Alhassanain(p) Network for Heritage and Islamic Thought

6. Astronomy

Astronomy can be identified by several Arabic terms, such as ‘ilm al-Nujum or Science of the Stars; ‘ilm al-Hay'ah, or Science of the āure (of the heaven), and ‘ilm al-Falak, or Science of the Celestial Orb. The observation of stars and the movement of heavenly bodies is perhaps as old as civilization. To the pre-Islamic Arabs, the division of the solar year into different periods was known as Anwa' (singular naw'). The multiplicity of terms may suggest that astronomy was variously defined. Until foreign books on the subject were translated in the 2nd/8th century, Arab interest was based on the science of Anwa'.

On the whole, this interest was a constant factor in Islamic culture. It has been claimed with some justification that the number of scientists involved in the study of Arabic astronomy was considerably higher than in any other science. Moreover, more books have been written on this subject than on any other branch of science; the number of private or public observatories was also highly significant. Belletrists, philosophers, physicians, mathematicians, geographers, royal princes and ministers showed an equal interest in astronomical topics. One only has to read the biographies of scientists and philosophers in Ibn al-Qifti's Ta'rikh al-hukama' to understand how true this is. Moreover, modern scholars, including Régis Morelon[97] have recognised the fact that astronomy held a pride of place among medieval Arabs and Muslims of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

Muslims who face the sacred mosque of the Ka‘bah at their daily prayer and who have oriented all mosques towards this most sacred mosque, called for a scientific method of fixing the qiblah according to precise knowledge of mathematical astronomy. In the light of this fact, the following statement is significant: ‘Muslim astronomers from the 9th century onwards also computed tables displaying the qiblah as a function of terrestrial latitude and longitude, some based on approximate formulae and others based on the accurate formula'[98] . Many astronomical tables using geographical coordinates were a feature of astronomical handbooks. Books were written on how to use astrolabes and varieties of quadrants to locate the qiblah. Compass boxes featuring with the qiblah were available from the Mamluk period.

Although an interest in astronomy was an ancient one, it was not until the 8th and 9th centuries CE that any scientific treatise on the subject became known to them. But help was at hand. Shortly after 117AH/735CE, the Zij al-Arkand (an astronomical table of Arkand) was translated. This served as the basis for other astronomical tables (Zijes). Some elements of Arkand were derived from Brahmagupta's Khandakhadyaka of 665 CE, which probably belonged to the Midnight School (Ardharatrika) of Aryabhata. Nearly four decades later, when a traveller from India presented an astronomical treatise to Caliph al-Mansur, it was translated into Arabic at the Caliph's order by Ibrahim al-Fazari. This text became known as Kitab al-Sindhind, a book on Indian Sidhantas relating to astronomy. Some Persian works on astronomy, for instance the Zij-i Shah (Royal Astronomical Tables) of King Yazdijird III (632-52 CE), were translated into Arabic during the latter part of the 8th century. Shortly afterwards, the Zij Shahyaran (Astronomical Table of Anushiravan (written ca 556 CE) was also translated into Arabic. Thus the Indian and Sassanian influence on astronomy preceded that of the Greeks. As a result of the translation of Ptolemy's Almagest (Kitab al-Majisti) into Arabic in the 9th century, the fascination with astronomy became anchored in ancient astronomical science. Such a translation process was completed around 900CE with al-Battani's work Al-Zij al-Sabi'i (Sabaean Astronomical Tables).

These astronomical tables were used by the scholars of the Muslim world to construct tables for their royal patrons in the 9th century. The ancient tools of astronomy, such as the astrolabe (Ar. Usturlab) and sundial, became familiar to the Arabs. One Arabic source claimed that Ibrahim b. Habib al-Fazari (d. 8th century CE), a descendant of the Prophet's Companion Samurah ibn Jundub, was the first Arab to make an astrolabe[99] .

Figure 13: Ibn Rushd in a dialogue with Porphyre in a medieval Latin manuscript Liber de herbis by Monfredo de Monte Imperiali. Italian manuscript from the first half of the 14th century. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, MS Latin 6823, folio 2.

Many astronomers, including Ibrahim al-Fazari, Masha'Allah al-Munajjim al-Yahudi, Habash al-Hasib, Jabir ibn Hayyan, HibatAllah ibn al-Husayn al-Baghdadi, Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi and al-Fath ibn Najabah, were credited with writing books on how to construct an astrolabe, including Kitab al-'Amal bi'l-Asturlab al-Musattah and Kitab Sina'at al-Asturlab wa'l-'Amal biha[100] .

Normally, the Arabs would use the plain spheric astrolabe (asturlab al-musattah), the most versatile instrument of its type at this time in medieval Islamic lands and in the West. There, the spherical astrolabe (al-asturlab al-kuri) was also used.

