Muslim Education : Contributions of Muslims In Medical Science Part 1

Muslim Education : Contributions of Muslims In Medical Seience Part 1

Islam is a religion of mercy and clemency. It calls for curing the sick, relieving their pain and treating them. It commands the Muslims to search for new medicines and consult a specialized physician when they are ill. So in the early stages of Islam it was a part of Muslim culture and Muslim education to seek knowledge in the field of medical science and practice it in easing the pain of the patients.

Arabs before the spread of Islam were divided and  illiterate; they used to spent their time in fighting. They had only one good thing in common and that was the Arabic culture. But this nation was united under the leadership of Prophet Muhammad (SM) and they started gathering knowledge. And soon gathering knowledge had become a part of Muslim Culture. Both the Muslim teachers and the Muslim students pursued knowledge.

After the death of Prophet Muhammad (SM) the Muslim rulers took the charge to spread the Islamic knowledge and general knowledge. Under Islam, life sciences were so great that Muslims became masters. Muslims did not only master the art and fact of science but also it became a part of Muslim culture. Accordingly, their universities were welcoming those European students who left their countries seeking these sciences.

Besides, European kings and princes headed for Muslim countries for receiving medical treatment. The French thinker, Gustave Le Bon wished that Muslims had controlled France in order to make Paris like Toledo in the Muslim Spain. He also spoke of the grandeur of the scientific civilization of Islam as follows: “Europe is a city for (Muslims) Arabs with its civilization.

Modern medical science, though mostly developed in the West, it is basically the continuation of contribution made by scientists of the early Muslim period. Scientific approach to medical science began in the Greek period. After  the fall of the Greeks, Romans controlled the old Greek territories.

The Romans had little interest in pure science and the Greek science, including their medical science, continued to prevail  in the Roman empire. Due to the antipathy of the Romans, Greek science was gradually lost, though a pan of it survived by its translations into Latin through individual efforts. A number of Greek scientists fled to Judishapur in Persia to avoid Roman torture, and they continued their pursuit of scientific activities under the patronage of the Persian rulers.

When the Muslim rulers  conquered the eastern Roman empire (Byzantium); the Muslim scientists saved the Greek knowledge from total destruction. Muslims first translated all the book of science into Arabic language  then available, and later began to develop science further. Muslims contributed most in the fields of philosophy, general science, technology and especially medicine. Islamic education pursed both the Islamic knowledge and science at a time. Their contributions to the basic medical sciences has previously been reported.’ In clinical sciences their contributions were most remarkable in the fields of general medicine surgery ,therapeutics and ophthalmology.

Muslims  thus made extraordinary advances in medicine through their research. The first important physician was Abu Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariyya Al-Razi (d. 923), known in Europe as Rhazes. He wrote voluminously on many scientific and philosophic subjects, and over fifty of his works are extant. His greatest work, Al-Havi, was translated into Latin as the Continens, (the comprehensive book). It was the first encyclopedia of all medical science up to that time, and had to be completed by his disciples after his death. For each disease he gave the views of Greek, Syrian, Indian, Persian and Arabic authors, and then added notes on his clinical observations and expressed a final opinion.

The greatest writer on medicine was Ibn Sina or Avicenna. He was also one of the two greatest Arabic philosophers. His eminence in medicine was due to his ability to combine extensive theoretical knowledge and thought with acute clinical observation. His vast Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fi’t-Tib) was translated into Latin in the twelfth century and was used much more than the works of Galen and Hippocrates. It dominated the teaching of medicine in Europe until at least the end of the sixteenth century.

There were sixteen printed editions of it in the fifteenth century, one being in Hebrew, twenty editions in the sixteenth century and several more in the seventeenth. Roughly contemporary with Ibn Sina was the chief Arabic writer on surgery and surgical instruments, Abul Qasim az-Zohrawi (d. after 1009), usually known in Latin as Abulcasis.

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