Rhazes-Treating a Patient (unknown)
Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known as Al-Razi, as Ar-Razi, as Ibn Zakaria (Zakariya) or (in Latin) as Rhazes and Rasis, (8641-930 AD) was an Iranian2 polymath who contributed much to the fields of medicine and chemistry. He was also significant in the field of philosophy.
He was born in Rayy (Rages) (actually, in Persian language "Razi" means from the city of Ray), an ancient city located near Tehran, Iran, and pursued a great amount of his research there. Note that Avicenna also lived in Ray for a period of time.
Razi was placed in-charge of the first Royal Hospital at Ray, from where he soon moved to a similar position in Baghdad where he remained the head of its famous Muqtadari Hospital and observed clinical cases. Today his name is commemorated in the Razi Institute near Tehran.
Razi was a Hakim, an alchemist and a philosopher. Before becoming a physician Razi was interested in music, he was well versed in the musical theory and is said to have been an exceptional performer.
He is considered one of the greatest alchemist of all time and his work remained in use for over 10 centuries. Inter alia he discovered alcohol, the use of alcohol in medicine, and he also discovered Sulfuric acid. Many also claim that he was the first to say that the world is round, but this was known much earlier, e.g. see Ptolemy.
Razi wrote 184 books and articles, in several fields of science. His books and articles are named by Ibn Abi Asi'boed.
Ibn an-Nadim identifies five areas in which Razi distinguished himself:
- Razi was recognized as the best physician of his time who had fully absorbed Greek medical learning.
- He traveled in many lands. His repeated visits to Baghdad and his services to many princes and rulers are known from many sources.
- He was a medical educator who attracted many students, both beginners and advanced.
- He was compassionate, kind, upright, and devoted to the service of his patients whether rich or poor.
- He was a prolific reader and writer and authored many books.
Smallpox vs. Measles
As chief physician at the Baghdad hospital Razi formulated the first known description of smallpox:
- "Smallpox appears when the blood boils and infected so that extra vapors may be driven out to turn childhood blood, which looks like wet extracts, into youth blood, which looks like ripe wine. Essentially, smallpox is like the bubbles found in wine at this time .... this disease might also be present apart from such times. The best thing to do at such times is to avoid it , that is , when the disease is seen to become epidemic."
Written by Razi, the al-Judari wa al-Hasbah was the first book on smallpox, and was translated over a dozen times into Latin and other European languages. Its lack of dogmatism and its Hippocratic reliance on clinical observation show Razi's medical methods:
- "The eruption of the smallpox is preceeded by a continued fever, pain in the back, itching in the nose and terrors in the sleep. These are the more peculiar symptoms of its approach, especially a pain in the back with fever; then also a pricking which the patient feels all over his body; a fullness of the face, which at times comes and goes; an inflamed color, and vehement redness in both cheeks; a redness of both the eyes, heaviness of the whole body; great uneasiness, the symptoms of which are stretching and yawning; a pain in the throat and chest, with slight difficulty in breathing and cough; a dryness of the breath, thick spittle and hoarseness of the voice; pain and heaviness of the head; inquietude, nausea and anxiety; (with this difference that the inquietude, nausea and anxiety are more frequent in the measles than in the smallpox; while on the other hand, the pain in the back is more peculiar to the smallpox than to the measles) heat of the whole body; an inflamed colon, and shining redness, especially an intense redness of the gums."
Allergies and fever
Razi is known to have discovered allergic asthma, and was the first person to have ever written an article on allergy and immunology. In the Sense of Smelling he explains the occurrence of rhinitis when smelling a rose in the spring ("An Article on the Reason Why Abou Zayd Balkhi Suffers from Rhinitis When Smelling Roses in Spring") In this article he talks of seasonal rhinitis, which is the same as allergic asthma or hay fever. Razi was also the first to realize that fever was a natural defense mechanism, the body's way of fighting disease.
