Kharaf

To hat-tip Reynolds, from the elderly-dominated forum he administers: questions are raised if the Classical era knew dementia. The Greeksnromans were aware of Losing The Fastball (last weekend, I admit, I was pondering this for myself). But Oldtimer's Disease... they did not really mention. Mental decline of that severity was not worth the great doctors' efforts.

All this, despite infamous levels of heavy-metals in the water and in cinnabar-cosmetics. Which the Romanzngreks also knew was/were Bad For You.

It may be that, for those Romans and Chinese who did reach old-age (and many did; "life-expectancy" is a statistical fluke of childhood mortality): madness struck before memory.

As usual, this research is Classical, for Greeks and Romans. That's where our highschoolers learn the languages. It all got me thinking about the Semitic world, which isn't as widely taught. Where, for a start, is Syriac? Well... here, I don't really know. But the Arab-speakers in the mediaeval period did find kharaf among the Islamicate societies.

Before the 'Abbasi dawla, one might look to the Quran and, yes, it's there: in sura 16. To me, this looks like a tack-on, to general Qâric musings about the aging-process and the need to be kind to one's elders. I suspect sura 16 as a Marwânid-era forgery. But why did the Arabs choose the end of the first Islamic century, to make a nod in that direction?

If sura 16 didn't have this lore from the Arabs, then - yeah - it must have had it from the Syrians. Are we missing some Masarjawayh? maybe Egyptian pandects?

RHEUMATISM 2/2: A reminder that just because a culture doesn't mention a condition, doesn't mean they didn't grow up to suffer from it. Here: Egypt (wherein Ahrun would do those Pandects). It may be that geriatrics were simply not of interest; these were cultures which concentrated on the good health of 15-45 year olds, as being (1) able to spawn children and (2) able to do manual work including, for men, war.