Arabic Medical Literature And The Orientalists

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ARABIC MEDICAL LITERATURE AND THE ORIENTALISTS:

A CRITIQUE OF ORIENTAL SCHOLARSHIP
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Oriental or western scholarship has always been negative of Islam and its culture, which appeared on the scene of history as a final phase of monotheism and as a new religio-political and dynamic socioeconomic order. Islam as a faith has always been branded by the Orientalists as a distorted image of the Judaico-Christian tradition whileits culture is regarded as a Graeco-Roman loan- culture. There has been no change in these attitudes until today.

The myth of Greek intellectual supremacy has now been evaluated. It has been established that the Greeks had borrowed their entire philosophy from Egypt.

The colonial educational systems imposed on Muslim lands, fostered the same ideas and inculcated an inferiority complex amongst the youth, leading them to hopeless scepticism. The slogan that the 'Greeks were the Masters of the Arabs' has not yet ceased. No culture in the world has been immune from the process of reception and assimilation of ideas. The Greeks themselves had borrowed their ideas from North Africa and Egypt. The researches and enquiries made in this regard during the last few decades, have completely established the inferiority of Greek scholarship and the supremacy of Arabic methodology.

The pre-Socratic philosophers and their teachings are traced to their Egyptian origins. The Athenian philosophers (Socrates, Plato and Aristotle) taught nothing new. The library of Alexandria was the actual source of their knowledge and the memphite theology of Egypt was the basis of all important doctrines of Greek philosophy. Socrates took his ideas of the immortality of the soul from Egypt and Plato's philosophy of natural phenomena, the real and the unreal, the nous and the creation, good, virtue, and above all the doctrine of the ideal state, were all borrowed from Egypt. Plato's authorship of his books, including the 'Republic' and the 'Time', is questionable. Aristotle's doctrines are also traced to the Egyptian origin. The library of Alexandria was the real source of Aristotle's large number of books. The Egyptian memphite theology was the source of all modern scientific knowledge. Such information only shakes the foundations in the age-old myth that the Greeks were the teachers of the world. The following books may be of immense help to those readers who want to critically examine the origins of Greek philosophy.

1. L. Robin: 'La Pensee Grecque at les Origines de L'esprit Scientifique'. (Eng. Tr. 'Greek Thought and the Origins of the Scientific Spirit').
2. F. Zeller: 'Philosophie der Griechen', Part I. Italian translation by R. Mondolfi.
3. Breasted: 'Dawn of Conscience'.
4. George G.M. James: 'Stolen Legacy'.
5. 'Abd ar-Rahman Badawi: 'Rabi' al-Fikr al-Yunani'.

A cursory glance of Egyptian history as well as of the Alexandrian philosophy seems imperative in order to evaluate the personalities of Hippocrates (Buqrat) and Galen (Jalinus), the fathers of Greek medical sciences, whose impact on Arab medicine is said to have been great. The ancient civilization of Egypt covers a period of over fifty centuries and there are records of five civilizations and thirty (or thirtyone) dynasties between 6000 and 342 B.C. The golden period of this civilization was about 4500 B.C., the period of the gigantic pyramids. Alexander's conquest of Egypt in the fourth century B.C. introduced Hellenism in Egypt - that is, a type of culture which expressed the ideals of the classical Greeks in arts, athletics, philosophy, ethics and politics. But the Graeco-Macdonian rule ended with Cleopatra in 31 B.C. when Egypt passed to Rome which ruled until 640 A.D. when the Arab rule succeeded the Romans and the Turkish followed the Arabs in 1517.

Alexandria, the port city of Egypt, became the seat of Hellenism. The city was founded in 332 B.C. by Alexander the Great and it was the first of Alexander's establishments. After the loss of independence and the decline of culture in Greece, Alexandria in Egypt became the centre of science and literature and held this position from 323 B.C. to 640 A.D., that is, from the reign of the Ptolemies to the Arab conquest. Alexandria, which had lost its exclusiveness by 146 B.C., when Euergetes II expelled the scholars, had manifold importance, in that:-

1. It preserved Greek literature, science and philosophy, developed and perfected them.
2. It transformed Greek philosophy and amalgamated with non-Hellenic civilization, that is, Egyptian, Judaistic, Christian and the Eastern generally.
3. It spread the transformed knowledge to old and new centres; Rome, Athens, Rhodes, Cyrene and Constantinople after 330 A.D.

