transmission of greco- arabic medicine to europe

TRANSMISSION OF GRECOARABIC MEDICINE TO EUROPE
Henry A. Azar, MD PhD
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Rome at its Greatest Extent
98-117 AD
from Burns, Lerner, Meecham Western Civilization
Major Developments in Islam
622
632-661
661-670
750-1258
Beginning of Hegira (lunar) year
Vast Arab conquests in the Near East, central Asia and North Africa
Umayyad caliphate in Damascus; conquest of Spain (711)
Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad
Umayyad dynasty in Cordoba (756-1031)
910-1171 Fatimid caliphate of Cairo
ca. 1000 Rise of Persian and Turkish sultanates
1095
First Crusade declared by Pope Urban II (last Crusade in 1270)
1258
Baghdad sacked by Mongols
1281-1922 Ottoman Turkish rule (Safavids in Persia, Mughals in India)
1453
Constantinople conquered by Ottoman Turks
1492
Granada, last Islamic kingdom in Spain, conquered
by Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon
Early Translations by Nestorians
Nestorians migrated from the Byzantine Empire to Persia. There,
they fostered Syriac and Greek learning in Jundishapur, just before
the Arab invasion. Nestorian scholars later moved to Baghdad.
Dar-al-Hikma (House of Wisdom) created in Baghdad in 830.
Hunayn ibn Ishaq (d. 873) or Johannitius, an Arab Nestorian from
southern Iraq, undertook massive translations of medical and
scientific books from the Greek or Syriac to the Arabic. He also wrote
Masail (or Isagogue), a popular medical manual which was later
translated into Latin and became a part of the Articella—a required
reading in the West. There were also many other Nestorian and Syriac
(Monophysite) translators.
Nearly all books attributed to Hippocrates and Galen were translated
and condensed. Names of pagan gods were replaced with Allah.
Eastern Arabic Medicine
Hunayn ibn Ishaq or Johannitius (d. 873), Nestorian from Hira, Iraq
Masail (Isagogue); On the Eye
Numerous translations of Galen’s books
Al-Razi or Rhazes of Rayy, Persian, d. ca. 925
Kitab al-Hawi (Lat. Continens); vast clinical experience
On Smallpox and Measles
Al-Magusi or Haly Abbas of Ahwaz, Persia, d. 934
K. Kamel al-Sina`a (Lat. Pantegni)
One of the first books (with Isagogue) to be translated into Latin
Ibn Sina or Avicenna of Tashkent, d. 1037
Al-Qanun (Canon), a popular medical text taught in Europe up to the
seventeenth century, also put into a poem
Ibn al-Nafis, born near Damascus, fl. In Cairo, d. 1288. Commentary on Ibn
Sina’s Anatomy; description of lesser circulation
Ibn Sina’s Qanun (Lat. Canon)
Al-Qanun, Ibn Sina’s medical
opus magnum; 5 books:
Book I: On “universals,” a systematic
survey of medical theory, etiology,
hygiene, therapy and surgery
Book II: simple drugs
Book III: diseases arranged from head
to toe
Book IV: some general conditions
Book V: compound drugs
Gerard of Cremona translated the
book into Latin in Toledo; the
Canon became a required
reading up to the 17th century.
Western (Spanish) Arabic Medicine
Al-Zahrawi or Albucasis of Cordoba, d. 1013,
first major physician-surgeon of Muslim Spain (Al-Andalus)
K. al-Tasrif, lat. L. alsaharavi de cirurgia, one of the first books translated
into Latin in Toledo; profusely quoted by European physicians
Ibn Zuhr or Avenzoar of Seville, d. 1162
K. al-Iqtisad (Book of Moderation), an imitation of Galen
K.al-Aghdhia (Book on Aliments), a complete regimen of health
K. al-Taysir (Book of Facilitation), a manual of therapeutics translated
into Hebrew and Latin; a companion book to Averroes’s Colliget
Ibn Rushd or Averroes of Cordoba, d. 1198
K. al-Kulliyyat (On Universals, Lat. Colliget); Commentaries on Aristotle
Ibn Maymun or Maimonides of Cordoba, d. 1204 in Egypt;
Aphorisms, Regimen Sanitatis; Guide to the Perplexed
Arabic to Latin Translations of Medical Texts
Texts on mathematics and anatomy first translated ca. 1050 in
Barcelona and northern Spain with help of Jewish scholars
Monte Cassino Benedictine Monastery: Constantine the African. (d.
