Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-
Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al- (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-Razi) (Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi) (Rhazes) (Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī) (Mohammad-e Zakariā-ye Rāzi) (Rasis) (August 26, 865, Rey – 925, Rey). Greatest physician of Islam, and a noted alchemist and philosopher. A number of his works, among them his large medical encyclopedia in Arabic, called al-Hawi, were translated into Latin. Indeed, al-Hawi was commonly used in Europe and up to the seventeenth century al-Razi’s medical authority was undisputed.
In chemistry, al-Razi rejected all occult and symbolical explanations of natural phenomena. Of his metaphysical works only a few fragments have been preserved in later authors. He was an opponent of the Aristotelians and relied on the authority of Plato and the pre-Socratic philosophers. He had a critical attitude to established religion, refuted the Mu‘tazila, the extreme Shi‘a and the Manichaeans, and denied the possibility of a reconciliation between philosophy and religion. One of his writings was read among the Carmathians, and seems to have influenced the famous theme of the “De Tribus Impostoribus.”
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-Razi was born in Rayy in what is now Iraq. He lived in Baghdad in his early thirties and again from about 901 to 907, while the Abbasid caliph al-Muktafi was in office. Just as earlier, so later, he returned to Rayy as soon as possible, and it was there that he died. A man of imposing stature, al-Razi was predominantly a physician and teacher of medicine, but he also served as a sometime adviser to various rulers and was a prolific author. Indeed, his writings include over 200 treatises, pamphlets, and books. Though his writing apparently led to a paralysis of the hand and impaired eyesight, he nonetheless continued with the help of secretaries and scribes.
It is said that early in his life Ar-Razi was interested in singing and music besides other professions. Because of his eagerness for knowledge, he became more interested in the study of alchemy and chemistry, philosophy, logic, mathematics and physics. It was in the field of medicine that he spent most of his life, practicing it, studying and writing about it. Due to his fame in medicine, Ar-Razi was appointed head of the physicians of the Rayy Hospital, and later put in charge of the Baghdad main Hospital during the reign of the Adud-Dawla.
An interesting episode of Ar-Razi’s remarkable method of choosing the right spot for the Baghdad main hospital is described as follows: When Adud-Dawla asked Ar-Razi to build a hospital, he had pieces of fresh meat placed at various parts of the city of Baghdad. Some time later, he checked each piece to find out which one was less rotten than the others, and he chose the spot of the least rotten pieces of meat a site for the hospital.
Ar-Razi was a pioneer in many areas of medicine and treatment and in the health sciences in general. In particular, he was a pioneer in the fields of pediatrics, obstetrics and ophthalmology. In medicine, his contribution was so significant that it can only be compared to that of Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Some of his works in medicine, e.g., Kitab al-Mansoori; Al-Hawi; Kitab al-Mulooki and Kitab al-Judari wa al-Hasabah earned everlasting fame. A special feature of his medical system was that he greatly favored cures through correct and regulated food. This was combined with his emphasis on the influence of psychological factors on health. He also tried proposed remedies first on animals in order to evaluate in their effects and side effects. Ar-Razi was the first person to introduce the use of alcohol (in Arabic, al-kuhl) for medicinal purposes. He was also an expert surgeon and was the first to use opium for anesthesia.
Ar-Razi was the first to give an account of the operation for the extraction of a cataract and also the first scientist to discuss the pupillary reaction or the widening and narrowing of the pupil of the eye. He explained that the reaction was due to the presence of small muscles which act according to the intensity of light.
The greatest medical work of Ar-Razi (Rhazes) and perhaps the most extensive ever written by a medical man, is al-Hawi, i.e., the Comprehensive Book, which includes indeed Greek, Syrian, and early Arabic medical knowledge in their entirety. Throughout his life, Ar-Razi must have collected extracts from all the books available to him on medicine. In his last years, he combined these with his medical experience into an enormous twenty volume medical encyclopedia. Al-Hawi was the largest medical encyclopedia composed by then. It was translated into Latin under the auspices of Charles I of Anjou by the Sicilian Jewish physician, Faraj ibn Salim (Farragut) in 1279 and was repeatedly printed from 1488 onwards. Al-Hawi was known as Continens in its Latin translation. By 1542, five editions of Continens had appeared, while parts of it were more publicly availaable than the five editions might suggest. Another scholar points out that Ar-Razi’s al-Hawi was one of the nine volumes constituting the whole library of the Paris Faculty of Medicine in 1395.
