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Islamic Medicine History and Current PracticeHusain F. NAGAMIA, MD, FRCS (Eng & Edin)** Chairman International Institute of Islamic MedicineClinical Assistant Prof. of Surgery, University of South Florida Medical School, Tampa, Florida.Chief, Division of Cardio-vascular and Thoracic Surgery, Tampa General Hospital, Tampa, Florida, USAe-mail: hnagamia@pol.net.SummaryConsiderable confusion exists in literature regarding the definition of ‘Islamic Medicine’. This is mainly because each author thatwrites about ‘Islamic Medicine’ is actually writing about an aspect of Islamic Medicine. Thus the definition can vary depending uponthe perspective. The context can be historical, cultural, scientific, pharmacological, therapeutic, religious or even a geo-political. Inthis monograph we shall be examining this body of knowledge mainly from its historical, scientific, therapeutic and application viewpoints.The greatest challenge of Islamic Medicine is not in its practice, therapeutics or application but in adaptation to modern day needs.Thus it is my belief that the fundamental challenge is not the way in which Islamic Medicine is practiced but the way in which it isdefined.Key Words; History of Islam, History of Islamic Medicine, Hospitals, Physicians.IntroductionConsiderable confusion exists in literature regardingthe definition of ‘Islamic Medicine’. This is mainlybecause each author that writes about ‘IslamicMedicine’ is actually writing about an aspect ofIslamic Medicine. Thus the definition can varydepending upon the perspective. The context can behistorical, cultural, scientific, pharmacological, therapeutic,religious or even a geo-political. In thismonograph we shall be examining this body ofknowledge mainly from its historical, scientific, therapeuticand application viewpoints.The main source of all inspirational knowledge inIslam is ‘The Holy Quran’ . This book is consideredby Muslims or followers of Islam to be the word ofAllah or God, revealed by Him to the Prophet ofIslam: Mohammed. A secondary source of aMuslims’ inspiration is the ‘Hadith or Sunna’, whichare the recorded and authenticated sayings and traditionsof the Prophet of Islam: Mohammed.As such not much medicine is mentioned in theQuran except for beneficial effects of some naturalfoods viz. honey and abstinence from intake of alcoholor other intoxicants proscribed on every Muslim,yet the Quran is the guiding spirit that every Muslimhas to follow, including the physicians in treatingtheir patient and the patients in handling their illness.However very early in the Islamic era, the Hadith literaturehad accumulated a number of sayings and traditionsof the Prophet under a collection called the‘Prophetic Medicine’. These edicts expounded onvirtues of diet, natural remedies, and management ofsimple ailments like headache, fever, sore throat,conjunctivitis, etc. More importantly howeverinjunctions were prescribed against contact with personshaving a contagious disease for instance leprosyor entering or leaving an area of an epidemic orplague, thus helping to limit the disease. In addition alarge number of traditions were collected under thetitle of ‘Spiritual Medicine’. These were a collectionof the verses of the Quran or prayers to the Almighty,which invoked blessings and which had to be recitedwhen affliction was to be expurgated.Prophetic Medicine‘Prophetic Medicine’ although popular amongstthe masses of Muslims because of its doctrinal andtheological contents was considered by most Muslimhistorians and physicians as distinct from scientificJISHIM 2003, 219
Husain F. NAGAMIAISLAMIC MEDICINE HISTORY AND CURRENT PRACTICEand analytical Islamic Medicine. Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406 AD) a well known medieval Muslim jurist, historian,statesman in his ‘Muqaddimah’ states:‘The Bedouins in their culture, have a kind of medicinewhich they base primarily on experience restrictedto a few patients only, and which they have inheritedfrom their tribal leaders and old women. In somecases it is correct, but it is not founded on naturallaws, nor is it tested against (scientific accounts) naturalconstitution (of peoples). Now the Arabs had agreat deal of this type of Medicine before the advent ofIslam and there were among them well known doctorslike al-Harith ibn Kalada and others. Their Medicinethat has been transmitted in the Islamic religiousworks (as opposed to those works which were consideredscientific works) belong to this genre. It is definitelyno part of divine revelation (to the Prophet:Mohammed) but was something customarily practicedby the Arabs. This type of Medicine thus is included inhis biographies, just as are other multitudinous of mattersof sociological importance like the natural life andcustoms of the Arabs, but forms no part of religion ofIslam to be practiced in the same way.’DefinitionIslamic Medicine in its true context, can thus bedefined as a body of knowledge of Medicine that wasinherited by the Muslims in the early phase of IslamicHistory (40-247 AH/661 -861 AD) from mostlyGreek sources, but to which became added medicalknowledge from, Persia, Syria, India and Byzantine.This knowledge was not only to become translatedinto Arabic, the literary and scientific lingua franca ofthe time, but was to be expounded, assimilated,exhaustively added to and subsequently codified, and‘islamicized’. The Physicians of the times bothMuslim and non-Muslim were then to add to this,their own observations and experimentation and convertit into a flourishing and practical science, thushelping in not only in curing the ailments of themasses, but increasing their standards of health. Theeffects of its domineering influence extending notonly in the vast stretches of the Islamic lands, but alsoin all adjoining nations including Europe, Asia,China, and the Far East. The span was measurablenot only for few centuries, but also perhaps for anentire millennium, 610 to 1610 AD. During whichtime, Europe and rest of the extant civilized nationsof the world were in grips of the ‘dark ages’. It alsoto set the standards of hygiene, and preventativemedicine and thus was responsible for the improvementof the general health of the masses. It was tohold sway until decadence finally set in, concomitantwith the political decline of the Islamic nation. Withthe advent of Renaissance in Europe, at the beginningof the 17 th century AD, it was finally challenged bythe new and emerging science of modern medicine,which was to finally replace it in most of the countries,including the countries of its birth!Historical BackgroundIn order to understand the period in which Islamicmedicine was born, one has to understand the salientevents in the advent of Islam and a few events justpreceding the Islamic era. Arabia which was a largearea covered mostly by an arid desert that wasroamed by nomadic tribes of Bedouins. Certain communitieshad been established where the trade routesintersected and water was available. Mecca wasalong the Yaman-Damascus trade route. It was considereda holy city and a sanctuary. The Kaaba orhouse of worship was replete with idols of differentgods each representing a tribe or community. TheseBedouins had their own tribal moral or ethical codesof conduct and idolatry was in practice. Blood feudswere common and attacking caravans along traderoutes was a way of life. Sacrifices were often offeredto appease the gods and burying of live female childrenwas common practice. Family feuds were commonand settling scores in order to uphold tribalhonor led to frequent bloody encounters in whichmany people were killed. Women and children weretreated as ‘chattels’ or private possessions andbecame the property of the winner. This era of Arabiais frequently referred by Muslims as ‘Jahilliya’ orage of ignorance. Islam was not only to bring dramaticchanges in the religious practices of these warringnomadic tribes but also unite them into an unprecedentedsocial and cultural nation that very quicklywas to develop into a strong political entity, with itsown system of administration, justice, and militarypower, all under one leadership. The first leader ofthe Islamic State was no doubt the Prophet of Islam,20 JISHIM 2003, 2
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