During the reign of Caliph al-Ma'mun, an astronomer, Yahya ibn Abi Mansur[101] , became celebrated for recording astronomical observations from Shammasiyah in Baghdad and from the top of the Qasiyun mountain near Damascus in the years 215-217 AH/830-832 CE. Observatories were built in various cities, such as Baghdad, Cairo, Maragha, Tabriz, Samarqand, Istanbul and Delhi.

The extent of Muslim advancement in astronomy was measured by the critical response of Ibn al-Haytham (d.1039) to Ptolemy's books the Almagest (Kitab al-Mjjisti) and Planetery Hypothesis in his famous treatise al-Shukuk ‘ala Batlamiyus. His criticism was not limited to Ptolemy's planetary models but extended to other scientific fields, such as the optics[102] . Naturally, Ibn al-Haytham acknowledged Ptolemy's excellence as a scientist and then proceeded to discuss the optical effect of the sun's movement. He noted that the size of the sun varied at different times of the day: it appears larger when on the horizon than it does in the middle of the sky. He also noted Ptolemy's contradictory statements regarding planetary motion and the epicycle of the planets.

According to one analysis, the Greek theories of vision were principally: (i) the object-copy theory, and (ii) the tactile theory. The latter was questioned by al-Razi and Ibn Sina. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) refuted the object-copy theory and concluded that ‘we see by refraction'[103] . This theory was expounded in his treatise Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics), which remained influential (through a Latin translation) in Europe until the late 16th century. According to Gül Russel,“Ibn al-Haytham showed that the object itself is not sensed at all, but that innumerable points of light deflected from the surface of the object to the eye resulted in the sensing of an image which is formed according to optical principles” [104] . In order to prove this theory, Ibn al-Haytham studied the anatomy of the eye and the effect of light on vision. This original theory of vision repudiated the Greek theory of vision. Thus, it was that although Arabic science was initially influenced by Greek theories, in some fields the scientists of Islam subsequently advanced the subject beyond the Greek boundaries.

Among other famous astronomers who made significant contribution to astronomy were al-Biruni and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi.

While visiting Palestine, a 12th century Spanish Jewish traveller, Benjamin of Tudela, recorded the Muslim and Jewish role in astronomy of his time:

“To learn about planetary motions, they [the scholars of the Islamic world] studied Ptolemy's Almagest, which they translated from old Greek into Arabic. The Jews, in turn, translated some works of the Muslim astronomers out of Arabic into Hebrew and Latin and European vernaculars. This was not like the field of pharmacology, where Jews learned by trading in the products; astronomy was a science of ideas, and Jews learned its new ideas by translating.

Figure 14: Page of a Latin edition of the commentary of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) on Aristotle's De Anima, Commentarium magnum Averrois in Aristotelis De Anima libros, translated by Michel Scot around 1230, in Paris, third quarter of the 13th century. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, MS Latin 16151, folio 22).

“The Muslims built magnificent observatories, of which the best contained the most advanced armillary spheres, quadrants, and astrolabes, supplementing a grand variety of sundials and water clocks, alidades, and double-pointed alidades called compasses. The astronomers among the Jews had to have regarded all this with envy. Few Jews could find a place of work in the Muslims' grand observatories, and for financial and religious reasons the Jews had no equivalent observatories, so Jews interested in astronomy had to work along theoretical lines. Yet the Jews' deemed the Muslim astronomers' calendar seriously deficient, for the Islamic year is significantly shorter than the solar year (just like the calendar of the ancient Hebrews).The Muslim calendar consists of twelve months, into which no month is intercalated, so that their year has 354 or 355 days. It takes 103 Muslim years to measure the same duration as 100 of our years[105] .

7. Mathematics

Due to its diverse origins, Arabic/Islamic science had a syncretic character. It has been claimed that Muslims inherited a complex set of mathematical ideas, which had been developed in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, Persia and India. The Greek contribution was mainly in Euclidean geometry; the Persian and Indian influences were detected in trigonometry and in numerals, which came into use from the 2nd century AH/8th century CE; Egyptian ideas related to calendar computation; ancient Babylonia provided the sexagesimal system, which formed the basis of Hisab al-Jummal (i.e. computing with the letters of the alphabet). Writing in his short Encyclopaedia of Sciences (Mafatih al-'Ulum), Abu ‘AbdAllah Muhammad b. Ahmad al-Khwarizmi (ca 977 CE) briefly discussed the mathematics of his epoch, citing the Indian numerals, algebra, trigonometry and alphabetical arithmetic or Hisab al-Jummal (also known as Hisab al-Abjadiyah, the abjad system), in which number values were attributed to the letters of the Arabic alphabet[106] . This method of computing was quoted as follows:

Although this alphabetical arithmetic existed from pre-Islamic to early Islamic times, there were other types of arithmetic used, known as Hisab al-Yad or Finger calculation and Hisab al-‘uqud (arithmetic of knots). The art of finger-reckoning was also identified in Arabic works as ‘the arithmetic of the Rum (i.e.,the Byzantines) and the Arabs'. When and how it came to the Islamic world has yet to be explained fully, but it is likely that before Islam Arab merchants learnt to count using their fingers. The system afterwards seems to have been spread throughout the civilized world[107] . This type of arithmetic was used in government chanceries during the early Caliphates of Madinah and the Umayyad dynasty of Damascus.