Ar-Razi’s Kitab al-Mansoori, which was translated into Latin (and is known by the title Liber Almansoris) in the 1480s in Milan, comprised ten volumes and dealt exhaustively with Greco-Arab medicine. Some of its volumes have been published separately into German and French. The ninth volume of the translation made by Gerard of Cremona -- the Nonus al-Mansuri was a popular text in Europe until the sixteenth century. Ar-Razi in al-Mansoori devoted a whole chapter on anatomy. In it Ar-Razi has presented a detailed description of the various organs of the human body, and sensory and motor parts. He has also given elaborate descriptions of the intervertebral foramina and spinal chord, and correctly asserted that an injury either to the brain or spinal chord would lead to paralysis of the parts of the organs whose nerve supply was damaged or destroyed.
Ar-Razi’s al-Judari wa al-Hasabah was the first treatise on smallpox and chickenpox, and is largely based on Ar-Razi’s original contribution. It was first translated into Latin in 1565 and later into several European languages and went into forty editions between 1498 and 1866. It was translated into English by William Greenhill of London in 1848. Through his treatise Ar-Razi became the first to draw clear comparisons between smallpox and chickenpox.
Ar-Razi gave many valuable pieces of advice to practicing physicians:
A physician should not forget to ask his patient all sorts of questions pertaining to the possible causes of his illness, both internal and external. ...
If a physician can treat a patient through nutrition rather than medicine he has done the best thing.
A physician should always try to convince his patient of improvement and hope in the effectiveness of treatment, for the psychological state of the patient has a great effect on his physical condition.
Whoever seeks treatment with too many physicians might suffer the risk of the faults of each of them. A patient should restrict consultation to one trustworthy physician.
Ar-Razi also compounded medicines and took keen interest in experimental and theoretical sciences. It is conjectured that he developed his chemistry independently of Jabir ibn Hayyan (Geber). He has discussed several chemical reactions and also given full descriptions of and designs for about twenty instruments used in chemical investigations. His description of chemical knowledge is in plain and plausible language. One of his books Kitab-al-Asrar deals with the preparation of chemical materials and their utilization. Another one was translated into Latin under the name Liber Experimentorium. He went beyond his predecessors in dividing substances into plants, animals and minerals, thus in a way opening the way for inorganic and organic chemistry. By and large, this classification still holds. As a chemist, Ar-Razi was the first to produce sulfuric acid together with some other acids, and he also prepared alcohol by fermenting sweet potatoes.
Ar-Razi’s contribution as a philosopher is also well-known. The basic elements in his philosophical system are the creator, spirit, matter, space and time. He discusses their characteristics in detail and his concepts of space and time as constituting a continuum is well ahead of his time.
Ar-Razi was a prolific author, who has left monumental treatises on numerous subjects. He has more than two hundred outstanding scientific contributions to his credit, out of which about half deal with medicine and twenty-one on alchemy. He also wrote on physics, mathematics, astronomy and optics, but these writings could not be preserved. A number of his other books, including Jami-fi-al-Tib, Maqalah fi al-Hasat fi Kuli wa al-Mathana, Kitab al-Qalb, Kitab al-Mafasil, Kitab al-‘Ilaj al-Ghoraba, Bar al-Sa’ah, and al-Taqseem wa al-Takhsir, have been published in various European languages. About 40 of his manuscripts are still extant in the museums and libraries of Iran, Paris, Great Britain, and Rampur (India). His contribution has greatly influenced the development of science, in general, and medicine in particular.
In recognition of his great contributions to science and, especially to medicine, Ar-Razi’s portrait adorns the great hall of the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris.
Al-Razi was also a major contributor to philosophy. The two major philosophical works of al-Razi are the Book of the Philosophic Life and Book of Spiritual Medicine. In his Book of the Philosophic Life, al-Razi focuses on the life of Socrates. The Book of Spiritual Medicine describes (1) how we can rid ourselves of bad moral habits and (2) the extent to which someone aspiring to be philosophical may concern himself with the gaining of a livelihood, acquisition, expenditure and the seeking of rulership. For al-Razi, philosophy consists of three basic concerns: moral virtue or ethics, household management or economics, and political rule. As al-Razi notes almost in passing, it is perfectly justifiable to distinguish between human beings in terms of how essential they are to the well-being of the community.
Such reflections allow al-Razi to defend himself against the calumnies of his nameless critics. The defense goes beyond mere exculpation to an explanation of philosophy itself. Thus, as part of his final self-justification, al-Razi asserts that philosophy consists of two parts, knowledge and practice, and that anyone who fails to achieve both cannot be called a philosopher.
Al-Razi is considered to be the most original thinker and the keenest clinical observer of all the medieval Muslim physicians, al-Razi produced the first clinical account of smallpox and measles, a twenty-four volume compendium of medical knowledge, and set new standards for medical ethics, the clinical observation of disease, and the testing of medical treatment.
There is little authentic information about the life of al-Razi. He was born around 864 in Rayy, a few miles from modern Tehran, administered a hospital in that town as well as in Baghdad, and died in his hometown about 925. In his youth, music was his chief interest. He played the lute and studied voice. Upon reaching adulthood, he rejected this pursuit, however, asserting that music produced by grown men lacked charm. He then turned to the study of philosophy, a lifelong interest, and developed decidedly egalitarian views, a keen interest in ethics, and a profoundly questioning stance toward received dogmas, both religious and scientific. In his thirties, he began to pursue medical studies and a career as a physician.
