ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A History of Muslim Philosophy Volume 2, Book 5 Chapter 67: Medicine A – Introductory It was not until nearly a hundred years after the conquest and consolidation of their empire that the Muslims turned their minds towards creative pursuits. It is remarkable in this context to find how quickly they directed their activities to productive ploughshares and prolific pens.

Soon the Muslim Empire extended from Andalusia to the Indus, and its various parts vied with one another in producing intellectual giants in every branch of art and science. Nearly half a century ago Fonahn[^1] enumerated no less than one hundred and fifty-one works on Persian medicine alone during this period and Max Meyerhof[^2] says that “the treasure-houses of Islamic science are just beginning to be opened.

In Constantinople alone there are more than eighty mosque libraries containing tens of thousands of manuscripts. In Cairo, Damascus, Mosul, Baghdad, as well as in Persia and India there are other collections.... Even the catalogue of the Escorial Library in Spain which contains a part of the wisdom of Western Islam is not yet complete.” The subject of Muslim medicine is so vast that in the following pages only a bird's-eye view of it can be given.

For a proper appraisal of the Muslim contribution to medical science it is important to ascertain its position in Arabia at the birth of Islam. The country, as everyone knows, was at the time torn by internecine wars and family feuds. Ignorance was abysmal and education non-existent. The city surgeon (jarrah) cauterized wounds, sustained in war, or applied obscure ointments as healing balms, and the village apothecary administered simples for simple ailments.

People generally were living under most unhygienic con­ditions. Such was the dismal medical background when the Prophet of Islam started preaching. Early in his career he said that knowledge was of two kinds, that of religions and that of the bodies (i.e., of medicine). Inspired by the Qur'anic injunction,[^3] he preached moderation in all walks of life. Realizing the miserable lack of medical facilities, he advocated prophylactic measures as is evident from the following.

Sa'di,[^4] the great Persian poet, philosopher, and traveller, relates the story of an eminent Persian physician who was sent by the Persian king to the Prophet to minister to his own as well as to his followers' needs.