons. He reached London and decided to start practice as a physician. Barber surgeons were for common people and the rich always sought the service of physicians. London proved too hot for him and he had to send his family to Kilmarnock in Scotland which was the home of Mary. Rob was accused of witchcraft and fled London. He reached Kilmarnock and rejoined the family. His marriage was formally solemnized and he was pleased to find that his elder son inherited his sense of impending death. He lived a joyous life thereafter.

The book is really a page turner, keeping the readers in pleasant anticipation as the turn of events slowly unwinds in this 712 page narrative. Except for the lewd description bordering on obscenity, of some of the sexual encounters which abound in this novel, this book is eminently readable. Moreover this book clearly enunciates the spirit of the times, namely the utter ignorance in which the common masses were steeped in, the hatred towards Jews and the atrocities against them, the lawlessness of public roads, especially continental Europe, the opulence, lasciviousness, fanaticism and respect for learning as enshrined in ancient Persia.