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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Contribution of Islam To Medicine Medicine Before Islam In order to comprehend the contributions of Arabs to medicine,we must have in our minds a picture of the condition of medicine before they arrived to the scene. Generally speaking, two elements are required for medical practice: Manpower and hospitals A.

Manpower before Islam: There were medical centers in different parts of the world which were later either under control of the Arabs or in touch with them. For example, in Syria, medicine was advanced and was greatly influenced by the Byzantine civilization which affected also the economic and administrative systems (Hammameh 1962). From the fifth century on, the Greek was the language of learning in Syria.

The knowledge of the Arabs of the Greek civilization was mainly through the Syrian scholars who translated it into Arabic. In Egypt, Alexandria was another center for culture. The Arabs got in touch with both the ancient Egyptian and Greek civilizations through the Egyptian scholars. In Persia, there was a medical school in a city called Jundi-Shapur in which medicine was highly developed.

The Abbasi Caliphs during the 8th century encouraged the Persian physicians to translate into Arabic the medical knowledge therein, to build medical centers in Baghdad, the capital of their empire, and to run newly built hospitals. With further expansion east, the Arabs through contacts with India and China, brought ideas and methods, not only in medicine, but also in mathematics, chemistry, philosophy, etc. B. Hospitals Before Islam: Hospitals as we know them now probably were not present.

True, there were places for the sick to stay, but these were mainly temples or annexes to temples that were run by priests. Gods were supposed to play a major role in the art of healing. For example, the Goddess Toueris was the Egyptian symbol of fecundity and protectress of the pregnant and parturient. She was shown as a standing pregnant hippopotamus carrying the hicroglyph meaning protection in one paw, and the sign of life in the other.

Small figures of Toucris were popular as amulets (Speert 1973). In those days, sanctuary, prayers, inactation, and hypnosis were integral parts of the therapy.