Abstract: | The western Sahara has enjoyed a renown for medical skill which sets it apart from other Saharan communities. After an account of Saharan doctors and their treatments, this article focuses on a particularly famous doctor, Awf¯a b. Ab¯u Bakr b. 'Abdall¯ah b. al-Fagha (1802-1883), from the Tr¯arza, southwestern Mauritania. Apart from Afw¯a's Arabic works, a number of shorter works written by, or attributed to him, were written down for the nomads themselves. One such text, which is still current in the Tr¯arza, is translated here. It is a list of diseases and their treatment. The interest of the work lies in the way it is arranged, its partial use of the Hass¯an¯iya dialect to facilitate comprehension, and in the names of local plants and 'materia medica'. Notes, ref. |