ABSTRACT

Quṭb al-Dīn Maḥmūd (1236–1311) was born into a well-known family of physicians and Sufis. His father, Ḍiā’ al-Dīn Mas‘ūd, was both a Sufi master attached to Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī and a famous physician; and under his guidance Quṭb al-Dīn received his early training in both medicine and Sufism. At the time of his father’s death Quṭb al-Dīn was but fourteen years old, yet he was entrusted with his father’s duties as physician and ophthalmologist at the Muẓaffarī hospital in Shiraz, where he remained for ten years.