The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Abd al Latif

ABD AL LATIF, lā-tēf, Arabian writer and physician: b. Bagdad, 1160; d. while on a pilgrimage to Mecca, 1231. After his early studies, which consisted, after the custom of the time and the people, of memorizing the Koran and other literary works, he went to Damascus, which was then the centre of learning of the Moslem world. While in Egypt Abd al Latif became acquainted with Maimonides, the great Jewish philosopher. At Cairo he became a teacher of medicine, though he also devoted much time to traveling. Abd al Latif is supposed to have written many works, but of these only his ‘Account of Egypt’ is preserved. This work was translated into Latin by White (1800), and into French by De Sacy (1810).