Figure 15: Ulugh Beg (1394-1449), astronomer and last great ruler of the Timurids, commemorated on Soviet stamp issued in 1987. Source.

Initially, Islam inspired the Arabs to apply mathematics in order to resolve the Islamic Law of Inheritance (‘ilm al-Fara'id), which subsequently was able to outline the formula for assessing how an estate could be divided among the beneficiaries. This process often involved the application of algebra. Thus an incentive now existed for Muslims to learn mathematics. Assessing the shares, or quotas, of female relatives of the first and second degree required specialised knowledge. Usually, all Muslim jurists (fuqaha') or judges were called upon to administer an estate. Hence it was a practical as well as a legal necessity for Muslims to be familiar with mathematics.

Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi, a Muslim of Central Asian origin, who lived in Baghdad in the early ninth century, wrote the earliest Arabic works on arithmetic. He was associated with Bayt al-Hikmah (the House of Wisdom), a research library in the Abbasid capital. Between 813 and 833 CE, he composed some original treatises on mathematics and it is to him that we owe the origin of the term Algebra, which appears in the title of his Hisab al-Jabr wa'-l-Muqabala and which was later translated by Robert of Chester as Liber Algebras et al-Mucabala. Another translation of this work, Liber De Jebra et Almucabola, rendered by Jerard of Cremona (ca 1114-87CE), helped advance European mathematical thought.

Al-Khwarizmi's book laid the foundation of modern algebra and anotrher of his publications al-Jam' wa'l-Tafriq bi-'l-Hisab al-Hindi (Book of Addition and Subtraction in Indian Mathematics) introduced the Indian place-number system into the 10th-century Andalus (Spain). A certain John of Seville made a Latin translation of this book, as Liber Alchorismi de practica arismetrice, which, according to André Allard, is ‘the most detailed and complete of all the ancient works stemming from the arithmetic of al-Khwarizmi'[107] . Only this translation has survived, the original Arabic text having presumably been lost.

It was probably this same work that was referred to in a 13th-century Latin manuscript as Dixit Algorizmi, which had a chapter on ordinary fractions and another on sexagesimal fractions. Finally, another of al-Khawarizmi's works, as indicated by Ibn al-Qifti, was al-Zij al-Sindhind which comprised al-Zij al-Sindhind al-Awwal and al-Zij al-Sindhind al-Thani, both dealing with astronomical tables. This work was translated into Latin around 1142-46 by Adelard of Bath and influenced the Toledan Tables of Gerard. On the whole, al-Khwarizmi's name was associated not only with Algebra but also with the introduction of the term algorism, or Algorithm, into European science.

Al-Khwarizmi was also credited with writing a book on ‘the Image of the Earth' (Kitab Surat al-Ard) in which the latitude and longitude of towns, cities, mountains, seas and rivers were given, and the earth was shown to be divided into seven climes following the Ptolemaic system. Due to the originality of his work al-Khwarizmi's work was linked with the origins of astronomy and mathematics in Islamic society. Kramers claimed that al-Khwarizmi was the ‘prototype of the Islamic scholar who had a very wide field of interest and at the same time was connected with the traditional Islamic sciences by also being the author of a Ta'rikh or Historical Chronicle'. Secondly, he presented the pre-Islamic sciences in an Islamic literary form. Thirdly, he applied science to the practical legal needs of the Islamic community, such as the question of fixing the qiblah or direction to the Ka‘bah in Makkah. Fourthly, his writings contained several pre-Islamic concepts, such as the earth's position in the universe, and the seven climes[108] (aqalim) and his introduction of Indian numerals, which became a permanent feature of science in Islamic societies for centuries.

Figure 16a-b: Qibla indicator, comprising a round brass box with a hinged lid and an inset magnetic compass at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich and London (Georges Prin Collection). All sides of the box are covered with inscriptions in Arabic, consisting of lists of 151 places with their longitudes and latitudes.

