Category: Antiquity
-
Edward Granville Browne and Jakob Polak on Persian medicine
Avi OhryTel Aviv, Israel The Cambridge physician-orientalist Edward Granville Browne has described in detail further aspects of Islamic and in particular Persian medicine (9th to the 11th century) in his book Arabian Medicine.1,2 He had studied medicine at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, earned his M.B. degree in 1887, and through his work and lectures was responsible…
-
The ancient Philistines of Ashkelon and Gaza
The Philistines are remembered primarily through biblical narratives and archaeological discoveries. They interacted with neighboring cultures in the early Iron Age (ca. 1200–600 BCE) and are believed to have been part of the broader “Sea Peoples,” likely originating in the Aegean before settling along the Levantine coast. Excavated skeletal remains at these sites reveal a…
-
Theopompus of Chios and public health in antiquity
Theopompus was a Greek historian and rhetorician who lived from c. 380 to 315 BCE. He was not a physician, yet his works offer a window into how the ancient Greeks understood health, disease, and contagion. Born on the Aegean island of Chios in c. 377 BCE, he spent his early youth in Athens with…
-
Book review: Roman Emperors and Their Illnesses
Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, UK Books about illness in political figures are not a new phenomenon. Lord Moran, Winston Churchill’s personal physician, wrote an important work based on his experience. David Owen, a physician and distinguished Foreign Secretary in the British Labour Government under Prime Minister James Callaghan, in 2008 wrote In Sickness and Power, an…
-
Etruscan medicine
The Etruscans were ancient people whose origins are still uncertain. Herodotus believed they had emigrated to Italy from Lydia in Asia Minor, but Dionysius of Halicarnassus, writing in the Augustan era, argued that they were indigenous to Italy, a view supported by modern genetic and archaeological research. This is not to deny the importance of…
-
Pandemic in the palace
Farah JasarevicIstanbul, Turkey In the sixteenth century, Istanbul was defined by constant movement of people, goods, ideas, and, inevitably, disease. Plague swept through its streets in recurring waves, shaping social patterns and medical responses. In this environment, Haseki Hürrem Sultan, wife of Sultan Süleiman the Magnificent, commissioned a new medical complex: the Haseki Sultan Külliyesi.…
-
Princes of Physicians: Avicenna and Maimonides
James MarcumWaco, Texas, United States Islamic and Jewish scholars, such as Al-Kindi (801–873 CE), Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari (c. 838 – c. 870 CE), Al-Razi (865–925 CE), Al-Ghazali (1058–1111 CE), and Ibn-Rushd or Averroes (1126–1198 CE), among others, had a major impact on western Medieval medicine.1 Two of the most prominent scholars, however, are…
-
“Medical Mannerism” (1520–1580)
Mannerism in art is characterized by the work of innovators who tried new approaches to their discipline—such as Pontormo, Rosso Fiorentino, Parmigianino, El Greco, Spranger and Goltzius. Physicians, by contrast, remained rooted in the ancient humoral theory of Hippocrates and Galen, continuing to understand health as a balance between the four bodily humors, making diagnoses…
-
Imhotep: Humanity’s great physician and polymath
Brian O’DeaIllinois, United States Imhotep is regarded as one of history’s first polymaths, a man whose genius transcended disciplines. Few figures in the ancient world stand as tall as Imhotep. As vizier to the pharaoh Djoser of the third dynasty (c. 27th century BC), he envisioned the first major stone monument, the step pyramid at…
-
Hesiod: The creation of the world
Even the most educated members of our generation who have read many of the ancient Greek classics may not be familiar with Hesiod’s works, the Theogony and the Works and Days. Written at about the same time as Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad (around 700 BCE), they reflect the Greek rather than the Hebrew or Mesopotamian…