Abū Bakr al-Rāzī, also known as Rhazes (full name: , 864 or 865 – 925 or 935 CE), was a Persian Muslim physician, philosopher, alchemist, and pre-eminent medical writer of the Islamic Golden Age, widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of medicine.; ; . In addition to medicine and philosophy, he wrote on logic, astronomy, and grammar.Majid Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy, Columbia University Press (2004), p. 98.
Al-Rāzī studied medicine in Baghdad, where he spent much of his career, and became a successful physician who served as chief physician of hospitals in Baghdad and Ray..Influence of Islam on World Civilization by Prof. Z. Ahmed, p. 127. He was an early proponent of experimental medicine and made numerous medical advances through observation and discovery. As a teacher he attracted students of differing backgrounds and interests and was reputed to be compassionate and devoted to patients irrespective of whether they were rich or poor.Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā, Fuat Sezgin, Māzin ʻAmāwī, Carl Ehrig-Eggert, and E. Neubauer. Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyāʼ ar-Rāzī (d. 313/925): Texts and Studies. Frankfurt am Main: Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, 1999. Together with Thābit ibn Qurra (836–901), he was among the first physicians to distinguish clinically between smallpox and measles.. He recognized the complexity of the causes of disease and the importance of the patient's own disposition or will in recovery, observing that this influence could be sufficiently strong for even charlatans sometimes to bring about apparent cures, while also acknowledging the limitations of physicians themselves.
A prolific author, al-Rāzī is credited with more than 200 works or manuscripts.Hakeem Abdul Hameed, Exchanges between India and Central Asia in the Field of Medicine. . Among his major medical writings were Kitāb al-Manṣūrī, translated into Latin as Liber Almansoris, Kitāb al-Mulūkī (Liber Regius), and the extensive medical encyclopaedia Ḥāwī (Continens), which was completed by his pupils after his death. The latter was first translated into Latin in 1279 and subsequently became one of the early printed medical books, being printed five times between 1488 and 1542. Through Latin translation, his writings exerted a profound influence on medieval European medicine and medical education. Portions of Al-Manṣūrī, including sections on surgery and general therapeutics, entered the curricula of Western universities. Edward Granville Browne regarded him as "probably the greatest and most original of all the Muslim physicians, and one of the most prolific as an author".. He has additionally been described as the father of pediatrics and as a pioneer in obstetrics and ophthalmology.
In philosophy, al-Rāzī accorded a particularly high status to reason, regarding it as a divine gift through which human beings could attain the benefits available to them in this life and the next. He was also critical of religion, particularly the concepts of prophethood and revelation, and a now lost work on prophecy reportedly maintained that reason occupied a higher rank than prophecy. His religio-philosophical doctrines, including a belief in five "eternal principles", survive only fragmentarily and are known largely through reports by writers who were often hostile to him. Toward the end of his life he became blind and declined treatment, explaining that after so long a life he had already seen enough of the world.
Biography
Al-Razi was born in the city of Ray (modern Rey, also the origin of his name "al-Razi"),. into a family of Persian stock and was a native speaker of the Persian language. Ray was situated on the Great Silk Road that for centuries facilitated trade and cultural exchanges between East and West. It is located on the southern slopes of the Alborz mountain range situated near Tehran, Iran.
In his youth, al-Razi moved to Baghdad where he studied and practiced at the local bimaristan (hospital). Later, he was invited back to Rey by Mansur ibn Ishaq, then the governor of Ray, and became a bimaristan's head. He dedicated two books on medicine to Mansur ibn Ishaq, The Spiritual Physic and Al-Mansūrī on Medicine. Because of his newly acquired popularity as physician, al-Razi was invited to Baghdad where he assumed the responsibilities of a director in a new hospital named after its founder al-Muʿtaḍid (d. 902 CE). Under the reign of Al-Mutadid's son, Al-Muktafi (r. 902–908) al-Razi was commissioned to build a new hospital, which should be the largest of the Abbasid Caliphate. To pick the future hospital's location, al-Razi adopted what is nowadays known as an evidence-based approach suggesting having fresh meat hung in various places throughout the city and to build the hospital where meat took longest to rot.
He spent the last years of his life in his native Rey suffering from glaucoma. His eye affliction started with cataracts and ended in total blindness.Magner, Lois N. A History of Medicine. New York: M. Dekker, 1992, p. 140. The cause of his blindness is uncertain. One account mentioned by Ibn Juljul attributed the cause to a blow to his head by his patron, Mansur ibn Ishaq, for failing to provide proof for his alchemy theories; while Abulfaraj and Casiri claimed that the cause was a diet of beans only.Pococke, E. Historia Compendosia Dynastiarum. Oxford, 1663, p. 291. Allegedly, he was approached by a physician offering an ointment to cure his blindness. Al-Razi then asked him how many layers does the eye contain and when he was unable to receive an answer, he declined the treatment stating "my eyes will not be treated by one who does not know the basics of its anatomy".
