Zayn al-Din Jurjani was a notable physician who wrote in Persian and Arabic during the twelfth century. He first moved to Khwarizm in 1110 where he worked under the patronage of Qutb al-Din Khwarazm Shah Abu’l-Fath Muhammad ibn Yamin-al-Din (r.1097-1127) and Atsiz ibn Muhammad (r.1127-56) and later moved to Marw, where he worked until his death in 1136. He was a prolific author, writing mainly on philosophy and medicine alongside the Zakhirah, it is worth mentioning the treatise al-Khuffi al-‘Ala’i, a shorter version of the Zakhirah dedicated to Atsis ibn Muhammad, who was keen to have something he could carry in his boots (khuff).

The Zakhirah, which is dedicated to Qutb al-Din Khwarazm, is probably the first medical encyclopaedia written in Persian, supplying information on every branch of medical science, saving a physician the trouble and loss of time involved in consulting other books. It consists of ten books (kitab), and to each of which is prefixed a full table of numerous subdivisions termed Guftars and Babs. This volume contains the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth books, which deal with tumours and ulcers etc. (book VII); the care to be taken of the external parts of the body, hair, skin, nails etc. (book VIII); poisons and antidotes (book IX) and simple and compound medicaments (book X).

There are twelve various volumes in the Wellcome Library, London (see F. Keshavarz, A Descriptive and Analytical Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, London, 1986, pp.149-154, no.43). An early copy started in the year 664 AH/1266 AD is now in Patna, published in Catalogue of the Arabic and Persian Manuscripts in the Oriental Public Library at Bankipore, vol.12 (Patna: Government Printing, Bihar, 1927), pp.3-7. A volume containing books I-VIII was sold in these rooms, 1 May, 2019, lot 10; another copy containing books I-III sold in these rooms, 20 April 2016, lot 9.