In our Critique, we mentioned that most if not all of the Islamic Medical history in literature is disconnected focused snapshots of individual biographies and/or a limited review based on a book or a chapter of a book written by one of the prominent figures in Islamic Medicine during a very specified period of time.
There is therefore, a major hiatus or lacuna (gap) in our knowledge and understanding of the history of Arab/Islamic Medicine. This original article therefore, aims to bridge this serious gap, for it is the first thorough in-depth analysis and comprehensive review of collective pioneering discoveries/inventions in the field of Medical Islamic history,highlighting the major achievements that changed the World, putting things holistically in a complete picture, through an interconnected perspective throughout the various periods of the history(1).
The consecutive series of this subject when completed and taken in its entirety,will reveal a panoramic picture with a skeleton background of Islamic Medicine, and provides a springboard for future meaningful and focused research in this fertile field of Islamic Medicine.
The World’s first Qualifiying Medical Examination in Medical/Surgical Practice 931 AD
Institution of the Hisbah(an Islamic invention):
The initial attempt to regulate the practice of medicine
was during the reign of the Abbasid Caliph,
via the institution of theHisbah. This, essentially, was a
religious office enforced by a government officer, the
Muhtasib, who replaced the older office of
Hidbah is equivalent to our current
Muhtasibwas appointed by a ruler or judge, and was the
modern-day equivalent of the Ombudsman
protected the citizenry from unethical practices in
business and other public transactions. As citizens could
also be deceived by the doctor and the pharmacist, they
too were under his jurisdiction. The Hisbah, therefore,
sought to regulate and supervise the dealings between
doctor, pharmacist and patient. In Arabic
term hisbah means an act performed for the common
good, or with the intention of seeking a reward from
God. The concept of hisbah in Islam originates from Qur’anic verses and Hadith. It is an obligation placed on
every Muslim to call for what is good or right and to
prevent or denounce what is bad or wrong
ركنملا نع يهنلاو. The Qur’an states: “Let there arise from
you a group calling to all that is good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong. It is these who are
successful.” (Qur’an3:104). The Hadith states
“Whosoever among you sees an act of wrong should
change it with his hands. If he is not able to do so, then
he should change it with his tongue. If he is not able to
do so, then with his heart, and this is the weakest of
faith’’.The Hisbah is an important institution that is in
charge of commanding good and forbidding evil, as well
as monitoring the marketplace, craftsmanship and
manufacturing concerns to make sure that business ethics
are upheld by these entities and quality standards are
maintained.The 11th century physician, Ibn
described two distinct types of doctors: those devoted to
the art of medicine; and those practising purely for
financial gain, often establishing surgeries by the roadside
or travelling door to door in search of patients.
In 931 during the era of the Abbasid Caliph
MuqtadirͿاب ردتقملا(908-932
one of his subjects from malpractice, ordered his
muhtasib to prevent doctors from practising medicine
until they had passed a qualifying examination. Thus,
practicing doctors in the vast Islamic Empire were
ordered to stop practising, and to come down to Baghdad
in order to be examined by the Caliph’s
Physician: Sinan Ibn Thabit Ibn Qurrah
a Sabian convert to Islam, who served as the Court
Physician of Abbasid Caliphs
934), Al-Qahir Ϳاب رهاقلا (r.
Ϳاب يضارلا(r. 934–940). Although Sin
primarily a Courtphysician,
several hospitals in Baghdad and having overseen a
licensing system for physicians,
apparently,too busy to write anything on medicine!
Crowds of practising doctors ar
everywhere in consecutive groups, preparing themselves
for the medical examination (
the Caliph or of distinguished reputation were exempt).
Doctor Sinan Ibn Thabit IbnQurrah
860 practising doctors in Al
in Baghdad(named after
Caliph’s motherand the wife of his father Caliph
Mu’tadhid). Obviously, such examination must have
involved an oral examination in addition to
examination (being conducted in a hospital environment).
