Ar-Razi: "The Arab Galen"
By David W. Tschanz
18/07/2001
Abu Bakr Mohammed ibn Zakariya ar-Razi (born in
Rayy, Iran - c. 841-926) gave no early indication that he would someday be
considered the greatest of all Arab physicians. His youth was spent pursuing
music, mathematics and alchemy. As an alchemist he was noted as a pioneer in the
use of mercurial ointments in the treatment of disease. Then, at the age of
forty, he turned his attention to medicine.
Ar-Razi (later known in the West by the Latinized version of his name,
"Rhazes") went to the great teaching hospitals of Baghdad, the Abassid
capital, for his training. Completing his studies, he returned to Rayy and
assumed directorship of its hospital. His reputation grew rapidly and within a
few years he was selected to be the director of a new hospital in Baghdad. He
approached the question of where to put the new facility by hanging pieces of
meat in various sections of the city. Several days later he returned and ordered
the hospital built at the site where the meat showed the least amount of decay.
Ar-Razi is regarded as Islamic medicine's greatest clinician and its most
original thinker. A prolific writer, he turned out some 237 books, about half of
which deal with medicine. His treatise, "The Diseases of Children,"
has led some historians to regard him as the "Father of Pediatrics".
Ar-Razi was the first to identify hay fever and its cause. His work on kidney
stones is still considered a classic. In addition, he was instrumental in the
introduction of mercurial ointments to medical practice. Ar-Razi was a strong
proponent of experimental medicine and the beneficial uses of previously tested
medicinal plants and drugs. A leader in the fight against quacks and charlatans,
he called for high professional standards for practitioners. He also insisted on
"continuing education" for already licensed physicians.
Following his term as hospital director in Baghdad, he returned to Rayy where he
taught the healing arts in the local hospital, and continued to write. His first
major work was a ten-part treatise entitled "Al Kittab al Mansuri." In
it, he discussed such varied subjects as general medical theories and
definitions; diet and drugs, and their effects on the human body; maternal
health and childcare; skin disease; mouth hygiene; climatology and the effect of
the environment on health; epidemiology; and toxicology.
Ar-Razi also prepared "Al-Judari wal Hasbah" the first treatise ever
written on smallpox and measles. In a masterful demonstration of clinical
observation and acumen, ar-Razi became the first to distinguish the two diseases
from each other. At the same time, he provided still valid guidelines for the
sound and rational treatment of both diseases.
Ar-Razi's most esteemed work was a medical encyclopedia contained in twenty-five
books, "Al Kittab al Hawi." Ar-Razi spent a lifetime collecting data
for the book, which he intended as a summary of all the medical knowledge of his
time, and augmented by his own experiences and observations. In "Al
Hawi," ar-Razi went beyond the simple translations of his predecessors. He
also emphasized the need for physicians to pay careful attention to what the
patient's history told them, and not merely accept the obvious answer.
In a section entitled, "Illustrative Accounts of Patients," ar-Razi
demonstrated this tenet. One patient, living in a malarial district and
suffering from intermittent chills and fever had been diagnosed with malaria
that seemed to be incurable. When ar-Razi was asked to examine the man, he
refused to accept the obvious answer to illness and did a thorough examination.
Seeing pus in the patient's urine, ar-Razi made the correct diagnosis of an
infected kidney and treated the patient successfully with diuretics.
The importance of ar-Razi's work to later physicians cannot be overestimated.
"Al Kittab al Hawi" was translated in Latin (as "Liber
Continens") and became one of the standard medical reference works of
Renaissance Europe. In fact, portions of it were still in use in European
medical schools until well into the 19th Century.