Ullmans Islamic Medicine

Ullmans Islamic medicine Manfred ullman Islamic medicine Copyright 1978 Edinburgh University Press George square: Edinburgh ****all notes are direct quotes*** Pg xi—many ppl term this subject Arabian medicine, however many doctors were actually Persians, not Arabs, such as ar-Razi, al-Majusi, and ibn Sina xi-All of these scholars did however, live within the sphere of Islamic culture and have helped in a most endruing way to shape this culture and to give it its particular stamp xi-“Islamic medicine” did not grow on Arab soul. Rather it is the medicine of later Greek antiquity which was formulated in the Arabic language in the south and west of the Mediterranean from the 9th c ad pg 1- the most common diseases on the Arabian peninsula were malaria, tuberculosis, trachoma and conjunctivitis, amoebic and bacillary dysentery, smallpox, leprosy, parasitic infections and illnesses caused by malnutrition like rickets and scurvy. 1- Arabs couldn’t combat these diseases effectively because they were ignorant of their aetiology. Their attempts to cure them lacked any theoretical or scientific basis. Their remedies shoe some interesting connections with magic Pg 3—the most common surgical methods employed seem to have been cauterization and cupping. Treatment by branding was efficacious in cases of scab, frenzy, mental illness, open wounds, dropsy, and much else. 3- The practitioners of medicine were called tabib or asi, or nitasi. The care of the sick lay in the hands of the women who pg 4—carried out treatment Pg 4—the appearance of the prophet Muhammad did nothering to change medical conditions. In the Koran, in which otherwise so many questions about human living are discussed and rules drawn up, neither the doctor nor medicine are anywhere mentioned. 4- Folk medicine very prevalent at this time, Hellenistic medicine was to take over this Pg 8---before the year 800, translations were few and scanty but after that greek works were received in an undreamt-of degree 8- The most important translator of the middle of the century was hunayn ibn-Ishaq who translated accounting to the wishes of the patrons, sometimes into Arabic, sometimes in Syria. he has given us an account of the translations of Galen in an extremely important document, the “letter to ‘ali ibn-yahya ibn al-munajjim’. In this he enumerates 129

writings of Galen, sketches their scope and content and names those ppl who have translated them into syriac or Arabic. 8- Hunayn contributed considerably as translator in helping to develop Arabic into a scientific language. . he introduced analytical-syntactical constructions which made Arabic into an instrument capable of expressing complicated and abstract ideas Pg 10—of all the Greek doctors, Galen was for the arabs by far the most significant. By the 2nd half of the 9th c nearly all Galens works had been translated into Arabic. 10-Galens original works were circulated in numerous copes. So it is that Galens teachings determine Arabic medicine in all essential points: from galen comes the teaching about the humours, the physiology of metabolism, and the theories of the three digestions and of the movement of blood. From galen comes the conception of the four effective grades of medicine, the teleological pg 11-- thinking that seeks to recognize and explain each organ and each natural process in terms of its purpose. Finally to galen can be traced back that rationalism that has left its impress on most Arabic writings. Pg 11—the tradition of Hippocrates only followed in the shadow of galen. The name of hippocrates was indeed also famous among the arabs and when abd-ar-rahman ibn-ali ibn-abi Sadiq from Nishapur was called the “second hippocrates” this was a title of great honor 11-The fact that the Hippocratic oath was demanded from the arab doctors shows how strongly and for how long medical ethnic were tied to his name 11-But in the interest of the translates and their patients in hippocrates was far less than in galen. Many of his works remained untranslated Pg 13—also significant was the influence of Rufus of Ephesus, a doctor in trajan time, of whose writings no fewer than 58 have been translated into Arabic. He dealt with many pathological and dietetic questions discussed kidney and bladder disease, arthritis, jaundice, melancholy, hygiene of children of young girls and of travelers, the naming of parts of the human body Pg 15—many hundreds of works were arbaized in the course of the 9th c giving one at first the impression that the arabs took over the Greek medicine in its totality. It must be remember that certain Greek authors did not reach the arabs. A whole number of works of hippocrates remained completely unknown and that other were only translated by the circuitous means of galens commentaries Pg 21—what had been handed down was collected in large summas and encyclopeadias, like that of Oribasuius above all, or the material was gathered in compendia. Thus, from the third century, the main element was Galenism. Galens medicine was markedly eclectic.

