How Muslim Physicians Revolutionized Medicine

How Muslim Physicians Revolutionized Medicine

An article about the many Muslim physicians and medical scientists can at best provide only a cursory overview of a number of them. Not only were they great in number, many of them also published a huge array of works in their field. The best strategy therefore is to focus on only a few, and again provide some insights into a few of their works.

One fact that cannot be denied is that the history of science and the history of medical science is in large part built upon the achievements of famous Muslim scientists. At the same time, Islamic contributions to science and medicine tend to go unmentioned or are underestimated in our present day and age. This article aims to redress this by highlighting some of the ground-breaking discoveries and contributions of Muslim physicians. Another interrelated topic is the establishment of hospitals and medical training, which has perhaps also been neglected in the study of the history of the golden age of Muslim science, even though modern day hospitals and training are built upon so many of its achievements.

The Islamic Golden Age in Medicine

This era has also been described as “the golden age of Arab science”, and as a “flowering of knowledge and intellect that later spread throughout Europe and greatly influenced both medical practice and education.”¹ The Muslim physicians were influenced by translations of works by Hippocrates, Galen and others, and integrated these ideas in their own research. The Islamic world by this time straddled a vast territory from what is now called the Middle East, all the way into Spain, and across to China. Of course, this resulted in a wealth of other scientific works becoming available to the Muslim scientists of the age, with translations of works from Greek, Latin and Chinese into Arabic enabling this.

Significant progress was achieved across the disciplines of anatomy, anaesthesia, cardiology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, bacteriology, urology, obstetrics, neurology, psychiatry, hygiene, dietetics and dentistry during this era. The scientists and physicians of that age were typically “polymaths”, i.e. they were conversant in and publishing across a range of different scientific disciplines, and beyond.

A selection of some of the most famous physicians and their achievements

Galen, living in the 2^nd century AD, was “arguably the most influential figure in the history of medicine.”

Avicenna, or Abu Ali al-Husain ibn Abdullah ibn Sina (980-1037 AD) is commonly called “the most influential medical writer in the Middle Ages”², and his famous book, the Canon of Medicine, is likewise called the “most famous book in the history of medicine”². His writing had a great impact on modern medicine through until the nineteenth century, and his Canon, which was first translated into Latin, and thereafter into Persian, Greek, Chinese, German, and other languages, was used as the main medical textbook in many European universities from the 1100s through to the 1600s.²  He also wrote another 100 dissertations, of which the Canon, is just one, and in it, he has listed a total of 800 different drugs, and 650 recipes of different compounds from different sources.

Another famous physician and polymath was al-Razi (Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi), born in 865 AD in Rey, Iran. He moved to Baghdad and undertook medical studies there, becoming one of the most well-known and respected physicians during the 9^th century. His contributions were in fields such as pharmacology, paediatrics, neurology, psychosomatic medicine, psychiatry and medical ethics. During his life, he wrote 237 books, with 36 still being available today. Al-Razi considered the mental health of a person an important factor in their overall health, developing the notion of “a healthy mind in a healthy body” and he also was the first to use ethanol (purified alcohol) in medicine.

The polymath and physician Ibn al-Nafis, or Ala al-Din Abu al-Hassan Ali ibn Abi-Hazm al-Qarshi al-Dimashqi (1213-1288 AD) was born and trained in Damascus, and he wrote across a range of fields as diverse as physiology, medicine, ophthalmology, embryology, psychology, philosophy, law and theology. One of his most famous books was his Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna’s Canon. After medical training in Damascus, he moved to Cairo to work at several other hospitals, and his most famous work was published when he was only 29. Along with the Commentary, he also worked on a huge textbook, The Comprehensive Book of Medicine. It was never completed, but was then the largest medical encyclopaedia ever written, and apparently it is still used as a reference book by scholars.³  A true polymath, he was also a writer, and was the author of one of the first Arabic novels ever written, Theologus Autodidactus ³ , about a child raised on an isolated desert island who finally comes into contact with the outside world.

In the field of pharmacology, the most famous manual was The Comprehensive Book on Materia Medica and Foodstuffs, an alphabetical guide to over 1,400 different samples. It was written by Ibn al-Baytar. Al-Baytar, one of the greatest scientists of Muslim Spain and the greatest botanist and pharmacist of the Middle Ages.

Medical Education

This era also saw the introduction of formal medical education for future physicians, and they were trained in alchemy, pharmacognosy, anatomy and physiology, with further clinical training afterwards in hospitals. In the hospitals, it was the students’ duty to keep detailed medical records of the patients, and it was these early hospitals that are said to have “pioneered”³ the development of written medical records. It was even required of them to pass both written and oral exams after they has completed their academic and clinical training, in order to gain a licence to practice as a physician.¹ Medical schools at the hospitals were staffed by the ablest physicians, such as al-Razi and Avicenna.

Hospitals

Across the Islamic world, “secular’ hospitals were opened, and they operated according to strict criteria. They were required to treat patients from all socio-economic backgrounds, regardless of gender or religion, and inpatient as well as outpatient facilities were available. There were even “mobile” units that serviced casualties on the battlefields. The first mobile hospital was apparently used during the Battle of Khandaq (the Battle of the Trench) in 626/627 AD, in the battle between the Prophet Muhammad and the Pagans. A proper field hospital was set up for the purpose, with a tent for the casualties of the battle. The concept of the mobile hospital service was then further extended to travel to remote areas of the Islamic Empires and provide services to the disabled and disadvantaged as well.⁴

The two first “stationary” or “fixed” hospitals were a hospital that was set up in Damascus in 707 AD specifically for the chronically ill such as the blind, and patients with leprosy, and a “general” one for all patients that was established in Baghdad during the reign of Caliph Harun Al-Rashid (786-809 AD). The famous Al-Adudi Hospital was built in 981 AD in Baghdad, and the Al-Mansuri Hospital built in Cairo in 1284 AD is said to have had a capacity of 8,000 beds.⁴

These early Islamic hospitals are also referred to as “bimaristans”, being derived from the Persian word meaning “location of disease.” They are considered to have been similar in “structure and function to contemporary academic medical centres.”⁴ The fact that it was in the Islamic world that hospitals were first conceived of and set up is a little reported fact; in fact many Western medical history texts describe their origin as Europe in the Middle Ages or early Renaissance period.⁴  That version does not explain the fact that a city such as Cordoba in Spain had over 50 hospitals .

Concluding remarks

It becomes apparent that once we delve into the history of modern science and medicine, the Islamic contributions to science and medicine have been immense. If anything, the question one would be tempted to ask is: where 21^st century science and medicine would be at now, if it were not for the contribution of Muslim scientists? From the very number of medical professionals and writers and scientists in their various disciplines, to the volume of output of their written works, it is certainly a formidable achievement. Hopefully this article has provided a small glimpse of this wealth of knowledge, and perhaps given a reason to look further into this history, whether it be to read up more on some of the individual scientists, or to gain more knowledge on the history of some of the individual sciences.