History
Islamic Medicine
Islamic medicine refers to the medical practices and knowledge developed within the Islamic civilization, particularly during the medieval period. It was influenced by Greek, Roman, Persian, and Indian medical traditions and made significant advancements in areas such as pharmacology, surgery, and public health. Islamic medicine also played a key role in preserving and translating ancient medical texts, contributing to the development of medical knowledge in Europe.
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10 Key excerpts on "Islamic Medicine"
No longer available |Learn more- (Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- The English Press(Publisher)
________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ Chapter 4 Medicine in Medieval Islam In the history of medicine, Islamic Medicine or Arabic medicine refers to medicine developed in the Islamic Golden Age Islamic civilization and written in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Islamic civilization. Some consider the label Arab-Islamic as historically inaccurate, arguing that this label does not appreciate the rich diversity of Eastern scholars who have contributed to Islamic science in this era. Latin translations of Arabic medical works had a significant influence on the development of modern medicine, as did Arabic texts chronicling the medical works of earlier cultures. Overview Islamic medical writing was influenced by several different medical systems, including the traditional Arabian medicine of 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, Dioscorides, Soranus, Celsus and Galen also had a lasting impact on Islamic Medicine. ________________________ WORLD TECHNOLOGIES ________________________ Foundations The origins of Islamic Medicine can be traced back to the time of Muhammad, and a significant number of hadiths concerning medicine are attributed to him. Several Sahaba are said to have been successfully treated of certain diseases by following the medical advice of Muhammad. The three methods of healing mentioned by him were honey, Hijama (wet cupping), and cauterization, though he was generally opposed to the use of cauterization unless it suits the ailment. According to Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Muhammad disliked this method due to it causing pain and menace to a patient since there was no anesthesia in his time.
eBook - PDF- W.H. Vogel, A. Berke(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- SPB Academic Publishing(Publisher)
The unifying influence of the Arabic language, the lingua franca, allowed all these different communities to communicate and to contribute to the so called Islamic Medicine, which was not solely Islamic but multicultural in nature. The medical texts of Galen were of particular importance for the development of Islamic medi-cine. Islamic experience and scientific and medical knowledge were added to ancient medicine and so Islamic Medicine developed to a considerably higher standard than did western medicine. ‘Scien-Fig. 1. Public library of Hulwan, Iraq. The last line of the Arabic text says: ‘ During an exam, a person is either honored or disgraced ’ . Medieval Islamic Medicine 142 tific’ Islamic Medicine began to decline from the fourteenth cen-tury on, when the ‘Medicine of the Prophet’, a medicine that was based on the sayings of Muhammad and on magic and supersti-tion became more and more popular. Baghdad Baghdad developed into the medical and scientific center of the medieval Islamic World during the 9th century. This city was founded in the 8th century by al-Mansur who ruled from 754–775 and which superseded Damascus as capital of the Islamic empire. Baghdad had a wealthy and prosperous upper class, which rec-ognized that diseases were not caused by fate or a punishment from Allah that had to be endured, but instead that they could be cured by medicine. Thus, physicians were consulted and med-icines were requested. The best physicians of the Islamic world came together in Baghdad. General medicine Medieval Islamic Medicine is based upon the humour theory of the Greeks. Health was associated with a balance of humours (eucrasia) and imbalance (dyscrasia) was thought to be the cause of diseases. Methods of treatment like bloodletting, emetics or purges were aimed at expelling a harmful surplus of a humour and to restore eucrasia. The treatment started with physiotherapy, and diet and drugs were only used if the other therapies failed.
