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Medicine in the medieval Islamic world

In the history of medicine, "Islamic medicine" Also known as "Arabian medicine" is the science of medicine developed in the Middle East, and usually written in Arabic, the lingua franca of Islamic civilization.[1][2]

This article is about medicine in the Islamic Age. For Islamic religion in medicine, see Prophetic medicine. For the contemporary alternative, see Unani.

Islamic medicine adopted, systematized and developed the medical knowledge of classical antiquity, including the major traditions of Hippocrates, Galen and Dioscorides.[3] During the post-classical era, Middle Eastern medicine was the most advanced in the world, integrating concepts of Modern Greek, Roman, Mesopotamian and Persian medicine as well as the ancient Indian tradition of Ayurveda, while making numerous advances and innovations. Islamic medicine, along with knowledge of classical medicine, was later adopted in the medieval medicine of Western Europe, after European physicians became familiar with Islamic medical authors during the Renaissance of the 12th century.[4]


Medieval Islamic physicians largely retained their authority until the rise of medicine as a part of the natural sciences, beginning with the Age of Enlightenment, nearly six hundred years after their textbooks were opened by many people. Aspects of their writings remain of interest to physicians even today.[5]

Overview[edit]

Medicine was a central part of medieval Islamic culture. This period was called the Golden Age of Islam and lasted from the eighth century to the fourteenth century.[6] The economic and social standing of the patient determined to a large extent the type of care sought and the expectations of the patients varied along with the approaches of the practitioners.[7]


Responding to circumstances of time and place/location, Islamic physicians and scholars created an extensive and complex medical literature exploring, analyzing, and synthesizing the theory and practice of medicine Islamic medicine was initially built on tradition, chiefly the theoretical and practical knowledge developed in Arabia in the time of Muhammad, 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,[8] Galen and Dioscorides also had a lasting impact on Middle Eastern medicine.[9] Intellectual thirst, open-mindness, and vigor were at an all-time high in this era. During the Golden Age of Islam, classical learning was sought out, systematised and improved upon by scientists and scholars with such diligence that Arab science became the most advanced of its day.[6] Ophthalmology has been described as the most successful branch of medicine researched at the time, with the works of Ibn al-Haytham retaining an authority in the field until early modern times.[10]

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Taqwim al-Sihha (تقويم الصحة)

Da'avat al-ateba'

Al-maqalat al-Mokhtarat fi tadbir al-amrad al-a'rezat al-aksar bel taghziat Ma'loofat

Resalat fi shari al-raghigh va taghlib al-bai'd

Maqalat fi an al-foroj ahar men al-farkh

Al-maqalat al-mesriat fi monaghezat Ali Ibn Ridwan

Maqal fi al-qorban al-moqadas (مقال في القربان المقدس)

[70]

Medical ethics[edit]

Physicians like al-Razi wrote about the importance of morality in medicine, and may have presented, together with Avicenna and Ibn al-Nafis, the first concept of ethics or "practical philosophy" in Islamic medicine.[37] Al-Razi wrote his treatise "Kitab al-tibb al-ruhani" also known as "Book on Spritual Physick" on popular ethics.[85] He felt that it was important not only for the physician to be an expert in his field, but also to be a role model. His ideas on medical ethics were divided into three concepts: the physician's responsibility to patients and to self, and also the patients’ responsibility to physicians.[86]


The earliest surviving Arabic work on medical ethics is Ishaq ibn 'Ali al-Ruhawi's Adab al-Tabib (Arabic: أدب الطبيب, romanizedAdab aț-Ṭabīb, "Morals of the physician" or "Practical Medical Deontology") and was based on the works of Hippocrates and Galen.[87] Although, it should be mentioned that unlike Hippocrates, Galen did not propose a definite medical ethic code. Morals of the physician was al-Ruhawi's introductory comment to elevate the practice of medicine in order to aid the ill and enlist the help of God in his support.[85] He quotes Hippocrates that the medical arts involve three factors: the illness, the patient, and the physician. The book consisted of twenty chapters on various topics related to medical ethics.[85] In the first chapter of his book, al-Ruhawi declared that the truth is more important for physicians who follow rational ethics and the medical injunctions.[85] Al-Ruhawi regarded physicians as "guardians of souls and bodies", and insisted them to use proper medical etiquette for strong medical ethics and not to ignore theoretical overtones. In pre-Islamic times, there were problems of a lack of part of an element of struggle and conflict to resolve ethical diffculites. Al-Ruhawi helped bridge this gap.


The Islamic medical ethics can be discovered as two types of topics, the Adab literature and the classic Islamic legal tradition.[88] With Adab literature, its main course of action is to mainly promote the universal virtues and morals that exists. Its main goal is to promote the importance of ethical behaviors, good manners, and social etiquette that can then intern be applied to all human beings that exists no matter what their religious background is or even what cultural background that they derived from.[88] Due to this Adab literature is very universal and appeals to a wide variety of religion and cultural background out there. On the other hand, with the Islamic legal traditions, it can be traced back and grounded in the Islamic laws and the jurisprudence.[88] The Islamic legal tradition is often brought in and used when there are certain ethical dilemmas that needs to be dealt with. These can be things such as biomedical issues and the Islamic legal traditions is closely connected to the Islamic medical ethics and laws.[88]

Medical education[edit]

Medieval Islamic cultures had different avenues for teaching medicine prior to having regulated standardized institutes. Like learning in other fields at the time, many aspiring physicians learnt from family and apprenticeship until majlises, hospital training, and eventually, madrasahs became used. There are a few instances of self-education like Ibn Sīnā, but students would have generally been taught by a physician knowledgeable on theory and practice. Pupils would typically find a teacher that was related, or unrelated, which generally came at the cost of a fee. Those who were apprenticed by their relatives sometimes led to famous genealogies of physicians. The Bukhtīshū family is famous for working for the Baghdad caliphs for almost three centuries.[81]


