Contributions Of Islam To Medicine
by Ezzat Abouleish , M. D.

DEDICATION

This paper is dedicated to those who contributed to the well being of mankind and have done their best to make our journey on this planet more pleasant; to all of them, irrespective of their race, religion or country of origin.

Introduction

Medicine, as it stands today, did not develop overnight. It is the culmination of efforts of millions of people, some we know and others we do not.

The flame of civilization, including medicine, started thousands of years ago. The flame has been handed over from one generation to another, and from one country to the other.

Depending on who took the sacred responsibility of hosting it, sometimes it got brighter and sometimes it got dimmer. However, it never died away, because if it did, it would have been too hard to start all over again.

Between the ancient civilizations, namely the Egyptians, Greek, Roman, Persian, Indian, and Chinese, and the Renaissance era in Europe, there was a gap, commonly called "the dark ages", during which the flame was hosted, not by the West, but by another culture and people called the Arabs or the Moslems.

The nomenclature, "the dark ages" reflects the civilization in Europe between the 7th and 13th centuries, but by no means it expresses the state of affairs in the Arab world or the Islamic Empire at that time when art and science were as bright as the midday sun.

That era, unjustifiably, has been commonly neglected and overpassed, as if nothing happened. This paper is an effort to elude to the important events which took place and the significant physicians who lived during that period.