Those who passed the examination were given
parchment paper as alicense carrying Doctor Sinan’s signature, allowing them to
practice Medicine and Surgery(3).
This is the first organized medical examination with a
certificate in the World; it was the prototype
forerunner and predecessor, preceding the current
MB,ChB, (or MD), FRCS, MRCP, MRCOG, and
American Boards in Medicine and
Surgery.Furthermore, the qualifying Medical
examination became a necessity for appointment and
selection of new doctors staffing newly founded
hospitals.
As original pioneering achievements, the qualifying
medical examinations go hand-in-hand with the
establishment of hospitals (double Islamic inventions
See Hospitals in a separate future article
Obviously, these hospitals were established for patient
care as well as for medical teaching and training; these
were the precursors for Medical Schools and Colleges.
The clinical methods adopted and used at that time by
Arab/Muslim doctors to examine patients were very
similar to our currently employed methods eliciting vital
signs and clinical examination (photos).
In Islamic Hospitals, Muslim doctors were the first to
perform the initial bed checkup diagnosis on a
patient’s entry to Hospital. The temperature is
checked using the palm, the pulse is measured using
fingertips, the liver and abdomen are checked by
hand and hollow tube (the first stethoscope), and
patient flask of urine is inspected (see below) to make
such a diagnosis. Europe adopted this system of
clinical examination after 6 centuries.
There is another way for granting
Medicine, ie, on a completion of educational course by a
famous physician (see below).During the reign of
Saladin, a physician working in Aleppo by the name of
al-Shayzariwrote a manual in which he discussed the
supervising of the medical community; he explained
thattheInspector was to administer the Hippocratic
oath to physicians.
ophthalmologists)were to be qualified,based on the
book Ten Treatises on the Eye
Ishaq; bonesetters were to be tested with the Arabic
translation of a portion of Greek books.
It has sometimes been asserted that a physician in the
medieval Islamic world was granted a
license (ijazah) following the completion of his
education(4).There are isolated examples of students
being given a signed statement that they successfully
read and mastered a particular treatise.
The National Library of Medicine (NLM) has one of
these very rare documents. The certificate is written at
the end of a commentary on the Hippocratic treatise
the Nature of Man by the Damascene physician
Nafis, who spent much of his life in Cairo, where he
became `Chief of Physicians’, dying there in 1288 (687
H) and bequeathing his house and library to the recently
constructed Mansuri hospital. The certificate occurs at
the end of the manuscript in the handwriting of
Nafis himself, and reads as follows:
[In the name of] God the Provider of Good Fortune. The
wise, the learned, the excellent shaykh Shams al
Abu al-Fadl ibn al-shaykh Abi al-Hasan al
God make long lasting his good fortune, studied with me
this entire book of mine — that is, the commentary on the
book by the imam Hippocrates, which is to say his book
known as `On the Nature of Man’
demonstrated the clarity of his intellect and the
correctness of his thought, may God grant him benefit
and may he make use of it. Certified by the poor in need
of God, `Ali ibn Abi al-Hazm al-Qurashi
al-Nafis] the physician. Praise be to God for his
perfection and prayers for the best of His prophets,
Muhammad, and his family. And that is on the
ninth of Jumada I [in the] year six hundred and sixty
eight [= AD 25 January 1270].
In another recorded example, also from the 13th century,
the physician Muwaffaq al-
at the back of a copy of a commentary on a treatise by
Hunayn ibn Ishaq that a student named
DawlahTadrus had read the text before him with
purpose of understanding, questioning and verifying its
contents.
These individual cases of the certified completion of a
reading course, as important as they are for the history of
medical education, are not, however, equivalent to the
licensing of physicians upon completion of an approved
period of training. In addition, the term
translated as `license,’ is not entirely applicable to
medicine, for an ijazah was traditionally also, given in
the fields of law and theology
(especially fiqh and hadith) and were recorded in
medieval bio-bibliographical registers for those fields in
order to establish chains of authorities
The newly graduatedphysicians or the junior fully
fledged doctors in the Abbasid Bagdad centre of
education of the Islamic World were dressed in
Black Aba with Black Turban; this Abbasid dress
became the Standard Graduation Black Gown and
black cap Worldwide.