Before the turn of the millennium, hospitals became a popular center for medical education, where students would be trained directly under a practicing physician. Outside of the hospital, physicians would teach students in lectures, or "majlises", at mosques, palaces, or public gathering places. Al-Dakhwār became famous throughout Damascus for his majlises and was eventually oversaw all of the physicians in Egypt and Syria.[81] He would go on to become the first to establish what would be described as a "medical school" in that its teaching focused solely on medicine, unlike other schools who mainly taught fiqh. It was opened in Damascus on 12 January 1231 and is on record to have existed at least until 1417. This followed general trends of the institutionalization of all types of education. Even with the existence of the madrasah, pupils and teachers alike often engaged in some variety of all forms of education. Students would typically study on their own, listen to teachers in majlis, work under them in hospitals, and finally study in madrasah's upon their creation.[81] This all eventually led to the standardization and vetting process of medical education.


In 639 A.D., the Muslims had conquered and taken control of the Persian City of Jundi-Shapur. Even though the city was taken over, most of the hospitals and universities that existed were left intact to be used later on.[95] The Islamic medical schools were later on built to the patterns that previously existed and medical education was taken very seriously regarding the cirriculum and the clinical training that has existed.


The Islamic medicine had developed the "Bimaristans" or further more known as the hospitals, they were very well developed with how efficient they were along with how advance their systems were.[95] These hospitals served the public with no charge and no discrimination also, they were advanced with how they operated from separating males and females along with having different wards for different types of diseases.

Pharmacy[edit]

The birth of pharmacy as an independent, well-defined profession was established in the early ninth century by Muslim scholars. Islamic pharmacological tradition was a result of Mesopotamian intellectual centers that supported the exchange of ideas. Indian and far east influences made their way into Mesopotamia by trade routes. Mesopotamia encompasses most of present-day Iraq, which later became the Sasanian Empire. Persians preserved Greek ideas that trickled down into Islamic pharmacology. Pharmacology in Islamic empires was characterized by all substances applied to the human body. Drugs, foods, beverages, cosmetics, and perfumes were all used for their medicinal properties. Drugs consisted of plant-derived substances that originated in various regions of Asia. Pharmacological agents were employed as treatments based on their effectiveness at maintaining the human body's equilibrium. The Greek physician Hippocrates is credited for categorizing sickness as an imbalance of the abstract qualities cold, hot, dry, and moist. A diet was proscribed as treatment for the imbalance to restore equilibrium.[96]


Al-Biruni states that "pharmacy became independent from medicine as language and syntax are separate from composition, the knowledge of prosody from poetry, and logic from philosophy, for it [pharmacy] is an aid [to medicine] rather than a servant". Sabur Ibn Sahl was a physician (d. 869) who wrote the first text on pharmacy in his book Aqrabadhin al-Kabir. Heavily influenced by Dioscorides, it is believed that his book was written after Dioscorides' Materia Medica. The acclaimed Greek herbalist Dioscorides worked alongside Greek physician Galen to categorize pharmacological agents. The Andalusian physician Ibn Juljul systematized substances from India, Southeast Asia, or Indian Ocean lands. The categorizing of substances was further organized based on their transmission into the Islamicate empire. The origins consisted of Greek, Indian, or Iranian origination. The knowledge of the substances' medicinal properties were result of pre-Islamic Sasanian empire and the pyro-Persian culture that emphasized pharmacological pursuits. Islamicate pharmacy achieved the implementation of a systematic method of identifying substances based on their medicinal attributes. In addition, Sabur also wrote three other books A Refutation of Hunayn's Book on the Difference Between Diet and the Laxative Medicine; A Treatise on Sleep and Wakefulness; and Substitution of one Drug for Another. Although his works was not enforced by the government authorities, they were widely accepted in the medical circles.[97] The branch of pharmacology was a result of continuity and expansion of pre-existing civilizations.

Legacy[edit]

Medieval Islam's receptiveness to new ideas and heritages helped it make major advances in medicine during this time, adding to earlier medical ideas and techniques, expanding the development of the health sciences and corresponding institutions, and advancing medical knowledge in areas such as surgery and understanding of the human body, although many Western scholars have not fully acknowledged its influence (independent of Roman and Greek influence) on the development of medicine.[73]


Through the establishment and development of hospitals, ancient Islamic physicians were able to provide more intrinsic operations to cure patients, such as in the area of ophthalmology. This allowed for medical practices to be expanded and developed for future reference.


The contributions of the two major Muslim philosophers and physicians, Al-Razi and Ibn Sina, provided a lasting impact on Muslim medicine. Through their compilation of knowledge into medical books they each had a major influence on the education and filtration of medical knowledge in Islamic culture.


Additionally there were some iconic contributions made by women during this time, such as the documentation: of female doctors, physicians, surgeons, wet nurses, and midwives.

(2002). Islamic Medicine. Goodword Books. ISBN 978-81-87570-19-6.

Browne, Edward G.

Dols, Michael W. (1984). . Comparative Studies of Health Systems and Medical Care. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-04836-2.

Medieval Islamic Medicine: Ibn Ridwan's Treatise 'On the Prevention of Bodily Ills in Egypt'

at the National Library of Medicine.

Islamic Medical Manuscripts

at the UCL Centre for the History of Medicine.

Arabic Medical Manuscripts

at the National Library of Medicine.

Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts

by Prof. Hamed Abdel-reheem Ead.

Influence On the Historical Development of Medicine

by Dr. Sharif Kaf Al-Ghazal

Al-Zahrawi (Albucasis) – A light in the Middle Ages in Europe

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