|
Pharmacology
 Pharmacology is the study of plants and other natural
substances that cure or prevent diseases. From the very
earliest times, people have identified such cures in their
local environment. Knowledge of these cures was passed down
orally. With the expansion of trade, certain important drugs
made of herbs, spices, animal extracts, or minerals became
known outside of their native environments. Either the
substance was exported in dried or preserved form, or the
plant itself was introduced to new places and grown there.
As
medical science developed, knowledge about pharmacology was
systematically collected in written form. Chinese, Indian,
Persian, Greek, and Roman collections of knowledge exist,
and information was traded among them. In the Mediterranean
and western Asia, several important collections had been
passed down, and became part of the legacy of knowledge on
which physicians in Muslim lands could draw.
Because
their geographic reach was so extensive, pharmacologists
working in the Islamic tradition were able to include drugs
known to a wide variety of peoples since ancient times.
Among the important curative substances, or
materia medica in Latin, the Islamic scientific
books included plant and animal camphor, musk, sal ammoniac,
and senna, a wide range of herbals and medicines from as far
away as China, Southeast Asia, the Himalayas, southern
India, and Africa. In addition to drugs, beneficial foods
were included.
 The
tradition of medicine in Islam was founded on both good
habits of healthful living practiced by Prophet Muhammad,
and the tradition attributed to him, “God created a cure for
every disease.” Taking up this challenge, Muslims and others
working in the Islamic tradition traveled to seek knowledge,
collected information and specimens, translated important
works, and experimented with clinical practice in hospitals.
Al-Andalus
both absorbed the benefits of this wide-ranging knowledge
and added to it with medical and botanical work. Among the
important works translated from Greek into Arabic was
Dioscorides, which Hasdai ibn Shaprut (ca. 915-990 CE)
helped translate in Córdoba. Another Córdoban, Ibn Juljul
(b. 943 CE), wrote a commentary on Dioscorides’ work of
pharmacology. In the eastern Muslim lands, pharmacists
prepared medicines using instructions in directions found in
the
Treatise on Medicinal Drugs by Abu Raihan
Muhammad al-Biruni (973-1048 CE), who shared information
with famous physician Ibn Sina (980-1037 CE).
The
most valuable and popular work on pharmacology in Al-Andalus,
and later in other parts of Europe, was by Granadian
botanist Ibn al-Baytar (died in 1248 CE), the
Collection of Simple Drugs and Food, an
encyclopedia of about 1500 medicinal substances that he
collected over his lifetime. The book contains information
about the substance, what it can be used for, how to prepare
it, and how much to give the patient. As
late as 1875 at the famous Bulaq press in Cairo, Ibn al-Baytar’s
Comprehensive Book
on
Materia Medica and Foodstuffs
was
still being printed.
These
books and the knowledge gained in hospitals, gardening, and
pharmacies spread the reputation of medical practice in
Spain, which was far advanced over that in the rest of
Medieval Europe at that time. The earliest medical colleges
grew up in Sicily, southern France, and other places where
knowledge from Muslim lands was available. Through
translation into Latin, direct teaching, and knowledge of
Arabic, Europeans learned this valuable knowledge and
founded medical science in the West. Andalusian
contributions in preserving and adding to this body of
learning are still recognized by scholars today.
 From
Ibn al-Baytar
Further
Reading:
“Islamic Culture and the Medical Arts: Pharmaceutics and
Alchemy,” National Library of Medicine, National
Institutes of Health retrieved at
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/islamic_medical/
islamic_11.html “Islam,
Spain and the History of Technology,” History of Technology,
San Jose State University retrieved at
http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/history/islam.htm
Howard
R. Turner. “Natural Sciences,” Science in Medieval Islam.
University of Texas Press, 1995.
Images:
Pharmacy, retrieved at
http://www.engr.sjsu.edu/pabacker/history/images/medicine.jpg
Dioscorides with a student in an Andalusian Arabic
translation of De Materia Medica retrieved at
http://www.legadoandalusi.es/legado/contenido/rutas/obras/26301.htm
Ibn
Baytar book, retrieved at
http://www.islamic-study.org/pharmacology.htm
Back | Next
Back to
Top |
