MOHAMMEDAN MEDICINE.
Sources of Arabian Learning.—Influence of Greek and Hindu
Literature.—The Nestorians.—Baghdad and its Colleges.—The Moors
in Spain.—The Mosque Schools.—Arabian Inventions and Services to
Literature.—The great Arab Physicians.—Serapion, Rhazes, Ali Abbas,
Avicenna, Albucasis, and Averroes.
At the time of the incursions of the barbarians of the North, when
Spain, the South of France, Italy, and North Africa, with their
adjacent islands, were ravaged by these hordes, multitudes of those
who could escape so far found a refuge in the East; and there is good
reason for supposing that by such means a vast store of the accumulated
knowledge of civilized Europe found its way to Eastern lands. Science
in its turn has come back to us through the Saracens, who afterwards
invaded Southern Europe.[678]
It is not correct to speak of the Arabians or the Saracens as the
source of the culture which is known as Arabian and Saracenic. The
magnificent civilization of the Greek world fell to pieces like a noble
but ruined temple, and its precious relics went to form a score of
other civilizations which ultimately arose from its ruins. It was not
the Semitic peoples of Arabia which restored the philosophy and science
of the decayed Græco-Roman world, it was the Persians, the Greeks of
Asia Minor, the people of Alexandria, and the cultured Eastern nations,
generally, which having been subdued by the Arabs, at once began to
impart to their conquerors the culture which they lacked. The ignorant
followers of the Prophet who burned the Alexandrian Library knew not
what they did; the time was to come when Greek culture was to reach
them partly from the city whose literary treasures they had destroyed,
and partly through Syrian and Persian influences. By these roads came
the medical sciences to the Saracens. The second library of Alexandria,
consisting of 700,000 volumes, was destroyed by them, A.D. 642; but
we must conclude that many medical and other scientific works were
preserved, as the Jews and the Nestorians (banished from Constantinople
to Asia) first made the Arabians acquainted with Greek authors by
translating them into Syriac, whence they were in turn translated into
Arabic. Justinian I. (A.D. 529) banished the Platonists of Athens, when
Chosröes I., surnamed Nushirwan, or “the generous mind,” one of the
greatest monarchs of Persia, hospitably received them at his court.
He caused the best Greek, Latin, and Indian works to be translated
into Persian, and valued Græco-Roman medical science so highly that he
offered a suspension of hostilities for the single physician Tribunus.
The East in a great measure owed its acquaintance with the rich
treasures of Greek literature to the heresy of Nestorius. Nestorius
was a Syrian by birth, and became bishop of Constantinople. Having
denied that the Virgin Mary ought to be called “Mother of God,” he was
summoned to appear before the Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431), and was
deposed. Nestorian communities were formed, and the heretical opinions
rapidly spread, patronized as they were for political purposes by the
Persian kings. The Mahometan conquests in the seventh century, by
overthrowing the supremacy of orthodoxy, afforded great encouragement
to the Nestorians, as by denying that Mary was the mother of God, as
the Catholics maintained, the Nestorians in calling her the mother
of Christ more nearly approached the Mahometan conception of a pure
monotheism. Barsumas, or Barsaumas, bishop of Nisibis (435-485 A.D.),
was one of the most eminent leaders of the new heresy. He succeeded
in gaining many adherents in Persia. Maanes, bishop of Ardaschiv, was
his principal coadjutor; he was the means of propagating the Nestorian
doctrines in Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, and even China.
THE CALIPHS.
