18-19 October 2014 Manchester
Cordially acknowledged funding from the TURKİSH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
MEDICINE 1. As a science
2. As an art the application of the medical science As an art it has been practiced since time immemorial. Usually in early ages traditionally developed cures or spells and magical procedures were used for treating illnesses.
MEDICAL TRADITION IN ISLAM When we examine medical practices in Islam we must also
begin studying the history of medicine right from the earliest times since the first revelation until recent times. This study will reveal a rich tradition which began as an art practiced with traditional treatments based on long experience and customary cures offered by early sages and gradually it turned into a science and scientific practice. The earliest form of Islamic medical tradition is based on pre-Islamic Arab practices as refined by the Prophet (a.s.w.) which came to be known as the Prophetic Medicine (al-Tibb al-Nabawi).
Ibn
Khaldun expresses this very well:
The Bedouins, in their culture, have a kind of medicine which they base primarily on experience restricted to a few patients only and which they have inherited from their tribal leaders and old women. In some case it is correct, but it is not founded upon natural laws, nor is it tested against [scientific accounts of] natural constitutions of people. Now the Arabs had a great deal of this type of medicine before Islam and there were, among them, well-known doctors like Hârith ibn Kalada and others.* Hârith is said to have studied in the medical school at Gundaishapur. The Prophet advised his Companions to consult him for medical problems and from time to time he himself took medicine from him.**
* Translation from Ibn Khaldun by Fazlur Rahman Health and Medicine in the Islamic Tradition (Crossroad, New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1987) 33. ** Fazlur Rahman, ibid. 41.
ItIt isis known known from from these these reports reports that that the the Prophet Prophet (s.a.w.) (s.a.w.) prescribed prescribed certain certain traditional traditional treatments treatments for for sick sick people. people. Based Based on on the the recommendations recommendations of of the the Prophet Prophet people people did did follow follow his his medical medical advice. advice. For For example, example, he he recommended recommended cupping cupping and and cautery. cautery. For For certain certain stomach stomach ailments ailments he he himself himself used used and and also also prescribed prescribed aa drink drink made made of of grain grain husks, husks, milk milk and and honey. honey.
It spiritualized medicine in order “to set a high religious value on it and bring it to the center of Islamic concern”. Fazlur Rahman, op.cit., 42
Later books composed in this fashion under the rubric of Prophetic Medicine actually combined traditional medicines and maxims with principles of Greek medicine. In a sense, it was the Prophetic medicine which was turned into a scientific venture. Ibid. Ibn Qayyim makes an excellent comment on both approaches stressing that “Prophetic Medicine deals with the overall principles while scientific medicine fills in the details and more elaborate procedures.” Ibid. Etiology of sickness: natural causes of illness are recognized just as natural effects of medication are recognized by Muslim physicians and practitioners of medicine. On the other hand, both the Qur’an and Hadith point to the fact that there are several divine purposes of illness. These purposes are to be kept in mind when the doctor and the patient undergoing treatment search for a medical procedure. Two of these are important: divine trial; cathartic effect of illness. The spiritual etiology of sickness should not prevent one from seeking medical help just because one will attain higher levels of piety. On the other hand, one should be patient and ask for divine forgiveness in such conditions. For the Prophet is reported to have said that if patient under these trials maintains perseverance and remains thankful to God he or she can attain the rank of the truly faithful. If someone dies of plague or similar harsh diseases including a mother who dies during a child birth attains the rank of a martyr.
There are some of God’s servants whom God carefully saves from being killed and from illness; He causes them to live in health and to die in health and bestows upon Fazlur Rahman, op.cit., 47. them the honor of martyrs.
Abu’l-Dardâ Abu’l-Dardâsaid saidto tothe theProphet Prophet(a.s.w) (a.s.w)“I“Imuch muchprefer preferto tobe beiningood goodhealth healthand andbe be grateful gratefulfor forititthan thanbe beafflicted afflictedwith withillillhealth healthand andbear bearititwith withpatience.” patience.”upon uponwhich which Ibid. the theProphet Prophet(a.s.w) (a.s.w) replied replied“God “Godprefers prefersyou youto tobe beiningood goodhealth.” health.”
AL-Dhahabi reports that the Prophet (a.s.w) categorically commanded to “get medical treatment.” Ibid., 48.
Another essential principle of Islamic medical tradition based on the Prophetic Medicine is preventive approach known as al-himya (preventive medicine). The most important practice is to eat healthy as the Qur’an says “eat, drink, but do not commit excess (in eating and drinking).” (7/al-An’âm, 31) Muslims are described by the Prophet (s.a.w.) as “people who do not eat unless they are hungry and when they eat they do not get satiated. Moreover, he said that “only one third of the stomach is for food; the other one third is for water and the rest of the one third is for air.