The many successors of al-Khwarizmi included Abu Kamil, who wrote a celebrated book on algebra ca 880 CE. Other mathematicians who followed the Khwarizmian school of algebra were Sind ibn ‘Ali, Sinan b. Fath, Abdul-Hamid Ibn Turk and Abu 'l-Wafa' al-Bujazani. These mathematicians in turn had their disciples who included Abu ‘AbdAllah al-Mahani, al-Khujandi and al-Karaji during the 10th century. Although ‘Umar al-Khayyam is known in Europe through Fitzgerald's translation of his Ruba'iyat poems, he was better known in his lifetime as a metaphysician, astronomer and mathematician. The Algebra of ‘Umar al-Khayyam, according to Nasr, was, on account of his throughness and clarity, one of the most outstanding mathematical texts of the medieval period[109] . As an astronomer, ‘Umar al-Khayyam will be remembered for helping to construct the Jalali calendar, named after the Saljuq Sultan Jalal al-Din Malik Shah (d.485/1092), which was more accurate than the Gregorian calendar.

The Arab belletrist al-Jahiz[110] rightly stated that members of the royal family ought to acquire the knowledge of genealogy, history and jurisprudence, soldiers should know about warfare (al-Maghazi) and should read biographies (siyar), just as traders ought to be familiar with arithmetic and book-keeping. It was the knowledge of geometry that made a profound impact on Islamic art and architecture, especially in the geometric decoration of windows, and domes and the use of mosaic tiles.

8. Alchemy and Chemistry

Alchemy (Ar. al-kimiya'), which was variously associated with ancient art, mythology, gnosticism and religion had its origin in antiquity. Some alchemic texts were written in hieroglyphs on steles and these texts were forbidden to be divulged. Mysterious and controversial as were the etymologies of ‘alchemy', so was its association with Greek philosophers, such as Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, and the Roman physician Galen. The attraction for Arabs was no less strong. The names of Khalid bin Yazid and Jabir ibn Hayyan were closely linked with this pseudo-science. The ancient champions of alchemy believed that it could transform base metals into precious ones and produce an elixir of life, among other things. The Umayyad Prince Khalid was attracted by its mystery and had an ancient Egyptian book on alchemy translated into Arabic with the help of an Egyptian monk, Marianus.

Although Jabir ibn Hayyan (Latin Geber, d. ca 803 CE) was the most famous Arab alchemist, the names of Ja‘far al Sadiq (d. 765), Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri (d.861) and Abu Bakr al-Razi (b.250/864) are also associated with alchemy. It is a short step from alchemy to pure chemistry. Jabir did laboratory work in chemistry and his research has entered the history of science. Al-Razi accepted Jabir's theory regarding sulphur and mercury components of metals and described his chemical apparatus and laboratory research. According to al-Razi, chemical procedures comprised distillation, solution, calcination, evaporation, crystallisation, sublimation and filtration[111] . His laboratory work advanced the science of pharmacy.

Among other alchemists were the Spanish Arab Maslama al-Majriti (d.1007) and al-Jaldaki (d.1341CE). Al-Jaldaki, author of a book on precious stones (Kitab Anwar al-durar fi idah al-hajar) analysed the theory of elixir -its essence, unity, qualities, distillation and purification.

Figure 17: Ottoman astronomers studying the moon and the stars in a miniature dating from the 17th century held in a manuscript owned by Istanbul University Library.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna) repudiated alchemy's value as science, arguing that the transmutation of metals was impossible, though dyes might be transmuted. Ibn Khaldun also scorned alchemy. Jabir too, in his numerous books and epistles[112] on alchemy, though praising the magical things it could produce, claimed that it only produced false gold and was incapable of creating a miracle. Although pretensions of alchemy were seriously challenged, the laboratory methods of the alchemists led to the discovery of new chemical products and some technological procedure useful in everyday life, including perhaps, pharmaceutical products. Alchemic speculation produced intellectual fermentation.

Many Arabic books on alchemy/chemistry were translated into Latin. Julius Ruska acknowledged that: ‘We can never stress enough that the Latin Alchemy of the Latin West owes nothing to the Greeks, to the Arabs it owes more or less everything. For decades we have persisted in studying fragments from the alchemists as if the contents and essence of Latin alchemy could be explained by it... It was not the Greek alchemists but the translations from original Arabic works which paved the way to Western development'[113] .

9. Medicine

Our knowledge of the history of Islamic medicine in the ancient and medieval Middle East is mainly based on biographical sources, such as Ta'rikh al-Hukama (History of the Physicians and Philosophers) by Ibn al-Qifti and ‘Uyun al-Anba' fi Tabaqat al-Atibba' (Sources of Information on the Classes of Physicians) by Ibn abi Usaybi'ah, besides some fragmentary references in literary works.

In pre-Islamic Arabia medicine consisted of herbal and natural remedies. The Prophet Muhammad's statements regarding cleanliness, diet, sickness and cure were collected together in books, which came to be known as Tibb al-Nabawi (or the Prophetic medicine) but little is known about how this medicine was practiced. The Shi‘ite Muslims added to the medical canon with Tibb al-A'immah or medicine of the Imams (Leaders).