eBook - PDFPatients and Practitioners
Lay Perceptions of Medicine in Pre-industrial Society
- Roy Porter(Author)
- 2003(Publication Date)
- Cambridge University Press(Publisher)
39 Medical knowledge was not the preserve of a professional group, although, as we shall see later, doctors were a definable class in a legal and objective sense. Graeco/Arabic medicine had therefore been thoroughly adopted by the new urban intelligentsia, but Islamic society had a medical alternative which might have appealed to the ordinary man, not least because it did not require the services of a doctor. This was the so-called Prophet's Medicine, a collection of injunctions about health and the cure of disease, all purportedly going back to the Prophet Muhammad. They originated in part from the books of Prophetic Hadith (the sayings of the Prophet), 40 and in part from ancient pre-Islamic magical practices and beliefs which had been dressed in religious guise and dignified with the Prophet's authority. 41 There were several collections of the Prophet's Medicine by different authors which mostly came into prominence after 1300. The influence of humoral medicine is clearly to be discerned in them, despite the fact that the men of religion promoted the Prophet's medicine as the only medicine fit for the believer who must shun the heathen Graeco/Arabic medicine. If honey is drunk before breakfast, it dissolves phlegm, washes staleness out of the stomach, clarifies the viscid matter within it, expels the superfluities 39 For example, Ibn al-Nadim (fl. 987), K. al-Fihrist (The index), ed. G. Flugel (Leipzig, 1871-2); al-Qifti (d. 1248), K. Tarikh al-Hukama (The history of physicians); Yaqut al-Rumi (fl. thirteenth century), Irshad al-Arib ila Marifat al-Adib, ed. and trans, as Yaquf s Dictionary of Learned Men, D. S. Margoliouth (London, 1936-8). All these books contain biographies of learned men from all parts of the Islamic state and span several centuries. 40 The Hadith (tradition) is an account of what the Prophet said or did, or of his approval of what was said and done, collected in several volumes.
eBook - PDFMedieval Islamic World
An Intellectual History of Science and Politics
- Labeeb Ahmed Bsoul(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Peter Lang Group(Publisher)
169 Other notable works are The Comprehensive Book on Medicine (al-Hawi) by al-Rāzī, and The Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sīnā. Specialized Branches of Medicine The accepted wisdom is that Muslims excelled in medicine to a degree that made them specialize in some of its branches only after its domain had become widespread. Given the encyclopedic character of Muslim physicians, it is not surprising that one finds excellence in the domain of medicine as a science; however, some did become famous in individual branches. Some physicians also became famous in other traditional sciences (ʿulūm naqliyya), such as Islamic jurisprudence science (fiqh), or history, while specializing in branches of medicine, such as ophthalmology, embryology, psychiatry, dentistry, der- matologist, epidemiology and infection, pharmacy, and hospitals. Ophthalmology (al-Kaḥalah) The Greeks wrote of medical consideration of the eyes and its diseases, and Muslims translated the Greek books into Arabic. This led to the science of Islamic eye medicine and the development of optics with an exclusive Islamic character. Muslim physicians referred to the ophthalmologist or oculist as al-kaḥāl and ophthalmology as al-kaḥalah. Perhaps the first of the early publi- cations in this area was Hunayn ibn Ishaq’s work al-Ashar Maqalat ʿan al-ʿAyn (10 Articles on the Eye), in which he searched for the psychological symp- toms of the brain, eyesight, and health and diseases of the eye, their causes and their characters. 170 In addition was the work of Abu Zakariya Yuhanna ibn Masawayh (d. 243/857), The Disorders of the Eye (Tagyirat al-ʿAyn). 171 THE IMPACT OF Islamic Medicine ON MODERN CIVILIZATION 71 Medieval Islamic scientists (unlike their classical predecessors) consid- ered it normal to combine theory and practice, including the crafting of pre- cise instruments, and therefore found it natural to combine the study of the eye with the practical application of that knowledge.
eBook - ePubGreco-Arab and Islamic Herbal Medicine
Traditional System, Ethics, Safety, Efficacy, and Regulatory Issues
- Bashar Saad, Omar Said(Authors)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Chapter 10 Greco-Arab and Islamic Medicine Practiced Outside the Middle East 10.1 IntroductionArab and Islamic Medicine is widely used in most Arab and Islamic world that forms about one-fifth of the world's population (about 1.4–1.5 billion people). The Arab and Muslim world refers in geopolitical sense to Muslim majority countries or countries in which Islam dominates politically (Tables 10.1 and 10.2 ). This community is spread across many different nations and ethnic groups connected only by religion (Figure 10.1 ). Medicine in general is considered to be one of the most illustrious and best-known facets of Arab–Islamic civilization. It influenced Western medical circles to such an extent that it was included in the curriculum of medical schools for many centuries. In the discipline of medical history, Islamic Medicine is often referred to as Arabic medicine, Greco-Arab, or Islamic Medicine. Developed in the Golden Age (from seventh to fifteenth century) of Arab–Islamic civilization, the medicinal sources are written in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Islamic civilization [1–4].Table 10.1 List of Muslim Majority Countries.Arab states Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen Muslim states Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Benin, Brunei, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Maldives, Chad, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Guina-Bissau, Guyana, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Mali, Mozambique Niger, Nigeria Pakistan, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Suriname, Togo, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan In a geopolitical sense, these countries are often considered to form the Muslim world. The list only contains countries that are predominantly Muslim dominated, meaning the Muslim population constitutes at least 50% of the total population. 