In the time of Mohammed himself (569-609), the Arabians had physicians
who had been educated in the Greek schools of medicine living amongst
them. Pococke mentions a Greek physician named Theodunus, who was in
the service of Hajáj Ibn Yúsuf in the seventh century. He wrote a sort
of medical compendium for the use of his son. Hajáj seems also to
have employed another Greek doctor named Theodocus, who had numerous
pupils.[679]
The House of Ommiyah encouraged the cultivation of the sciences. The
Caliph Moawiyah, who resided at Damascus, founded schools, libraries,
and observatories there, and invited the learned of all nations,
especially Greeks, to settle there, and teach his people their arts and
sciences.[680]
In the seventh century, Alexandria under the rule of Islam was in
possession of many medical schools in which the principles of Galen
were taught.[681]
Alkinani, an Arabian Christian, who afterwards was converted to
Islamism, was chiefly instrumental in introducing medical teaching into
Antioch and Harran from Alexandria.[682]
The Caliph Almansor had studied astronomy. Almamon, the seventh of
the Abbassides, collected from Armenia, Syria, and Egypt all the
volumes of Grecian science he could obtain; they were translated into
Arabic, and his subjects were earnestly exhorted to study them. “He
was not ignorant,” says Abulpharagius, “that they are the elect of
God, His best and most useful servants, whose lives are devoted to
the improvement of their rational faculties.” Succeeding princes of
the line of Abbas, and their rivals the Fatimites of Africa and the
Ommiades of Spain, says Gibbon, were the patrons of the learned, “and
their emulation diffused the taste and the rewards of science from
Samarcand and Bochara to Fez and Cordova.”[683]
It was Almamon who caused the works of the fathers of Indian medical
science to be translated first into Persian and then into Arabic; thus
it was that the Saracens became familiar with the medical wisdom of
Susruta and Charaka in the eighth century of our era.[684]
Charaka is frequently mentioned in the Latin translations of Avicenna
(Ibn Sina), Rhazes (Al Rasi), and Serapion (Ibn Serabi).[685]
Chaldee works at this time were also translated into Persian. In
the first centuries of the Hijra the Caliphs of Baghdad caused a
considerable number of works upon Hindu medicine to be translated into
Persian.[686] At the time of Mohammed there existed a famous school of
medicine at Senaa in Southern Arabia, the principal of which, Harit Ben
Kaldah, had learned his profession in India.[687]
When the son of Mesuach, a young Nestorian Christian, first entered
Baghdad, it is said[688] that he appeared to have discovered a new
world. He applied himself to the study of medicine, philosophy, and
astronomy. He became a “treasure of learning,” and was chosen to
attend Prince Almamon, the son of Haroun-al-Raschid, who, when he
became Caliph in 813, invited learned men of all religions and of all
nations to his court, collected from them the names of all the great
authors and the titles of their books which had been published in
Greek, Syriac, and Persian, and then sent to all parts of the world to
purchase them.
The Arabs studied Aristotle; and when Western Europe had long been
sunk in intellectual darkness and had forgotten him, the Saracens
taught him to the Christians of the West. “He was read at Samarcand
and at Lisbon,” says Freeman, “when no one knew his name at Oxford or
Edinburgh.”[689] In his own tongue at Constantinople and Thessalonica
he had never been forgotten. Such learning and science as the Saracens
did not receive from India, such as the Arabic numerals, came to them
from the West. They developed and improved much, but they probably
invented nothing. Freeman says[690] that after careful investigation
he observed three things: first, that whatever the Arabs learned was
from translations of Greek works; secondly, that they made use of only
an infinitesimal portion of Greek literature; thirdly, that many of
their most famous literary men were not Mahometans at all, but Jews or
Christians.[691] Greek poetry, history, and philosophy had little charm
for them. Gibbon says there is no record of an Arabian translation of
any Greek poet, orator, or historian.[692]
Learned Nestorians, Jacobites, and Jews in Persia and Syria occupied
themselves with translations from Greek authors, and contributed
greatly to the extension of Western culture in Eastern lands.[693] To
the world at large Mahomet was but an impostor; to the Arab of the
seventh century he was a true prophet and the greatest of benefactors.
