How Islam changed medicine

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1486

BMJ 2005;331:1486-1487 (24 December), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1486

Editorial

How Islam changed medicine

Arab physicians and scholars laid the basis for medical practicein Europe

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Islamic civilisation once extended from India in the east tothe Atlantic Ocean in the west. Buildings in Andalusia suchas the Alhambra in Granada, the Mezquita in Cordoba, and theGiralda in Seville are reminders of the architectural imprintthis civilisation left on western Europe. Less well remembered,however, is the impact of Islamic civilisation on Western science,technology, and medicine between the years 800 and 1450.¹ Aswas argued this month at the Royal Institution, today's Westernworld might look very different without the legacy of Muslimscholars in Baghdad, Cairo, Cordoba, and elsewhere.²

As Islam spread out of the Arabian Peninsula into Syria, Egypt,and Iran it met long established civilisations and centres oflearning. Arab scholars translated philosophical and scientificworks from Greek, Syriac (the language of eastern Christianscholars), Pahlavi (the scholarly language of pre-Islamic Iran),and Sanskrit into Arabic. The process of translation . . . [Full text of this article]

Azeem Majeed, professor of primary care

Department of Primary Care and Social Medicine, Imperial College Faculty of Medicine, London W6 8RP
(a.majeed@imperial.ac.uk)

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This article has been cited by other articles:

Tober, D. M., Budiani, D. (2007). Introduction: Why Islam, Health and the Body?. Body Society 13: 1-13
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Rapid Responses:

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bmj.com, 24 Dec 2005 [Full text]
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