He compiled a biographical encyclopedia of notable physicians, from the Greeks, Romans and Indians up to the year 650AH/1252AD in the Islamic era.
A second and enlarged recension of the work was produced in the last years of the life of the author, and circulated in at least two different versions, as shown by the extant manuscripts.
When the first edition by August Müller (Cairo, 1882), published under the pseudonym "Imrū l-Qays",[3] was found to be marred by typos and errors and a corrected version was subsequently issued (Königsberg, 1884).
A team of scholars from the universities of Oxford and Warwick has published a new critical edition and a full annotated English translation of the Uyūn al-Anbā.
[6] In 2020, a new translation was published by Oxford World's Classics under the name Anecdotes and Antidotes: A Medieval Arabic History of Physicians.