There is also some indication of foreign medical influence reaching Arabia from neighbouring lands, such as Persia, where the Arabian physician al-Harith ibn Kaladah al-Thaqafi[114] studied medicine in Jundishapur, the ancient seat of a hospital and medical college. Persian, Indian and Nestorian physicians were said to have practised at the Jundishapur hospital and to have translated various medical books from Indian and Syriac texts into Pahlavi. However, recent research[115] has questioned whether a hospital and medical school ever existed at Jundishapur in Ahwaz. Instead, it is claimed that Jundishapur had only an infirmary, and no medical school. What interests us here, however, is that al-Harith ibn Kaladah al-Thaqafi studied medicine in Jundishapur. Significantly, Ibn Kaladah was a contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad, and though his existence has recently been doubted, he was a real person. It is known that he originated in Ta'if and belonged to the tribe of Thaqif. His link with the Jundishapur centre suggests a Persian influence in the advancement of the early Arabian medicine. Harith was reported to have met the Prophet during the Farewell Pilgrimage, to have cured a sick Sa‘d ibn Abi Waqqas. Harith's conversion to Islam, however, has been questioned. From the little we know of his medical theories, it is possible to conclude that his“main point was the Arab view that excess of diet was the main cause of all disease. He also recommended the simplest possible way of life. Diet should be of the plainest. Water is to be preferred to wine and salt and dried meat to fresh meat. The dietary should include fruit. The hot bath should be taken before meals” [116] .

There is also evidence to suggest that a physician, Ibn Abi Rimthah, used surgery to remove a mole from the Prophet's back[117] . For this, according to al-Qifti, Ibn Abi Rimthah was given the title of ‘Tabibu-Allah' (literally God's physician), whereas al-Harith b. Kaladah was known as the ‘physician of the Arabs' (Tabib al-'Arab), just as al-Kindi was called the philosopher of the Arabs (Faylasuf al- ‘Arab).

Figure 18: Diagram of the eye from Risner's edition of Opticae thesaurus. Alhazeni Arabis libri septem Opticae thesaurus... (Basilea, 1572), the first edition of the Latin translation of Ibn al-Haytham's Kitab al-manazir, the most important and most influential Arabic treatise on physics, that exercised profound influence on Western science in the 16th and 17th centuries. Sarton calls Ibn al-Haytham“the greatest Muslim physicist and one of the greatest students of optics of all times.”

During the Umayyad period (660-750 CE), parts of North Africa, Spain, eastern and northern Persia, and the Indian province of Sind were being conquered. Such conquest started a process of gradual integration of the Arabs with non-Arabs, between Muslims with non-Muslims, and allowed the intrusion of non-Muslim ideas (including Greek, Persian and Indian secular traditions) into the formation of literature and science. It was at Jundishapur that ancient Indian writings on toxicology were translated from Sanskrit into Arabic (e.g. Kitab al-Sumum, according to Hajji Khalifah). Elsewhere, it has been claimed that knowledge of Indian drugs, including poisons, spread from Jundishapur to the Middle East. ‘Ali b. Sahl Rabban al-Tabari (d. ca 240/854-5CE), in the first systematic medical work in Arabic, Firdaws al-Hikmah (The Paradise of Wisdom), expounded upon the Arab knowledge of Indian medicine, and Syriac and Greek medical literature during the 9th century CE. Elsewhere, the belletrist al-Jahiz (d.255/869) also acknowledged the advances made by Indians in the sciences of astronomy, mathematics and medicine and pharmacology[118] . Modern research has also discovered that contact existed between the Arabs and the Chinese, and that Chinese medical herbs were used in West Asia. It has been suggested that the Arab polymath al-Kindi indicated in his pharmacopeia that Arab physicians were already using Chinese herbs during the 9th century CE. A century later, Ibn Sina recorded that seventeen medical herbs imported from China were currently in use and that even the Chinese pulse theory was applied by some physicians. Chinese medical influence reached a peak in Persia and the rest of the Middle East during the era of the Ilkhanids (1256-1335), when Rashid al-Din Fadlullah, the wazir of Ghazan Khan (1295-1304 CE) had some Chinese medical books translated into Persian, including Tansuk-Nama[119] .

