History of medicine: Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi

Also known as

• (Persian) ابوبكر محمّد زکرياى رازى‎
• Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī
• Abūbakr Mohammad-e Zakariyyā-ye Rāzī
• Rhazes 
• Rasis

 

Born

• 854 CE - 925 CE
• Ray, Persia (Tehran, Iran)

 

Great works

• Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-ṭibb (The Comprehensive Book on Medicine).
• Man la Yahduruhu Al-Tabib (For One Who Has No Physician to Attend Him). A medical adviser for the general public.
• The Diseases of Children. Possibly the first book dedicated to paediatrics.
• Mofid al Khavas (The Book for the Elite)
• The Book of Experiences
• The Cause of the Death of Most Animals because of Poisonous Winds
• The Physicians' Experiments
• The Person Who Has No Access to Physicians
• The Big Pharmacology
• The Small Pharmacology
• Gout
• Al Shakook ala Jalinoos (The Doubt on Galen)
• Kidney and Bladder Stones
• Ketab tibb ar-Ruhani (The Spiritual Physik of Rhazes)

 

Significance in history

• Reputation as a giant of medicine. Influential for centuries.
• First identification and description of numerous diseases.
• First to recognise the pupillary reaction to light.
• Wrote the first book which differentiated smallpox and measles. 
• Wrote the first scientific treatise on infectious diseases.
• Carried out clinical trials, comparing a control group to a group exposed to an intervention.
• Promoted public healthcare education.
• Decried health frauds (e.g. quacks, snakeoil salesmen). Warned the public of the limitations of contemporary doctors.
• Promoted ethical practice.
• Promoted constant self-education amongst physicians.

 

Quotes

The eruption of smallpox is preceded by a continued fever, pain in the back, itching in the nose and nightmares during sleep. These are the more acute symptoms of its approach together with a noticeable pain in the back accompanied by fever and an itching felt by the patient all over his body. A swelling of the face appears, which comes and goes, and one notices an overall inflammatory color noticeable as a strong redness on both cheeks and around both eyes. One experiences a heaviness of the whole body and great restlessness, which expresses itself as a lot of stretching and yawning. There is a pain in the throat and chest and one finds it difficult to breathe and cough. Additional symptoms are: dryness of breath, thick spittle, hoarseness of the voice, pain and heaviness of the head, restlessness, nausea and anxiety. (Note the difference: restlessness, nausea and anxiety occur more frequently with "measles" than with smallpox. At the other hand, pain in the back is more apparent with smallpox than with measles). Altogether one experiences heat over the whole body, one has an inflamed colon and one shows an overall shining redness, with a very pronounced redness of the gums. (Rhazes, Encyclopaedia of Medicine).