God shall say on the Day of Judgment, “O son of Adam! I was sick but you did not visit me.” “My Lord! how could I visit you when you are the Lord of the whole world,” man will reply. God will say, “Did you not know that so and so from among my servants was sick but you never visited him or her? Did you not know that if you had visited, you would have found me there? 0 son of Adam! I was hungry but you did not feed me.” “How could I feed you Lord! when you are the Lord of the world?” God shall answer, “Did you not know that so and so of my servants was hungry and asked you for food, but you did not feed him or her. Did you not know that if you had given food you would have found requital here?”
Ibid., 59.
DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC MEDICINE
There is so far no full and systematic historical account of how Islamic kawniyyât (natural) sciences emerged. We may cite here as an exception the brief but very systematic and chronological sequence of the emergence and development of individual sciences as a short history of Islamic science in the first volume of Fuat Sezgin’s Wissenschaft und Technik im Islam.
(Frankfurt a.M.: Institut für Geschichte der Arabisch-Islamischen Wissenschaften an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, 2003). Translated into Turkish as İslam’da Bilim ve Teknik by Abdurrahman Aliy, 5 vols. (Istanbul: Türkiye Bilimler Akademisi, 2008).
HISTORY OF ISLAMIC SCIENTIFIC PROCESS CE
1. Worldview Stage
HIJRI
THE BEGINNING OF THE FORMATION PROCESS OF ISLAMIC WORLDVIEW 610
BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION ACTIVITIES
2. The Stage of Problems
THOSE ACTIVE IN KNOWLEDGE PROCESS and THE EARLY THINKERS
Imam Ali, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Aisha, Abdullah ibn Mas’ud, Ibn Abbas, Abu Hurayra, Muhammad ibn Hanefiyya, Aban ibn Uthman, Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, Zuhri, Hasan al-Basri, Mujahid ibn Jabr, Ibrahim Nakhai, Said ibn al-Musayyab, Ma’bad alJuhani, Umar ibn Abdulaziz, Wahb ibn Munabbih, etc.
710’s
THE RISE OF ISLAMIC KNOWLEDGE TRADITION
3. Disciplinary Stage
Ata ibn Abi Rabah, Hammad ibn Abi Sulayman, Ghaylan alDimashqi, Wâsıl ibn Ata, Ibn Ishaq, Jahm ibn Safwan, Ja’far al-Sadiq, Ibn Hisham, Hisham ibn al-Hakam, Awzâ’î, Abu Hanifa, Sufyan as-Thawri, etc.
4. The Stage of Naming
THE RISE OF SCIENTIFIC CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE EMERGENCE OF SCIENCES Fiqh Tafsir Shafi’î, Abu Yusuf, Malik ibn Anas, etc. Hadith Ash’ari, Kindi, Maturidi, Zakariya al-Razi Muhasibi, Junayd al-Baghdadi, Abu Said es-Sirafi, Sarraj Kalam Jahiz, Abu Ali al-Jubbai, Khwarizmi, etc.
800’s
850’s
900’s
THE RISE OF ISLAMIC SCIE NTIFIC TRADITION 5. The Stage of Progress
Borrowing from the Grek Scientific tradition sciences such as physics, logic, medicine and astronomy
950’s
Fa r a b i , Mi sk a wa y h i, A bu Ha y y a n a t - Ta w h id i, S i j i s t a n i Sh a h ra s ta n i , I b n S i n a , Bi ru n i, I b nu ’l - H a y t h a m J u wa y n i, G ha za l i , S u h r a w a rd i, F a k h r u d d i n Ra z i Na si r u dd i n T u s i, I b n Ar a bi , I b n Tu f a y l , I b n R u s h d Sa d r u d di n K o n e v i, Da wu d a l- Q a y s a ri , M o ll a F e n a r i, e t c .
6. The Stage of Stagnation
Ke m a l p a şa Z a de , E b u s s u d, M ir D a ma d , A n ka r a v i
1500’s
Mu ll a S a d ra , K â t i p Ç e le b i , e tc . [We have not paid attention specifically to the times these scientists and thinkers lived. The chronology here is given more according to the place they occupy in the Islamic scientific process]
7. The Stage of Decline
1800’s
BEGINNING OF IMPORT FROM THE WESTERN SCIENTIFIC TRADITION
In earlier period those who did study of scientific medicine were non Muslims; for example: It is reported that a Christian physician named Ibn Asâl served for Mu’awiyyah (661-680) and the Jewish physician Mâsarjawayh (Marsarjuis) served under the early Umayyad Caliphs as the palace doctor for either Marwân I (684-85) or ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azîz (717-720). Fuad Sezgin. Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums (GAS), 3: 5. We have some reports that Mâsarjawayh translated the medical compendium by the Alexandrian Monophysite doctor Aaron (Ahrûn). The original book was allegedly in Greek but translated into Syriac and then Mâsarjawayh translated into Arabic from Syriac with the title al-Kunnâsh. But we have not been able to verify this report and in fact Gutas claims that it “has now been demonstrated (by Ullmann) to be a later fabrication.” Dimitri Gutas. Greek Thought, Arabic Culture: The Graeco-Arabic Translation Movement in Baghdad and Early ‘Abbasid Society (2nd-4th/8th-10th centuries) (London: Routledge, 1999), 24. See M. Ullmann, “Halid ibn Yazîd und die Alchemie: Eine Legende”, Der Islam 55 (1978), 181-218.
