Tag: Antiquity Middle Ages & Islam
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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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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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Abulcasis, the pharmacist surgeon
Fadlurrahman ManafSurabaya, Indonesia Abu Al-Qasim Khalaf Ibn Al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi (AD 936–1013 AD), also known in the West as Abulcasis, was one of the most renowned surgeons of the Muslim era.1 Born in Zahra, six miles northwest of Cordova, he studied there, taught, and also practiced medicine and surgery.2 In addition to his knowledge of medicine…