Among the earliest notable translations into Arabic during the Umayyad period were the Kunnash (Pandects) of Ahron al-Qass, a Priest of pre-Islamic Alexandria. The translator was a Basran-born Jewish Physician, Masarjis or Masarjawaih[120] who lived, according to Ibn al-Qifti, during the reign of ‘Umar II (d. 101 AH/720 CE) and who was credited with writing medical treatises, including Kitab Qawi al-At'imah (a treatise on food) and Kitab Qawi al-Maqaqir (a book on drugs). A book on the Substitution of Remedies (Kitab fi Abdal al-Adwiyah) was also attributed to Masarjawaih, but modern commentators, such as Max Meyerhof, have rejected the claim. Little is known of Masarjawaih's medical practice, but we know that he prescribed eating raw cucumber on an empty stomach for a patient who complained of constipation.

In Damascus, during the Umayyad era, some events of medical significance included the amputation of a leg infected with gangrene. In this rare case the leg belonged to a celebrated Arab, namely ‘Urwah ibn al-Zubayr, a brother of ‘AbdAllah ibn al-Zubayr ibn al- ‘Awwam. While visiting (ca 85 AH/785 CE) the Umayyad prince al-Walid, he became afflicted with gangrene (al-ikla)[121] in his foot. ‘Urwah lived for another eight years, after the leg was amputated in the presence of al-Walid b. ‘Abd al-Malik, the future Umayyad Caliph (r.86-96/705-15 CE) and died in Madinah in 94 AH/713 CE. This celebrated amputation was also recorded by Abu 'l-Faraj al-Isfahani in his entertaining literature Kitab al-Aghani, and Ibn al-Jawzi in his Dhamm al-Hawa'.

It is clear from our sources that Islamic science and medicine developed rapidly in Baghdad under the early ‘Abbasid Caliphs, especially al-Mansur, Harun al-Rashid and al-Ma'mun. Among the prominent medical personalities of this period were members of the Bukhtishu‘ family who moved from Jundishapur and established a prosperous medical practice in Baghdad. The translation into Arabic by the physician Hunayn ibn Ishaq and his son, Ishaq b. Hunayn, and others, of medical treatises, mainly from Greek, brought Arabic medicine under the Hellenistic medical influence. In particular, the translations of Hunayn made the works of Hippocrates and Galen available and shaped the Arabic medical vocabulary in classical Arabic. Hunayn's original medical treatises include Kitab al-Masa'il fi'l-Tibb (a book on medical problems) and Kitab al-‘Ashar Maqalat fi 'l-‘Ayn (Ten Treatises on the Eye), both of which became standard works during the 9th and 10th century. The first was used by the Hisbah officers (municipal officials) to assess the professional qualifications of physicians. Hunayn also edited the translation of Istafan bin Basil of the Materia Medica of Pedanius Dioscorides (1st century BCE). This was variously titled as Hayula ‘ilaj al-Tibb, Kitab al-Adwiyah al-Mufrada and Kitab al-Hasha'ish, during the 3rd century AH/9th century CE. This translation provoked a number of commentaries and these served as the most valuable works of Arabic pharmacology. Al-Biruni's Kitab al-Saydalah (The Book of Drugs), which records 850 drugs, survives in a modern edition. The most notable Arabic book of this genre is Kitab al-Mughni fi'l-Adwiyat al-Mufradah (a treatise on simple drugs) by the 13th century Andalusian Ibn al-Baytar. This records 1400 drugs of mineral, vegetable and animal origin.

The publication of medical works by Muhammad ibn Zakariyya' al-Razi (Latinised Rhazes) (d. 313 AH/925 CE), Ali b. ‘Abbas al-Majusi, the Andalusian surgeon Abu 'l-Qasim al-Zahrawi, the ophthalmologist ‘Ali ibn ‘Isa, and Abu ‘Ali Ibn Sina, hailed by his contemporaries as the prince of the physicians (Ra'is al-atibba'), marked a high point in Islamic medicine.

Between the 9th and 14th centuries, Islamic medicine and pharmacology advanced to such a point that some medical works which were translated into Latin in Toledo and southern Italy influenced the development of medicine in medieval Europe. The achievements of this Golden Age are worth noting.

Al-Razi, the great medical systematiser of all Muslim medical authorities, derived his surname from his native city Rayy, where he became the chief physician of the hospital, later holding the same position in Baghdad. Al-Razi (d. 313 AH/925 CE), was the greatest clinician and pathologist of his time. His notebooks, which comprised 25 volumes of Kitab al-Hawi fi'l-Tibb (The Comprehensive Book of Medicine), were translated into Latin as the Continens by the Jewish physician Faraj bin Salim or Farraguth in 1279 CE. However, al-Razi's magnu opus, according to some, was not al-Hawi, but Kitab al-Jami' al-Kabir (the Great Medical Compendium). Besides this, a treatise on Smallpox and Measles (Kitab al-Jadari wa'l-Hasbah), which was translated into Latin and other European languages as Liber de Pestilentia, earned him international recognition. Other medical works included Kitab al-Hasa fi 'l-Kula wa-'l-mathana (Stones in the kidney and bladder) and Kitab al-Mansuri (Latin Liber Medicinalis ad al Mansorem), which was dedicated to his patron Mansur ibn Ishaq, the Samanid governor of Rayy. He also wrote a book on psychic therapy, Al-Tibb al-Ruhani (lit. Spiritual Medicine)[122] , in which he provided insights into the theory and practice of clinical and psychiatric medicine. Like Galen, he believed that a physician should also be a philosopher, but his independence was articulated in his Shukuk 'ala Jalinus (Doubts about Galen). His“clinical records did not conform to Galen's description of the course of fever. And in some cases he finds that his clinical experience exceeds Galen's” [123] .

