Who invented Medicine Who Was it?
It's interesting to know that how medical knowledge and treatment from Muslim civilisation has influenced medicine today.
Did you know that...
1. The patients in early Muslim societies might take pills, pastilles, syrups and powders, undergo cataract surgery or have a cast put on a broken leg?
2. In 1924, a manuscript revealed that a forgotten 13th-century Arab scholar had correctly explained a crucial aspect of how our blood moves around the body?
3. Key medical works from the 9th century onwards reached a worldwide audience because Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars were keen to learn from each other?
4. An 13th-century doctor Ibn al-Nafis, who was the first to explicitly state that the blood moves from the heart, transits through the lungs to mix with air and returns to the heart?
5. The surgical tools used a thousand years ago, which look remarkably similar to those we still use today?
6. An 11th-century scholar from Iraq invented and made a hollow needle for removing cataracts?
The first major work appeared when Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya Al-Razi (ca. 841-926) turned his attention to medicine. Al-Razi, known to the West as Rhazes, was born in Persia in the town of Rayy, near Tehran. Al-Razi went to Baghdad to take up the study of medicine at the age of 40.
Al-Razi is regarded as Islamic medicine's greatest clinician and its most original thinker. A prolific writer, he turned out some 237 books, about half of which dealt with medicine. His treatise The Diseases of Children has led some historians to regard him as the father of pediatrics. He was the first to identify hay fever and its cause. His work on kidney stones is still considered a classic. In addition, he was instrumental in the introduction of mercurial ointments to treat scabies. Al-Razi advocated reliance on observation rather than on received authority; he was a strong proponent of experimental medicine and the beneficial use of previously tested medicinal plants and other drugs. A leader in the fight against quacks and charlatans—and author of a book exposing their methods—he called for high professional standards for practitioners. He also insisted on continuing education for already licensed physicians. Al-Razi was the first to emphasize the value of mutual trust and consultation among skilled physicians in the treatment of patients, a rare practice at that time.
Not long after Al-Razi's death, Abu 'Ali al-Husayn ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Sina (980-1037) was born in Bukhara, in what today is Uzbekistan.
Ibn Sina's life was in fact the stuff of legend. The son of a tax collector, he was so precocious that he had completely memorized the Qur'an by age 10. Then he studied law, mathematics, physics, and philosophy. Confronted by a difficult problem in Aristotle's Metaphysics, Ibn Sina re-read the book 40 times in his successful search for a solution. At 16 he turned to the study of medicine, which he said he found "not difficult." By 18, his fame as a physician was so great that he was summoned to treat the Samanid prince Nuh ibn Mansur. His success with that patient won him access to the Samanid royal library, one of the greatest of Bukhara's many storehouses of learning.
Ibn Sina was an author of Kitab al-Shifa, or The Book of Healing, a medical and philosophical encyclopedia. His supreme work, however, is the monumental Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, The Canon of Medicine. Over one million words long, it was nothing less than a codification of all existing medical knowledge.
Did you know that...
1. The patients in early Muslim societies might take pills, pastilles, syrups and powders, undergo cataract surgery or have a cast put on a broken leg?
2. In 1924, a manuscript revealed that a forgotten 13th-century Arab scholar had correctly explained a crucial aspect of how our blood moves around the body?
3. Key medical works from the 9th century onwards reached a worldwide audience because Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars were keen to learn from each other?
4. An 13th-century doctor Ibn al-Nafis, who was the first to explicitly state that the blood moves from the heart, transits through the lungs to mix with air and returns to the heart?
5. The surgical tools used a thousand years ago, which look remarkably similar to those we still use today?
6. An 11th-century scholar from Iraq invented and made a hollow needle for removing cataracts?
The first major work appeared when Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya Al-Razi (ca. 841-926) turned his attention to medicine. Al-Razi, known to the West as Rhazes, was born in Persia in the town of Rayy, near Tehran. Al-Razi went to Baghdad to take up the study of medicine at the age of 40.
Al-Razi is regarded as Islamic medicine's greatest clinician and its most original thinker. A prolific writer, he turned out some 237 books, about half of which dealt with medicine. His treatise The Diseases of Children has led some historians to regard him as the father of pediatrics. He was the first to identify hay fever and its cause. His work on kidney stones is still considered a classic. In addition, he was instrumental in the introduction of mercurial ointments to treat scabies. Al-Razi advocated reliance on observation rather than on received authority; he was a strong proponent of experimental medicine and the beneficial use of previously tested medicinal plants and other drugs. A leader in the fight against quacks and charlatans—and author of a book exposing their methods—he called for high professional standards for practitioners. He also insisted on continuing education for already licensed physicians. Al-Razi was the first to emphasize the value of mutual trust and consultation among skilled physicians in the treatment of patients, a rare practice at that time.
Not long after Al-Razi's death, Abu 'Ali al-Husayn ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Sina (980-1037) was born in Bukhara, in what today is Uzbekistan.
Ibn Sina's life was in fact the stuff of legend. The son of a tax collector, he was so precocious that he had completely memorized the Qur'an by age 10. Then he studied law, mathematics, physics, and philosophy. Confronted by a difficult problem in Aristotle's Metaphysics, Ibn Sina re-read the book 40 times in his successful search for a solution. At 16 he turned to the study of medicine, which he said he found "not difficult." By 18, his fame as a physician was so great that he was summoned to treat the Samanid prince Nuh ibn Mansur. His success with that patient won him access to the Samanid royal library, one of the greatest of Bukhara's many storehouses of learning.
Ibn Sina was an author of Kitab al-Shifa, or The Book of Healing, a medical and philosophical encyclopedia. His supreme work, however, is the monumental Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, The Canon of Medicine. Over one million words long, it was nothing less than a codification of all existing medical knowledge.
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