Medicine in the medieval Islamic world

A Latin copy of the Canon of Medicine, dated 1484, located at the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

In the history of medicine, Islamic medicine, Arabic medicine or Arabian medicine refers to medicine developed in the Islamic Golden Age, and written in Arabic, the lingua franca of Islamic civilization.

Latin translations of Arabic medical works had a significant influence on the development of medicine in the high Middle Ages and early Renaissance, as did Arabic texts chronicling the medical works of earlier cultures.^[1]

Terminology

Some consider the label "Arab-Islamic" as historically inaccurate, arguing it does not appreciate the rich diversity of Eastern scholars who contributed to Islamic science in this era.^[2]

Overview

Medicine was a central part of medieval Islamic culture. Responding to circumstances of time and place, Islamic physicians and scholars developed a large and complex medical literature exploring and synthesizing the theory and practice of medicine.^[3] Islamic medicine was initially built on tradition, chiefly the theoretical and practical knowledge developed in Arabia and was known at Muhammad's time, ancient Hellenistic medicine such as Unani, ancient Indian medicine such as Ayurveda, and the ancient Iranian Medicine of the Academy of Gundishapur. The works of ancient Greek and Roman physicians Hippocrates,^[4] Galen and Dioscorides^[4] also had a lasting impact on Islamic medicine.^[5] Ophthalmology has been described as the most successful branch of medicine researched at the time, with the works of Ibn Al-Haitham remaining an authority in the field until early modern times.^[6]

Medical ethics

The earliest surviving Arabic work on medical ethics is Ishaq ibn 'Ali al-Ruhawi's Adab al-Tabib ("Practical Ethics of the Physician" or "Practical Medical Deontology") and was based on the works of Hippocrates and Galen.^[7] Al-Ruhawi regarded physicians as "guardians of souls and bodies", and wrote twenty chapters on various topics related to medical ethics.^[8]

Encyclopedias

The first encyclopedia of medicine in Arabic language^[9] was Persian scientist Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari's Firdous al-Hikmah ("Paradise of Wisdom"), written in seven parts, c. 860. Al-Tabari, a pioneer in the field of child development, emphasized strong ties between psychology and medicine, and the need for psychotherapy and counseling in the therapeutic treatment of patients. His encyclopedia also discussed the influence of Sushruta and Chanakya on medicine, including psychotherapy.^{[10][verification needed]}

Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi (Rhazes) the Persian scientist wrote the Comprehensive Book of Medicine in the 9th century. The Large Comprehensive was the most sought after of all his compositions, in which Rhazes recorded clinical cases of his own experience and provided very useful recordings of various diseases. Al-Razi was "the first of the (physicians of medieval Islam) to treat medicine in a comprehensive and encyclopedic manner, surpassing probably in voluminousness Galen himself...Rhazes is deservedly remembered as having first described small-pox and measles in an accurate manner".^[11]

Women in medicine

The role of women as practitioners appears in a number of works. Two female physicians from Ibn Zuhr's family served the Almohad ruler Abu Yusuf Ya'qub al-Mansur in the 12th century.^[12] Later in the 15th century, female surgeons were illustrated for the first time in Şerafeddin Sabuncuoğlu's Cerrahiyyetu'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery).^[13]

See also

Al-Tasrif Anatomy Charts of the Arabs Bimaristan Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences Inventions in the Islamic world

Islamic Bioethics Islamic Golden Age Medieval medicine Science in the medieval Islamic world De Gradibus

Medical Encyclopedia of Islam and Iran The Canon of Medicine Unani

Notes and references

Notes

Citations

1. ^ Siraisi, Nancy G. (2001). Medicine and the Italian universities 1250-1600. Leiden: Brill. p. 203. ISBN 9004119426. 
2. ^ Behrooz Broumand, The contribution of Iranian scientists to world civilization, Arch Iranian Med 2006; 9 (3): 288 – 290
3. ^ National Library of Medicine digital archives.
4. ^ ^{a b} Science, civilization and society
5. ^ Saad, Bashar; Azaizeh, Hassan, Said, Omar (1 January 2005). "Tradition and Perspectives of Arab Herbal Medicine: A Review". Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2 (4): 475–479. doi:10.1093/ecam/neh133. PMC 1297506. PMID 16322804. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1297506. 
6. ^ Saunders 1978, p. 193.
7. ^ Prioreschi, Plinio (2001). A History of Medicine: Byzantine and Islamic medicine (1st ed.). Omaha, NE: Horatius Press. p. 394. ISBN 1888456043. 
8. ^ Levey, Martin (1967). "Medical Ethics of Medieval Islam with Special Reference to Al-Ruhāwī's "Practical Ethics of the Physician"". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series (American Philosophical Society) 57 (3): 1–100. ISSN 00659746. JSTOR 1006137. 
9. ^ Selin, Helaine (1997). Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology and medicine in non-western cultures. Kluwer. p. 930. ISBN 0792340663. 
10. ^ Haque Amber (2004). "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists". Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4): 357–377 [361]. doi:10.1007/s10943-004-4302-z. 
11. ^ Deming, David (2010). Science and technology in world history/ the ancient world and classical civilization. Jefferson: Mcfarland. p. 93. ISBN 0786439327. 
12. ^ The Art as a Profession, United States National Library of Medicine
13. ^ Bademci G (2006). "First illustrations of female "Neurosurgeons" in the fifteenth century by Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu". Neurocirugía 17: 162–165. 

Bibliography

• Morelon, Régis; Rashed, Roshdi (1996). Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. 3. Routledge. ISBN 0415124107 
• Browne, Edward G. (2002). Islamic Medicine. Goodword Books. ISBN 81-87570-19-9. 
• Dols, Michael W. (1984). Medieval Islamic Medicine: Ibn Ridwan's Treatise "On the Prevention of Bodily Ills in Egypt". Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care. University of California Press. ISBN 0520048369. 
• Pormann, Peter E.; Savage-Smith, Emilie (2007). Medieval Islamic Medicine. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748620664. 
• Porter, Roy (2001). The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521002524. 
• Ullmann, Manfred (1978). Islamic Medicine. Islamic Surveys. 11. Edinburgh: Univ. Press. ISBN 0852243251. *
• Saunders, John J. (1978). A History of Medieval Islam. Routledge. ISBN 9780415059145. 

External links

• Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine.
• Arabic Medical Manuscripts at the UCL Centre for the History of Medicine.
• Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts at the National Library of Medicine.
• Influence On the Historical Development of Medicine by Prof. Hamed Abdel-reheem Ead.
• Al-Zahrawi (Albucasis) - A light in the Middle Ages in Europe by Dr. Sharif Kaf Al-Ghazal
• Contagion - Perspectives from Pre-Modern Societies