Al-Kuntī (d. 1096/1684 or 1116/1704) was an authority in the Qadariyya Sufi order who directed a zawiya in Arawan, north of Timbuktu, and a prominent representative of the Kunta family, which has continued to produce important scholars until today (v. 2, iv). The work, The Book on Curing the External and Internal Illnesses to which the Body is Exposed, is an intriguing combination of letter magic, prayers, Galenic humoral medicine, and relevant Prophetic traditions. As such it is not so much a work of Prophetic Medicine (v. 1, iv), as it is an encyclopedic compendium of medicine that offers a general audience a holistic approach to physical, mental, spiritual, and even political afflictions.

The structure of the text is somewhat unclear, as al-Kuntī states at the outset that he will divide it into four chapters – the first of which will deal with the medical benefits of plants, the second with those of metals. But he then proceeds without describing the remaining two, dealing with the curative benefits of the names of God, Qur'anic verses and prayers (v. 1, 13). One senses that the edition would have benefitted from consultation of another copy of the manuscript; the text is at times repetitive and some pages (including the conclusion) are missing.

Despite these minor frustrations, this is rich material. The first volume is largely composed of a discussion of the medical benefits of the recitation of specific Qur'anic ayas or suras. A good example of the types of cures proposed is the expansive description of how to expel a malevolent humor or jinn — the conflation is telling — by writing Surat al-Ra‘d 8–9 on a copper basin, mixing honey, the juice of an onion, white grape pulp, and celery juice, taking the afflicted to a place with greenery, and at daybreak having them drink the mixture from the bowl after having cleaned it with rainwater (v. 1, 45). The benefits of writing go beyond Qur'anic quotations, as letters themselves have powerful properties when combined properly and linked to the elements. When an individual organ is afflicted, the scholar knowledgeable in spiritual medicine can separate the letters that spell the organ's name, identify the elements with which they are affiliated, mix these together and make a remedy out of them. Strikingly, letter magic and prayers can protect against not only physical or mental ailments, but they can also provide protection against sinning, protection from the ruler, help in finding treasure, and protection against hidden polytheism (most likely a reference to a mistaken belief in secondary causality, long a bugbear for Ash‘ari theologians).

The second volume turns to remedies from the Galenic tradition, with a focus on the importance of a proper diet, an extended discussion of the humors, and a long list of substances that possess specific medical properties: monkey meat can cure leprosy, women's breast milk can assist in consumption, while a cloth stained with the blood of a menstruating woman, when attached to a boat, will drive off whales.

The third volume continues the loose structure of the second, including a brief but colorful discussion of leprosy. Of greater interest, however, is the extensive and detailed presentation of the sexual act, which the author describes as necessary for the preservation of health and population growth, as well as being conducive to pleasure. The (implicitly male) reader is here instructed on how to carry out foreplay to increase his wife's desire and later on how bring her to orgasm. This section is followed by treatments for sexual maladies, as well as remedies for melancholy and nightmares. Following a brief look at cures for wounds and a description of the evil eye, the text ends abruptly.

The editor, Floréal Sanaugustin, is to be applauded for his choice of this text, his careful editing, and his identification of its author. I am less convinced by his repeated assertion that it bears testament to the decline of science in the Muslim world (v. 1, v) and that the author wished to minimize the influence of philosophy on Arab medicine (v. 2, iii). One text is hardly sufficient to make such broad assertions and recent scholarship has refuted the argument that philosophy was marginalized in the post-formative Islamicate world. The work of Matthew Melvin-Koushki, for example, has argued for the centrality of the esoteric and the occult to Muslim intellectual endeavors in this period.