As for Medicine’s purpose and ethics,
oath (as translated from Greek) was administ
physicians. The Greek Asklepion medical emblem
snake and a staff or a goblet is hotly debated. It is in fact
an Arabic (possible Jewish) emblem based on a
careful extraction of Dracunculus medinensis
of wood; complete extraction of the worm from the
skin, denotes a skilful doctor(see photos
medinensis (“little dragon from Medina
name from its one-time high incidence in the
of Medina (in Saudi Arabia); its other
Guinea worm, is due to a similar past high incidence
along the Guinea coast of West Africa
endemic in either location)(5).
First proper Anatomical Body Dissection
Western scholarship belittles the contribution of the
physicians of the Islamic world.
perceived as students of their Greek masters, and
projected as mere conveyors and simple purveyors of
Greek science to the scholars of European Renaissance!
Historical evidence provedthat this was a
fallacy!While students someti
they can be creative with achievements far above and
beyond their masters abilities.
Jonathan Lyonswrote a brilliant, evocative book (
House of Wisdom, Bloomsbury Press published
2010),which reveals the story of how
the well of Muslim learning; he restores credit to the
Arab thinkers of the past in this riveting history of
science – from its earliest and most thrilling days
For centuries following the fall of Rome, Western Europe
was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence
farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict.
Meanwhile Arab culture was thriving, and had become a
powerhouse of intellectual exploration and discussion
that dazzled the likes of British adventurer
Bath(who translated many Greekscientific works
Arabic versions into Latin, which were then introduced to
Western Europe). It dazzledmany Europeans fortunate
enough to visit cities like Baghdad or Antioch
philosophers, physicians, mathemati
astronomers were steadily advancing the frontiers of
knowledge, as well as keeping alive the works of Plato
and Aristotle. Arabs could measure the earth’s
circumference (a feat not matched in the West for eight
hundred years); they advanced medicine; discovered
algebra; were adept at astronomy and navigation,
developed the astrolabe, translated all the Greek
scientific and philosophical texts. When the best libraries
in Europe held several dozen books, Baghdad’s great
library, the House of Wisdom, housed
hundred thousand) books. Jonathan Lyons
how much “Western” ideas owe to the Golden Age of
Arab civilization. Even while their countrymen waged
bloody Crusades against Muslims, a handful of intrepid
Christian scholars, hungry for knowledge, travelled East
and returned with priceless jewels of science, medicine,
and philosophy that laid the foundation for the
Renaissance. Without Muslims, and the knowledge that
travellers (like Adelard) brought back to the West,
Europe would have been a very different place over the
last millennium
Indeed, the hard factual evidence speak
words.In Anatomy, the assertion that Islam forbids
dissection is untenable; the Qur’an states:
yourselves, Can ye then not see?“ Al-Th
The Andalusian (now Spain) 10th-century physician
’l-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Albucasis in Latin and the
of Modern Surgery), in the introduction to his book, al
Zahrawi expounded that ‘good practice in surgery
requires a sound knowledge of anatomy’
discussed in future). There is plenty of evidence for
Dissection by Arab/Muslim physicians
Monkeys and apes were dissected by
Ibn Masawayhin a special institute which he erected
on the banks of the Tigris, and that a c
of ape, considered closely to resemble man, was
supplied to him by the ruler of Nubia in AD 836 by
the command of Caliph Al-Mu’tasim
Dissection of deers by Ibn Tufail as revealed in his book
“Hai Ibn Yakthan” (1185 AD) revealed his deep
practical knowledge in animal dissection; his book
translated into Latin as “PhilosophusAutodidactus”
Mirandola (1494 AD) and Pocock (1671 AD) and
appeared in many languages:
Based on animal observations, Galen
blood was produced in the liver, charged with
spirit and taken by way of the veins into lower limbs and
the right ventricle of the heart. From the latter, it was
filtered through small invisible pores
ventricle, mixed with vital spirits(lungs).