Pharmacy
Rhazes contributed to the early practice of pharmacy by compiling texts, but also in various other ways. Examples are the introduction of mercurial ointments, and the development of apparatus like mortars, flasks, spatulas and phials as used in pharmacies until the early twentieth centuries.
Razi always used a natural approach when treating ill patients.
Ethics of Medicine
On the professional level, Razi introduced many useful, progressive, medical and psychological ideas. He also attacked charlatans and fake doctors who roamed the cities and the countryside selling their nostrums and 'cures'. At the same time, he warned that even highly educated doctors did not have the answers for all medical problems and could not cure all sicknesses or heal every disease. Humanly speaking, this is an impossibility. Nonetheless, to be more useful in their services and truer to their calling, Razi exhorted practitioners to keep up with advanced knowledge by continually studying medical books and exposing themselves to new information. He further classified diseases into three categories: those which are curable; those that can be cured; and those which are incurable. On the latter, he cited advanced cases of cancer and leprosy which if not cured, the doctor should not take blame. Then, on the humorous side, Razi pitied physicians caring for the well being of princes, nobility, and women, for they did not obey doctor's orders for restricted diet and medical treatment, thus making most difficult the task of their doctor.
Books and Articles on Medicine
His book The Large Comprehensive which is also known as The Embody and as The Virtuous Life is credited as a most important medical encyclopedia. He has considerations and criticism on the Greek philosophers, Aristotle and Plato, and expresses innovative and projecting views on divinity and metaphysics.
With writing the Hawi, Razi proved himself to be the greatest doctor of the Middle Ages. The Large Embody is an extensive medical treatise written in nine volumes. It is significant since it contains a celebrated monograph on smallpox, its first ever descripion.
It was not a formal medical encyclopaedia, but was assembled from Razi's working files of readings and personal observations. It was translated into Latin in 1279 under the title Continens by Faraj ben Salim, a physician of Sicilian-Jewish origin employed by Charles of Anjou to translate medical works, from then on it had considerable importance in Europe.
The Hawi is essentially a large private notebook into which Razi placed extracts from earlier authors regarding diseases and therapies, but it was mostly based on his own interpretations and clinical cases from experience.
The massive book thoroughly offended a Muslim priest whom Razi had apparently contradicted somewhere in its pages. The priest ordered that Razi be beaten over the head with the manuscript until one of them broke. Razi's head broke while the manuscript remained intact. The result was permanent blindness for Rhazes and the end of his medical career. Rhazes suffered failing eyesight for several years, and though he eventually lost all vision he continued to provide medical consultations and often even lectured. The exact nature of his ocular disease is uncertain, though it is said that he refused to be operated on because his caregivers could not answer his questions concerning the anatomy of the eye.
Some of the illnesses treated are headaches, colds, coughing, melancholy, and diseases of the eye, ear, and stomach. In a feverish headache, for example, he prescribed, "two parts of the duhn (oily extract) of rose, to be mixed with part of vinegar, in which a piece of linen cloth is dipped and compressed on the forehead". For a laxative, he recommended "seven drams of dried violet flowers with twenty pears, macerated and mixed well, then strained. To the filtrate, twenty drams of sugar is added for a draft". In cases of melancholy, he invariably recommended prescriptions including either poppies or their juices (opium) or clover dodder (Curcuma epithymum Muss.) or both. For an eye remedy, he recommended myrrh, saffron, and frankincense, two drams each to be mixed with one dram of yellow arsenic and made into tablets. When used each tablet was to be dissolved in a sufficient quantity of coriander water and used as eye drops.
But Razi does not reject the idea that there are wonders in the sense of unexplained phenomena in nature. His alchemical stockroom, accordingly, is enriched with the products of Persian mining and manufacture, and the Chinese discovery, sal ammoniac. Still reliant on the idea of dominant forms or essences and thus on the Neoplatonic conception of causality as inherently intellectual rather than mechanical, Razi's alchemy nonetheless brings to the fore such empiric qualities as salinity and inflammability-the latter ascribed to 'oiliness' and 'sulphurousness'. Such properties are not readily explained by the traditional fire, water, earth and air schematism, as al-óhazali and other later comers, primed by thoughts like Razi's, were quick to note.