His interest in medicine reportedly arose after a visit to a sick home in Baghdad, where he was so moved by the suffering of the sick and maimed patients that he determined to devote the rest of his life to alleviating human misery through the practice of medicine. Exactly where he acquired his medical training is unknown, although it was most likely in Baghdad, where he lived from 902 to 907. At that time, the city was the leading center of learning in the Middle East and contained fully equipped hospitals, well-stocked libraries, and a sound tradition of research. Successive ‘Abbasid caliphs, from al-Mansur (754-775) and Harun al-Rashid (786-809) to al-Ma’mun (813-833), had generously endowed institutes for the study of ancient Greek arts and sciences as well as those of Persia and India. Some scholars suggest that al-Razi, who spent most of his life in Iran, probably studied medicine at the University of Jondisabur, a Sassanid-founded institution, which remained a major medical center in the medieval Muslim East.
Al-Razi, an outstanding clinician and a brilliant diagnostician and medical practitioner, was probably the most learned and original of all the medieval Muslim physicians. His scientific and philosophical writings total some 113 major and twenty-eight minor works, of which twelve discuss alchemy. While chief physician and master teacher of the hospital in Rayy, he produced the ten-volume encyclopedia Kitab al-tibb al-Mansuri (c. 915), named for his patron Mansur ibn Ishaq al-Samani of Sijistan: a Latin translation, Liber Almansoris, was first published in Milan in the 1580's. Al-Razi was invariably described as a generous and gracious man wiht a large head, full beard, and imposing presence. His lectures, which attracted full-capacity crowds of students, were organized so that his senior students handled all questions they could answer, deferring to him only those issues beyond their knowledge.
Early in his career he earned a reputation as an effective and compassionate healer, which resulted in his appointment in 918 by the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Muqtadir as physician in chief of the great hospital at Baghdad. In choosing a new site for this main hospital, al-Razi is said to have had pieces of meat hung in different quarters of Baghdad, finally selecting the spot where the meat was slowest to decompose, which he deemed the area with the healthiest air. As a result of his compassion for the sick and his contributions to medical ethics, al-Razi is justifiably compared to Hippocrates. In his Baghdad hospital, he provided patients with music, storytelling, recitations of the Qur’an, and separate convalescent quarters. He not only treated poor patients free of charge but also supported them with his own funds during their convalescence at home. He emphasized a holistic approach to treating illness -- that the mind as well as the body must be treated -- but above all insisted that the art of healing must rest on a scientific basis. In his treatise on medical ethics, Upon the Circumstances Which Turn the Head of Most Men from the Reputable Physician (c. 919), al-Razi warns physicians that laymen think doctors know all and can diagnose a problem with a simple examination. He laments that frustrated patients turn to quacks who may alleviate some symptoms but not effect a cure. Al-Razi advises reputable physicians not to despair or promise cures but to use their critical judgment, apply tested treatments to appropriate cases, and be thoroughly familiar with the available medical literature.
Al-Razi, like Hippocrates, based his diagnoses on observation of the course of a disease. In administering treatments, he paid serious attention to dietetics and hygienic measures in conjunction with the use of closely monitored drug therapy. His fine powers of observation and detailed clinical descriptions are evident in his best known monograph, al-Judari w-al-hasbah (A Treatise on the Smallpox and Measles -- c. 922), which is the first clinical account of smallpox. In this work, he describes the types of human bodies most susceptible to each disease, the season in which each disease most often occurs, and the varied symptoms indicating the approaching eruption of smallpox and measles. These symptoms included fever, back pain, nausea, anxiety, itching in the nose, and nightmares. Since al-Razi believed that these diseases were caused by fermentation of the blood, his remedy was purification of the blood. The therapeutic measures he employed were based upon his readings of the ancient Greeks and his own clinical trials. He devised two different approaches to treatment: to counteract the disease with antidotes such as camphor mixtures, purgatives, bloodletting, and cooling with cold sponges or baths; and to effect a cure with heat, especially steam, to stimulate the eruption of pustules and hasten healing. The choice of treatment depended on the degree of fever and the patient’s general condition. Bloodletting, which was a common practice, he recommended using with caution and not on the very young, the very old, or those with a weak constitution. Al-Razi also developed detailed measures for preventing secondary effects from these diseases, such as damage to the eyes, ears, and throat and scarring of the skin.
