In ancient civilizations, religion and medicine were inextricably linked. The earliest known institutions that provided health care were the Egyptian temples, and later, in the greek and roman sanctuaries dedicated to the healing god Asclepius, patients were finding refuge. During the years of the Byzantine Empire, a significant development seems to have happened. There is considerable historical evidence that attests to the existence of hospitals, which were probably established for the isolation and care of those suffering from leprosy.
Islamic civilization followed the Byzantine and developed the Arabic medicine, studying and developing mainly the ancient greek medical traditions. Historians report that at the height of the Abbasid dynasty, more than 60 hospitals served the city of Baghdad alone. However, hospitals were built during the Middle Ages in all the major cities of Iraq, Persia, Syria and Egypt. Care and treatment in the islamic Bīmaristan (=house of the sick) were provided free of charge and there were separate wards for patients with different diseases. From the 9th century, physiotherapists and female nurses began to be employed in hospitals, who, alongside regular doctors, treated the patients. Most hospitals were fully equipped with clinics, operating rooms, waiting halls, prayer rooms and baths, thus laying the foundations for the development of the modern hospital.
Arab doctors studied pharmacy and medicine in combination with phytology. Mint was used as medicine for cold. Lavender was considered a valuable antispasmodic and antitussive medicine. Poppy was prescribed to relieve pain and fever. Cardamom was a known tonic. Dry clove buds were used by surgeons and obstetricians for their antiseptic and disinfectant properties. The analgesic and healing properties of plants, especially herbs, were analysed in countless medical textbooks of the muslim world.
The most known and important of these was Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine, which remained for centuries the encyclopaedia of medieval medical schools in the West and the East. Around 1025, Ibn Sina explained the experimental method in medicine, as well as psychiatry and psychotherapy. He described the spread of contagious diseases and referred to the usefulness of quarantine. The greatest value of the work, however, is that it approached in a modern way an area very problematic until then, filled with false theories and ignorance.
Furthermore, the 10th century doctor Abu ‘l-Qasim al-Zahrawi, originally from Muslim Spain, in order to advance surgical knowledge, wrote a book describing surgical procedures. He provided detailed illustrations of the necessary surgical instruments – many of which were designed by the author himself – along with his observations and comments, based on his personal experience. Al-Zahrawi pioneered the use of catgut for making internal stitches in a patient- surgeons still use a similar material – and he had his patients swallow drugs in parcels made of catgut as well, which became the forerunner to present-day capsules. Thus, a practice that had largely been practiced by barbers and blacksmiths until then was incorporated into medicine thanks to al-Zahrawi’s scientific documentation of surgery.
Among the scientists of the Arab world, Ibn al-Haytham managed to explain the mystery of human vision and to experimentally demonstrate how it works in the 11th century. However, to solve the many mysteries of the human body and its diseases, something more was needed – anatomy. This practice by which doctors open a body and approach the source of the disease, troubled the scientists of antiquity. Many – especially religious scholars – seem to have been opposed to anatomy, since it involved the dissection of God’s most noble creation. Despite the conflicting positions, anatomy shed light on many issues and aspects of the human body.
The doctors of the Arab world managed not only to transmit ancient Greek science to the Renaissance scholars who succeeded them, but also to evolve with the knowledge and practices they established in health science. At the same time, the Arab world offered healthcare facilities and services that contributed to the development of modern clinics and hospitals.