Journal - International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine

MEDICAL ETHICS IN MEDÝEVAL ISLAM
and shape. He should be in good spirits, neither
frowning nor scowling. People should look forward
to seeing him, smile when speaking with him and
when flocking to him. He should be of moderate
stature, neither fat nor lean, If not, leanness is better.
He should have a light rosy complexion if he is from
a country where such a complexion is found. His
forehead should he wide in proportion to his face and
there should be a wide area between his eyebrows.
His eyes should be bluish black and appear as if they
are laughing or always looking at something pleasant.
They should be of moderate size, neither protruding
nor indented. If not, indentedness is better. A person
with such eyes should seem mild and not overbearing.
His tears should not be visible. Such a person
should have facile cheeks, a small jaw, and sparse
beard of moderate length which is neither curved nor
inclined to the shoulders. He should have long upper
arms, large hands with delicate edges and little flesh
on the palms and long fingers. He should have
smooth buttocks, moderately fleshy thighs, straight
legs, and discernible arches in his feet. His feet
should point exactly in the direction that he walks
and he should have a light deliberate walk (8,9).
As we have noted elsewhere (10), Ibn Abi
Usaybia wrote similar normative rules (including
desirable physical characteristics) for the physician.
In essence, all authors dealing with medical ethics
emphasize those qualities that society expected from
physicians, which are similar to those expected by
other societies in other times (1).
As for medical fees in Islamic medicine, the subject
has not been systematically investigated. We
know that physicians were, in general, relatively
affluent and that their average income was probably
comparable, as mentioned above, to that of the affluent
merchant and shopkeeper. On the other hand
there was the possibility for prominent physicians to
accumulate considerable fortunes. This, of course,
led to ethical dilemmas concerning the medical profession
and money, especially in view of the fact that
Islam enjoined the charitable treatment of the poor.
According to Ibn Ridwan, a man should study medicine
with the intent of acquiring the art and not
money, but this did not mean that he should neglect
the possibility of making money:
JISHIM 2004, 3
Plinio PRIORESCHI
When a doctor treats the ailments of the wealthy
and they are in severe pain, he can make what financial
conditions he likes, and when he knows that his
patients will carry out their bargain, it is then his
responsibility to produce the cure. The money that he
earns should be spent on such useful ends as befits
him. I mean on the assistance of relatives, charitable
acts and the purchase of drugs suitable for curing disease.
Nor should he refrain under any circumstances
from tending the poor and associating with them (1).
Al-Ruhawi holds approximately the same views
and asserts that the physician should earn enough so
that he does not need to do anything other than practice
medicine, and so that he can marry, afford proper food,
clothes and housing (11). As we have seen above, he
also states that the wealthy should pay sufficient fees
so that the physician may take care of the poor.
In spite of all that, accusations of greed on the part
of physicians are fairly common in medieval Islamic
literature (6). The accusations may not have been
completely unfounded, as Ibn Ridwan’s criticisms of
his colleagues indicates (12). A story in The Arabian
Nights relates that a doctor, when told in the middle
of the night by his servant that a patient waiting
downstairs to see him was prepared to pay a quarter
(of a dinar), became so excited that he sped down the
staircase without taking a lamp and in the darkness
ran the patient over and killed him (or, rather,
believed he had killed him) (13).
This brief review of medieval Islamic medical
ethics (14) indicates that, as in medicine and other
sciences, the Islamic civilization, at the time, reached
levels unsurpassed anywhere.
REFERENCES
1. Prioreschi P. A History of Medicine. Volume II. Greek
Medicine. Chapter V,B,i. Second Edition. Omaha: Horatius
Press, 1996,
2. Prioreschi P. A History of Medicine.Volume III. Roman
Medicine. Omaha: Horatius Press, 1998.
3. Savage-Smith E. Medicine. In: Rashed R editor.
Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science. 3 Vols.
London: Routledge, 1996: 903-962.
4. Ibn Abi Usaybia, Uyunu al-Anba fi Tabaquat al-Atibba, I,
25-26. Quoted by Rosenthal In: Franz Rosenthal, The
Classic Heritage in Islam, Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1965:183-184.
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