Razi's interest in alchemy and his strong belief in the possibility of transmutation of lesser metals to silver and gold was confirmed half a century after his death by Ibn an-Nadim (The Philosophers Stone). He attributed a series of twelve books to ar-Razi, then seven more, including his refutation to al-Kindi's denial of the validity of alchemy, and finally, ar-Razi's two best-known alchemical texts: al-Asrar and Sirr al-Asrar (the secrets, and secret of secrets). These two works were not only among ar-Razi's last publications on alchemy, but they superseded his earlier ones as the final representation of his alchemical teachings. The latter text incorporates much of the former (al-Asrar).
It has been told that one night in the midst of delivering a speech General Simjur confronted Razi and questioned:
While conducting these alchemical experiments Rhazes developed many modern laboratory instruments that still remain in use today. Rhazes is known to have experimented more precisely by methods of distillation and extraction. Therefore, a survey of the Sirr al-Asrar will hopefully throw some light on Razi's rational approach and technical procedures, which represent the highest expression of alchemical knowledge during this period. Of course the greatest of his contributions was his development of mineral acids and alcohol. Alchemists of the time had always thought of ways of transforming people into more perfect human beings and their alchemical desires helped them learn the use of medicine.
Rhazes discovered sulfuric acid and influenced other Islamic alchemists of the time such as Geber to work on mineral acids.
The book was written in response to a request from Razi's close friend, colleague, and former student, Abu Mohammed b. Yunis of Bukhara, a Muslim mathematician, philosopher, and a natural scientist of good stature In Sirr al-Asrar, Razi divides his subject matter into three categories as he did in his book al-Asrar.
Similar to the discussion on the third/ninth-century text on amalgams ascribed to Jabir, Razi describes methods and procedures or coloring (gold leafing) a silver object to imitate gold. Also described is the reverse technique for removing the color and returning it to silver. Gilding and silvering of other metals (alum, calcium salts, iron, copper, and tutty) are also described, as well as how colors will stay for years without tarnishing or changing. The procedures involved no deceptive motive, but rather technical and economic deliberations. This is evident from the author's quotation of market prices and the technical triumph of artisan, craftsman, or alchemist in declaring the results of their efforts so that "it will look exactly like gold!". There was, however, another similar motive involved, namely, to manufacture something to resemble gold for easy sale to help a good friend who happen to be in need of quick money. It could be due to this trend in Razi's alchemical technique for silvering and gilding of metal that many Muslim biographers concluded that he was first a jeweler before he turned to alchemy.
Of interest in the text is Razi's classification of minerals into six divisions, giving his discussion a modern chemical connotation:
=Philosophy=
Razi believed that the competent physician must also be a philosopher well versed in the fundemental questions regarding existence:
His ideas on metaphysics were also based on the works of the great Greeks:
=Miscellaneous=
"Man should hasten to protect himself from love before succumbing and wean his soul from it if he falls."
"The self-admirer, generally, should not glorify himself nor be so conceited that he elevates himself above his counterparts. Neither should he belittle himself to the extent that he becomes inferior to his counterparts or to those who are inferior both to him and to his counterparts in the sight of others. If he follows this advice, he will be free of self-admiration and feelings of inferiority, and people would call him the one who truly knows himself."
When asked of envy, Razi retorts:
"It results from the gathering of niggardliness and avarice in the soul."
"one of the diseases that cause grave harm to the soul."
