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Medicine
 With
the growth of Muslim territory and civilization, knowledge
of medicine, which had accumulated in the classical
civilizations over time, became available to those living in
Muslim lands. With the spread of Arabic language and the
effort to translate important works from other languages of
learning, this heritage was concentrated in the Muslim
libraries. Knowledge of diseases and diagnoses, and ways of
curing them with medicines, surgery, and other treatments
were published, along with advice on staying healthy.
In
Muslim cities, hospitals were founded and became centers of
learning -- the teaching hospitals of today. Rulers and
wealthy people consulted physicians to help them overcome
diseases, and supported their work in advancing medical
studies.
Among
the sciences that flourished in Muslim civilization,
medicine is one that perhaps most represented a
multi-religious, multi-ethnic effort. The number of
physicians of different religions working in the
institutions of learning and serving as court physicians
includes Jewish, Christian, and Indian physicians and
researchers. This is true in the eastern Muslim lands as
well as the western.
For
example, the first head of the House of Wisdom in the 8th
century, and a physician who contributed knowledge about the
anatomy of the eye, was al-Hunayn, a Nestorian Christian
mathematician and physician. His co-religionists, the
Bakhtishu family, served the Abbasid court as physicians for
generations.
Translations of Greek, Indian, and Persian medical works
were available in Al-Andalus. Medicinal substances were
imported through trade networks across Africa, Asia, and
Europe. New medical knowledge accumulated through practice
and research in hospitals and medical colleges.
A
famous Andalusian physician was Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-970
CE), a Jewish physician who served Abdul Rahman III
(912-961 CE) at Córdoba, and translated an important
work on pharmacy, using his knowledge of Arabic, Hebrew and
Latin.
Famous
Muslim physicians in Al-Andalus were many. Ibn Juljul
(Córdoba, b. 943 CE) wrote a commentary on Dioscorides’ work
of pharmacology
De Materia Medica, and wrote
Categories of Physicians, a history of medicine
from the Greeks to his time. Abul Qasim al-Zahrawi
(Córdoba, d. 1013 CE) is best known as a surgeon, and served
al-Hakam II as court physician. He wrote about other
diseases and treatments in his
Tasrif -- a leading medical text in European
universities after its translation into Latin in Toledo --
in which he is called Albucacis.
Physician Ibn Zuhr (d. 1162 CE in Seville), known as
Avenzoar in Latin, was the first to describe pericardial
abscesses (of the heart) and to recommend tracheotomy when
necessary. Ibn Zuhr’s
Taysir was a standard medical work in Europe,
translated into Latin in 1280 CE. In addition to his work in
philosophy, Ibn Rushd (Córdoba, b. 1126) was both an
accomplished physician and an astronomer. His famous medical
book,
Kitab al-Kulyat fi al-Tibb (known as the
Colliget in Latin) discussed various diagnoses
and cures for diseases, as well as their prevention. He was
the personal physician to several Almoravid caliphs in Spain
and Morocco. His friend Ibn Tufayl (d. 1186 CE) had been
physician and medical author before him.
The
great Andalusian physician Ibn al-Khatib of 14th
century Granada wrote an important book during the time of
the Black Death. On the theory of contagious diseases, he
wrote, "The fact of infection becomes clear to the
investigator, whereas he who is not in contact remains
safe." He described how transmission happens through
clothing, vessels, and earrings, at a time when nothing was
known about viruses and bacteria.
 Andalusian doctors made contributions to medical ethics and
hygiene. The jurist and philosopher Ibn Hazm wrote about the
qualities that a physician should have: kindness,
understanding, friendliness, dignity, and the ability to
accept criticism. He wrote about the clothing and hygiene
necessary for doctors. This cleanliness carried over into
the hospitals, which had running water, gardens, and
different wards for different diseases. The poor were
treated there for free, and hospitals were open to all,
supported by the government and private charities. They were
also important institutions for training doctors.
Lasting
impact:
European medicine benefited from the knowledge and
experience of Muslim and Jewish physicians in Spain and
Sicily in many ways. Muslim medical science contributed
knowledge of sedatives, the use of antiseptics to clean
wounds, and use of sutures made of gut and silk thread to
close wounds. Techniques for curing disease with drugs, for
assisting childbirth, setting bones and curing eye and skin
diseases, as well as knowledge of contagious diseases, were
just a few contributions.
Visiting scholars in Islamic Spain were also exposed to the
practice of medicine there, which was far advanced over that
in other parts of Europe. The first European colleges of
medicine developed at Palermo, Sicily, and at Salerno,
Italy. During the 11th century CE, medical books
by important Muslim physicians like Ibn Sina (980-1037 CE)
and al-Razi (864-930 CE) were translated into Latin and
brought into European universities, where they were used for
centuries.
With
the invention of the printing press in Europe, these books
became widespread. The famous English writer Chaucer shows
how well known this medical knowledge from the Arabs was in
Europe. In the beginning of the
Canterbury Tales, Chaucer names physicians from
the Medieval Islamic tradition: Ibn Sarabiyun or Serapion as
he was known to Europe, a 9th century Syrian physician;
“Razis” the great 10th century al-Razi; and “Avicen,” or
Avicenna (Ibn Sina), whose early 11th-century medical
encyclopedia was a basic work for physicians. Arabic medical
literature gave rise to European medical advancements.
With us
there was a Doctour of Phisyk
In al this world ne was there noon him lyk
To speke of phisik and of surgerye...
Wel knew he the olde Esculapius
And Deyscorides and eek Rufus
Olde Ypocras (Hippocrates), Haly and Galeyn (Galen),
Serapion, Razi (Rhazes) and Avycen (Avicenna)...
from
Geoffrey Chaucer, the Prologue to
The Canterbury Tales (c. 1390)
Further Reading:
Manfred
Ullmann.
Islamic Medicine.
Edinburgh University Press, 1997.
Howard
R. Turner. “Medicine,”
Science in Medieval Islam. University of Texas
Press, 1995, pp. 131-161.
“Medicine,” The Islamic World to 1600. The University of
Calgary, 1998. The Applied History Research Group, retrieved
at
http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/learning
 “Islamic Medical Manuscripts” and “Medieval Islam,” National
Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health at
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/arabichome.html
Images:
Arabic
book of medical material in Latin translation. Hugh Bibbs.
The Islamic Foundation of the Renaissance. 1999.
Retrieved at
http://www.Medievalhistory.net/islamica.htm
Avecinna, Canon of Medicine
This is
al-Qanun fi al-Tibb by ibn Sina (980-1037 CE),
known in the West as Avicenna. This page is the beginning of
the third book about diseases of the brain. Arabic; dated
1632
Arabic MS 155, folio 218v, 219r
http://www.asiahouse.org/body_mind_spirit/test/exhibition/islamic.html
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