blood in the pulmonary veins does not reach the left
ventricle, but is used by the lungs as nourishment. In
other words, there is no pulmonary circuit.
blood in the left ventricle (and hence the systemic
arteries) is derived directly from the right ventricle,
through invisible pores in the interventricular sep
Blood reaching the brain became charged with the third
and noblest spirit, the animal spirit. Having given up the
vital spirit to the tissues, the blood returned into the heart
through the same channels by a process similar to
and tide of the sea! Galen’s authority forced generations
of doctors to apply his knowledge of animal anatomy to
human beings. When the seats of learning fell into hands
of the Church, his writings became like Gospels and bore
the stamp of Church’s authority and infallibility.
Ibn al-Nafis, (Damascus-Syria) in 1288 AD, however,
opposed both Avicenna and Galen vehemently on their
concept of blood passage through invisible pores; he re
addressed the question of blood movement in the human
body. The authoritative (wrong) explanation had been
given by the Greek physicians more than 1000 years
earlier. But the problem was how the blood flowed from
the right ventricle of the heart to the left, prior to being
pumped out into the body. According to Galen (2
century), blood reached the left ventricle through
invisible pores in the inter-ventricular septum. Based on
human dissection, Ibn al-Nafis described the firm,
impenetrable nature of the inter-ventricular septum and
made it clear that there were no pores or passages in it.
Instead, he concluded, the blood in the right ventricle
must be carried to the left by way of the lungs. He
described the circulation of blood from the right ventricle
into the lungs for purification prior to its return to the
heart for redistribution. The description of the
pulmonary circulation by Ibn al
breakthrough in the understanding of human
anatomy and physiology.
Galen stated in his book De ossibusadtirones
lower jaw consists of two pieces, which can be proven
when cooked; it is divided from the middle. However,
Doctor Muwaffaq al-Din Abd al-Latif al
(1162 –1231 born and died in Baghdad) and while
visiting Egypt, he came across several skeletal remains of
people who had died of starvation due to a famine near
Cairo caused by the Nile failing to overflow its banks
in 597 AH (1200 AD) . Al
skeletons and concluded that the lower jaw consisted of
one piece, not two, as Galen wrongly believed. He
documented that in his book (
Consideration in Matters Observed and Accidents
Observed in the Land of Egypt
رصمضرأبةنياعملاثداوحلاوةدهاشملارومﻷايفرابتعﻻاوةدافﻹا
Unfortunately, none of those who wrote on
medicine were interested in Baghdadi’s discov
perhaps because he wrote it in a book on the geography
of Egypt, and perhaps the reason for ignoring such
discovery was that scientists at the time did not accept
the idea that ancient authors were mistaken
Indeed, Arabs left indelible imprin
e.g.nucha (from Arabic nucha’a, pertaining to spinal
cord), saphenous (safin, the conspicuous),
basilic veins (al bazili, the draining) and cephalic vein
(kafili, the sponsoring), cornea
mesentery (mesareeq), cornea
(albadan/albatan), pupil, eye
photos)(10).
First understanding of proper Physiology
The blood circulation preoccupied Arabo
physiciansin the 8th century AD, (and particularly during
Golden Islamic era), when Europe was sinking in dark
medievalages(between the fall of Rome 476 AD and the
beginning of the Renaissance in the 14th century);
Arabo-Islamic medicine flourished and contributed to the
evolution of concepts in cardiovascular system
The work of famous Arabo-Islamic physicians reflects
their knowledge of heart function and heart disease.
Rhazes (864-925), claims that heart has two ventricles,
while Hally Abbas يسوجملا سابع يلع (930
of the first to deny the existence of communication
between the right and the left cavities.
