Iranian medicine - history and present

History of Iranian Medicine

Iran has a long history of nearly 3000 years, in which medicine enjoyed a high priority. The history of medicine in Iran is as old as Iranian civilization and dates back to pre-Islamic times.

contents

• History of Iranian Medicine
• The medical sciences in the Avesta
• The pre-Islamic period
• The University of Gundishapur
• The Islamic time
• hospitals
• Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi (Rhazes) (c 865-925)
• Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (980-1037)
• Stagnation among the Safavids
• Modern medicine in Dar al-Fonun
• Today's medicine in Iran
• Iranian doctors
• References:

Before the founding of the two famous medical schools in ancient Greece during the sixth century. v. Chr., In Cnidos and the Aegean island of Cos in Asia Minor, medical healing spread to a high level in Mesopotamia, India and Iran. The oldest written sources that we know about Iranian medicine are the Avesta and other Zoroastrian religious texts, including Denkart and Bundahishn. They show the importance of old medical beliefs that focused on personal hygiene, public health and the prevention of infectious diseases.

Typical bazaar in Shiraz, Iran. Image: Nicola Messana - fotolia

The ancient Persians lived in a wild territory with a great variety of climate and vegetation; This made them familiar with various medicinal plants. Various medicinal plants such as basil, chicory and peppermint are mentioned in the Avesta, and the Bundahishn quotes 30 medicinal plants.

Persia was a center of academic knowledge in antiquity. Persian scientists introduced astronomy, medicine, mathematics, literature and philosophy. Under Cyrus II, the Persian Empire became the first empire in history; it extended from the Danube to Pakistan, and from Egypt to the Caucasus. The knowledge of Greece, Egypt, Babylon, India and even China flowed into Persian medicine and evolved over 4,000 years.

Millennia of conquest and foreign rule could not destroy this knowledge. The Persian scientists continued to work among their new masters, among Arabs as well as among Mongols - and the rulers needed this knowledge. Even in the Middle Ages, which meant a major step back in medicine in Europe, Persia produced the best teachers in various sciences. Persian doctors were regarded as role models in Europe, and Persian medicine flowed into the European healing practice of the 13th century.

Iranian universities such as Jundsihapur in the third century were breeding grounds for collaboration between scientists of different civilizations. These centers successfully followed the teachings of their predecessors and continued to develop their scientific research throughout history. A major role played by Iranian science teachers in the preservation, consolidation, coordination and development of ideas and knowledge of ancient civilizations.

Some Iranian Hakim (practical doctors) such as Abu Bakr Mohammad Zakariya Al-Razi, known in the West as Yazes and Abu Ali-Hussain ibn Abdullah Ebn-e Sina, better known as Avicenna, were not only responsible for the existing information of the time about medicine but also developed knowledge through their own observations, experiments and skills. "Qanoon fel teb" by Avicanna (the Canon) and "kitab al-hawi" by Razi were among the most elementary texts in western medicine from the 13th to the 18th century.

The medical sciences in the Avesta

According to the ancient texts, Jamshid, the fourth Pishdadi king, established the rules of bathing in cold and hot water. The chroniclers praised him that under his rule no plant withered and no living creature died. This could mean that during the time of Jamshid's reign the medical sciences developed into such a state that plants and animals could live for a long time without illness.

The medicinal properties of many plants were known to the peoples of Iranian antiquity, as evidenced by the texts of the Avesta. The Avesta notes that Ahura Mazda Zarathustra gave ten thousand healing plants: "And I, Ahura Mazda, send him herbs that grow by hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands around Gaokerena." (Gaokerene or White Hom was the king of medicinal plants).

The Avesta calls Faridun the first wise healer to "send the disease back to illness and death back to death, and push away the tip of the sword as well as the fever of fire from mortal bodies."

We also read in these sources that some of these plants were in common use, so the Avesta imposes heavy penalties on those who used henbane for abortion. With the help of Soma, a narcotic plant, Ardaviraf traveled to the world of the dead, and came back to earth after visiting the lower and upper worlds to write about his experiences in Ardaviraf nameh.

