World of Health on Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar- Razi
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi, also known as Rhazes, was born at Ray (near Tehran) in Persia. The actual years of his birth and death are uncertain. An Arabic physician and scientist, Rhazes is today recognized as one of the original portrayers of disease. Like many medieval scholars, Rhazes mastered a wide range of subjects, including philosophy, music (he wrote an encyclopedia on the subject), poetry, and logic. His interest in medicine apparently did not arise until he was in his thirties, when it is said that he was stimulated by a chance encounter with an apothecary. At various times he taught and practiced in Baghdad, where he also served as director and chief physician in that city's hospital. Very little is known of Rhazes' personal life, but it is believed that he was often persecuted for his open mindedness and beliefs in equality.
Rhazes rejected all forms of dogma as fanaticism, and argued that religious fanaticism breeds hatred and wars. He held that science is a continual and unlimited progression based on the accumulation of past knowledge and the pursuit of the unknown. This idea differed significantly from the Aristotelian view that there exists a point of intellectual perfection.
Rhazes' most celebrated work is a 25-volume Graeco-Arabic compendium of medical and surgical knowledge entitled Al-Hawi. Translated into Latin as Liber continens in 1279 (it was the largest and heaviest of all books published before 1501), this work contained information on many diseases. In this work, Rhazes listed medical theories for each disease entry from Greek, Syrian, Indian, Persian, and Arabic medicine; these theories were followed by then-current ideas and by his own observations and opinions. Following the tradition of Hippocrates, Rhazes supplied case histories, along with pragmatic suggestions for treatment. Rhazes advocated simple remedies, including dietary supplements, and warned against the dangers of complex preparations. He advocated medical receptivity as a means by which all observed phenomena could be given proper consideration.
Rhazes also made one of the first accurate descriptions of (and distinctions between) smallpox and measles. Although smallpox had been described by some of the church fathers in the sixth century, and again by the seventh century chronicler Aaron, Rhazes' description differs from the earlier ones by its greater completeness as well as by its close resemblance to modern descriptions. The ninth book of Al-Hawi remained the main source of therapeutic knowledge until long after the Renaissance.
Rhazes was familiar with a wide range of well defined chemicals, which he probably used in his medical work. Like many physicians of his time, Rhazes was also actively interested in alchemy; his Book of the Secrets contains a great deal of practical advice on chemical manipulations. He believed in the transmutation of metals, and believed that metals were derived primarily from two elements, sulfur and mercury. He attempted to classify all known substances, dividing them basically into animal, mineral, or vegetable categories.
Rhazes' views sometimes got him into political trouble, and he was obliged on more than one occasion to leave his native city. Although medical care was a luxury available mainly for wealthy and noble families during his lifetime, Rhazes treated poor patients at no charge out of compassion and dedication to clinical practice. When he was in his seventies, it is said that Rhazes was beaten and blinded by order of a caliph who objected to his views. Despite his achievements leading to distinction, honors, and acquired wealth, Rhazes is said to have died in poverty, his wealth having been distributed to those less fortunate than himself. Although this physician-philosopher was the author of over 200 treatises (and over half of them about medicine), it was finally his outspoken and antiauthoritarian views on religion, politics, and science that gained him distinction as a leading figure in the history of Islamic thought. He once said that all that is written in books is worth much less than the experience of one wise doctor.
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