1037) observed that there are three valves in the aorta’s
outflow, which open when the volume of blood is ejected
from the heart during contraction and clos
expansion of the heart. Avicenna was
examining and studying pulse and its wave
to him, each pulse beat consists of two movements and
two pauses. So, the normal pulse wave is:
constriction, pause. Thus, he rejected the ideas of Galen
about a particular kind of pulse for each organ separately
andfor each disease. The symptoms, effects and treatment
of cardiac flutter are also explained in detail in his work.
As he mentions, flutter is caused by heart traum
pericardial or neighbouring organ injury. All kinds of heart failure led to flutter due to its inconsistent
operation. Avicenna supported the view that acute flutter
leads to loss of sensation, while acute and prolonged
flutter leads to death. He descri
following carotid stress and provided the first description
of carotid body hypersensitivity and syncope. In an
attempt to describe vascular stenosis, he mentioned that it
was provoked by the local concentration of ‘abnormal
juices’ in vessels which eventually lead to obstruction.
So far as the cardiological drugs are concerned, Avicenna
devoted a special treatise called
Qalbiye (Book of Medicines of Heart Disease
ةيبلقلا). This treatise has a physiological
character and was first translated into Latin at the
beginning of the 14th century by
(1238–1314) titled De Medicines Cordialibus
describes simple and complex cardiological d
divided into stimulants, diuretics and inhibitors.
Altogether, 83 simple and 17 complex drugs are
mentioned in the form of elixirs, mortars, pills and syrups
derived from plants, animals and minerals, and their
mode of action in the heart is extensive
addition, the strength and dosage of each drug is
described. One of the drugs mentioned in the book is the
‘zarnab’ (Taxusbaccata L.)
of the heart’. Currently we know that
also known as common yew
alkaloids and it has been shown to have
blocker activity. It can be said that Avicenna used such a
type of medicine long before the use of synthetic drugs,
although it remains unclear in which cases he prescribed
this drug(11).
Avicenna and the 10th-century Arabo
claimed that blood circulation is made in two directions:
firstly, much of the blood in the heart is transported to the
lungs for ‘purification’. Secondly, the pure blood is
mixed with the inhaled air and returns with breathing to
the left ventricle of the heart for
were convinced that two vessels were leaving the left
heart, a vessel called the venous artery and carrying
blood to the lungs and a second largest artery
aorta. Aorta was divided into two arteries: one to the
head and the cervix, and the other to the other organs,
transferring them to the ‘vital spirit’ and natural heat.
Finally, the vein over the liver transported the blood
fromthe viscera and by ejecting into the lower cavity it
reached the right heart cavity. However,
(1213-1288) was the first to describe pulmonary
circulation, or the pulmonary passage of blood, thus
defying Galen’s theory of no pulmonary circuit
Nafis, wrote that blood interventricular septum, but rather circulates in the
lungs via invisible connections between the pulmonary
arteries and veins.In his work, he mentioned:
has only two ventricles …. and between them there is
absolutely no opening, because the septum is too thick.
The advantage of this blood of the right cavities is that
it mixes with air in the lungs and then goes to the left
cavity, from the two that has the heart …)
the pulse issue he had his own view: (pulse is the result
of both physical and forced movements of the arteries …
the forced movement must be the contraction of the
arteries and it comes from the heart, while the physical
movement that characterizes them must be their
dilation… The heart and arteries do not contract and
expel simultaneously. Rather, the opposite happens
when one organ contracts the other expands and vice
versa). Ibn-an-Nafis, studied in Damascus and practiced
medicine at Al Mansouri Hospital in Cairo. An a
of Hippocrates and Avicenna, he was particularly
interested in commenting on their works and he did not
hesitate to break completely with the erroneous ideas of
the earlier medical scholars. Ibn Al-Nafis’s fundamental
changes to the misconceptions of Galen a
were as follows:
He rejected the existence of pores in the
interventricular septum of the heart.
2) Blood from right ventricle goes to lungs, where part of
it is filtered into pulmonary vein with air
3) The idea that the blood or the spirit from the mixture
of blood and air passes from the lung to the left ventricle,
and not in the opposite direction.
4) The claim that there are only two ventricles, not three
as claimed by Avicenna.
