The Medical Influence of Rhazes
Overview
The Persian physician known as Rhazes (c. 865-c.923), or ar-Rhazi (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya' ar-Razi) is primarily remembered for his encyclopedia of medicine and for his pioneering work on differentiating between smallpox and measles. His great synthesis of Greek and Arabic medical learning was first published under the title Kitab al-hawi, but it is better known in the form of a Latin translation published in 1279 as the Liber continens. The work was considered quite controversial at the time because of the author's willingness to criticize the Greek physician Galen (c. 130-c. 200), generally considered an infallible source of medical knowledge. For almost three centuries, the Liber continens served as the main source of Western therapeutic knowledge. Rhazes' book A Treatise on Smallpox and Measles has become a landmark in the development of the concept of specific disease entities and the value of diagnostic precision.
Background
The Middle Ages of European history roughly correspond to the golden age of Islam, the religion founded by the prophet Muhammad (570-632). Just as Latin served as the common language of learning for students throughout Europe, Arabic was the language of learning throughout the Islamic world and Persians, Jews, and Christians took part in the development of Arabic medical and scientific literature.
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