eBook - PDF- Joseph P. Byrne(Author)
- 2006(Publication Date)
- Greenwood(Publisher)
“These deeds will invoke the angelic spirits who can conquer the evil spirits, make void their evil, and repel their influence,” Al-Jawzziya wrote. 12 THE MEDIEVAL PLAGUE AND Islamic Medicine A variety of medical practitioners worked in any given Islamic city. Physicians trained in the Greco-Arab tradition of medicine commanded the most social prestige and served at the courts of Muslim rulers. For example, the Andalusian Al-Khatib, who had studied medicine in Granada, became an influential counselor and secretary to Granada’s rulers Yusuf I and Muhammad. Muslim physicians were also important in administering the great urban hospitals and as educators in both medicine and science. New physicians had to pass strict examinations, and all were expected to carry out charitable visits to prisons and rural areas that lacked permanent health services. Sheikhs were Muslim holy men who, among other things, practiced both physical and spiritual faith healing, as did certain “wise women” who were especially adept at handling women’s health matters. It appears that average Muslims resorted to the sheikhs and wise women when the matter was either not terribly serious or when the physicians admitted an inability to treat the problem, as in the case of mental ill- ness or a slowly debilitating disease. These healers often offered the patient prayers, spells, amulets, and unorthodox medicinal concoctions and herbal remedies. As in the medieval and early modern Christian world, Muslim popular healers combined religion, herbs, and ancient Medical Practitioners in the 1340s In the Medieval Muslim World 265 folk superstitions in their medicine. Some prescribed writing “sacred words” on bread before eating it, or on paper in ink that was then washed off and drunk by the sick person. Other word-oriented prescrip- tions involved writing secret letters on doorposts and drinking the water in which a specially engraved ring had been dipped.
- P Y Ho, F P Lisowski;;;(Authors)
- 1997(Publication Date)
- WSPC(Publisher)
The medical crafts of the Arabs and the Persians also served as an example to the world, reaching new heights under al-RazT (Rhazes) (AD 850 to 925) A Brief Note on the History of Medicine in the Islamic World 73 and Ibn STna (Avicenna) (AD 980 to 1037), and there is historical evidence that both had been influenced by Chinese and Ayurvedic learning. In the year AD 931, the first qualifying examinations took place under a decree by the Caliph al-Muqtadir in Baghdad. This has already been mentioned above. Arabic medicine had a profound influence on the emerging western world. Up to the 10th century the writings of ancient authors had for the most part fallen into oblivion in the West, and only in a few places were the early medieval Latin translations of some writings of Galen still in existence. The translations from Arabic into Latin of the old classical texts as well as of indigenous material during the 11th and 12th centuries laid the foundations of the Arabism in the medicine of the West. This trend was dominant for centuries, and was reversed only in modern times after long arguments. For long the rule held that he who would be a good physician must be a good Avicennist. One must not judge the position of medicine in Islamic countries solely on the basis of the writings of the physicians. Physicians in any case were to be found only in the large cities, and most of the well known names were either personal doctors to the sultans or else professors. The urban poor and the rural population were practically deprived of all medical help. The period from the 12th to the 17th centuries is chiefly one of decadence, contemporary with the decline of the caliphate, which was threatened internally by strife among the Arab dynasties and externally by the growing power of European cities. This page is intentionally left blank This page is intentionally left blank A MOMENT OF REFLECTION This page is intentionally left blank This page is intentionally left blank
eBook - PDF- Deborah Brunton(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Greenwood(Publisher)
Such events were often highly emotional, with people wailing, singing, and dancing for hours or even days. For a few people, the heightened emotional states at these meetings were followed by bouts of mental illness, and they were confined in asylums suffering from “religious insanity. ” Doctors attributed their condition to nervous over- stimulation combined with an underlying mental weakness. In hind- sight, the prevalence of religious insanity in the 1840s in North America was produced by a combination of the popularity of religious revivals and the building of large asylums where, for the first time, doctors saw much greater numbers of patients suffering from mental illness. ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS MEDICINE Religion played a central place in medicine in the Islamic world, par- ticularly in the later nineteenth century. Allah was the supreme healer; 42 Health and Wellness in the 19th Century he had created disease, but also placed the means of curing illness in the world and given people understanding so they could seek out cures. Therefore when sick, Muslims sought the help of physicians with specialist knowledge of the body and disease. Illness could also be cured by spiritual means, through prayers and miracles. The Qur’an offered advice on how to stay healthy, especially through observing good hygiene. These parts of the text, and the sayings of the prophet Muhammad, his family, and his followers, were gradually expanded into a body of medical ideas known as prophetic medicine. It recom- mended simple remedies, such as honey or cumin seeds for treating internal complaints, or the use of scarification—a method of removing small amounts of blood from the body through scratches made on the skin. The Qur’an itself was believed to have healing powers—the sick benefited from hearing, reading, or reciting the text.