5) The statement that the ventricle takes its nourishme
from the blood flow to its wall (the coronary arteries) and
not as Avicenna says of the right ventricle blood.
6) A premonition of capillary circulation, with the claim
that the pulmonary vein receives the blood coming out of
the pulmonary artery, means there are some passages
between the two.
Ibn al-Nafis in his Commentary on Anatomy of
Avicenna’s Canon makes the first description of
pulmonary circulation. Initially, he says that the blood
after being cleansed in the right ventricle must then be
channelled somehow into the left cavities where the vital
spirits are created. In contrast to Galen and Avicenna,
who supported the existence of communication between
right and left ventricles, Ibn-an-Nafis makes clear that the
septum is compact with no interventricular pores or
communication. He then clarifies that blood from the
right ventricle ispumped to the lungs to mix with the air and then return to the left cavities. He also analyzes the
composition of the vessel walls (arteries and veins) and
observes the difference of the pulmonary arteries and
veins from the opposite vessels of the rest of the body, so
far as the anatomy of the lungs is concerned
Finally,Ibn al-Nafis(1213-1288) was the first to describe
the “Pulmonary Circulation”
on the anatomy in the canon of Ibn Sina
reason, he is considered as a true father of cardiology.His
approach to the study of medicine was exemplary for a
scientist of his time, as he demonstrated the need to
evaluate the existing knowledge and reject those concepts
that were inaccurate as shown by his own observations
(6). Thus, he was able through dissection of human
bodies, to further and rectify the medical knowledge
inherited wrongly from the Greeks. He also discussed
systemic circulation vaguely in his book
of The Law in Medicine” (Al-Mougiz Fi Al-Canon)
Ibn Al-Nafis’ contemporary
AD), in his manual on the surgical art, gave the most
comprehensive description of surgical operations and
treatment of bodily injuries ever contained in any Arabic
text of its kind. He explained the function of the
capillaries for the first time and discussed the uni
directional action of valves in veins and in heart
chambers. He also made the first appeal for uniformity
of standards for weights and measures used in Medicine,
Pharmacy and Surgery(10). Therefore, in physiology:
Systemic blood movement was described by Haly
Abbas Al-Majusi (prior to 994) 6.5 centuries
before Harvey’s description in 1628.
Capillaries discovery by Haly Abbas and Ibn Al
Quff (1233-1286) 4 centuries prior to M.
Malpighi’s discovery in 1661.
One of the greatest Islam
remains the comprehensive and detailed description
of pulmonary circulation, centuries before Michael
Servetus (1511-1553), Realdo Colombo (1516
and William Harvey’s (1578
contribution. Indeed, Pulmonary circulat
described by Ibn Al-Nafis (1211
before Michael Servetus (1511
1553. Whether the Spanish
influenced by Ibn Nafis
ItalianRealdo Colombo (1516
discussion and further research.However, some
claimed that Ibn al-Nafis’s work was translated into
Latinin 1547;therefore, there is no evidence that his
ideas were known to Servetus and Colombo, who
rediscovered the pulmonary circulation in the 1500s,
unless there is a personal ability of either authors to read the Arabic text directly (prior to formal
translation into Latin).
Interesting Comment by William Harvey on Islamic Equality of men and women
For a thousand years before the Western impact began,
Muslims (like the Romans before them) were aware that
northern European males had peculiar attitudes towards
their womenfolk. They did not adequately wrap them up,
and paid excessive attention to their opinions.This
cultural idiosyncrasy was a cause of occasional
to the males of northern Europe themselves; the
Englishman William Harvey (d. 1657), better known for
his work on circulation of the blood, was of the view
that:
(We Europaeans knew not how to order or governe our
woemen, and that the Turkes were the only people used
them wisely). (Source:Michael Cook’s ‘THE KORAN’,
Oxford 200, page 37).