Pg 22—the Arabs drew not only on Galen but also on other Greek doctors, in part directly from hippocrates; after that in Byzantine compilers they got to know, at least in excerpt the teachings of many other doctors. 22-They thus took over syndromes of illnesses lacking in case reproduces what Marcellus of side had maintained. 22-There were some individual doctrines of Galen were critized, but there was no revision, far less dissolution, of the general galenic system Pg 23—it has therefore been asked whether the Arabs showed any originality. This does not seem to me to be a right question to ask b/c it applies to a period in which the question of originally does not arise. . in the Islamic middle ages threw was no real scientific research and there was no desire for empirical knowledge of reality. Thus, the doctor too, when dealing with the phenomenon of illness was not truing to discover new knowledge or to reinterpret the processes in which go on in the human body Pg 30-31 some problems from the arabs in using Greek medicine in regards to the Greek vs Islamic religion ex) hippocratic oath had to be changed from sighting many gods such as asclepius the god of healing to God. Also a pigs ashes were often used in Greek practices, however this would not have been allowed from the arabs. Rufus also wrote about a remedy of giving a small amount of wine to children which also was against islaimic law. Pg 41—one of the frist compedia of medicine in Arabic was completed in 850 and dedicated to the caliph al-Mutawakkil. It rests largely on greek sources, hippocrates, galen, arisitotle, dioscurides 41-Abu-zakariyya yuhanna ibn masawayh was said to have been commissioned by the caliph al ma’mun. he was his personal physician. His puol was hunayn ibn-ishaq who produced a small work of 132 aphorism which in part show close resemblance to the Hippocratic sayings Pg 42—Hunayn was not only a translator, but he independently composed may medical monographs. Kitab al-Mudkhal fi t-tibb, an introductory manual in which the basic problems of general medicine were presented in diaereti form, including pharmaceutics and uroscopy. He did not always start from galens original works but rater made use of the late alexandiran med with its synopeses 42-He also produced a large book on diet kitab al-aghdhiya in both Arabic and syriac. he says he gathered the teachings of galen hippo, dioscuridies, rufus, phylotimus, euryphon, dieuches, mnesitheus of Athens, mnesitheus of cyzixus….

Pg 43---Abu-bakr Muhammad ibn-zakariyya ar-Razi was born in Rayy in 865. he directed the hospitals in ray and Baghdad, he then took to traveling and so reached the court of the Samanid prince of Kerman and Khurasan. To him he dedicated one of the greatest classical works of Arabic med. Kitab al-Mansuri. Of its tenpart liber nonus was especially well kown in the west. In this book special pathology is presented with the usual arrangelment of illnesses. 43-Occassionaly he also incorporated into this material notes of his own medial observations. He probably did not mean for them to be published, but after his death his pupils published an enourmous work of 23 volumes which had a lasting effect on the later medical literature of the arabs. It was translated into latin by faraj ibn salim and has long served as a teaching manual in various facilities Pg 44—abu-l-qasim khalaf ibn al-abbas az-zahrawi was working as a doctor in cordoba at the time of the caliph ar-rahman III. Whereas in other Arabic medical works surgery was more or less treated as the Cinderella, in his book it is treated very knowledgeably and in great detail. Pg 45—as a result surgery, which up till now had been left to cuppers and barbers, was thanks to abu-l-qasim, compledtely intergrated into scientific medicine Pg 45---abu-ali al husayn ibn-abd-allah ibn-sina was born in afshana near bukhara in 980. he was already practicing as a doctor at the age of 16. after several moves he settled in Jurjan. Here he began to write down his main medical work, the Kitab al-Qanun. He dided in 1037 due to colic. The canon is a huge work of five books. Pg 46—the canon has won the highest esteem both in the east and in the west. The latin canon was printed 36 times in the 15c and 16th c. in the canon he wrote no personal experiences and no new ideas. The sources he uses, he didn’t name and he hardly ever quoted another work, but freely changes and adapts them pg 49—one must not judge the position of medicine in Islamic countries solely on the basis of the writings of the doctors. Doctors were to be found only in the large cities and most were personal physicians to the sultans and had reached a high level of culture. He urban and rural poor were practically deprived of all medical help and in these areas when anyone offered aid to a sick person he was either a quack of a very ignorant doctor. Influence of Arabic medicine on the west Pg 52---up to the 10th c 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. Pg 53--The scientific standards of the old medical school at salerno had such to a low level. Pg 53—about the middle of th e1th c this radically altered by the appearance of constantius africanus. Little about his life is known. He must have been born at the

beginning of the 11th c in Tunis. When he was fourty he is said to have come to italy, perhaps as a merchant. After seening the pitiful state of medicine there, he went back to tunis to study med for 3 years and then finally settled in italy. He convertedto Christianity and become a monk in the Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino where he spent the rest of his life translating the Arabic books he had brought with him. 53-He translated into latin themost important of the Arabic medical works which had appeared up to the middle of the 11th c. they werethen for the most part cuirculated under his own name, as if he, not an arab was the author.

Pg 54--Stephen of pisa: he studied in slaerno, and after a short stay in sicily went to antiloch in Syria in 1127 and there he made a new translationof the Kitab al-maliki by almajusi. 54- These translations of the 11th and 12c laid the foundations of the Arabism in the medicine of the west that trend which was dominant for centuries and was reversed only in modern times after long arguments.