eBook - PDFIslam and Healing
Loss and Recovery of an Indo-Muslim Medical Tradition, 1600-1900
- S. Alavi(Author)
- 2008(Publication Date)
- Palgrave Macmillan(Publisher)
See Eaton 2001: 189-202; Eaton 1993. 78 For a discussion on the new learning in religious knowledge, see Robinson 2000: 44-65. 44 Islam and Healing kept alive the idea of health as individual aristocratic virtue. Simulta- neously, new ideas of health as medical wisdom took root in society. Arabic Medical Learning The collapse of the Mughal empire in the early eighteenth century caused a devolution in the patronage of medicine to new regional courts, local rajas, and zamindars. In these regional states, the dignity of medical science in the Persian language was preserved and its centrality in the making of an accomplished gentleman continued. Regional courts like those of Oudh in the north and Tipu Sultan in the south maintained huge libraries well equipped both with copies of Mug hal Persian medical texts as well as fresh texts composed in Mughal style. In the early nineteenth century Alloy Sprenger, assistant to the British Resident at Lucknow, surveyed the 'Muhammadan libraries' of Lucknow and reported that they had thousands of Persian manuscripts. These ranged ftom history, philosophy, and literature, to science, astro- nomy, medicine, archery, hunting, and sports. A small collection of Arabic manuscripts also existed. In the kings' libraries alone-the Top- khana and the Farhad Baksh-there were at least 6000 Persian and 310 Arabic manuscripts.?9 Besides these royal repositories, there existed in the city private libraries, e.g. in the Moti Mahal, maintained by rich bibliophiles. These too were plush with Persian manuscripts. A big component of these collections was medical manuscripts: for instance, the Topkhana library of the king had forty-eight manus- cripts on Unani medicine. The texts included the oldest Persian medical books, like the Al-a-gharaz al Tabiah wa almbahat al almeiah ofIsmael al Hasan Jorjany, who dedicated it to Abu al Muzaffar, son of the Khwarzm shah.
eBook - PDFThe Medical Formulary of Al-Samarqandi
And the Relation of Early Arabic Simples to Those Found in the Indigenous Medicine of the Near East and India
- Martin Levey, Noury Al-Khaledy(Authors)
- 2016(Publication Date)
14 The Medical Formulary of Al-Samarqandï One reason for it is that the Muslim world during its Golden Age and later aided and supported these studies at a time when western Europe was experiencing an al-most hopeless decadence. It was the Muslims who con-tributed so much to the rebirth of European culture. In regard to pharmacology and chemistry, 2 the Arabs were responsible for their development both theoretically and practically. Not only were the Muslims transmitters of early Greek atomic theory, for example, but they also contributed many original ideas on the nature of the atom, its association with other atoms, matter in relation to the atom, and numerous elaborated theories on what occurs in the mixing and solution process. Expanded views on pharmacology are also to be found in al-Samar-qandl's work. A great material aid in the growth of Muslim pharmacology was that the Arabs established hospitals for the first time which were much like those known today. Licensing procedures of medical practi-tioners by legal authorities were developed. Relevant teaching illustrations were used in medical works. Finally, the practice of medicine was raised from a menial to a learned profession. All these factors had a profound influ-ence on the exponential growth of the new Muslim chemistry and pharmacology. There are many fascinating aspects of the history of the far reaching branches of Arabic medicine. One of these is the path of transmission of pharmacology from the ancients to the Muslims; following this is the middle period from the ninth to the thirteenth century; and finally there is the passing on of knowledge to Western Europe. One of the reasons for study of al-Samarqandi's text (early thirteenth century) is to determine what took place in this middle or golden period beginning with al-Kindï (ninth century) , 3 Both of these physician authors Introduction 15 reflect the knowledge of medical practice prevalent in Baghdad in their respective periods.
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