Furthermore, the 11th-century Iraqi scientist
Haytham, (Alhazen in Latin), developed a radically new
concept of human vision. Ancient Greek notions of a
visual spirit emanating from the eyes and allowing an
object to be perceived, were replaced by a
straightforward account on the eye as an optical
instrument. Ibn al-Haytham’s detailed description of
ocular anatomy forms the basis for his theory of image
formation, which is explained through the refraction of
light rays passing between 2 media of different densities.
Ibn al-Haytham derived this fundamentally new theory
from experimental investigations. His
was translated into Latin in the 12th century and
continued to be studied both in the Islamic world and in
Europe until the 17th century(12).
Additionally, in his book al-Quadi wa al
يدتغملاو يداغلاهباتكcirca 959 AD,Ahmad ib Ash’ath(ثعشﻷا يبأ نب نب دمحأdied 975 AD in Mosul, Iraq)
described the physiology of the stomach in a live lion.He
wrote: (When food enters the stomach, especially when it
is full, the stomach dilates and its la
The onlookers thought the stomach was rather small, so I
proceeded to pour jug after jug in its entry opening…the
inner layer of the distended stomach became as smooth
as the external peritoneal layer. I then cut open the
stomach and let the water out. The stomach shrank and I
could see the pylorus opening…)
Ibn Abi al-Ash’ath,thus observed the physiology of the
stomach;this description preceded the American William
Beaumont(1853 – 1785) ‘Beaumont’s Experiments and
Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of
Digestion, 1838’by almost 900 years, making
Abi al-Ash’ath the first person to initiate pioneering
experiment on gastric physiology
Infectivity and Infectious Diseases
In Arabic language,
mentioned (Aroma and
of beings and disease, respectively).Germs or
(Gerthoma) flourishing in bad air with poor hygiene
was recognized by Rhazes during his selection of
hospital’s site of predilection (see below).
In Microbiology, Islam considered leprosy and
plague as infective diseases and advised
quarantine principle for the control of plague and
pandemics.Prophet Muhammad documented the
infectivity of Leprosy “Flee from the leper as you
would from the lion.”and
hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not
enter it; and if the plague breaks out in a place
while you are in it, do not leave that place.”
al-Bukhari).
The rule of isolation (
purely Islamic; for deta
Furthermore, Muslims built Quarantines for infected
diseases in distant locations (remote from people).
Arabs named influenza
as Anf-alanza (goatrunny nose) and as
(sneezing goose nose); they also used the crushed
rotten bread spray for Tonsillitis, thus unwittingly
discovered antibiotics before Alexander Fleming.
Methods for skin cleansing
fracture and prior to surgery included the use of
Alcohol (discovered by Rhazes); soap and water
(Initially, Arabs discovered cleaning power of frothy
Christ’s thorn leaves with water); cotton, rose oil and
egg white for compound fractures (before reduction);
Water and Honey; and used Vinegar for skin
cleansing.
Muslims established Hospitals on healthy sites of
principal cities (accessible to people).
In the 10th century five more hospitals were built in
Baghdad. The earliest was established in the late ninth
century by the Abbasid Caliph‘Al-Mu’tadhid
AD; he is the father of CaliphAl-Muqtadir
Ϳاب ردتقملا ةفيلخلا وبأ, who asked Rhazes(865
oversee its siting, construction and operations of the
newly founded Al-Mu’tadhidi Hospital
Caliph’s name).
To start, Al-Razi wanted to determine the most
salubrious hygienic place in the city: He travelled around
the city, hanging pieces of fresh meat placed in various
potential places and left them for few days. Latterly, he
checked to determine which piece of meat had rotted the
least. The place in which the meat had experienced the
least amount of rot and decay was selected to be the
best location for the hospital, as he deduced that this
was the cleanest area with fresh air and congenial
atmosphere.When it opened, it had 25 doctors, including
oculists(ie,ophthalmologists),physician/
(borderland was sometimes non
time), and bonesetters(15).
References:
- See the references for this table in the preceding
issue:
M. A. R. Al-Fallouji.Original Pioneering Medical
Islamic Discoveries and/or Inventions. General
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