In Islam, sickness is conceived as a pure actuality of life, a transitory state that may result in therapeutic or loss of life. Islamic medical treatises take care of the illness, its traits and varied remedies, each healing and palliative.
Relating to the causes of the illness, the ideas inherited from Galenic medication predominate, which interprets human well being as a fragile stability of the 4 humors of the physique.
Recreation of life in al-Andalus. Dionisio Baixeras / Wikimedia
Past mere affect, the Quran additionally establishes particular guidelines and pointers on points associated to well being and hygiene.. These guidelines have a big weight within the lifetime of the Muslim group and canopy points as numerous as:
- Abortion and infanticide: prohibited by the Koran, they’re thought-about acts that threaten human life
- Circumcision: Practiced as a non secular and cultural ceremony, it additionally has hygienic advantages
- Lactation: The Quran recommends breastfeeding for 2 years as one of the best ways to feed the newborn
- Feeding: Pointers are established on permitted and prohibited meals, with particular emphasis on a wholesome and balanced food regimen
- Quick: In the course of the month of Ramadan it has each non secular and bodily advantages.
A melting pot of information
Andalusian medication reached a excessive degree of growth because of a number of components, together with the enlargement of Islamic rule., which facilitated contact with the medical information of different cultures, similar to Greek, Persian and Hindu. As well as, essential medical works from Antiquity had been translated into Arabic, permitting their research and dissemination.
Koran in a mosque. kursadgenc / iStock
The creation of educating facilities additionally performed a elementary position, on this manner essential medical faculties (madrassas) emerged in cities similar to Córdoba and Granada, the place extremely prestigious docs had been educated.
In al-Andalus this evolution is already noticed within the ninth century when Ibn Habib wrote the primary compendium of medication in Hispanic lands, a piece that synthesizes the ideas of Greco-Hellenistic medication and contains some elements of well-liked medication or “medication of the Prophet.”
The Madrasah of Granada (within the picture, element of its baroque façade) was the primary public college in al-Andalus. Picture: Shutterstock
Examine journeys to finish coaching
The coaching of docs certifies the excellence that medication had within the Hispano-Arab civilization since earlier than mastering their science they needed to develop different information as essential as that.
Moreover, they needed to resort to no matter means had been inside their attain to finish their research, so those that might afford it traveled to the East. However, beginning within the tenth century, there have been a number of steps that aspiring docs needed to undergo to realize their title (ichaza): hospital practices, a spherical of questions and solutions about ailments, a basic examination and others on sure specialties.
On this manner, authorized authorization was given to medical observe after taking the Hippocratic oath. All this needed to be performed earlier than a fee of Muhtasib, a sort of officers who regulated commerce.
A contemporary hospital mannequin
The primary hospital in Muslim Spain was based within the 14th century within the kingdom of Granada., a milestone that marked a earlier than and after in medical care within the area. The hospital’s founding inscription, dated between 1365 and 1367, proudly proclaims {that a} related establishment had not existed in al-Andalus till that point.
The introduction of the hospital mannequin in Muslim Spain is attributed to the Almohads, who introduced it from the Muslim West.. The Nasrid sultan Muhammad V, on a visit to Fez, realized about this progressive establishment and determined to implement it in his kingdom.
The Granada hospital was initially conceived as a charitable establishment to take care of probably the most deprived. Its architectural construction was impressed by the Maghreb Maristans, with rooms divided by intercourse, a big patio, working water, warehouses, places of work and areas for the research of docs and apprentices.
All through the fifteenth century it expanded its scope to incorporate take care of the mentally sick. This evolution displays concern for the general well-being of the inhabitants, not simply their bodily well being. It not solely offered medical care to hundreds of individuals for hundreds of years, but in addition served as a mannequin for the creation of different hospitals within the area.
Surgical procedure and medication are built-in
Though medication and surgical procedure share an historical origin, the latter was born with a big drawback. The magical and sacred nature attributed to medication in its beginnings, by linking sickness to supernatural causes, conferred a better social standing on its practitioners in comparison with surgeons, whose guide work was related to the earthly. Rituals to invoke divine favor in curing sicknesses had an aura of dignity that contrasted with the extra prosaic and direct observe of surgical procedure.
An influence battle broke out between Muslims, as Christian kingdoms pushed in from the north. Picture: Wikipedia
In Roman society, the division between two sorts of medical professionals was consolidated: the “medici clinici”, devoted to medical prognosis and remedy, and the “medici chirurgici”, specialised in surgical intervention.
The Cordoban physician Abulcasis (tenth century), conscious of the therapeutic energy of surgical procedure, advocated for its full integration into medication in his work “Tasrif”. He thought-about surgical procedure an integral a part of it that ought to be realized and practiced with the identical rigor as the remainder of medication.
However Abulcasis not solely defended the combination of surgical procedure, but in addition contributed considerably to its growth: he launched new surgical methods and created new surgical devices.
References:
- AGUIRRE DE CÁRCER, Luisa F.: “On the observe of medication in al-Andalus: a fatwa by Ibn Sahl”, in Arabic Research Shelf 2 (1991), Madrid, Complutense College, pp. 147-162
- ÁLVAREZ DE MORALES, Camilo and GIRÓN IRUESTE, Fernando: “Maristanes and hospitals”, in Catalog of the Ibn Jaldún Exhibition. The Mediterranean within the 14th century: Rise and decline of Empires, pp. 276-285.
- CHALMETA, Pedro: The lord of the souk in Spain. Madrid, Hispano-Arab Institute of Tradition, 1973
- DÍAZ GARCÍA, Amador: “A Nasrid treatise on meals”, in Medieval research notebooks VI-VII (1978-79), Granada, College, 1981, pp. 5-37