Ali ibn Rabban al-Tabari (165/781-250/864). Ibn Abi Usaybi‘ah claims that
he was the teacher of Abu Bakr Zakariyya al-Razi.* His main work is Firdaws al-Hikmah which attempts to develop a natural history.** He has books on keeping good health and healthy ailment, such as Kitâb Hifz al-Sihhah and Kitâb fi Tartîb al-Aghdiyah.
* Ibn Abi Usaybi‘ah. ‘Uyûn al-Anbâ’ fi Tabaqât al-Atibbâ’, ed. Nizar Ridâ (Beyrut: Dar Maktabat al-Hayât, n.d.), 414. ** Max Meyerhof. “‘Ali at-Tabarî’s “Paradise of Wisdom”: One of the Oldest Arabic Compendiums of Medicine”, Isis 16 (1931), 16-46.
Undoubtedly, the greatest medical scientist of the period, or as Meyerhof
observes “one of the great physicians of all time” is Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyah al-Razi who lived between 250/864-313/925. It is said that he composed about 200 books amongst which Kitâbu’l-Hâwi fi’t-Tıbb is the most influential. His famous book Kitâb al-Mansûrî, dedicated to Mansur ibn Ishaq, the Samanid governor of Rayy, is used as medical handbook in hospitals and translated into Latin as Liber Almansuri. Shukûk ‘alâ Jalînûs is a critique of Galen of Pergamon (f. 129–199) correcting many of his medical procedures. He also composed works on mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, philosophy, logic, psychology and ethics. Max Meyerhof. “Science and Medicine” in The Legacy of Islam, ed. Sir Thomas Arnold and Alfred Guillaume (Ofxord: Oxford University Press, 1931), 323.
‘Ali ibn al-‘Abbas al-Majûsî, known in Medieval Europe as Haly Abbas, is another medical scientist of the early period. After completing his medical education in Shiraz he began practicing medicine. His major work is Kâmilu’sSinâ’ati’t-Tibbiyyah or since he dedicated the book to the ruler Adud Dawla it is also called Kitab al-Maliki, translated into Latin as Liber Regius. This book provides a full description of human anatomy and detailed surgical procedures developed by him and his predecessors. In fact, Sarton makes a remark that even well before ‘Ali ibn al-‘Abbas during a great natural historian ‘Abd al-Malik ibn Qurayb al-Asma‘î (d. 831) in the science of anatomy Muslims “already had a considerable knowledge of human anatomy.” Sarton, Int. to History of Science, 1:534.
The medical science continued to develop in this way with the contributions of later generations of great doctors such as: Ibn al-Jazzâr (d. 1004) Ibn Sina (d. 1036) Ibn al-Baytar (d. 1248)
Abu’l-Qâsim al-Zahrâwî (d. 1009) Ibn Zuhr or Avenzoar (d. 1162) Ibn al-Nafis (d. 1288).
All of these great medical scientists developed new and unprecedented procedures in surgery and pharmaceutical remedies and discovered blood circulation and many other new scientific facts concerning human anatomy. They also produced many books all of which were translated into Latin and transmitted thus to Europe. For more complete sources on Islamic medical achievements see the enormous collection by Fuat Sezgin, Islamic Medicine, 99 vols. (Frankfurt am Mein: Institut für Geschichte der Arabischen-Islamischen Wissenschaften, 1995-1998).
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Developments
An Outline of Medical Developments
Developments
An Outline of Medical Developments ď‚— At the start of the ninth century, the first private apothecary
shops opened in Baghdad.
OSMANLİ PERIOD AND MODERN TIMES
Darüşşifa, and other names such as bimaristan, maristan, darülsıhha, darulafiye, darulmerza, şifaiyye and bimarhane also used for Ottoman hospitals. BURSA DARÜŞŞİFA TODAY Restored to its original condition by the Bursa Regional Directorate of Charitable Foundations between 1997 and 2002, the Darüşşifa building remains in service today as Bursa Darüşşifa Eye Center, run by the Foundation for the Protection of Eyesight.
Houses of healing were a prominent feature of the Ottoman mosque complex system. Besides the hospital at Bursa, hospitals at Edirne, Manisa and Istanbul were other major centers of Ottoman medical studies. These hospitals, where, in addition to treating patients new doctors were also trained, began to give way to westernstyle hospitals and medical schools beginning in the 19th century.
CONCLUDING REMARKS Modern scholarship continues to uncover Muslim contribution to medical science which cannot be taken in isolation from the general Islamic scientific tradition. As part of this great mentality in scholarship Islamic medical tradition developed out of Islamic worldview and as it developed from traditional and customary medical treatments to scientific medical practices it benefited from all other traditions available to its purview. With great discoveries Islamic medical tradition contributed greatly to our knowledge of human anatomy, physiology, medical procedures, pathology, microbiology and pharmacology.
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