Abu Bakr Al Razi – The Great Physician and Polymath of 10th Century

March 19, 2022Sahil Swe

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi is conjointly better-known by his Persian name Rāzī and by his Latinized name Rhazes), 864 or 865 – 925 or 935 CE, was a Persian Physician, cavernous thinker and intellectual, wide thought-about one amongst the foremost necessary figures within the history of drugs. He conjointly wrote on logic, physics, and descriptive linguistics.

A comprehensive thinker, al-Razi created basic and enduring contributions to varied fields, that he recorded in over two hundred manuscripts, and is especially remembered for varied advances in medication through his observations and discoveries. Associate in medicine, early somebody of experimental medication, he became a productive doctor, and served as chief medical practitioner of Bagdad and Ray hospitals. As an instructor of medication, he attracted students of all backgrounds and interests and was aforementioned to be compassionate and dedicated to the service of his patients, whether or not wealthy or poor. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, he was among the primary to use body substance theory to differentiate one communicable disease from another, and wrote a pioneering book regarding major smallpox and measles and he providing valuable clinical characterization of the diseases.

Al-Razi was one among the world’s 1^st nice health workers. He’s thought of the father of science and psychotherapy.

Smallpox vs. measles

Al-Razi wrote:

Smallpox seems once blood “boils” and is infected, leading to vapours being expelled. So juvenile blood (which seems like wet extracts showing on the skin) is being remodeled into richer blood, having the colour of mature wine. At this stage, variola shows up primarily as “bubbles found in wine” (as blisters)… This malady can even occur at alternative times (meaning: not solely throughout childhood). The most effective issue to try to throughout this 1^st stage is to stay removed from it, otherwise this malady would possibly turn out to be a virulent disease.

This diagnosing is acknowledged by the Encyclopedia Britannica (1911), that states: “The most trustworthy statements on the first existence of the malady square measure found in associate account by the 9^th-century Persian doctor Rhazes, by whom its symptoms were clearly delineate, its pathology explained by a body substance or fermentation theory, and directions given for its treatment.”

Al-Razi’s book al-Judari Washington al-Hasbah (On chickenpox and Measles) was the primary book describing variola (chicken pox) and contagion as distinct diseases. It had been translated over a dozen times into Latin and alternative European languages. Its lack of bigotry and its medical man reliance on clinical observation show al-Razi’s medical ways. As an example, he wrote:

The eruption of is preceded by a continuing fever, pain within the back, itchiness within the nose and nightmares throughout sleep. These square measure the additional acute symptoms of its approach along with an evident pain within the back in the middle of fever associated an itchiness felt by the patient everywhere his body. A swelling of the face seems, that comes and goes, associated one notices an overall inflammatory color noticeable as a powerful redness on each cheeks and around each eyes. One experiences a heaviness of the entire body and nice restlessness, that expresses itself as a great deal of stretching and yawning. There’s a pain within the throat and chest and one finds it tough to breathe and cough. Extra symptoms are: status of breath, thick secretion, roughness of the voice, pain and heaviness of the top, restlessness, nausea and anxiety. (Note the difference: restlessness, nausea and anxiety occur additional oft with “measles” than with smallpox. At the opposite hand, pain within the back is additional apparent with variola than with measles). Altogether one experiences heat over the entire body, one has associate inflamed colon associated one shows an overall shining redness with a really pronounced redness of the gums. (Rhazes, reference book of Medicine).

Al-Razi was presumably the primary Persian doctor to deliberately write a home medical manual (remedial) directed at the overall public. He dedicated it to the poor, the traveler, and therefore the standard subject United Nations agency might consult it for treatment of common ailments once a doctor wasn’t on the market. This book is of interest to the history of pharmacy since similar books were very fashionable till the twentieth century. Al-Razi delineate in its thirty six chapters, diets Associate in medical science, drug parts which will be found in either an health professional, a market place, in well-equipped kitchens, or and in military camps. Thus, each intelligent person might follow its directions and prepare the right recipes with sensible results.

Some of the sicknesses treated were headaches, colds, coughing, melancholy and diseases of the attention, ear, and abdomen. For instance, he prescribed for a feverish headache: “ two components of duhn (oily extract) of rose, to be mixed with one a part of vinegar, during which a bit of linen artefact is swayback and compressed on the forehead”. He counseled as a laxative, “ seven drams of dried violet flowers with twenty pears, macerated and well mixed, then strained. Raise this filtrate, twenty drams of sugar for a drink. In cases of melancholy, he invariably counseled prescriptions, including either poppies or its juice (opium), genus Cuscuta epithymum (clover dodder) or each. For Associate in medicine eye-remedy, he suggested myrrh, saffron, and gum, two drams every, to be mixed with one dram of yellow arsenic shaped into tablets. Every pill was to be dissolved in a very adequate amount of coriander water and used as eye drops.