In Garshab nameh, Garshab tells how a whale is killed and its brain used for medical purposes. He describes various islands and names plants that grow there with a medicinal value, for example, by making the ancients young, or flowers whose scent causes laughter-

In the Bondahishn, a Pahlavi text that deals primarily with the origin of creation, the foundations of anatomy were described figuratively. The human body is treated as a picture of the world, the bones are the mountains, the stomach is the ocean, the skin is the sky, the flesh is the earth, the veins are the rivers, the blood circulation is the water of the rivers, and the hairs are the forests. In Bondahishna, a tree is called a "tree of many seeds" and it is supposed to carry the seeds of all beneficial and medicinal plants.

In the Zoroastrian religion, it was forbidden to contaminate water, earth, fire and plants. The Zoroaster did not bathe in running water and did not wash dirty objects in it; urinating or spitting in the water was considered a great sin. Strong smelling things were never thrown into the fire.

Even throwing away a leg with a bit of grease was considered a crime. Corpses were considered totally dirty and no one was allowed to touch them. Cleanliness in the house and the living quarters was considered a religious duty and at least once a year, the spring cleaning was a public duty before the New Year. Wild herbs have always been burned in the house to kill insects, a tradition that still exists today.

The pre-Islamic period

Iran's history of medicine can be divided into three periods. The sixth book of the Zend-Avesta contains some of the earliest accounts of ancient Iranian medicine. The Vendidad devotes itself in her last chapters of the art of healing.

In a passage of the Vendidad, one of the surviving texts of the Zandavesta, three types of medicine are distinguished: medicine of the knife (surgery), medicine with plants, and medicine with holy words; and this medicine with sacred words was considered the best medicine. As in Vedic India, mantric medicine was the most important, and disease was the result of an act of supernatural powers, especially those of the demons. This is the reason for ten thousand medicinal plants created by Ohrmazd to ward off the ten thousand diseases created by the evil god Ahriman.

The second epoch falls into the era known as Pahlaviliteratur. During this time, the entire field of medicine was systematically treated in the encyclopedic work of Dinkart, which discusses 4333 diseases.

The third era began with the Achaemenid dynasty and spanned the time of Darius I, whose interest in medicine was allegedly so great that he rebuilt the medical school in Sais, Egypt, which had previously been destroyed.

The first teaching hospital, where students under the supervision of doctors methodically trained on patients, was the academy of Gundishapur in the Persian Empire. Some experts even say, "To a large extent, the entire hospital system goes back to Persia."

According to the Vendidad, to prove their professionalism, doctors had to cure three patients, and if they failed, they were not allowed to practice medicine. At first glance, that sounds discriminatory and after human experimentation. But some authors note that from the beginning doctors broke down mental barriers and treated enemies as well as friends. The payment for the services of the doctor was based on the income of the patient.

Long before Islam, Persian science influenced Greek philosophy. The first pre-Socratic thinkers lived in Asia Minor under Persian rule. Thales of Miletus and Heraclitus of Ephesus introduced Persian science into a liberal Greek society that willingly absorbed the new influences.

The time of Greece's cultural boom is not only a local achievement, but was supported by a long tradition of science transfer from Persia to Greece from 600-300 BC. Chr

The University of Gundishapur

The exact date of the founding of the Gundsihapur School is unknown, but most researchers believe it was founded at the time of Shapur II (309-379 AD). The ninth king of the Sassanids, Shapur II, chose the city as his capital and built the world's oldest known medical center, which also contained a university and a library of 400,000 books.

Gundishapur was probably the first teaching hospital in the world. According to the Christian chronicler Georgy Zeidan, Khosrow Anushiravan established an institution where doctors methodically looked after the sick and where students taught under the guidance of teachers from Greece and India.

The school was an important center of medicine and became known as the "City of Hippocrates" (Cuitus Hippcratica). At this medical institution, the Hippocratic (460-377 BC) and Galenic traditions (130-199 AD) were taught - combined with the rich Persian and Indian heritage as developed, it took over the Islamic world.

The medical students learned that in practical medicine they had to take the best advice from experts to understand the patient's suffering, that they had to take time to listen, and then apply their knowledge of medical science to their individual health problems and health problems , They learned to diagnose the disease together with their patients and to make decisions about successful therapies.