The lectures of al-Razi attracted many students. As Ibn al-Nadim relates in Fihrist, al-Razi was considered a shaikh, an honorary title given to one entitled to teach and surrounded by several circles of students. When someone raised a question, it was passed on to students of the 'first circle'; if they did not know the answer, it was passed on to those of the 'second circle', and so on. When all students would fail to answer, al-Razi himself would consider the query. Al-Razi was a generous person by nature, with a considerate attitude towards his patients. He was charitable to the poor, treated them without payment in any form, and wrote for them a treatise Man La Yaḥḍuruhu al-Ṭabīb, or Who Has No Physician to Attend Him, with medical advice.Porter, Roy. The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997, p. 97. One former pupil from Tabaristan came to look after him, but as al-Biruni wrote, al-Razi rewarded him for his intentions and sent him back home, proclaiming that his final days were approaching.Kamiar, Mohammad. Brilliant Biruni: A Life Story of Abu Rayhan Mohammad Ibn Ahmad. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2009. According to Biruni, al-Razi died in Rey in 925 at sixty years of age.Ruska, Julius. Al-Birūni als Quelle für das Leben und die Schriften al-Rāzi's. Bruxelles: Weissenbruch, 1922. Biruni, who considered al-Razi his mentor, among the first penned a short biography of al-Razi including a bibliography of his numerous works.
Ibn al-Nadim recorded an account by al-Razi of a Chinese student who copied down all of Galen's works in Chinese as al-Razi read them to him out loud after the student learned fluent Arabic in 5 months and attended al-Razi's lectures.
After his death, his fame spread beyond the Middle East to Medieval Europe, and lived on. In an undated catalog of the library at Peterborough Abbey, most likely from the 14th century, al-Razi is listed as a part author of ten books on medicine.Gunton, Simon. The History of the Church of Peterborough. London, Richard Chiswell, publisher, 1686. Facsimile edition published by Clay, Tyas, and Watkins in Peterborough and Stamford (1990). Item Fv. on pp. 187–8.
Contributions to medicine
Psychology and psychotherapy Al-Razi was one of the world's first great medical experts. He is considered the father of psychology and psychotherapy.
Smallpox vs. measles
Al-Razi's book "On Smallpox and Measles", is, along with a book of the same name by Thabit ibn Qurra (836–901), among the earliest extant books describing smallpox and measles as distinct diseases. p. 276; on Thabit's work cf. pp. 260–261 (no. 3). Smallpox was not known in ancient Greek medicine. It was likely differentiated from measles and other similar diseases by authors in late antiquity writing in Medieval Greek and Syriac, whose works were known to Thabit and al-Razi., referring to p. 72.
Al-Razi's work was translated into Syriac and then into Greek. It became known in Europe through this translation, as well as Latin translations based on the Greek text, and was later translated into several European languages. Neither the date nor the author of the Syriac and Greek versions is known, but the Greek was created at the request of one of the Byzantine emperors. The anonymous Greek translator of Razi's work used the term () to describe smallpox, since the ancient Greek language had no word that precisely conveyed this meaning.A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Rhazes
Meningitis Al-Razi compared the outcome of patients with meningitis treated with blood-letting with the outcome of those treated without it to see if blood-letting could help.
Pharmacy Al-Razi contributed in many ways to the early practice of pharmacy by compiling texts, in which he introduces the use of "mercurial ointments" and his development of apparatus such as mortars, flasks, spatulas and phials, which were used in pharmacies until the early twentieth century.
Ethics of medicine On a professional level, al-Razi introduced many practical, progressive, medical and psychological ideas. He attacked charlatans and fake doctors who roamed the cities and countryside selling their nostrums and "cures". At the same time, he warned that even highly educated doctors did not have the answers to all medical problems and could not cure all sicknesses or heal every disease, which was humanly speaking impossible. To become more useful in their services and truer to their calling, al-Razi advised practitioners to keep up with advanced knowledge by continually studying medical books and exposing themselves to new information. He made a distinction between curable and incurable diseases. Pertaining to the latter, he commented that in the case of advanced cases of cancer and leprosy the physician should not be blamed when he could not cure them. To add a humorous note, al-Razi felt great pity for physicians who took care for the well-being of princes, nobility, and women, because they did not obey the doctor's orders to restrict their diet or get medical treatment, thus making it most difficult being their physician.
He also wrote the following on medical ethics:
Books and articles on medicine Al-Hawi
This 23-volume medical textbook sets the foundation of gynecology, obstetrics, oncology and chemotherapy, and ophthalmic surgery. It also contains considerations and criticism on Aristotle and Plato and expresses innovative views on many subjects. Because of this book alone, many scholars consider al-Razi the greatest medical doctor of the Middle Ages.
Al-Hawi is not a formal medical encyclopedia but a posthumous compilation of al-Razi's working notebooks, which included knowledge gathered from other books as well as original observations on diseases and therapies based on his own clinical experience. It is significant since it contains a monograph on smallpox, one of the earliest known. It was translated into Latin in 1279 by Faraj ben Salim, a physician of Sicilian-Jewish origin employed by Charles of Anjou, and after which it had a considerable influence in Europe.