Pharmacy Day/Razi Commemoration Day - The 27th of August
The Virtuous Life (al-Hawi)
Razis greatest work is the Continens Liber or al-Hawi, The Comprehensive Book, which terminated his practice of medicine. A medical advisor for the general public
Razi was possibly the first in Islam to deliberately write a book - a home medical (remedial) advisor - entitled Man la Yahduruhu Tab for the general public. He dedicated it to the poor, the traveler, and the ordinary citizen who could consult it for treatment of common ailments when a doctor was not available. This book, of course, is of special interest to the history of pharmacy since books on the same theme continued to appear and has found acceptance by readers to the present century. In its 36 chapters, Razi described diets and drugs that can be found practically every where in apothecary shops, the market place, in well-equipped kitchens, and in military camps. Thus, any intelligent mature person can follow its instructions and prepare the right recipes for good results. Doubts About Galen
Rhazes's independent mind is strikingly revealed in his Shukuk 'ala alinusor (Doubts about Galen).
In Doubts about Galen Razi rejects claims of Galen's, from the alleged superiority of the Greek language to many of his cosmological and medical views. He places medicine within philosophy, inferring that sound practice demands independent thinking. His own clinical records, he reports, do not confirm Galen's descriptions of the course of a fever. And in some cases he finds that his clinical experience exceeds Galen's. He rejects the notion, central to the theory of humours, that the body is warmed or cooled only by warmer or cooler bodies; for a warm drink may heat the body to a degree much hotter than its own. Thus the drink must trigger a response rather than simply communicating its own warmth or coldness. This line of criticism has the potential, in time, to bring down the whole theory of humours and the scheme of the four elements, on which it was grounded. Razi's alchemy, like his medical thinking, struggles within the cocoon of hylomorphism. It dismisses the idea of potions and dispenses with an appeal to magic, if magic means reliance on symbols as causes.
Many accused him of ignorance, since he criticized Galen's work greatly. However, Razi repeatedly expressed praises and gratitude to Galen for his commendable contributions and labors, saying:
Thereafter, Razi, with a view to vindicate Galen's greatness and to justify his criticism of him, lists four reasons why great men make errors more than others:
Razi believed, and rightly so, that contemporary scientists and scholars, because of accumulated knowledge at their disposal are, by far, better equipped, more knowledgeable, and competent than the ancients. Indeed, what Razi did in attempting to overthrow blind reverence and the unchallenged authority of ancient sages was, by itself, a great step in the right direction. This impetus encouraged and stimulated research and advances in the arts, technology, and the sciences. It unshackled the human spirit for greater and more fasting achievements.Few of His Many Books on Medicine
(Names may differ)
Translations
Razi's notable books and articles on medicine (in English) include:
=Alchemy=The Transmutaion of Metals
It appeared to those present that Razi was reluctant to answer; he looked obliquely at the general and replied:
(From: Mohammad Zakaria Razi by Khosro Moetazed, Translated by: Alireza Hashemi)Of His Many Books on Alchemy
(mostly in Persian)Al-Asrar
This last category contains, in addition, a description of other methods and applications used in transmutation: the admixture and uses of solvent vehicles, the amount of heat (fire) used, 'bodies and stones' that can or cannot be transformed into corporal substances of metals at Id salts, and the liquid mordant that quickly and permanently colors lesser metals for better sales and profits.
Concerning the tools and equipment of the alchemist, Razi classifies them into two kinds:Secret of Secrets
His most famous book which has gained a lot of recognition in the west is Secret of Secrets in which he gives systematic attention to basic chemical operations important to the history of pharmacy.
Razi is known to be a free-thinking Islamic philosopher, since he was well-trained in the Greek sciences. He was also well versed in the musical theory, as were many other Islamic scientists of the time, although his approach in chemistry was naturalistic.Of His Many Books on Philosophy
names may differ
Notable Books (in English): Spiritual Medicine, The Philosophical Approach (Al Syrat al Falsafiah), and The Metaphysics The Philosophical Approach (excerpt)
Metaphysics
Although it is quite evident that most of his thoughts derived from Islam, this is demonstrated clearly in his writing of The Metaphysics.Quotes from Rhazes
Asked if a philosopher can follow a prophetically revealed religion, al-Razi openly retorts:
"gentility of character, and nicety and purity of mind, are found in those who are capable of thinking deeply about abstruse matters and scientific minutiae." Quotes on Rhazes
Pharmacy Day
References and further reading
External links
Footnotes
