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Prof.
M. A. Karim It is rather unfortunate that our knowledge of Islamic medicine; based on a second-hand information through English authors is so sketchy and oblique that it is almost impossible to evaluate the contributions of these scholars to the present day medical sciences. The bias of these authors appears to arise perhaps from an apparent assumption that Islamic Medicine is a part of the Islamic religion. In fact, Islamic medicine refers to a medical system which was introduced to the world and mainly into the Arab countries at the turn of 8th century, A.D. and was pradtised through the middle ages, the impact of which is seen up to modern times. All the scholars of that time were neither necessarily muslims, nor Arabs. Eminent physicians like Rhazes, Avicenna and Haly Abbas were Persians, Hunayn Ibn Ishaq, a translator par excellence was a Christian, and Maimonides, another eminent doctor was a Jew. They all lived and thrived within the sphere of the dynamic Islamic society of those days. In the words of Manfred Ulmann (1978) when we talk of Islamic medicine, we are thinking of Islam as a cultural force, we are looking at a culture which has absorbed many different currents within itself and integrated and developed them. There is nothing new or strange and it needs no apology to call such a system of medicine, Islamic medicine. Infact, with the rise and fall of every civilization and culture, there has beena rise and fall of their medical systems, like Greek medicine, Roman medicine, Chinese medicine and Hindu medicine. Some of these have survived and contributed a great deal to the modern medicine, although it may not be appreciated, much less acknowledged. To replace the Islamic medicine in its proper perspective, it is imperative to look into some aspects of its emergence and survival. First, the era of pre-Islamic medicine in which it emerged and secondly, the modern era of Western medicine in which it is being revived. 1. THE ERA OF PRE-ISLAMIC MEDICINE It is a well-established fact that pre-Islamic medicine was mainly folk medicine strongly based on superstitions and magical elements. Islamic teaching, however, transformed this folk medicine into a highly sophisticated system of scientific medicine from which magic and superstitions were totally banned. Until the advent of Islam, the art of healing revolved round the kings and the rich. Islamic traditions radically changed this situation and for the first time, presented this science as an instrument of human service to rich and poor alike. Again, it is said that there is nothing new and original in the writings of Islamic philosophers and thinkers of this period as they derived much of their knowledge from the earlier Greek writings. In this connection, it mustt be appreciated that no knowledge can develop in isolation. It is always either a continuation of, or a reaction to and consequently a result of some previous knowledge and wisdom. As such, under the aegis of Islamic culture and tradition, scholars and philosophers developed, reorganized and expounded medical knowledge and philosophy of Greeks on a brilliantly rational and analytical basis. 2. THE ERA OF MODERN WESTERN MEDICINE In recent times, medical science has made tremendous progress. This spectacular advancement by and large, has been through the assiduous endeavours of the Wester scientists. Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that all this progress of the medical science we see today did not develop in a vacuum. It rather, developed on the edifice of the human wisdom and knowledge achieved by the scholars and scientists of the Islamic medicine. But indeed, the real achievement of the West lies in disowning, disconnecting and in distorting the contributions of the Islamic physician and philosophers, so much so, that today it has become difficult to think anything contrary to the western thoughts. In spite of this situation, these days more and more medical scientists of the West are turning towards herbal cure, acupuncture and to even the concept of humours and temperaments, and of psychic and soma. CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANATOMICAL SCIENCES Looking back on the sketchy history of the Islamic medicine, one comes across two main categories of contribution of its scholars to anatomical sciences; one, through translations and the other, through their original work. At this point in time, the Greek philosophy of humours had taken deep roots, Galen's knowledge of human anatomy based on his observations of a few dissection of animals was beyond any doubt and discussion, and above