When the Persian king reproached the Arabs with their poverty and their
savage condition, the reply of the Saracen envoy contains a grand
summary of the immediate results of Mahomet’s teaching.[694]
“Whatever thou hast said,” replied Sheikh Maghareh, “respecting the
former condition of the Arabs is true. Their food was green lizards;
they buried their infant daughters alive; nay, some of them feasted on
dead carcases and drank blood; while others slew their relations, and
thought themselves great and valiant, when by such an act they became
possessed of more property; they were clothed with hair garments; knew
not good from evil; and made no distinction between that which is
lawful and that which is unlawful. Such was our state. But God, in His
mercy, has sent us by a holy prophet a sacred volume, which teaches us
the true faith.”[695]
GEORGE BACKTISCHWAH, or BOCHT JESU, was a Greek physician, a descendant
of the persecuted Christians of the Greek empire, who embracing the
heresy of Nestorius had been compelled to fly for safety and peace
to the Persians. Al-Manzor (754-775) invited Backtischwah to his
court, and this physician was the first to present to the Arabians
translations of the medical works of the Greeks. The Nestorians had
founded a school of medicine in the province of Gondisapor, which was
already famous in the seventh century. From this school issued a crowd
of learned Nestorians and Jews, famous for their knowledge of medicine
and surgery, but still more for their ability to endow the East with
all the treasures of Greek literature.[696]
BAGHDAD.
The city of Baghdad was built by the Caliph Almansor, in A.D. 763, on
the ruins of a very ancient city; it soon became the most splendid
city in the East. Almansor had personally cultivated science, and
was a lover of letters and of learned men. He offered rewards for
translations of Greek authors on philosophy, astronomy, mathematics,
and medicine.
A college was established by the Caliph which ultimately became famous.
Public hospitals and a medical school were also established by the same
enlightened ruler. Meryon says[697] that there is reason to suppose
that in the laboratories established at Baghdad for the preparation of
medicines the science of chemistry may have first originated.[698]
The son of Mesuach presided over the translations of the works of Galen
and all the treatises of Aristotle into Arabic; but when they had
extracted the science from Greek literature, they consigned all the
rest of it to the flames, as dangerous to the Moslem faith.[699]
Many Christian physicians were employed at Baghdad.
The vizier of a Sultan gave two hundred thousand pieces of gold to
found a college at Baghdad, which he endowed with an annual revenue of
fifteen thousand dinars.[700] Under the reign of Haroun-al-Raschid and
his successors this school flourished vigorously, and many translations
of Greek medical works were made therein.
The Arabians have greatly distinguished themselves in the science of
medicine. In the city of Baghdad eight hundred and sixty physicians,
says Gibbon, were licensed to practise. The names of Mesua and Geber,
of Rhazis and Avicenna are not less famous than are those of the
greatest names amongst the Greeks themselves. The independent medical
literature of the Saracens arose in the ninth century, and gradually
developed till it reached the zenith of its glory in the eleventh.
The mosques were then the universities, and besides that of Baghdad,
Bassora, Cufa, Samarcand, Ispahan, Damascus, Bokhara, Firuzabad, and
Khurdistan, not omitting the schools of the Fatimites in Alexandria,
were centres of Eastern science and art, and the equally famous
universities of Cordova, Seville, Toledo, Almeria, Murcia, Granada,
and Valencia, sustained in Europe the dignity of the Arabian learning.
When the conquest of Africa was complete, Spain was invaded, and about
the year 713 was reduced to a Moslem province. Cordova became not less
distinguished for learning than Baghdad, and many writers were given
to the world from the adjacent towns of Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia.
Gibbon says that above seventy public libraries were opened in the
cities of Andalusia.
In the words of Professor Nicholl, “The Semitic race is essentially
unscientific, and adverse to the presentation of philosophical or moral
truth in a scientific form. The Indo-European genius, on the contrary,
tends irresistibly towards intellectual system, or science.” This will
at once be perceived when we examine the Vedas, the works of any Greek
author, or those of Teutonic speculative writers, and then turn to
any Semitic books. We instantly perceive that in the latter we have
nothing but belief or intuition, with more or less of the doctrine
of Revelation or Inspiration. In the works of Aryan origin, on the
contrary, we are at the opposite pole; we have speculation, inquiry,
an insatiable desire to solve the mystery of things—the analytical
spirit which asks a reason for every phenomenon in the universe. In the
Semitic races this resolves itself into either a living faith and a
pure life corresponding thereto, or into a reckless fanaticism founded
on fatalism. In the Aryan races we have the most daring intellectual
activity, or the driest dogmatism.[701]
It was in Spain that the Semitic and Aryan intellects met and happily
blended. Spain remembered the advantages of Roman influences long
after they were withdrawn. The Goths, who spread themselves over the
Peninsula, preserved the remains of the civilization which the Romans
had left; and the Jews, afterwards to be treated with such cruel and
base ingratitude by the nation which they had so greatly benefited,
advanced the cause of education by their numerous schools and learned
writers.[702]
On this stage, then, we find the Semitic and the Indo-Germanic races
transferring to each other the characteristics with which they were
most happily endowed by nature.
