Some say that such thins are obtained through experience (tajribah ).

Some say that such thins are obtained through experience (tajribah ). These are called `empiricists'. Others believe that experience alone is not enough, but that is must rather be combined with analogy (qiyas); these are called the `dogma­tists'.

There is also a third group, called the `methodists' (ashab al-hiyal), because they imagine that they have, through clever tactics, cut short the science of medicine, purifying it of the superficialities and accretions with which the empiricists and dogmatists preoccupy themselves. Ibn Hindu, after introducing the three sects, goes on to describe and characterize each of these sects as follows. The Empiricists -…