Islamic Encyclopedia

Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World Editor in Chief Richard C. Martin Copyright 2004 Macmillan ***direct quotes*** 445- the Islamic golden age was the later half of the 7th century through the 13th century 446- the Koran itself contains limited specific medical text 446- the hadith interpretations contain rich and detailed material on preventive and curative medicine, dietetics, and spiritual health. 446- when nestorius, the patriarch of Byzantium, and his followers were forced out of Europe a large pool of intellectuals moved to the middle east, and many to jud-e shapur, a city in what is now southwestern iran that was already home to a thriving intellectual community 446- when Justinian I expelled heathen philosophers from Athens, the Hellenic medical tradition based on Galen and others was transplanted to the fertile soil of jund-e shapur where it thrived amid a community of scholars who translated the Greek medical works into Arabic 446- al-Razi born near what is now Tehran in middle of the 7th century. His written works number in the hundreds. The largest which is a huge compilation of case studies and notes edited and published by al-razis students after his death, has been called al-Hawa. These work summarized essentially all of the medical writings preceeding al-razis time as well as his own observations. 466- his most famous piece was a much shorter monograph in which he distinguished small pox, chicken pox, and measles, this work translated into latin was called de Pestilentia and formed the basis for much future work on these highly contagious diseases 447- al-zahrawi lived from about 930-1013 and was known as the greatest sugeon of islam. Zahrawi lived in the western caliphate near Cordoba and attended the university of Cordoba. He is most famous for his command of analgesia… and the theory and pratice of surgery 447- ibn sina lived just a bit later. He was born in Persia in what is now isfahan, iran. His greatest medical work was the Qanun fi al-tibb, a five volume treatise based on Greek knowledge. The qanun included discussions of almost all ailments imaginable, as well as health promotion focusing on diet, the environment, and climate. Although he also wrote in his native Persian, ibn sinas medical works were penned in Arabic, which facilitated the reintroduction of scientific medicine in Europe as the dark ages fave way to the European renaissance. 447- the Arabic text of ibn sinas qanun was published in rome in 1593, and was one of the first Arabic books to be printed. The subsequent major scientific advancements that

came with claude bernards theory of the internal miliu, can leewenhoeks discovery of the microscope, and other advances quickly pushed medicine to a secular, empirical basis and the importance of the contributions of the arbic text was largely forgotten