Faraj Allāh (Yeshūʿā) ibn Ṣaghīr was a distinguished physician at the court of the Mamluk sultan al-Nāṣir Muḥammad ibn Qalāwūn (r. 1310–1341) in Cairo and a member of the eminent Karaite family of Ibn Ṣaghīr/Kūjik (“Small”). He seems to have been one of the very few court physicians from this family who did not convert to Islam.

Having studied under his own father, as well as the renowned physician Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288) and other physicians of equal standing, Faraj Allāh specialized in general medicine and was authorized to practice ophthalmology and…