After al-Razi, another influential figure in Islamic medicine was ‘Ali b. ‘Abbas al-Majusi (Latin Haly Abbas) whose famous Complete Book of the Medical Art (Kitab Kamil al-Sina'ah al-Tibbiyah), also known as Kitab al-Maliki (Latin Liber Regius), was written while he was director of the ‘Adhudi Hospital in Baghdad. The work contained important observations on medical theories and diagnoses and was a dominant text throughout the East. A contemporary of Haly Abbas, Abu 'l-Qasim al-Zahrawi (in Latin Abulcasis/Albucasis), who served the Andalusian Caliph Abd al-Rahman III al-Nasir (300-350/912-961) in Cordoba. He wrote Kitab al-Tasrif li-man 'ajiza 'an al-Ta'lif, a medical encyclopaedia, dealing with 325 diseases. The part of this book devoted to surgery described cautery, incisions, bloodletting and bonesetting[124] . All surgical methods together with the tools were illustrated.

In the history of Islamic medicine, Abu Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina (known in the West as Avicenna) was a towering figure. Born at Afshana near Bukhara in 370 AH /980 CE, he died at Hamadhan in 428/1037CE. Like al-Razi, he was a great physician and philosopher and wrote a dozen medical works, although the historian Ibn al-Qifti listed a few more. Among these were A Book of Healing (Kitab al-Shifa'), in 18 volumes, Kitab al-Qanun fi 'l-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine) in 14 volumes, Kitab al-Adwiyah al-Qalbiyah (Medicine of the Heart)), Kitab al-Qawlanj (Book of Colic) and a mnemonic in verse for physicians, al-‘Urjuzah fi 'l-Tibb. Ibn Sina's full bibliography includes 270 titles. However, his magnum opus was Kitab al-Qanun fi 'l-Tibb or The Canon of Medicine, which was, according to Goichon, ‘the clear and ordered“Summa” of all the medical knowledge of Ibn Sina's time, augmented from his own observations”[125] . This Canon (Qanun), through its European translations, became ‘a kind of bible of medieval medicine, replacing to a certain extent the works of al-Razi. It was printed in Rome as early as 1593, shortly after the introduction of Arabic printing in Europe[126] .'

It is tempting to compare the stature of Al-Razi and Ibn Sina as medical authorities of the pre-modern world. It has been aptly noted that Al-Razi made his original contribution in the practice of medicine, whereas Ibn Sina gained prominence in medical theory. Despite their greatness, both were subjected to harsh criticism by al-Ka‘bi and ‘Abd al-Latif Baghdadi respectively. Islamic medicine declined after the death of Ibn Sina, but many commentaries on and epitomes of the Canon (Qanun) were made by successive generations of physicians. Among the commentaries, the most notable was that of Ibn al-Nafis (d. 687/1288), the chief physician in Cairo, who composed Sharh al-Qanun, a commentary on the entire Canon, and Mujiz al-Qanun and an epitome Sharh Tashrih al-Qanun, which he devoted to comment on its anatomical and physiological aspects, It is in the latter that Ibn al-Nafis described his discovery of the lesser or pulmonary circulation of the blood, which made him famous.

Within a century of his death, Ibn Sina's works began to appear in European translations. Between 1170 and 1187, Gerard of Cremona translated the Canon of medicine at the order of Frederick Barbarossa. Even lesser works of Ibn Sina were translated, including the Sufficientia by Gundisalvus, whilst Armengaud translated Canticum de Medicina (Urjuza fi'l-tibb) with Ibn Rushd's commentary on it; and Arnold of Villanova did the same in De Virivus Cordis. Michael Scot, in collaboration with Andrew the Jew, translated some works of Ibn Sina into Latin between 1175 and 1232 CE. The death in 1285 of Farraguth, the translator of Al-Razis' Continens, brought the era of Latin translations to an end. The Universities of Montpellier and Bologna, taught the works of Al-Razi and Ibn Sina in their medical schools.“From the 12th to the 17th century, Rhazes and Avicenna were held superior even to Hippocrates and Galen” [127] . Al-Razi is depicted in the stained glass of the chapel in Princeton University, and in the University of Brussels lectures on Ibn Sina were given until 1909.

