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Table of Contents

Age of Transition (continued).—Arabic Period: A.D. 640–1400. Alkindus, 873. Mesue, 777–857. Rhazes, 850–932. Haly-Abas, 994. Avicenna, 980–1037. Albucassis, 1122. Avenzoar, 1113–1161. Averroës, 11661198. Maimonides, 1135–1204. School of Salernum: Constantinus Afri-canus, 1018–1085. Roger of Salerno, 1210. Roland of Parma, 1250. The Four Masters, 1270 (?). John of Procida.

The Arabic Period, which began with the second destruction of the Alexandrian Library—640 A.D.—ends with the fourteenth century. At the commencement of this period the Roman Empire of the West scarcely existed: the magnificent territory which composed it had been overrun and subdued by barbarous tribes from the forests of the North, while from its ruins had risen several independent kingdoms—that of the Franks in Gallia, of the Visigoths in Spain, and of the Lombards in Italy. The last of the Western emperors of note was Justinian, whose army and generals—especially the genius and heroic devotion of Belisarius—threw some glory upon Italy, Sicily, Africa, and Spain. Meantime the Empire of the East, surrounded by enemies, and harassed from all directions, still sustained itself with vigor. The Turks had begun to show themselves on the banks of the Danube; those eternal enemies of Rome—the Persians—made incessant war; and a new and terrible enemy had sprung up in the deserts of Arabia. Then came one who was at the same time legislator, prophet, and conqueror, and united under one faith and one leader tribes hitherto divided and warring against each other. Thus arose a powerful and enthusiastic nation, animated by thirst for conquest and ardor for proselytism. In less than a century after the first preaching of Mahomet, all of Arabia, India, Syria, and Egypt were in the hands of his followers. In the year 640 Amrou effected the conquest of Egypt, seized Alexandria, and the great library of five hundred thousand volumes was, by order of Omar (successor to Mahomet), delivered over to the flames; and the historian Abulpharagius declares that these books served for six months to heat the public baths, four thousand in number. Such were the first fruits of the establishment of Islam. * Happily, zeal of proselytism somewhat abated among the Mussulman princes, and religious fervor gave place to policy; so that the later Arabian caliphs showed themselves, in general, the protectors of the arts and sciences. Some, indeed, endeavored to collect the débris of the scattered treasures that had been so fortunate as to escape the ignorant fanaticism of their predecessors; and others, more tolerant even than the Christian princes of the time, received without distinction all men of merit who took refuge in their State, gave them employment, and recompensed them for their services. On this account philosophers and persecuted "heretics" sought an asylum among infidels, and found there the protection which Christianity did not afford—in return for which they gave their protectors the benefits of Greek civilization.

* See a very vigorous denial of this historical statement in

The Nineteenth Century, October, 1894, page 555.

Of all the Moslem rulers, the most distinguished for love of learning and general enlightenment was Haroun-al-Raschid, the Charlemagne of the East, contemporary and emulator of the glory of the emperor of the Franks, the hero of a hundred Arabic poems, whose dominion extended from the borders of the Indus to the heart of the Spanish peninsula. He embellished Bagdad, his capital, with schools and hospitals. His son Almamon founded the Academy of Bagdad, which became the most celebrated of the age; likewise spared no pains to draw to his court the most illustrious men of all countries. He enjoined each of his ambassadors to purchase all the writings of the philosophers and physicians that could be found, and these he required to be translated into Arabic; his interpreter, Honain, a Christian, was employed at translating for forty-five years, and received, for each book rendered into Arabic, literally its weight in gold.

The eclat which the Moorish caliphs shed upon Spain from the tenth to the thirteenth century is well known. The cities of Cordova, Toledo, Seville, and Murcia possessed public libraries and academies, and students from all parts of Europe flocked to them to be instructed in arts and sciences; the library of Cordova alone embraced more than two hundred and twenty-four thousand volumes. Thus it will be seen that the dominion of mental and temporal affairs passed from the Greeks and Romans to the Saracens.

Arabian medicine constitutes one of the most interesting chapters in the history of our art. An offspring from Greek schools, it was for nearly one hundred years the fostermother of that art, and, although it gave rise to no great discovery nor wonderful step in advance during all this period, it nevertheless kept alive all the learning of the past, and clarified rather than made it turbid. In the sixth century the Nestorians (followers of Bishop Nestor), having been driven out of Syria, settled in Persia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, and there founded schools and other institutions such as they had had at home—schools in which, beside the ordinary philosophic studies, medicine received a share of attention. Thus it came about that by the seventh century Arabian physicians were everywhere known and in high repute. Naturally the basis for their studies embodied the writings of Hippocrates, Galen, Oribasius, and Paul of Ægina; and the first Arabian works consisted solely of translations from the Greek, first out of their Syriac rendering, and later from the originals. Indeed, so much eminence was finally achieved by Arabian physicians that more than four hundred are known by name as authors.

The first author deserving of mention was Bachtischua, of Nestorian stock, celebrated in Jondisapur, director of the medical school, and later physician to Caliph El-Mansur, in Bagdad. Of his descendants several became well known in the same field.

Alkindus—this being the Latin arrangement of his Arabic name—came from a Persian family, who lived first in Basara and later at the court of the caliphs El-Monon and El-Motasin, in Bagdad. He enjoyed a very high reputation as physician, philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, and died A.D. 873. Mesue, the first of his name, sometimes known as Janus Damascenus, was director of the hospital in Bagdad and physician to Haroun-al-Raschid. He was born in 777, wrote extensively (since at least forty of his works have been catalogued), and died in 857 in Samarra.