1087) translated Johannitius’s Isagogue and Haly Abbas’s Pantegni.
Toledo: translations patronized by Archbishop Raymond and his
successors. Gerard of Cremona (1114-1187); traduction-à-deux with a
Romance pre-Castilian dialect used as a “bridge” language
Montpellier: Arnold of Villanova and nephew Armangaud Blaise
collaborated with Ibn Tibbon family (originally from Granada)
Padua/Venice: John of Capua and Jacob the Hebrew translated Ibn
Zuhr K. al-Taysir and Maimonides’s medical texts
Sicily: Rhazes’s al-Hawi translated by Faraj ben Salim at the request
of Charles d’Anjou
Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar)’s Taysir
Ibn Zuhr’s late work and corpus
magnum
Companion book to Ibn Rushd’s
(Averroes) theoretical K. al-Kulliyyat
Primarily a manual of therapeutics
A vast array of diseases arranged
from head to toe
Important (probable) first-case
reports
Extensive botanical materia medica
Elements of esoteric practices
Reliance on personal experience
and experimentation
Extensive parasitology
Latin Translation of the Taysir (Liber teisir)
An example of traduction-à-deux:
K. al-Taysir translated into Latin
by John of Capua, a master
from Padua, with the help of
Jacob the Hebrew (alias the
Anonymous) in Venice in 1281.
First printed in Venice in 1490
Hebrew translation
Undated, unsigned MS.OR 4719 (Leiden), ex legato illustris viri Josephi Scaligeri (1540-1609);
Note the vast number of terms [ ] borrowed from the Arabic
The Greco-Arabic Medical Legacy
Tradition of non-clerical learning--based on Hippocratic-Galenic
teachings and cumulative Near–Eastern wisdom of the ages
Strong-faith inspired medical ethics:
Hippocratic Oath considered a covenant with God;
Taboos against poisons and abortions (first do no harm; respect for life);
No autopsies; no mutilation of the dead.
Persistence of esoteric or quasi-magical therapy; astro-medicine
Surgery, a “lower manual profession;” women’s diseases treated by
midwives
Arabic contributions to medicine: additions to knowledge of
pathology, parasitology, contagion, materia medica; description of
lesser circulation, anatomy and physiology of the eye, chemical
techniques
In Conclusion
The transmission of Greco-Arabic medicine to Europe took a
circuitous route with Nestorians translating from the Greek or Syriac
to the Arabic. Three centuries later, Jewish scholars collaborated with
new converts to Christianity in translations from the Arabic or Hebrew
to the Latin.
Between the 9th to the 13th centuries, Arabic was the major language
of medicine and science. With the advent of the printing press, Latin
replaced Arabic. By the 18th century, modern European languages
(French, German, Italian, and English) replaced Latin.
Arabic medicine was not simply a passive rendition of Greek
knowledge; however, its achievements are far less impressive than
Arabic contributions to the sciences and technology.
Select Bibliography
Consult Encyclopoedia of Islam and Dictionary of Scientific Bibliography
under specific names
Manfred Ullmann, Islamic Medicine, Islamic Surveys 11 (Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1978).
Lawence I. Conrad, “The Arab-Islamic Medical Tradition,” in L. I.
Conrad et al., The Western Medical Traditions 800 AD to 1800
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995,” pp. 93-138.
David W. Tschanz, The Arab Roots of European Medicine, 1993
www.erols.com/gmqm/euromed1.html
Islamic Medical Manuscripts at the National Library of Medicine, 2000
www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/arabic/getstarted.html
Credits
Edward McNall Burns et al, Western Civilization, 10th edition, vol.1
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1984):
The Roman Empire
The Expansion of Islam
Ralph H. Major, A History of Medicine, vol. 1 (Springfield, IL: Charles
C. Thomas, 1954):
Avicenna’s Canon (Rome, 1593)
Manuscripts:
K. al-Taysir, BN 2960 (Paris) made in Barcelona in 1167
Liber teisir, printed in Venice 1490, held NLM (Bethesda)
Hebrew version of K. al-Taysir, OR 4719 (Leiden), undated