The mosque schools of the Arabians were conducted on the model of
the Alexandrian schools. The old Egyptian and Jewish colleges were to
some extent the prototypes of these, and some writers think that our
own universities were suggested by those of the Saracens. How great
and famous some of these must have been, may be learned from the fact
that, as we have stated, no less than six thousand professors and
students were collected together at Baghdad at one time. There were
lecture rooms, laboratories, hospitals, and residences for teachers and
students, besides the great halls which must have been required for the
vast libraries which the Caliphs collected. It was in Spain perhaps
that Saracenic learning shone most brilliantly. In the early part of
the eighth century was founded the noble university of Cordova, the
city which, under Arabian rule, was called the “Centre of Religion,
the Mother of Philosophers, the Light of Andalusia.” It contained 300
mosques, 200,000 houses, and 1,000,000 inhabitants, besides forty
hospitals.[703]
Abou-Ryan-el-Byrouny (died 941) travelled forty years studying
mineralogy, and his treatise on precious stones, says Sismondi,[704]
is a rich collection of facts. Aben-al-Beïthar of Malaga travelled
over all the mountains and plains of Europe in search of plants, and
rendered most important services to botany. He wandered over the sands
of Africa and the remotest countries of Asia, examining and collecting
animals, fossils, and vegetables, and published his observations in
three volumes, which contained more science than any naturalist had
previously recorded.[705]
In one sense the Arabians were the inventors of chemistry, and never
was the science applied to the arts of life more beneficially than by
the Saracens in Spain.
Mahomet was skilled in the knowledge of medicine, and certain of his
aphorisms are extant concerning the healing art. Gibbon says[706]
that the temperance and exercise his followers preached, deprived
the doctors of the greater part of their practice. The only medicine
recommended by the Koran is honey (see Surah xvi. 71). “From its (the
bee’s) belly cometh forth a fluid of varying hues, which yieldeth
medicine to man.” There is evidence of a belief in magic in the Koran
as a charm against evil, and of incantations capable of producing
ill consequences to those against whom they were directed. The 113th
chapter of the Koran was written when Mohammed believed that, by the
witchcraft of wicked persons, he had been afflicted with rheumatism.
Mohammedan peoples use as amulets to avert evil from themselves or
possessions, a small Koran encased in silk or leather, or some of the
names of God, or of the prophets or saints, or the Mohammedan creed
engraven on stone or silver.
Da’wah, or the system of incantation used by Mohammedans, is employed
to cause the cure, or the sickness and death of a person. The
Mohammedans have an elaborate system of exorcism, which is fully
explained by Mr. Thomas Patrick Hughes.[707]
Uroscopy, or the art of judging diseases by inspection of the urine,
was a great feature of Arabian as of Greek medical practice. It
was, however, with the former usually conducted with jugglery and
charlatanism, and there was seldom anything scientific about it.
As the religion of the Moslems forbade dissection, the sciences of
anatomy and physiology and the art of surgery remained as they were
borrowed from the Greek writers.
The Arabian faculty always stipulated for their fees beforehand; they
disapproved of gratuitous treatment, because, as they declared, “no one
gets even thanks for it!”
There must have been female doctors, who, in the East, had abundant
opportunities for practice, as men were not permitted by the customs of
the times to examine women. These female obstetricians performed the
gravest operations, such as embryotomy and lithotomy.[708]
Hospitals were established at Damascus for lepers, the poor, the blind,
and the sick, under the rule of the Caliph Walid.
