Considerable confusion exists in literature regarding the definition of ‘Islamic Medicine'. This is mainly because each author that writes about ‘Islamic Medicine' is actually writing about an aspect of Islamic Medicine. Thus the definition can vary depending upon the perspective. The context can be historical, cultural, scientific, pharmacological, therapeutic, religious or even a geo-political. In this monograph we shall be examining this body of knowledge mainly from its historical, scientific, therapeutic and application viewpoints
The main source of all inspirational knowledge in Islam is ‘The Holy Qur'an' . This book is considered by Muslims or followers of Islam to be the word of Allah or God, revealed by Him to the Prophet of Islam: Mohammed. A secondary source of a Muslims' inspiration is the ‘Hadith or Sunnah', which are the recorded and authenticated sayings and traditions of the Prophet of Islam: Mohammed.
As such not much medicine is mentioned in the Qur'an except for beneficial effects of some natural foods viz. honey and abstinence from intake of alcohol or other intoxicants proscribed on every Muslim, yet the Qur'an is the guiding spirit that every Muslim has to follow, including the physicians in treating their patient and the patients in handling their illness. However very early in the Islamic era, the Hadith literature had accumulated a number of sayings and traditions of the Prophet under a collection called the ‘Prophetic Medicine'. These edicts expounded on virtues of diet, natural remedies, and management of simple ailments like headache, fever, sore throat, conjunctivitis, etc. More importantly however injunctions were prescribed against contact with persons having a contagious disease for instance leprosy or entering or leaving an area of an epidemic or plague, thus helping to limit the disease. In addition a large number of traditions were collected under the title of ‘Spiritual Medicine'. These were a collection of the verses of the Qur'an or prayers to the Almighty, which invoked blessings and which had to be recited when affliction was to be expurgated.
‘Prophetic Medicine' although popular amongst the masses of Muslims because of its doctrinal and theological contents was considered by most Muslim historians and physicians as distinct from scientific and analytical Islamic Medicine. Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406 AD) a well known medieval Muslim jurist, historian, statesman in his ‘Muqaddimah' states:
‘The Bedouins in their culture, have a kind of medicine which they base primarily on experience restricted to a few patients only, and which they have inherited from their tribal leaders and old women. In some cases it is correct, but it is not founded on natural laws, nor is it tested against (scientific accounts) natural constitution (of peoples). Now the Arabs had a great deal of this type of Medicine before the advent of Islam and there were among them well known doctors like al-Harith ibn Kalada and others. Their Medicine that has been transmitted in the Islamic religious works (as opposed to those works which were considered scientific works) belong to this genre. It is definitely no part of divine revelation (to the Prophet: Mohammed) but was something customarily practiced by the Arabs. This type of Medicine thus is included in his biographies, just as are other multitudinous of matters of sociological importance like the natural life and customs of the Arabs, but forms no part of religion of Islam to be practiced in the same way.'
Islamic Medicine in its true context, can thus be defined as a body of knowledge of Medicine that was inherited by the Muslims in the early phase of Islamic History (40-247 AH/661 -861 AD) from mostly Greek sources, but to which became added medical knowledge from, Persia, Syria, India and Byzantine. This knowledge was not only to become translated into Arabic, the literary and scientific lingua franca of the time, but was to be expounded, assimilated, exhaustively added to and subsequently codified, and ‘islamicized'. The Physicians of the times both Muslim and Non-Muslim were then to add to this, their own observations and experimentation and convert it into a flourishing and practical science, thus helping in not only in curing the ailments of the masses, but increasing their standards of health. The effects of its domineering influence extending not only in the vast stretches of the Islamic lands, but also in all adjoining nations including Europe, Asia, China, and the Far East. The span was measurable not only for few centuries, but also perhaps for an entire millennium, 610 to 1610 AD. During which time, Europe and rest of the extant civilized nations of the world were in grips of the ‘dark ages'. It also to set the standards of hygiene, and preventative medicine and thus was responsible for the improvement of the general health of the masses. It was to hold sway until decadence finally set in, concomitant with the political decline of the Islamic nation. With the advent of Renaissance in Europe, at the beginning of the 17th Century AD, it was finally challenged by the new and emerging science of modern medicine, which was to finally replace it in most of the countries, including the countries of its birth!
In order to understand the milieu in which Islamic medicine was born, one has to understand the salient events in the advent of Islam and a few events just preceding the Islamic era. Arabia which was a large area covered mostly by an arid desert that was roamed by nomadic tribes of Bedouins. Certain communities had been established where the trade routes intersected and water was available. Mecca was along the Yaman- Damascus trade route. It was considered a holy city and a sanctuary. The Kaaba or house of worship was replete with idols of different gods each representing a tribe or community. These Bedouins had their own tribal moral or ethical codes of conduct and idolatry was in practice. Blood feuds were common and attacking caravans along trade routes was a way of life. Sacrifices were often offered to appease the gods and burying of live female children was common practice. Family feuds were common and settling scores in order to uphold tribal honour led to frequent bloody encounters in which many people were killed. Women and children were treated as ‘chattels' or private possessions and became the property of the winner. This era of Arabia is frequently referred by Muslims as ‘Jahilliya' or age of ignorance. Islam was not only to bring dramatic changes in the religious practices of these warring nomadic tribes but also unite them into an unprecedented social and cultural nation that very quickly was to develop into a strong political entity, with its own system of administration, justice, and military power, all under one leadership.
The first leader of the Islamic State was no doubt the Prophet of Islam, Mohammed but then his four successors called the ‘Pious Caliphs' were to quickly consolidated and expand the nation. Within one hundred years of coming into existence, the Islamic empire had spread from Spain in the west, to China in the east, and encompassed in its midst, the whole of northern Africa ,Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Transjordan ,Central Asia and parts of western India. Later it was to be even carried further by the Muslim merchants to the shores of the far east including the Malaysian peninsula, the islands of the East Indies and Indonesia. In its early era and for several centuries, the Islamic empire was centrally governed by a leader or ‘Caliph' and administered by provincial governors. The first four Caliphs were elected democratically but the later the Caliphate became dynastic. Later still a western Caliphate was established in Spain. In later history the Islamic Nation was to break up into various kingdoms, as the provincial rulers become more autonomous and independent of the centre and was ultimately to be overrun by the Sejluk Turks who were the forerunners of the Ottoman empire.
It was during the early Caliphates of the ‘Ummayads' and the ‘Abbasids' that the maximum development of Islamic Medicine took place. It was also during this time and under the patronage of these Caliphs that the great physicians both muslim and non-muslim thrived, accumulated the wealth of medical knowledge and cultivated a system of medicine that was to be later called ‘Islamic Medicine'.