The Modern Medical Science: a Journey Through History

translate Galen’s medical works. Salmawaih showed that the use of aphrodisiacs, so common in the East, was dangerous. He flourished under Al-Mä’mün. Later he became physician in ordinary to Al-Mutasim.12
Another translator, Ibn Masawaih (d. 857) translated various Greek medical works into Syrian. His own medical writings were in Arabic. His treatise on ophthalmology called Daghal al‘Ayn (disorder of the eye) is the earliest work extant in Arabic on the subject.13
Another important translator of Greek medical works into Arabic was Ayyub al-Ruhawi, a contemporary of the ‘Abbasi Caliphs Al-Mutawakkil and Al-Mu’tazz (d.869). The translation of 35 works of Galen, a Greek physician, is ascribed to him.14
So far as the physicians of the ninth century ate concerned, an important one was Abu’l-Hasan ‘Ali Ibn Sahl Ibn Rabban al-Tabari. He was also a physicist, and had knowledge of the Bible. He was born in Tabaristan where he was brought up. He belonged to a Jewish family, but he accepted Islam at the hand of the ‘Abbsi Caliph Al-Mu’tasim, who made him his courtier. Ali Ibn Rabban is the author of many works, but his main work is an encyclopedia called Firdaus al-Hikmah. It deals chiefly with medicine, but also with philosophy, meteorology, zoology, embryology, psychology and astronomy. It is mostly based on Greek and Hindu sources, and contains a summary of Hindu medicine at the end. His other medical works are on hygiene, and on the use of food stuffs, drinks and herbs.15
The most illustrious physician of the ninth century was Abü Bakr Muhammad Ibn Zakariyya al-Ràzi, (Latin Rhazes). He was the greatest clinician of the middle Ages and probably the greatest Muslim physician. He was also a philosopher and

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