Within the last couple of days an amazing discovery has taken place in the University of Birmingham. Two pages of parchment from the Qur'an which date to the time of the Prophet Muhammad (c.570-632) have been discovered mistakenly bound with a manuscript from the 7th century.
The discovery of this Arabic manuscript brought to mind the hugely significant medical tome written in the Islamic Golden Age (c780-1260) by Avicenna, one of the most important thinkers and writers of that time. Avicenna was born in the Bukhara region modern day Uzbekistan in 980 AD and died at the age of only 57 in Hamadan, Iran. It was under the patronage of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph, that the Islamic Golden Age came about. He encouraged growth, study and discoveries in the sciences, culture, religion, Islamic art and music. He also established the legendary 'House of Wisdom' or 'Bayt al-Hikma' library in Baghdad.
Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine or Al-Qanun fi'l-tibb with over one million words became the standard medical text in medieval medical universities up until the late 1600s. Avicenna methodically compares, references, utilises and categorises works by Galen, Hippocrates, Aristotle and his fellow learned country man Rhazes. The Canon is divided into five books.
'The first book contains four treatises, the first of which examines the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) in light of Greek physician Galen of Pergamum’s four humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile). The first treatise also includes anatomy. The second treatise examines etiology (cause) and symptoms, while the third covers hygiene, health and sickness, and death’s inevitability. The fourth treatise is a therapeutic nosology (classification of disease) and a general overview of regimens and dietary treatments.
Book II of the Canon is a 'Materia Medica', Book III covers 'Head-to-Toe Diseases', Book IV examines 'Diseases That Are Not Specific to Certain Organs' (fevers and other systemic and humoral pathologies), and Book V presents 'Compound Drugs' (e.g., theriacs, mithridates, electuaries, and cathartics). Books II and V each offer important compendia of about 760 simple and compound drugs that elaborate upon Galen’s humoral pathology.'
- Encyclopedia Brittanica
Gerard of Cremona (c1114-1187) was an Italian scholar who translated scientific and medical books from Arabic into Latin. He produced the first translation of The Canon in Latin. A Hebrew version of The Canon appeared in Naples in 1491 and an Arabic edition in Rome in 1593. RCSI Heritage Collections are honoured to own a Latin copy of The Canon Of Medicine dating from 1544 in which Avicenna wrote
The discovery of this Arabic manuscript brought to mind the hugely significant medical tome written in the Islamic Golden Age (c780-1260) by Avicenna, one of the most important thinkers and writers of that time. Avicenna was born in the Bukhara region modern day Uzbekistan in 980 AD and died at the age of only 57 in Hamadan, Iran. It was under the patronage of Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph, that the Islamic Golden Age came about. He encouraged growth, study and discoveries in the sciences, culture, religion, Islamic art and music. He also established the legendary 'House of Wisdom' or 'Bayt al-Hikma' library in Baghdad.
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| Title page of The Canon of Medicine or Al-Qanun fi'l-tibb by Avicenna |
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Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine or Al-Qanun fi'l-tibb with over one million words became the standard medical text in medieval medical universities up until the late 1600s. Avicenna methodically compares, references, utilises and categorises works by Galen, Hippocrates, Aristotle and his fellow learned country man Rhazes. The Canon is divided into five books.
'The first book contains four treatises, the first of which examines the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water) in light of Greek physician Galen of Pergamum’s four humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile). The first treatise also includes anatomy. The second treatise examines etiology (cause) and symptoms, while the third covers hygiene, health and sickness, and death’s inevitability. The fourth treatise is a therapeutic nosology (classification of disease) and a general overview of regimens and dietary treatments.
Book II of the Canon is a 'Materia Medica', Book III covers 'Head-to-Toe Diseases', Book IV examines 'Diseases That Are Not Specific to Certain Organs' (fevers and other systemic and humoral pathologies), and Book V presents 'Compound Drugs' (e.g., theriacs, mithridates, electuaries, and cathartics). Books II and V each offer important compendia of about 760 simple and compound drugs that elaborate upon Galen’s humoral pathology.'
- Encyclopedia Brittanica
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| First page of The Canon of Medicine |
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| Handwritten notes on the first page |
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| Illustrations of medical procedures taken from The Canon of Medicine |
Gerard of Cremona (c1114-1187) was an Italian scholar who translated scientific and medical books from Arabic into Latin. He produced the first translation of The Canon in Latin. A Hebrew version of The Canon appeared in Naples in 1491 and an Arabic edition in Rome in 1593. RCSI Heritage Collections are honoured to own a Latin copy of The Canon Of Medicine dating from 1544 in which Avicenna wrote
'From Earth's dark Centre unto Saturn's Gate
I've solved all Problems of this World's Estate,
From every Snare of Plot and Guile set free,
Each bond resolved-saving alone Death's Fate.'
- Researched and written by Meadhbh Murphy