author

Sami Khalaf Hamarneh

b. 1925

A historian of pharmacy, medicine, and science, he devoted much of his career to tracing the rich medical traditions of the Arab and Islamic world. His books and reference works helped bring those histories to a wider English-speaking audience.

2 Audiobooks

Drawings and Pharmacy in Al-Zahrawi's 10th-Century Surgical Treatise

Drawings and Pharmacy in Al-Zahrawi's 10th-Century Surgical Treatise

by Sami Khalaf Hamarneh

History of the Division of Medical Sciences United States National Museum Bulletin 240, Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, paper 43, 1964

History of the Division of Medical Sciences United States National Museum Bulletin 240, Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, paper 43, 1964

by Sami Khalaf Hamarneh

About the author

Born in 1925, Sami Khalaf Hamarneh was a Jordanian scholar best known for his work on the history of pharmacy, medicine, and science. He wrote and edited books on subjects including Arabic manuscripts, medieval Islamic medicine, and museum collections, building a body of work that remains useful to readers interested in how medical knowledge traveled across cultures.

He also had a long association with the Smithsonian. Sources from the institution describe him as a curator in the Division of Medical Sciences and later as a historian, reflecting both his subject expertise and his role in shaping how medical history was presented to the public.

Library and archival records identify him as living from 1925 to 2010. Across his career, he was recognized not only as an author but as a careful historian who connected scholarship, collections, and public history.