Abbas Vesim Efendi

Abbas Vesim Efendi was a prominent Ottoman physician, calligrapher, poet and scholar of astronomy who lived in the 18th century. He was also known as Kambur Vesim Efendi or Dervish Abbas Tabib. He was the son of Ömer Şifaî, a physician from Bursa, and he learned medicine and Persian from his father. He also studied with other famous physicians, such as Ali Efendi from Bursa and Kâtipzade Mehmed Refi Efendi, who was the chief of physicians and a judge. He took lessons on astronomy from Ahmed-i Mısrî, physics from Yanyalı Esad Efendi, and calligraphy from Kâtibzade Mehmed Refi Efendi. He traveled to Hejaz, Damascus and Egypt for educational purposes and produced numerous scientific researches and improved his knowledge in the field of medicine. He returned to Istanbul and opened a pharmacy and a clinic near Sultan Selim Mosque, where he worked for forty years as a physician and served people. He also became a Sufi and was initiated in the Halwati and Kadiri orders. His last spiritual guide was Muhammed Emin Tokadi, one of the greatest guides of Naqshibandiyyah. He learned Sufi practices from Mehmed Emin Tokadî and applied them. Abbas Vesim Efendi knew Arabic, Persian, Ancient Greek and Latin languages well enough to be able to write articles in them. He had a great contribution to the Ottoman medicine. He had researches and examinations about tuberculosis based on his personal experiences and which were regarded as discoveries. He defended the idea that one had to know physics, mechanics and experimental chemistry in order to understand medicine well. He wrote a book titled “Tıbb- i Cedid-i Kimyevi” on this issue. Besides he contributed to the development and application method of deontology (history of medicine and ethics of medicine). Using the knowledge he acquired from ancient physicians such as Avicenna, from his own teachers and from some Western physicians who came to Istanbul he wrote “Düstur-ül- Vesim fi Tıbb-il-Cedid vel-Kadim”. This work, which compared Eastern and Western medicine and was a perfect corpus is important in terms of our history of medicine. It consisted of two volumes. The first chapter explained organ diseases from the beginning to the end, the second woman and children diseases, the third lumps and ulcer and the fourth simple and complex medicaments. He also translated and commented on the famous astronomical handbook (Zij) of Ulugh Beg and the work on solar and lunar eclipses by Abd al-Ali al-Birjandi into Turkish. He wrote a treatise on the sighting of the new moon as well. He was also interested in literature and had a collection of poems (divan) in Turkish and Persian. He died in 1760 in Istanbul and was buried near Sultan Selim Mosque.