During the reigns of Ptolemies it became the centre of art, science and learning. The lighthouse built on the island of Pharos was one of the seven wonders of the world. 'Its famous building included the museum, housing part of the remarkable library of 700,000 papyrus rolls, was destroyed by fire at the time of the conquest of Julius Caesar. The temple of Jupiter Serapis, housing the main portions of the library, was burnt by Christian fanatics in 301'. The library was founded by Ptolemy 1 and enlarged by his two successors. The museum and the sema, or the tomb of Alexander was also built by them. The library served simultaneously as an Academy and a University, where science, mathematics and astronomy were ardently cultivated. The masterpieces of classical Greek literature were catalogued and classified and the science of textual criticism and bibliography may be said to have originated here. Here the Greek translation of the Bible grew. It suffered in dynastic wars of the later Ptolemies. Christianity reached here in the second century A.D. and in 415 A.D. Christian mobs murdered the pagan philosopher Hypatia.

The famous library, according to the encyclopaedia, contained about 490,000 books in 250 B.C. Both the museum and the library provided the basis for the great development. Unlike the academy, the library was a public institution devoted to the cult of the masses as a religious community and to research discussion and teaching as a scientific body. The peripatetic traditions prevailed until 146 B.C. The Alexandrian Mathematical School, authoritative for 900 years, represents the peak of Greek science and philosophy. But the field of medicine was independent of philosophy and reached its peak in the Alexandrian School of Anatomy and Physiology. It was here that the Empirical School was founded either by Philino (c. 250 B.C.) or by Serapion (c. 200 B.C.). This Empirical School, known in Greece, was not founded by philosophers or physicists, but by the physicians who were opposed to dogmatism and philosophy. They developed the school in close connection with medical practice and with the observation of human behaviour.

Referring to the Greek medicine one has to first examine the historical personalities of the two great pioneering Greek physicians, Hippocrates and Galen. Historical examination of the first shows that the personality of Hippocrates is as legendary as that of Homer. His period is uncertain (? 460 B.C. or ? 377 B.C.). The earliest extant biographical details of his life date from the second century A.D. Chamber's Encyclopaedia furnishes the following information in this regard:

The name may have been given by posterity to some legendary wise physician of ancient time. Collectively known as the Hippocratic collection they consist of about 70 works, of which a relatively small number are possibly the works of a singly great mind, that is, Hippocrates. Probably several centuries separate the writings of the earliest from the latest works'.

The same source reveals that the ideas of Hipprocrates were not new. They were written and discussed even 2000 years before him:

'He was before everything a great clinician. It was 2000 years
before similar records were written by physicians'.

The statements cited above are self-explanatory. With regard to the translations of his works the following facts are worth mentioning. His works were first printed in Latin in 1525 and in the original Greek in1526. Among celebrated translations are those of Francis Adams (1849), and in French the translation was made in 1839-61. The Hippocratic Oath is still regarded as the highest expression of medical ethics. He was regarded as the 'Father of Medicine'. It is said that he founded the science of epidemiology. His surgical writings contain excellent accounts of the instruments used.

Claudius Galen (130-200 A.D.), a Graeco-Roman physician, known as the 'Prince of physicians' and 'the medical dictator', studied medicine at Alexandria along with other schools, such as, Pergamum (Asia Minor), Smyrna (Turkey), and Corinth. He had unrivalled knowledge of the writings of his predecessors. It is said that he wrote in all about 500 treatises; approximately 180 survived, of which 177 are genuinely original works. They laid down principles in anatomy, physiology and treatment. Apart from original observations, he quotes from many important works of others which are now lost. The Arabs preserved many of his works through translation. Among them was Hunain b. Ishaq. The first Latin translation of his complete works was published by Diomedes Bonards (1490) and the original Greek text was published in 1525. The standard edition of the Greek text with Latin is that of C.G. Kuhn (20 vols.-1821-33). French translation of important works appeared in 2 volumes in 1854-56 and only one work was translated in English in 1916.

With these facts in mind, we can evaluate the extent of Greek impact on Arabic medicine, on the one hand and of the Egyptian origins of Greek medicine, on the other. How then do the Orientalists evaluate the Arabic medical literature? It is an interesting field of enquiry. Since the negative attitude towards Islam was all pervasive, the Arabic medical literature received no better treatment than other sciences. Before resorting to the actual remarks of the Orientatlists about Arabic medicine, it is advisable to have a cursory glance over the books written by them on Arabic or Islamic medicine during the last century. The noted six works merit brief mention:

1. 'Histoire -de la medicine Arabe' by Lucien Lectere (Paris 1876, reprinted New York n.d. ? 1960). Here the author wanted to write a complete history of Arab medicine and trace its origins, its character, its institutions, its development and its decay. He relied extensively on Arabic literature, namely, the 'Fihrist' of Ibn-Nadim, the 'Tarikh al-Hukama' of al-Qifti, and 'Uyun' of Ibn-Abi-Usaibi'a, whose contents he reproduced in long lists.
   