Paper is an Arabic invention. True, it has been made from silk from
the remotest ages in China, but by the Arabs it was first made at
Samarcand, A.D. 649; and cotton paper, such as we use now, was made
at Mecca, A.D. 706. The art was soon afterwards introduced by the
Arabs into Spain, where it was brought to the highest perfection.[709]
Gunpowder was known to the Arabs a hundred years before Europeans
mention it.[710] The compass was used by them nearly two centuries
before the Italians and French used it. The number of Arabic inventions
which we unsuspectingly enjoy, without being aware of their origin,
is prodigious. Could we bring to light the literary treasures of the
Escurial, we should know something of the industrious host of Arabians
who have done so much for the learning of the Western world, and whose
names and deeds have received from us no recognition. Their historical,
geographical, and scientific dictionaries and histories would alone
entitle them to the gratitude of an age which would know how to
appreciate them.
Sismondi says that “Medicine and philosophy had even a greater number
of historians than the other sciences; and all these different works
were embodied in the historical dictionary of sciences compiled by
Mohammed-Aba-Abdallah, of Granada.”
THE GREAT ARABIAN PHYSICIANS.
HONAIN, a Christian physician, flourished at Baghdad in the middle of
the ninth century. He travelled in Greece that he might perfect himself
in the language, and he read the works of all the great writers of
that country. On his return to Baghdad he was invited by the Caliph
to undertake the translation of the Greek authors. His best known
translation is _The Aphorisms of Hippocrates with the Commentaries of
Galen_. He wrote on midwifery, and was a good oculist.
SERAPION THE ELDER (of Damascus), who flourished in the ninth century,
was a Syrian physician, of whom little or nothing is known except that
he wrote two works, one of which is in the Bodleian in MS., entitled
_Aphorismi magni momenti de Medicina Practica_. The other is entitled
_Kunnásh_, and has been translated into Latin.
The classical period of Arabian medicine begins with—
RHAZES, “the Arabic Galen,” whose real name was _Abú Becr Mohammed Ibn
Zacaríyá Ar-Razi_, was born at Rai, near Chorásán, probably about the
middle of the ninth century after Christ. His famous work, _On the
Small Pox and Measles_, was translated from the original Arabic into
Syriac, and from that language into Greek. This is the first extant
medical treatise in which the small-pox is certainly mentioned.[711]
This famous book has been published in various languages about
thirty-five times; a greater number of editions, says Dr. Greenhill,
than almost any other ancient medical treatise has passed through.
He was skilled in philosophy, astronomy, and music, as well as in
medicine, which he began to study when he was forty years old. He
became one of the most celebrated physicians of his time, and was
appointed physician to the hospital at Rai, and afterwards to that of
Baghdad, where he became so famous as a teacher that pupils flocked to
him from all parts. He afterwards resided at the court of Cordova. He
died at an advanced age about A.D. 932. More than two hundred titles
of his works have been preserved; but his small-pox treatise is the
only one which has been published in the original Arabic. It is a
remarkable and a very interesting fact that he explained the nature of
the small-pox and measles by the theory of fermentation.[712]
The largest work of Rhazes is _Al-Háwí_, or the _Comprehensive_ book,
commonly called “Continens.” In the Latin translation this fills two
folio volumes. Although little more than a sort of medical commonplace
book, it has a value in that it has preserved for us many fragments
from the works of ancient physicians which we should not otherwise have
possessed. Another important work of Rhazes is the _Ketábu-l-Mansúri_,
or _Liber ad Almansorem_, so called from being dedicated to Mansur,
prince of Chorásán. It was intended to instruct the physician in
everything which it was necessary for him to know. It is chiefly a
compilation, but was a popular text-book in the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. Rhazes taught the external use of arsenic, mercurial
ointments, and sulphate of copper, and the internal use of brandy,
nitre, borax, coral, and gems.