all, dissection of the human cadavers was not permitted as it was considered unclean and sinful. Although Arab poetry in the pre-Islamic era occasionally depicted heart, lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys as important parts of the human anatomy, but they had very little, rather peculiar ideas as to their shapes and functions. They thought anger was located in the liver, courage and passion in the heart, fear in the lungs laughter in the spleen and greed was lodged in the kidneys. In short, the anatomical knowledge of the pre-Islamic Arabs was more poetic than factual and scientific. The contributions of Islamic medicine during the medieval ages to the study of anatomical sciences could be classified into two phases: A.THE PHASE OF TRANSLATIONS (7th to 9th cent. A.D) Before the
year 800 A.D., translations were few and far between. Jibril ibn-Bakhtishu
who lived during the reign of Caliph al-Mansoor (754-774) and his son
Jibril ibn-Bakhtishu translated a number of classical Greek works into
Arabic and Persian. Translators, however, became very active under the
Caliph al-Mamun (813-833) and by the turn of the 9th century, many hundreds
of Greek work were translated into Arabic, Syriac and Persian. Al-Mamun
established a sort of an academy. Bayt ul-Hikma to help and organize these
translations. At this time, while Job of Edessa translated exclusively
into Syriac, Yahya al-Bitriq translated a variety of Greek works including
Anatomy into Arabic language. Hunayn ibn-Ishaq (803-873) was perhaps,
the greatest translator of that century. In this endeavour, he was supported
by his son Ishaq and nephew Hubaysh al-As'am. By the second half of the
9th century, almost all Galen's work had been translated into Arabic and
Hunayn alone had contributed in the translation of no less than 129 of
Galen's work. One of his famous book, Kitab al-Aghdhiya is the translation
of Galen's "De alimentorum facultatibus". At this stage, the
number of translations was so prolific that it gives an impression of
a complete and total transplantation of Greek medicine into Islamic medicine.
From the anatomical point of view, the teachings of Galen on digestion,
blood circulation, his theories on pneuma and humours had its impact on
the Islamic medicine. Galen's chief anatomical work entitled "Peri
anatomikon egkheireseon" consisted originally of fifteen books. While
all these fifteen volumes have been preserved in Arabic, only Vols. I-VII
and a part of the IXth are available in the original Greek language. Galen's
three other anatomical treatises, namely: B. THE PHASE OF ORIGINAL THINKING (10th to 12th century A.D.) At the end of the 9th century, Islamic medicine came under the influence from four sides: the Greeks, the Syrians, the Persians and the Indians. These cross currents of knowledge were completely but not indiscriminately absorbed and integrated into the Arab medicine which then offered in the words does more strongly and sends blood to all parts of the body through one of the big arteries (al-irq al- -abhar) attached to the left ventricle. This description of the heart and circulation is a gift of what al-Majusi wrote almost one thousand years back and broadly speaking, it does not differ much from the text of a modern book of Anatomy or Physiology. 5) In the 13th century A.D., Ibn Nafis (Alladdin Ali ibn-Abi'l-Hazm al-Qureshi) wrote Kitab al-Mujiz and for the first time described the circulation in the lungs, refuting a deep-rooted impression that there is a passage between the two ventricles. I believe, all these findings finally led to the discovery by William Harvey in 1628 that blood circulates in a circle. 6) Galen had described the human lower jaw as consisting of two bones joined in the middle. For many centuries Galen's teachings remained a gospel of truth and it was an Arab doctor, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi who for the first time pointed out this anatomical mistake of Galen because he could not observe any joint even in old bones. 7) Again, al-Majusi wrote in detail about the Anatomy of the Stomach and liver. Hippocrates had described five lobes of the liver and Galen had also mentioned about the five finger-like process of the liver. But al-Majusi described two and in some cases three lobes of the liver which appears to be nearer to truth. To sum up, the physicians and scholars of the Islamic medicine displayed a remarkable knowledge of the anatomical sciences. We have gained much from their writings on all aspects of medicine including anatomy and it is up to us to appreciate or to depreciate, to acknowledge or to abandon their immensely valuable contributions. REFERENCES |