The Pharmacist in the Eyes of his Customers in the Mamluk period

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the image of pharmacists in the eyes of their customers, as represented in an array of legal, historical and literary sources of the Mamluk period (1260-1516). Those show that customers feared being swindled by pharmacists and seem to have regarded pharmacy as a profession that ought to be controlled by external bodies. Possibly, this image of the druggist as trickster was formed against the specific historical circumstances of the period; namely, the rising prices of raw materials and the need adopt various expedients in order to lower the prices of the production of medicines and spices.