ALI BEN EL ABBAS (Ali Abbas), who lived in the latter part of the
tenth century, was a Persian physician, who wrote a medical text book,
entitled the _Royal Book_. Up to the time of Avicenna, this was the
standard authority on medicine amongst the Arabs, and was several times
translated into Latin. In the theory of medicine and partly in its
practice he followed the Greeks, but imitated the use of the excellent
materia medica of the Arabs. He wrote also on ophthalmology and
obstetrics.
AVICENNA, or EBN SINA, was called “the Prince of Physicians,” and was
the greatest philosopher produced by the Arabs in the East. He was
born in the province of Bokhara, in 980 A.D. It is related that at the
age of sixteen he had learned all the science of a physician. Having
cured Prince Nouh of a serious malady, he became a court favourite.
After travelling for a while he composed his great work, the _Canon of
Medicine_, by which his name was made famous both in Asia and Europe
for several centuries. In the midst of the troubles of an adventurous
life, he wrote a hundred gigantic books, the greatest of which was the
_Al-Schefà_.
ISHAK BEN SOLEIMAN (830-940) wrote on dietetics, and is said to have
been the first to introduce senna.
SERAPION THE YOUNGER (about 1070). His work, _De Simplicibus
Medicamentis_, was published in Latin at Milan in 1473.
MESUE the younger (about 1015) was a pupil of Avicenna, and physician
to the court at Cairo. He rendered great services to pharmacy by
teaching the method of preparing extracts from medicinal plants.
ALBUCASIS was a skilful Arab physician, who wrote a work on surgery,
entitled _Al Tassrif_, which contains much ingenious matter on the
appliances of practical surgery. He died at Cordova about 1106. His
work treats of the application of the actual cautery, so much employed
by the Arabs, of ligation of arteries in continuity, of the danger
of amputating above the knee or elbow, of stitching the bowel with
threads scraped from the intestinal coat, operations for hare-lip and
cataract, and fistula by cutting, ligature and cautery. He advised
the use of silver catheters as now employed, in place of the copper
ones used previously. He recommended anatomy as a valuable aid to
surgery.[713]
AVENZOAR, one of the most famous of Arabian physicians, was born near
Seville in the latter part of the twelfth century. He was instructed in
medicine by his father, whose family had long been connected with the
healing art. He was the rational improver of Arabian medicine by the
rejection of useless theories, and asserted for medicine a place among
the advancing sciences of observation. He made it a constant practice
to analyse the medicines he used, so that he might acquaint himself
with their exact composition. He was loaded with favours by the prince
of Morocco, and died at the age of ninety-two in A.D. 1262.
EBN ALBAITHAR (died about 1197) was a Moorish Spaniard, renowned for
his medical and botanical science. He traversed many regions of the
west of Africa and Asia to enlarge his botanical knowledge. He passed
some years at the court of Saladin, and wrote on the _Virtues of
Plants_, and on poisons, metals, and animals.
AVERROES, or EBN ROSCH, was born at Cordova in 1126. He learned
theology, philosophy, and medicine from the great teachers of his
time. He was the greatest Arabian inquirer in the West, as Avicenna
was in the East. He exercised the greatest influence both in his own
and succeeding ages. He has been called “the Mohammedan Spinoza,”
having been a religious freethinker. The study of Aristotle awakened
in him a species of pantheism. He was more a philosopher than a
physician, but as he had made important observations in medicine, he
deserves a place amongst the heroes of the healing art. He was bitterly
persecuted amongst his co-religionists for treating the Koran as a
merely human work. He taught that the small-pox never attacks the
same person more than once. In practice he held very rational views
of the action of remedies, and taught that the work of the doctor was
chiefly to apply general principles to individual cases. He wrote
commentaries on Aristotle so famous as to have gained him the name of
“the Commentator.” He expounded the _Republic_ of Plato. He was a most
voluminous writer, and was considered by his contemporaries and by our
schoolmen as a prodigy of science.[714]
There is a very interesting account of the Indian physicians at
the court of Baghdad in a translation made from a MS. in the Rich
collection in the British Museum.[715] The history is from the work of
Ibn Abu Usaibiâh, who lived at the beginning of the thirteenth century
of our era.
Kankah the Indian was a great philosopher as well as a physician; he
investigated the properties of medicines “and the composition of the
heavenly bodies” (!).
