The art of medicine would of course be worthless, if there was no one who practised it. While medical texts tell us nothing about the people who used them, we know from biographies of civil servants that there were medical professionals.
In the second book of The Histories, the greek author Herodotus wrote about egyptian physicians:
„The art of medicine among them is distributed thus: each physician is a physician of one disease and of no more; and the whole country is full of physicians, for some profess themselves to be physicians of the eyes, others of the head, others of the teeth, others of the affections of the stomach.“
As multiple titles of physicians are well documented, we know about this high level of specialisation, at least from the Late Period onwards. It is remarkable that some physicians also acted as priests, especially as priests of the goddess Sakhmet, who was associated with illness and epidemics. This demonstrates us, how closely magic and medicine must have been intertwined.
After having diagnosed a patient‘s illness, physicians chose from a vast amount of „pharmaceutical“ formulations or magical healing spells. There also existed surgical treatments, as knives and other instruments show us. However, some diagnoses resulted in the observation that it was „an illness, which cannot be treated.“
Nevertheless, egyptian physicians enjoyed outstanding reputation, even among foreigners. Correspondency survived between Ramesses II. and Ḫattušili III., king of the Hittites, who are known to have concluded the first peace treaty in history, and it gives us an insight into diplomacy of the 13th century BCE. Ḫattušili asked his egyptian fellow for a physician, who could be sent to Ḫattuša (nowadays Bögazköy, Turkey); the king’s sister was supposed to conceive a child (for whatever reason), despite her advanced age.
„My brother might send a man, who can prepare a medicine in order to let her give birth.“
Ramesses‘ answer was not particularly diplomatic at first sight:
„Look, the sister of my brother – a sixty-year-old she is! One cannot brew herbs for her in order to let her give birth.“
It is highly remarkable that Ḫattušili asked a foreign ruler for help in such a delicate issue, even more so, as the two countries have been at war not long before this letter was written. Perhaps, Ramesses did not want to raise too much hope and disappoint Ḫattušili in the end? However, the rejection of this request did do no harm to the new friendship between both monarchs. During the following years, Egypt regularly sent physicians, not only to the Hittite king, who was treated for eye diseases, but also to his vassals in other parts of the country. This „physician diplomacy“, together with the marriage policy, was a strong factor for a stable and peaceful relationship between the two lands, which lasted until the collapse of the Hittite empire. Ramesses, of course, benefited the most from his highly skilled physicians: He reached an almost biblical age of 90 years.
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