Serapion the elder, also sometimes known as Janus Damascenus, and whose Arabic name was Serafiun, was born in Damascus—the exact data is not known—and died some time prior to A.D. 930. He was author of two volumes of aphorisms concerning the practice of medicine, which had at his time the greatest repute.

The most celebrated of the early Arabian physicians was Rhazes, born in the Persian province of Khorassan A.D. 850. According to the historians of his nation he was a universal genius, equally famous in music, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, and medicine; he was surnamed "The Experienced." At the age of fifty he was one of the most distinguished professors in the Academy of Bagdad, where students came from great distances to listen to him. Chosen from among a hundred colleagues to direct the grand hospital of that city, he displayed indefatigable zeal and most scholarly learning, even to his old age and in spite of loss of sight, which overtook him at the age of eighty, when his reputation was at its height. Two years after this misfortune—i.e., in 932—he died. His generosity, which was proverbial, and his compassion for the poor left him penniless at the time of his death. Some two hundred and thirty-seven monographs of his have been catalogued, though the greater number of his works are practically lost. Two treatises on medicine remain which afford excellent counsel in many respects; among other matters he advises:—

"Study carefully the antecedents of the man to whose care you propose to confide all you have most dear in this world—that is, your life and the lives of your wife and children. If the man is dissipated, is given to frivolous pleasures, cultivates with too much zeal the arts foreign to his profession, still more if he be addicted to wine and debauchery, refrain from committing into such hands lives so precious."

His greatest publication was Continens—extracts compiled from all authors for his own use—divided into thirty-seven books, constituting an abridgment of the science of medicine and surgery up to his time; and, notwithstanding its imperfect state, this work was held in greatest reverence, and was a common source of knowledge among Orientals long after his day.

Haly-Abbas, a Persian by birth, flourished fifty years after Rhazes, and died A.D. 994. His Almalelci, in twenty volumes, constituted a quite complete system of theory and practice of medicine, which, however, was in large measure taken from Rhazes's Continens. It is generally regarded as the best work of any of the physicians of the Arabic Period; it is divided into three parts—a book on Health, a book on Death, and a book of Signs—and it is interesting to know that the portion devoted to midwifery and obstetrics was in the hands not only of the profession, but also of the midwives.

Avicenna—Latinized form of his Arabic name, Ebn Sina—was born in Bokhara in 980. From his earliest youth he manifested a remarkable disposition for scientific study, and it is claimed that he mastered the entire Koran at the age of ten years; also that he devoted his entire days and the greater part of his nights to research, mastering philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, and, later, medicine, which he studied at the university at Bagdad, in which city his talents were chiefly exhibited. He was received at court, loaded with favors, and elevated to the dignity of Vizier, but suddenly fell into disgrace, was deprived of property, imprisoned, and even threatened with execution. After two years, however, he was restored to liberty, and once more possessed the consideration of the public and the court, becoming the recipient of new honors. Meantime he had given himself up to intemperance, by which his previously robust constitution was undermined, and this, with excessive labor, brought about his demise at the too early age of fifty-six, in the year 1037. He was author of several books, the chief being the Canon Medicinae, which remained a classic for six centuries, constituting the medical code of Asia and Saracenic Europe; no author since Galen had enjoyed so wide and extensive authority in the medical world; and in the various medical schools professors, for the most part, confined themselves to reading the Canon from their desks, explaining and commenting upon its text. The work was divided into five volumes, of which the first two comprised the principles of physiology, pathology, hygiene, and therapeutics, arranged to conform to the teachings of Aristotle and Galen; the third and fourth dealt with treatment; and the fifth wras devoted to the preparation and composition of remedies. Avicenna appears to have surpassed in subtlety both Aristotle and Galen; he was fond of metaphysical speculation, and his works were too much filled out with subtleties of language rather than with true science. Authors of this period were fond of torturing in every way possible the writings which they undertook to edit or quote from, and, instead of devoting themselves to original research, wasted time in seeking for vague and hidden meanings. That man was most esteemed as learned who could see the greatest subtlety in some passage from one of the ancient writers; consequently, that which was obscure or unintelligible was deemed the most sublime and philosophic. A very brief study of the Canon, for instance, will show this, while in graphic pictures of disease the work by no means approaches those of Aretæus or Alexander of Tralles, for Avicenna too often contented himself with mentioning merely a list of symptoms without indicating in any way their progression, characters, or duration. Undoubtedly just was the criticism of an Arabian poet: "His philosophy had no sound foundation, and his medical knowledge availed him naught for the possession of personal health and long life."

Albucassis was born in Zahra, near Cordova, about the beginning of the eleventh century, and is supposed to have died A.D. 1122, at the advanced age of one hundred and one. He was author of an abridgment, or compilation, devoted to the practice of medicine, the only novelty of which is a small portion devoted to surgery, in which are described certain instruments. He says:—

"I have detailed briefly the methods of operations; I have described all necessary instruments, and I present their forms by means of drawings; in a word, I have omitted nothing of what can shed light to the profession. … But one of the principal reasons why it is so rare to meet a successful surgeon is that the apprenticeship of this branch is very long, and he who devotes himself to it must be versed in the science of anatomy, of which Galen has transmitted us the knowledge. … In fine, no one should permit himself to attempt this difficult art without having a perfept knowledge of anatomy and the action of remedies."

Not a word is said about dissections, however, from which we conclude that they were not tolerated in his time. He resorted enthusiastically to the cautery, and recommended it in spontaneous luxations and the commencement of curvature of the spine. He refers particularly to instrumental delivery and the extraction of the after-birth, and, when speaking of fractures and dislocations, he remarks: "This part of surgery has been abandoned to men of vulgar and uncultivated minds, for which reason it has fallen into undeserved contempt."