2. 'Arabian Medicine' by E.G. Browne, (Cambridge University Press 1921, rep. London 1962. Fr. tr., Paris 1933). The author had the intention of analysing the works of some of the major writers, such as:
   • 'Paradise of Wisdom' of at-Tabari
   • 'Al-Hawi' of ar-Razi
   • 'Kitab al-Malaki' of Majusi and
   • The 'Qanun' of Ibn-Sina.
3. 'The Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate from the Earliest Times until the Year 1932', by Cyril Elgood (Cambridge 1951). The book deals both with Persian medicine and the classical period of Arabic or Islamic medicine. The information about the development of Persian medicine is, however, valuable.
   
4. 'Die Medizin in Islam' by Manfred Ullmann (GAS) Leiden Koln 1970.
   
5. 'Geschichte des Arabischen Schrift Hums' (3rd volume) by Fuat Sezgin, 1971. The two books produced in 1970 and 1971 attempted to assess Arabic medical literature as far as this exists in manuscripts or fragments. The first book continues into the seventeenth century while the second one deals with the period up to 1040 A.D. Both of these books are biographical works of reference and do not contain a history of medical theory.
   
6. 'Islamic Medicine', by Manfred Ullmann (Edinburg University 1978). Being the latest work on Arabic medicine, although not on the history of medicine, is a significant work. It deals only with a few interesting medical theories and describes the Hellenization of the Muslim World in detail, and shows how the relation of rational medicine to magic and astrology was established. The author also deals with the advancement of physiology. The writer is neither a doctor nor a medical historian but a philologist.

This work (1978) by Manfred Ullmann is as biased as those of his predecessors. The author says:

'Islamic medicine did not grow on Arab soil. Rather it is the medicine of later Greek antiquity which was formulated in Arabic language in the South and West of the Mediterranean from the ninth century A.D'.

The author explains in detail how the Arab Islamic World was Hellenized. Speaking about the Arabic medical treatment he says in a disparaging tone:

'Their (Arabs) attempts to cure them (diseases) lacked any theoretical or scientific basis, but the remedies drawn from popular folk medicine, to which they resorted, show some interesting connections with magic'.

The author deals in chapter two with Greek, Syriac, Persian and Indian works, their translations and their subsequent impact on Arabic medicine. He also deals with the Islamisation of certain Greek tenets and the recovery of lost Greek text. Chapter three has been devoted to the history of Arabic medicine, in which Ullmann claims that the basis of Arab writers or Arabic medicine was Greek. Physiology and anatomy comprise the subjects of chapter four while pathology of the fifth and the transmissibility of illness and the plague, the sixth chapter. Dietetics and pharmaceutics form the theme of chapter seven. The author concludes his work with his discussion on medicine and the occult.

The theme of Greek-loan medicine has been a dominating theme of the Orientalists. Dr. Douglas Gutherie, the author of 'History of Medicine' observes that 'The Muslims received medicine from the Greeks and passed it on to the Christians'. Hamilton Baily and S.J. Bishop, authors and eminent names in medicine and surgery, do not even mention the Muslims in their works. The Encyclopaedia Britannica regards Arabian medicine as 'Arabian version of Greek medicine'. Dr. Lett condemns the Muslim doctors as magicians. Ritchie Calder C.B.E. in his book 'Medicine and Man', says that Ibn-Sina's writings bedeviled progress. This prejudice existed even in the sixteenth century. Paracelsus in 1527 publicly burnt the works of Ibn-Sina and condemned ar-Razi the matinee idols of the Harems of Baghdad.

Liberal Orientalists who could objectively analyse the Arabic medical literature without preconceived notions are rare. Briffault in his 'Making of Humanity' (p. 191), shows his liberalism by acknowledging that:

'Science owes a great deal more to the Arab culture, it owes its existence (to the Arabs). The Greeks systematized, generalized and theorized but the patient ways of investigation, the accumulation of positive knowledge, the minute methods of science, detailed and prolonged observation, experimental inquiry, altogether alien to the Greek treatment, that spirit (of inquiry) and those methods were introduced into the European World by the Arabs'.

The rise of modern Europe came after the capture of the Islamic empire with its intellectual, scientific and cultural treasures as booty. The tenth century Cordova was the most cultured city in Europe and so were Baghdad and Constantinople in the world. Scientists in Cordova, according to Hitti, with their seventeen libraries, one alone of which included more than four hundred thousand volumes, enjoyed luxurious baths at a time when washing the body was considered a dangerous custom at the University of Oxford. The concept of Hammam (Public showers and baths throughout the Muslim World) was a basic part of Muslim culture. It was based on the idea of hygiene and cleanliness, a part of the faith.