Introduction to Medical Science * Stages of medical science effort: Stage 1: the stage of translation from foreign sources to Arabic. Stage 2: the stage of excellence & genuine contribution in which Islamic Physicians were the leaders of medical science. Famous names (in medical science): Ibn Sina & Al-Zahrawi. Stage 3: the stage of decline in which sciences (including medicine) became stagnant, especially after the 13th century. * Ibn Khaldoun: the civilized nomads possessed some kind of medicine that was generally based on experiences restricted to few cases, which were inherited from the Sheikhs and old men of the tribe.
They tried to have a medical system but they didn’t own the means and didn’t have enough plants in the peninsula. * Arabs did not live in an isolated and closed circle. They were in touch with many civilizations around, especially the Greek civilization, which influenced and left its fingerprints on the Arabic civilization. * Medical science began in the days of Khalifa Al-Mansour, who did his best to attract all Nestorian physicians to the capital city of Baghdad. These physicians studied medicine in the medical school of Junishapur, which was an intersection point between Greek, Syrian, Persian, Hindu, and Jewish scholars.
Internal & Clinical Medicine Hunayn Ben Ishak (???? ?? ????? ) made the most important medical writings of Greeks available in Arabic. Sometimes he translated the Greek books directly, and sometimes through other languages. Surgery, Anatomy, & Physiology * During the 9th century, Hunayn Ben Ishak translated the work of Jalen on Anatomy& Surgery, and Al-Razi devoted large sections in his medical encyclopedia (called Al-Hawi) to this art too. After him came Al-Majousi. He was the first Anatomy & physiology theorist in Arabic medicine. He was also the first to deal with surgery in details.
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Man lived in a struggle with environment. Thanks to his instincts and mind, he realized that he is the most important creature in this existence, and so it seemed a duty to stay safe & healthy and to survive. He worked very hard to create new conditions that would be suitable for his body and personal built. With time, he was able to control all aspects around and to discover theories & laws that rule this existence. Depending on the theory of need, man is pushed to study and to create a medical system in order to avoid harm and pain. Therefore it was obvious to have medical science in the Peninsula.
Pharmacy & Pharmacology Pharmacy in Islam became an independent science, separate from cooperating with medicine. It became a full special art. The first privately owned pharmacy shops were opened in the early 9th century in Baghdad (the Abbasid capital) where drugs & spices from Africa & Asia were available. Various pharmaceutical preparations were manufactured & sold by physicians & pharmacists. Formulas for these medications were included in the Arab’s texts: Saber Ben Sahel wrote a text that contained many recipes. He was the author of the first known formula in Islam.
After him came Al-Razi who wrote many texts on pharmacy. Ibn Sina wrote as well. And then Al-Barouni who wrote the most important pharmaceutical encyclopedia called Al-Saydala (??????? ) which contained the most detailed definition of pharmacy, and the functions & duties of pharmacists that had yet been written. About a century later, Ibn Al-Tilmidi wrote a pharmaceutical text explaining how to prepare & prescribe a wide variety of medicines. With time, it became the basic reference for pharmacists working in private shops as well as hospitals. Some of these hospitals owned lands and used them to grow medical plants.