Hakim Nabina Ansari

Hakim Abdul Wahhab Ansari (1868–1941), known as Hakim Nabina Ansari, was an Indian Unani physician of Ghazipur and Delhi who, though blind from childhood, became famous for diagnosing illness from a patient's pulse alone. ^{1 2} He studied at Darul Uloom Deoband, took bay'ah with Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, served for a time as physician to the Nizam of Hyderabad, and treated Muhammad Iqbal's kidney stone. ¹ No English or Arabic Wikipedia article exists for him, so this entry rests on the Urdu article and Wikidata.

He was born in 1868 at Yusufpur, a town in Ghazipur district in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the son of Hakim Abdul Rahman Ansari, himself a noted physician and scholar. ¹ The article traces his lineage to the Companion Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may God be pleased with him), which is recorded here as the family's claim as the article gives it. ¹ Smallpox in childhood took his sight, and "Nabina" — the blind man — became the byname by which his age knew him. ¹

He memorised the Qur'an by the age of ten and learned the elements of Arabic grammar at home. ¹ The article dates his graduation from Darul Uloom Deoband to 1882; he took Arabic literature from Faiz-ul-Hasan Saharanpuri and Zulfiqar Ali Deobandi, and medicine from Hakim Abdul Majeed Khan of Delhi. ¹ He took bay'ah — Sufi discipleship — with Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, the Deoband scholar. ¹ That discipleship is attested by this one article alone, and the museum's data records his affiliation as unknown with the attestation stated in full.

His fame rested on pulse diagnosis: the article's lead says he could learn a patient's whole medical history from the pulse alone. ¹ For a time he was the personal physician of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and he treated the nobles and notables of Hyderabad and Delhi; Khwaja Hasan Nizami conferred on him the title Luqman-ul-Mulk, "Luqman of the realm". ¹ Muhammad Iqbal, who held his diagnostic skill in high regard, had his own kidney stone treated by him. ¹ Of his medical writings most were lost; one book, Asrar-e-Shariania ma'a Mujarrabat-e-Ansaria, survives in the Rekhta online library. ¹

He died at Delhi in Rabi' al-Thani 1360 AH, corresponding to 1941, as the article dates it, and Wikidata agrees on the year. ^{1 2} By his will he was buried at Gangoh, beside the shrine of his master Rashid Ahmad Gangohi. ¹