Category: Antiquity
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Scribonius Largus
Felipe Fernandez del CastilloMassachusetts, United States We don’t know much about Scribonius Largus. The first century Roman physician has been overshadowed by more famous medical authors like Celsus, Pliny, and Galen. Dismissed by one scholar as “second rate”,1 Scribonius has lurked for centuries in the footnotes of history textbooks and journal articles, and the bulk…
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Claudius: The Caesar never meant to be emperor
Abigail Cline ApplerAugusta, Georgia, United States Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (10 BC – AD 54) was Roman emperor from AD 41 to 54. During his reign, he completed the Roman conquest of Britain, expanded construction projects across the Empire, and quelled numerous coups, one of which involved his own wife. Though considered the most…
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Ibn Sīnā cures a prince who thinks he is a cow
Alan WeberDoha, Qatar Sifting through literature we recover strange grains of medical truth. The twelfth century poet Nizámí-i-‘Arúdí relates the following story about the celebrated physician Ibn Sīnā or Avicenna (AD 980–1037): One of the princes of the House of Búya was attacked by melancholy, and was in such wise affected by the disease that…
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Medical education in medieval Islam
Sara AliGainsville, Florida, United States The period between the 5th to the 15th century, known in Europe as the Dark Ages, was characterized in the Middle East and the Arab world by the rise of great civilizations. It was built by people of differing religions and ethnicities, Muslims and non-Muslims, working under the umbrella of…
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Interviewing, Gibran, calligraphy
Saleh AldasouqiEast Lansing, Michigan, United States One of the most enjoyable parts of my academic job is teaching. Interacting with medical students, residents, and fellows is a wonderful environment to practice medicine; and one particular fun part in teaching is interviewing for new training positions, residency, and fellowship. Interviewing gives one a unique opportunity to…
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Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi
Ramin SamSan Francisco, California, United States While Europe languished in the Middle Ages, the Islamic world sustained and contributed to the scientific and mathematic knowledge accumulated by the Greeks. One of the most influential of these scientists was Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, otherwise known as Rasis or Rhazes. Born in Rey (near present-day Teheran) in 865,…
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Avicenna, the prince of physicians
Shireen RafeeqIslamabad, Pakistan When Husain Ibn Sina said in his memoirs that he understood all the sciences “as far as is humanly possible,” he was not exaggerating.1 Known to the West as Avicenna, he was one of the most extraordinary men ever to grace this earth. Sir William Osler called him “the prototype of the…
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Philosophy of science and medicine series – VI: Islamic science
Philip LiebsonChicago, Illinois, United States The new science of the twelfth century was Arab in form but founded by the ancient Greeks. The Arabs preserved and transmitted a large body of Greek learning, and what content they added was perhaps less important than their change to the concept of why science ought to be studied.…
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Rhinoplasty and the roosari from ancient Persia to modern day Iran
Ryan CohenBoston, Massachusetts, United States “Roosari” is the Farsi term used for a head-covering. The famed Iranian veil is the most conspicuous feature of a modern Iranian woman’s ensemble. Yet, wearing the roosari was not always the norm. Only one generation ago, the country had banned this staple of Iranian wardrobe in the name of…