Possessing an extensive knowledge of pharmacology and therapeutics, al-Razi claimed to have acquired much valuable information from women healers and herbalists in his own country and from his travels to Syria, Palestine, Egypt, and Muslim Spain. Other medieval physicians added little to his vast knowledge of drugs. His drug therapy was similar to contemporary practice in that dosage was based on age and weight. Drugs with which he was acquainted included nux vomica, senna, camphor, cardamom, salammoniac, and arrack as well as other alcoholic drinks. He used oils, powders, infusions, syrups, liniments, plasters, suppositories, compresses, and fumigations. His diligent search for drugs of therapeutic value and his methods of clinical observation laid the foundation on which future physicians would build.
Al-Razi’s extensive medical and pharmacological knowledge is contained in his most important work, al-Kitab al-hawi fi’il tibb (The Comprehensive Book -- c. 930), a twenty-four volume encyclopedia which summarized the medical knowledge of the time, that is, the knowledge of the Greeks, Persians, Indians, and Arabs. It was completed posthumously by his students. First translated into Latin in 1279, it was repeatedly printed from 1486 onward under the title Continens Medicinae and exercised considerable influence in the Latin West. Medieval Muslim knowledge of anatomy and physiology was limited by the Qur’anic prohibition against dissection of the human body. Thus, most information on anatomy and surgery in al-Kitab al-hawi fi’l tibb was drawn from Greeks such as Galen and Hippocrates. Al-Razi provided numerous descriptions of his own surgical procedures, however, including those for intestinal obstructions, various forms of hernia, vesical calculi, tracheotomy, and cancer. In treating cancer, he stressed that there should be no surgical removal of cancerous tissue unless the entire cancer could be removed.
Much of al-Razi’s philosophical thinking can be gleaned from two of his treatises on ethics: Kitab al-tibb al-ruhani (The Book of Spiritual Physick -- c. 920) and Sirat al-faylasuf (The Philosopher’s Way of Life -- c. 920). He propounded egalitarian views, rejecting a contemporary argument that humans can be stratified according to innate abilities. Rather, he believed that all people possess the capacity to reason and do not need the discipline imposed by religious leaders. The latter he accused of deception, and the miracles of prophets he regarded as trickery. His critical attitude toward religious authority carried over to the established dogmas of science. Only by questioning and testing received knowledge, he argued, could there be continuing progress in science.
Al-Razi asserted that he did not accept Aristotle’s philosophy and that he was a disciple of Plato, with whom he shared certain ideas on matter. His egalitarianism, however, was anti-thetical to Plato’s political ideas. Al-Razi’s attitude toward animals was also part of his ethics. He believed that only carnivores and noxious animals such as snakes should be killed, for he endorsed the doctrine of transmigration, according to which a soul may pass from an animal to a person. Killing an animal set the soul on a path of liberation, while al-Razi maintained that only souls occupying human bodies should be liberated. Toward the end of his life, al-Razi became blind from cataracts. He reportedly rejected surgery, remarking that he had seen too much of the world already. Some biographers have argued that his interest in alchemy contributed to his blindness. Others ascribed it to his excessive consumption of beans. He died around 925 in abject poverty, having given all of his wealth to his impoverished patients.
Al-Razi’s anti-religious attitude and his interest in alchemy caused other Muslim intellectuals to criticize his work and question his medical competence. To his credit, his principal work on alchemy, Kitab al-asrar wa-sirr al asrra (The Book of Secrets -- c. 916), which was translated into Latin in 1187 (De spiritibus et corporibus), was a chief source of chemical knowledge through the fourteenth century. Later, more talented medieval physicians such as Moses Maimonides found fault with his philosophy but not with his medicine. As Aristotelians they were intolerant of his disavowal of Aristotle and his readiness to accept empirical evidence that upset established doctrines. It was in his insistence on rigorous scientific research and valid evidence, however, that al-Razi anticipated the position of modern medicine. Moreover, as a conscientious practitioner who stressed qualitative medicine -- devising the best therapy, based on an evaluation of the patient’s physical and mental condition -- he set high standards for physicians and paved the way for modern medical practice.
As a result of his many achievements -- the application of chemistry to medical treatment, the earliest study of smallpox and other epidemiological studies, the elaboration of medical ethics and scientific trials, the invention of the seton for surgery -- al-Razi secured the historical reputation of the medieval Muslim Arab world as the primary center of science and medicine. His Muslim predecessors introduced clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies, but al-Razi established more rigorous ethical, clinical and scientific standards, free from dogmatic prejudices, which foreshadowed those of modern science. For that reason, al-Razi’s portrait is one of only two portraits of Muslim physicians (the other being that of Avicenna) which were hung long ago in the great hall of the School of Medicine at the University of Paris as permanent testimony to the West’s debt to the science of medieval Islam.
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-Razi see Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya ar-Razi see Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-
Rhazes see Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-
Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī see Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-
Mohammad-e Zakariā-ye Rāzi see Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-
Rasis see Razi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya’ al-
No comments:
Post a Comment