Ideas, insights and methods from Islamic doctors brought many new advances to European medicine, essentially forming the basis of modern medicine as we know it today. In the 7th century, Arab and Persian scholars began translating medical texts from Greek, Syriac, Sanskrit and Pahlavi into Arabic, and from Arabic into Latin, thus saving those texts from disappearing entirely.
During the 8th century in Baghdad, Islamic scholars and doctors translated the works of the Roman doctor Galen, as well as Persian and Indian medical texts. As these doctors translated medical texts from around the known world, they also added their own observations, thus creating encyclopaedias of medical knowledge.
Westerners knew these doctors as Avicenna, Rhazes and Albucasis, respectively. Rather than viewing disease as a punishment from God as the Christians thought, Islam looked at disease as just another problem for mankind to solve.
The Prophet decreed that the sick and injured should be cared for, not shunned. These early Islamic medical centers would be recognizable as hospitals today: they had wards for different diseases, outpatient clinics, surgery recovery wards and pharmacies.
They also functioned as medical education centers for doctor training. Islamic hospitals pioneered the use of antiseptics such as alcohol, vinegar or rose-water in cleaning wounds. Everything was to be kept as clean as possible—in stark contrast to the near total lack of sanitation and cleanliness in Christian lands at that time.
Muslim doctors were familiar with the use of opium as an anaesthetic during long surgeries and for extracting teeth. In fact, Western doctors first learned of Greek medicine, including the works of Hippocrates and Galen, by reading Arabic translations. Islamic medicine built upon the legacies of Greek and Roman physicians and scholars, including Galen, Hippocrates, and the Greek scholars of Alexandria and Egypt. Scholars translated medical literature from Greek and Roman into Arabic and then elaborated upon it, adding their findings, developing new conclusions, and contributing new perspectives.
Islamic scholars expertly gathered data and ordered it so that people could easily understand and reference information through various texts. Rather than being a subject in its own right, medicine was part of medieval Islamic culture. Centers of learning grew out of famous mosques, and hospitals were often added at the same site. There, medical students could observe and learn from more experienced doctors.
From to C. By C. As interest in a scientific view of health grew, doctors searched for causes of illness and possible treatments and cures. The medieval Islamic world produced some of the greatest medical thinkers in history. They made advances in surgery, built hospitals, and welcomed women into the medical profession. The Persian physician, chemist, alchemist, philosopher, and scholar al-Razi lived from to C.
He was the first to distinguish measles from smallpox, and he discovered the chemical kerosene and several other compounds. He became the chief physician of the Baghdad and Rayy hospitals. As an author, al-Razi was prolific, penning more than scientific books and articles.
He also believed in experimental medicine. He also pioneered ophthalmology and was the first doctor to write about immunology and allergy.
Records suggest that al-Razi discovered allergic asthma , and he was the first to identify a fever as a defense mechanism against disease and infection. Also a pharmacist, al-Razi wrote extensively on the subject, introducing the use of mercurial ointments.
Records attribute many devices to him, including spatulas, flasks, mortars, and phials. Records indicate that al-Razi traveled throughout Persia, teaching medicine and treating rich and poor alike. Regarding medical ethics, al-Razi wrote :.
As was common in Europe and the Middle East at the time, al-Razi believed that demons could possess the body and cause mental illness. Ibn Sina, who many Europeans referred to as Avicenna, was also Persian.
He had many skills and professions, and he wrote approximately books and articles, of which still exist today. Forty of these focus on medicine. The universities of Leuven, in Belgium, and Montpellier, in France, used these texts into the middle of the sixteenth century. Later, people translated it into several languages, including English, French, and German.
In part of the text, ibn Sina explains considerations for testing new medicines:. Today, the medical community attributes the first description of pulmonary blood circulation to Ala-al-din Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Abi-Hazm al-Qarshi al-Dimashqi, now widely known as ibn al-Nafis.
The physician was born in Damascus in Ibn Sina CE , an extraordinary Persian polymath, wrote al Qanun fi al-Tibb The Canon of Medicine , an encyclopedic treatment of medicine that combined his own observations with medical information from Galen and philosophy from Aristotle.
Mansur CE wrote the first color illustrated book on anatomy. Other important physicians compiled information on the use of medication from plants, advanced surgical techniques, including cataract extraction and studied physiology, including the pulmonary circulation.
These books and ideas provided the basis for medical care in Europe during its recovery from the Dark Ages.
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