Journal of the association of physicians of india • vol 63 • march, 2015 23

After the coming Prophet Muhammad, the Arabian tribes, in a burst of fervor, swept

over western Asia and Northern Africa. They disrupted but did not destroy, the Eastern Roman Empire, which had survived the barbarian onslaught that had wiped out the Empire in the West. The Eastern Empire came to be known as the Byzantine Empire.

The Arabs fell heir, to much of Greek science and this proved important and even beneficial to the history of science, The advances of science, in what remained of Roman dominations, came to a complete halt for thousand years. It was the Arabs alone, who were in a position to preserve and transmit the accumulated knowledge of the ancients. They not only preserved, but also, made advances in some cases, notably alchemy and medicine.

Rhazes, known formally as Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakaria Al-Razi, was a physician and alchemist during this period. He was born, a few miles north of Teheran. Rhazes was interested in music, particularly lute, in early life. His dedication to medicine did not manifest till he was 30. He came across an old apothecary, who fascinated him with stories

Rhazes (835-925 A.D)JV Pai-Dhungat*, Falguni Parikh*

Postal stamps released on Rhazes Day of Pharmacologists, Iran-1978 and 31st Science Week Syria-1991

of medicine and disease. He decided to study medicine and ended up as chief physician of Baghdad’s largest Azudi hospital. Thereafter, his rise to fame was rapid. Common sense, psychology, great professional skill and astute diagnostic ability brought him general acclaim. He was sometimes called “Galen of the Arabs”.

Aggregate of significant medical knowledge from the beginning was assembled and annotated in his 20-volume masterpiece Al-Hawi or “Continens”. Specific i tems included renal and vesical calculi, the use of animal gut for surgical sutures, the value of lead and mercury in ointments etc. He prepared what we now call plaster of paris and described the manner in which it could form casts, holding broken bones in place. Physicians followed his surgical writings, until Ambroise Pare replaced them in the 16th century. His most celebrated treatise described the clinical findings, which distinguished small pox from measles.

The great Rhazes became blind as he aged. He refused medical attention and died at the age of 90.

*Dept. of Medicine, TN Medical College & BYL Nair Ch. Hospital,

Mumbai 400 008.

*Dept. of Medicine, TN Medical College & BYL Nair Ch. Hospital,

Mumbai 400 008.

Avecenna (980-1037 A.D)JV Pai-Dhungat*, Falguni Parikh*

Birth millenary of Avicenna Islamic Rep. of Comroe, 1980 Avicenna- GDR, 1952 Ibn Sinha-Jordan, 1971

24 Journal of the association of physicians of india • vol 63 • march, 2015

Avecenna, Abu' Ali at Hussain ibn Abdulla ibn Sina, was the most famous physician of the Persian world. He was

born near Bukhara, Iran, in 980 A.D. Son of a tax-collector, he was an infant prodigy, able to recite the entire Koran at the age of 10. He received all the education that the cultivated Arab world of the time could offer. He studied medicine at Baghdad and was qualified to practice and teach medicine at the age of 16!!

Avecenna was in the employment of several Muslim rulers, but political instability was so much, that although this brought him fame, money, and chance to do research, it also placed his life in danger more than once. He had to remain in hiding many times, even though he was the greatest physician of medieval times.

Avecenna's most important compilation was the Canon (al qanun Fi-l-tibb) of medicine, a system presented in five parts.

This monumental treatise, a huge encyclopedia of medicine, took many years to assemble. Although it is based on the works of Galen and Hippocrates, it contains many original observations as well. It included anatomy, physiology, medicine, surgery, obstetrics, psychiatry and materia medica. It was referred to as 'The most famous medical book even written" at one time; Canon's million words were both wise and absurd but was followed, for 6 centuries thereafter by the medical schools of Asia and Europe, as a standard text.

The preodigy of Persia, Avecenna indulged in pleasures, as much as in his scholarly activities. The night was always young to him, and when the manuscripts were set aside, the wine jug was seldom empty and he relaxed with minstrels and dancing girls. His sensualism was as famous as his scholarship and the Islamic world asked: What does Ibn - Sina love more -learning or wine and women?

Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon, a great Jewish-Arabian Physician, was born in Cordova,

Spain, in the Western Caliphate. Cordova was the centre of Jewish learning for several centuries, where Jews and Arabs were given equal opportunity to study philosophy, theology, law and medicine. In his youth Maimonides took full advantage of the intellectual freedom, subject to restriction of Arab authorities.

At that time, there was apparent decadence of Arabian medicine and century was to pass before the acceptance of leadership by French and Italian school. In 1148, with the subjugation of Cordova by Almohadas (Unitarian), Jews were given the choice of embracing Islam or leaving the country. Maimonide’s father was true to Jewish faith and their wanderings began, compelling them to reside temporarily in the provinces of Spain, Morocco and Palestine.

Maimonides probably acquired his medical

Maimonides (1135-1204)JV Pai-Dhungat*, Falguni Parikh*

Maimonides-Spain, 1967 Rabbi Ben maimon-Israel, 2005 Maimonides-Antigua & Barbuda, 1985

training in Fez, Morocco, where he stayed for several years. Eventually he settled in Cairo in 1165, when he was 30. He continued both as Rabbi and Judge, but medicine occupied greater portion of his time. His practice was built upon manuscripts of the ancients, being supplemented by clinical experience and scientific education. Maimonides reached the high position as the Court physician to the Grand Vazir Al Fadil and Sultan Saladin, the enlightened Moslem Sultan, who recaptured Jerusalem in 1187.

The treatises were written in the later decades of his life. His three well-known works are Poisons and antidotes, Regimen Sanitatis and Medical aphorisms. The last contains dictums, which are based upon the pronouncement of Hippocrates, Galen and Avicenna. Poisons and antidotes, was translated into several languages and was a standard volume for several centuries. In Regimen Sanitatis, he emphasised

*Dept. of Medicine, TN Medical College & BYL Nair Ch. Hospital,

Mumbai 400 008.