Islamic medicine

Encyclopedia : I : IS : ISL : Islamic medicine

''This is a sub-article to Islamic science and Medicine.

Islamic medicine is the profession of Muslim doctors and one of the fields of study in Islamic science. The modern advancement of Islamic medicine can be seen as part of the broader movement of the Islamization of knowledge.

Contents

1 Early Islamic medicine

1.1 Prophetic Medicine
1.2 Ophthalmology

2 Modern Islamic medicine
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

Early Islamic medicine

Prophetic Medicine

Prophetic Medicine (al-tibb) was a genre of medical writing intended as an alternative to the Greek-based medical system (See:Galen). Its authors were usually clerics, rather than physicians. They were known to have advocated the traditional medical practices of prophet Muhammad's time (those mentioned in the Qur'an). Al-tibb therapy did not require the patient's undergoing any surgical procedures.

The Comprehensive Book of Medicine (Large Comprehensive, Hawi or "al-Hawi" or "The Continence") was written by the Iranian chemist Rhazes (known in Arabic as Al-Razi), the "Large Comprehensive" was the most sought after of all his compositions. In it, Rhazes recorded clinical cases of his own experience and provided very useful recordings of various diseases.

The "Kitab fi al-jadari wa-al-hasbah", with its introduction on measles and smallpox was also very influential in Europe.

The Mutazilite philosopher and doctor Ibn Sina was another influential figure. His The Canon of Medicine remained a standard text in Europe up until The Enlightenment and the renewal of the Muslim tradition of scientific medicine.

Ibn Nafis (d. 1288) described human blood circulation. This discovery would be rediscovered, or perhaps merely demonstrated, by William Harvey in 1628, who generally receives the credit in Western history. There was a persistent pattern of Europeans repeating Muslim research in medicine and astronomy, and some say physics, and claiming credit for it.

Ophthalmology

Of all the branches of Islamic medicine, ophthalmology was certainly the foremost. The specialized instruments used in their operations ran into scores. Innovations such as the “injection syringe”, a hollow needle, invented by Ammar ibn Ali of Mosul, which was used for the extraction by suction of soft cataracts were quite common.

Modern Islamic medicine

Organ donation according to Sistani and al-Islam.org: [link]

References

Edward G. Browne, Islamic Medicine, 2002, Goodword Pub., ISBN 8187570199

External links

[All about Islamic Medicine for magic, possession and more]
[link], [google cach] Contagion - Perspectives from Pre-Modern Societies
http://www.islamset.com/bioethics/vision/salami.html

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