Sanjahal, another learned Indian, wrote on medicine and astrology.
From the science of the stars he applied himself to the symptoms
of diseases, on which he wrote a book in ten chapters. He gave the
symptoms of four hundred and four diseases. He also wrote on _The
Imagination of Diseases_. Shánák wrote on poisons and the veterinary
art. Jawdar was a philosopher and a physician who wrote a book on
nativities. Mankah the Indian was learned in the art of medicine,
and “gentle in his method of treatment.” He lived in the days of
Haroun-al-Raschid.
Salih, son of Bolah the Indian, was “well skilled in treatment, and had
power and influence in the promotion of science.”
Kankah the Indian, says Prof. H. Wilson, was very celebrated in the
history of Arabian astronomy. He says that it is certain that the
astronomy and medicine of the Hindus were cultivated anteriorly to
those of the Greeks, by the Arabs of the eighth century. “It is
clear that the Charaka, the Susruta, the treatises called Nidán on
diagnosis, and others on poisons, diseases of women, and therapeutics,
all familiar to Hindu science, were translated and studied by the
Arabs in the days of Haroun and Mansur, either from the originals,
or translations made at a still earlier period into the language of
Persia.”[716]
We may conveniently mention here the famous Jew of Spain, Rabbi Moses
ben Maimon, or Maimonides (died 1198), a native of Cordova, who was
profoundly learned in mathematics, medicine, and other arts. He retired
to Egypt, where he wrote books on medicine, which were much read. He
advised his patients never to sleep in the daytime, and at night only
on the side. He recommended them not to retire to rest till three to
four hours after supper.[717]
Medical etiquette was rather strict. “Operations performed by the
hand, such as venesection, cauterization, and incision of arteries,
are not becoming a physician of respectability and consideration. They
are suitable for the physician’s assistants only. These servants of
the physician should also do other operations, such as incision of the
eyelids, removing the veins in the white of the eye, and the removal of
cataract. For an honourable physician nothing further is becoming than
to impart to the patient advice with reference to food and medicine.
Far be it from him to practise any operation with the hand. So say
we!”[718]
Dentistry was practised, but it was considered by the Arabs, as by the
Greek and Roman doctors, a very inferior branch of the profession,
and was, for the most part, as with ourselves, till very recently
relegated to uneducated persons. Midwifery also was, to a great
extent, neglected by the higher class of physicians. The Arabian
faculty esteemed most highly medicine proper, though pharmacy and
materia medica were especially studied. The professors were paid by
the State, and handsomely as a rule. Their text books were the works
of the Greek physicians, especially Hippocrates and Galen. A sort of
matriculation examination was required before a student could enter
the great schools, and he was subjected to professional examinations
(not very severe, presumably) before he was permitted to practise. The
Arabian physicians were usually men of the highest culture; not only
were they men of science, but of philosophy and literature also. Great
mystery was combined with Arabian medical practice; astrology was the
handmaid of medicine, and charms entered largely into therapeutics. The
physicians wrote prescriptions with purgative ink; so that “take this!”
was meant literally when the doctor gave the patient his prescription.
It had to be swallowed in due form.
Although the great civilizations of the East date their origins from
a period far more remote than those of the West, they have lagged
far behind the West in progress. Professor Freeman defines European
society as progressive, legal, monogamous, and, for the last fifteen
hundred years, a Christian society; the East he defines as stationary,
arbitrary, polygamous, and Mahometan.[719] The dominant note of
Oriental history is sameness; a monotony which enables us to read in
the story of to-day that which took place amongst Eastern peoples
a thousand years ago. The history of a single city of Europe is of
infinitely greater interest to the student of humanity and the history
of civilization than that of a whole nation of the East. The history
of Florence alone is of greater importance, from this point of view,
than that of all China. There is, however, one marvellous history, that
of Mahomet and his creed, which excels in interest that of any other
man of the Oriental nations. “Nowhere,” says Freeman, “in the history
of the world can we directly trace such mighty effects to the personal
agency of a single mortal.”[720]