Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi

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Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi

865-925

Hakim

Renaissance Man . With the spread of Islam, a group of learned Muslim scholars developed whose renown spread from Baghdad to the universities of Europe. In the Muslim world such a scholar is called a hakim —a word that stems from hikmah (wisdom). A hakim was expected to be a scholar of religion and philosophy, a writer, a teacher, and a scientist. Since the focus of Muslim higher education was on medicine and law, it was assumed that all hakims were also competent physicians and judges. Known as Rhazes in the West, al-Razi has been called the unchallenged chief physician of the Muslims and the most brilliant genius of the Middle Ages. He wrote books about philosophy, logic, astronomy, mathematics, physics, medicine, and music.

Life . Al-Razi was born in 864 in Persia, near the present-day city of Tehran. He had a wide range of interests that included mathematics, music, philosophy, chemistry, ethics, and especially medicine. He was also an accomplished musician who specialized in playing the ud, which is a forerunner of the guitar. At an early age, al-Razi showed a strong interest in the healing arts. He traveled to the city of Baghdad, then the center of Muslim scholarship and medical studies. While in Baghdad, he wrote his best-known book, Kitab al-Mansuri (Book of Mansur), which he dedicated to the ruler who supported many of his scholarly efforts. Al-Razi eventually returned to Persia, where he died in 925. As al-Razi’s renown spread, many students traveled far distances to study medicine under him. Like the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, al-Razi urged the licensing and formal training of all those entering the medical field. He called on doctors to live, eat, and dress in a simple manner in order to serve as role models to their patients.

Writings . Al-Razi is said to have written 184 books, but only a few survive. He studied the writings of ancient Greek physicians, translated them into Arabic, corrected their mistakes, and expanded them with medical knowledge unavailable to the Greeks. His Kitab al-Mansuri includes detailed descriptions of human anatomy and of diseases and their cures. This book also links injuries of the spine and brain to the paralysis of various parts of the body. After it was translated into Latin as Liber medicinalis ad Almansorem in the twelfth century, it became an extremely influential medical text in European universities. Another important work by al-Razi, which was translated at about the same time, is al-Hawi (translated into Latin as Continent], a twenty-volume encyclopedia of medical knowledge that circulated in several Latin versions because of its popularity in European medical circles. His Kitab al-jadari wal-hasbah (Treatise on Smallpox and Measles) also became well known in Europe after it was translated into Latin as De Pestilentia.