Islamic Medicine History and Current Practice - International Society ...

Husain F. NAGAMIAISLAMIC MEDICINE HISTORY AND CURRENT PRACTICEwhere the meat had decayed the least as the mostsuitable site thus making him the first physician toinfer indirectly the bacteriologic putrefaction ofmeat, and suggesting the environmental role that contaminatedair plays in the spread of infection, predatingby centuries the modern concept of air borneinfection.But besides this astute observation Al-Razi isknown for numerous other original contributions tothe Art and Science of Medicine. Although not thefirst to describe the differences between Small Poxand Chicken Pox and give an in depth description ofmeasles in his famous work Kitab al Jadari wa’lhsbah(Tretise on Small Pox and Measles) his was theone that became well known in the west because offrequent translations. He described allergy to roses inone of his classical cases. The famous Islamic historianand scientist al-Biruni has listed 56 medicalworks of al-Razi the most famous being al-Hawi orthe Continents which is an Encyclopedia of medicalknowledge based on his personal observations andexperiences. A scribed copy of this book was recentlyexhibited by the National Library of Medicine inBethesda, Maryland USA celebrating 900 thAnniversary of its completion by an unknown scribe.,and recorded as the third oldest Medical manuscriptpreserved in the world today. A shorter medical textbookwas dedicated to al-Mansur and hence calledKitab al-Mansuri.Besides these and other original contributions ofwhich most have all been published and some surviveto this day al-Razi devoted a lot of his time to teaching,bedside medicine and attending to the royaltyand court. The impact of these publications onIslamic Medicine was tremendous. His booksbecame an invaluable addition to the armamentariumof a medical student of the time and remained standardtexts until the appearance much later of texts byal-Majusi (see below) and by Ibn- Sina: ’Qanun filTibb’ ‘The Canon of Medicine’ of which descriptionwill be given later.In the 4 th century of Hijra, 10 th century AD anotherIslamic physician gained prominence in Baghdad.His name al-Majusi or Haly Abbas to the west (d 384AH/994 AD). He became the director of the AduddawlahHospital .It was to its founder that al-Majusidedicated his medical work entitled Kitab Kamil alSina al-Tibbiyah’ or ‘ The complete book of theMedical Art ’ also called ‘al-Kitab al-Maliki’ or ‘TheRoyal Book’. This book (of which again a copy ispreserved in the NLM at Bathesda) is very well systematizedand organized. Divided into two basic volumesone covers theory and the other practicalaspects. Each of these has 10 chapters. The first volumedeals with historical sources, anatomy, faculties,six primeval functions, classification and causationof disease, symptoms and diagnosis, urine, sputum,saliva and pulse as an aid to diagnosis, external orvisible manifestations of disease and internal diseaseslike fever, headache epilepsy and warning signsof death or recovery. The second volume deals withhygine, dietics, cosmetics. Therapy with simpledrugs. Therapy for fevers and diseases of organs vizof respiration, digestion, reproduction etc. There is achapter on surgery, orthopedics, and finally treatmentby compound medicaments.About the 2 nd century AH/ 8 th century AD a greatcenter of knowledge learning and culture had beendeveloping in the western part of the Islamic empire.This was in Spain or ‘Andalusia’as it was called bythe Arabs.Spain had been invaded and conquered bythe Muslims in 93 AH/714 AD. When the Ummayaddynasty ended in Baghdad the last of Ummayadprinces had escaped to Spain where they establisheda great dynasty called the Western Caliphate. Therulers of this dynasty laid the foundation of theMuslim rule of Spain that was to last for seven centuries.The epoch of this period was to come duringthe reign of Amir Abdar-Rahman Al-Dakhil in 138AH/756 AD. During his reign Cardoba also called‘Qurtuba’ became a great center of Internationallearning. A great library containing more than a millionvolumes was established. Sciences flourishedand great men of learning and physicians workedunder the Royal patronage. Later this center was toshift to Granada, under the patronage of the greatUmmayad ruler Abd al-Rahman III al-Nasir (300-350 AH/912-961 AD). Perhaps the most famousphysician and surgeon of the era was ‘Abu al-QasimKhalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi’ known to the westas Albucasis (318 AH/930 AD to 403 AH/1013 AD).He gained great fame as a physician. He wrote amajor compendium of extant medical knowledge26 JISHIM 2003, 2