Al-Razi's book Diseases in Children may justifiably earn him the title of father of paediatrics. Ibn al-Jazzar (d. 984 CE) of Tunisia also wrote on the care for children from birth to adolescence, though this work was later surpassed by the Cordoban ‘Arib ibn Sa‘id, whose treatise on gynecology, embryology and paediatrics was published in Andalusia.

In the dusty conditions of the Middle East, eye diseases were common and Muslim physicians developed special skills for treating blindness. Although most medical books devoted a separate chapter to eye diseases, monographs were also written on the subject. One early work on ophthalmology was Hunayn ibn Ishaq's ‘Ashar Maqalat fi'l-'Ayn (Ten Treatises on the Eye), which remained a standard for many centuries. However, the most important book was ‘Ali ibn ‘Isa's (d. 400/1010 CE) Dhakhirat al-Kahhalin (Treasury for Ophthalmologists), which was translated into Latin as Tractus de Oculis Jesu Ben Hali.

The transfer of scientific knowledge from Arabic into Latin contributed to the European Renaissance.

10. Hospitals

It is well known that the institution of the hospital is closely linked with the history of medicine and has its origins in antiquity[128] . Although care for the sick began to take place in Middle Eastern temples in the second millennium BCE, Islam resurrected the idea of caring for the sick in the 7th century CE. When the Arabs conquered Egypt, they found a medical school and hospital in Alexandria. On conquering Persia, an infirmary was discovered in Jundishapur, where, according to some, there existed a hospital and medical school. The existence of these medical institutions, however, is open to question. At the beginning of the 8th century, Caliph al-Walid b. ‘Abd al-Malik (r.705-715 CE) reportedly built a maristan or hospital in Damascus, the exact nature of which is not known, though it was probably a sanatorium for lepers and other chronically sick people.

The history of Islamic medicine and hospitals began during the ‘Abbasid Caliphate. The name of Yahya al-Barmaki, Harun al-Rashid's Prime Minister (wazir), was associated with the foundation of the first hospital in Baghdad. Since then, many hospitals have been built in the ‘Abbasid capital, including Bimaristan al-Sa‘idi (Sa‘idi hospital) or Bimaristan al-Mu‘tadidi (ca 279/892) on the east bank of Tigris, for which Caliph al-Mu‘tadhid (d. 289AH/902) allotted 450 dinars per month. It was the only hospital in Baghdad at the time; another hospital, the Bimaristan al-Sayyidah, was built by the Queen Mother, Shaghab, in 306/918 CE in al-Mukharram (306/918); its expenses perhaps did not exceed more than 600 dinars a month. Another hospital, built in the same year by Caliph al- Muqtadir bi-Allah (d. 320/932), was known as Bimaristan al-Muqtadiri at the Syrian Gate of Baghdad. Caliph al-Muqtadir's“good wazir” ‘Ali ibn ‘Isa also built a hospital at his own expense. In 329/940, the Amir al-umara' Bajkam built a hospital at the Basrah gate in Baghdad, and the chief adviser to this hospital was the physician Sinan b. Thabit ibn Qurrah. The hospital of Ibn al-Furat was built (ca 313/925). In 372/982, west Baghdad's celebrated Adhudi hospital, linked to a medical school with twenty four staff physicians, was built by the Amir Adhud al-Dawlah. Waqf property was allocated to its maintenance. In fact, all these hospitals were supported by charitable endowments (waqf, pl. awqaf). In Damascus, the Nuri hospital was the most famous; in the capitals of Egypt, Fustat and Cairo, hospitals were built by Ibn Tulun in the 870s; Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi founded the Nasiri hospital and the Sultan Qala'un established Bimaristan al-Mansuri (ca 1284).

Salah al-Din was a particularly important founder of hospitals in Egypt and Syria. He built one each in Cairo, Alexandria, Jerusalem and Damascus. Sultan Salah al-Din's 21 court physicians included eight Muslims, eight Jews -including Cordoba-born Maimonides (Musa b. Maymun) who produced Aphorisms (Kitab al-Fusul)-, Ibn Jumay‘, and at least five Christians and a Sabian. Hospitals offered free treatment to all and physicians were recruited from both the Muslim and non-Muslim community (ahl al-Dhimmah/Dhimmis). Arab hospitals were built elsewhere, including Marrakesh in 1199 CE and in Granada in 1397 CE. Andalusian-born Ibn Rushd (Averroes), author of the Kulliyat (Latin Colliget) and Ibn Tufayl worked at Marrakesh. These prototype hospitals[129] , which some Muslims regarded as a glory of their civilization, shaped the development of hospitals in Europe and Africa.