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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A History of Muslim Philosophy Volume 1, Book 3 Chapter 22 : Muhammad Ibn Zakariya Al-Razi By Abdurrahman Badawi Life According to al-Biruni,[^1] Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya ibn Yahya al-Razi was born in Rayy on the first of Sha`ban in the year 251/865.
In his early life, he was a jeweller (Baihaqi), money-changer (Ibn Abi Usaibi'ah), or more likely a lute-player (Ibn Juljul, Said, Ibn Khallikan, Usaibi'ah, al-Safadi) who first left music for alchemy, and then at the age of thirty or (as Safadi says) after forty left alchemy because his experiments in it gave him some eye disease (al-Biruni), which obliged him to search for doctors and medicine. That was the reason, they (al-Biruni, Baihaqi and others) say, he studied medicine.
He was very studious and worked day and night. His master was 'Ali ibn Rabban al-Tabari (al-Qifti, Usaibi`ah), a doctor and philosopher, who was born in Merv about 192/808 and died some years after 240/855. [^2] With Ibn Rabban al-Tabari he studied medicine and perhaps also philosophy. It is possible to trace back al-Razi's interest in religious philosophy to his master, whose father was a rabbinist versed in the Scriptures. Al-Razi became famous in his native city as a doctor.
Therefore, he directed the hospital of Rayy (Ibn Juljul, al-Qifti, Ibn Abi Usaibi`ah), in the times of Mansur ibn Ishaq ibn Ahmad ibn Asad who was the Governor of Rayy from 290-296/902-908 in the name of his cousin Ahmad ibn Isma`il ibn Ahmad, second Samanian ruler.[^3] It is to this Mansur ibn Ishaq ibn Ahmad that Razi dedicated his al-Tibb al-Mansuri , as it is attested by a manuscript[^4] of this book, as against Ibn al-Nadim's assumption,[^5] repeated by al-Qifti[^6] and Ibn Abi Usaibi`ah,[^7] that this Mansur was Mansur ibn Ismail who died in 365/975.
From Rayy al-Razi went to Baghdad during the Caliph Muktafi's times [^8] (r. 289/901-295/907) and there too directed a hospital. It seems that after al-Muktafi's death (295/907) al-Razi came back to Rayy. Here gathered round him many students. As Ibn al-Nadim relates in Fihrist,[^9] al-Razi was then a Shaikh “with a big head similar to a sack”; he used to be surrounded by circle after circle of students.
If someone came to ask something in science, the question was put to those of the first circle; if they did not know the answer, it passed on to those of the second, and so on till it came to al-Razi himself if all others failed to give the answer.