The university was also a center of proscribed scientists from other parts of the world. Athenian philosophers who were persecuted in their homeland found their refuge here and occupied demanding positions. They were allowed to teach Greek philosophy - as guest lecturers.

In 261 AD, a medical congress was held at Gundishapur University. In addition to Iranian doctors, numerous doctors from Greece, Rome and India participated; Jewish scholars also enriched the discussion on diagnoses and treatments for diseases. The results of the discussions were recorded in writing, so that a congress book could be published after the congress, which contained all essential points.

The Islamic time

Iranian science suffered a collapse after the Arab invasion in 630 AD. The conquerors destroyed schools, universities and libraries, burnt books and killed teachers. Nonetheless, the Iranian scientists continued, and the science of Persia came to the fore in Islamic times. To protect the books from destruction by the Arabs, many of them were translated into Arabic from the Pahlavi period, and during the Islamic period, Iran spawned physicians and scientists such as Avicenna and Rhazi.

The first direct communication between the University of Gundishapur and Islamic Baghdad began during the time of the Second Abbaside Caliph, Abu Jaafar Mansour (755-774 AD). Al-Mansour used Baghdad as its capital. He was the first caliph to take astronomers to his court and use them as advisors in all matters - and he relied on the knowledge of the Iranians.

The university's director, Jirjis, was also involved to advise the caliph, and many Gundishpar physicians played important roles in the development of Islamic medicine and pharmaceutical science. Many of the medicinal plants that are mentioned in Islamic medicine books bear the names that they were referred to in Gundishapur. In 810 AD, Caliph Harun el Rashid built a hospital in Baghdad to compete with the famous hospital in Gundishapur, and doctors from the old center were taken to the new hospital. After the lecturers, philosophers and teachers from Gundishapur gathered in Baghdad, the Abbasid court in Baghdad was based on an efficient infrastructure.

hospitals

In the early Islamic period many hospitals were founded. The old Persian word Bimaristan means hospital. Medieval Islam adopted the term and used it to designate official hospitals with a professional staff.

The first Islamic hospital was founded in 707 in Damascus, with the help of Christians. However, the main medical facility was established in Baghdad; it opened in the reign of Harun al-Rashid in the eighth century. He had it built on Persian model and called it Bimaristan. Attached was a bayt al-hikmah (House of Wisdom), in which professors and graduates of Gundeshapur taught. The first director was the Christian doctor Yibrael ibn Bukhtishu from Gundeshapur; later leaders were Muslims.

Islamic hospitals were the first to write reports about patients and the course of medical treatment. Students were responsible for keeping these reports, after which doctors reviewed them and referred to them in future treatments.

Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi (Rhazes) (c 865-925)

Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known to the scholars of Europe in the Middle Ages as Rhazes, Razi or Rasis, (865- 925) was a Persian alchemist, chemist, physician, philosopher and teacher. He is known as a polymath and is named as probably the greatest and most original of all the doctors of the Islamic period, and one of the most distinguished authors.

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi was born in Ray, a town near today's Tehran in northeastern Iran. It is believed that he spent his early years studying medicine and philosophy.

Razi gained fundamental insights in the fields of medicine, alchemy, music and philosophy, which he published in more than 184 books and articles. He was well versed in the medical knowledge of the Persians, Greeks and Indians and made various advances in medicine through his own observations and discoveries. Far more: in his first works he dealt with the interplay between mental and physical illnesses and introduced psychosomatics to academic medicine.

But he was anything but a pure "soul doctor". He appreciated the written down knowledge and disapproved conclusions that ignored the traditional experiences. He built his own insights systematically on the traditions. So he studied the extensive work of Galen and built on it a curriculum for medical studies, which should remain valid for centuries. He tested his own hypotheses until they allowed clear statements - in other words, he laid the groundwork for the empirical method of modern times.

He kept this sharp analysis in philosophical questions and denied the inviolability of religious texts when their information was inadequate. So he criticized the Koran in a way that would bring him under the current mullah regime at least in the jail: "They claim that the obvious miracle in the form of the Koran is accessible to everyone. They say 'whoever denies this should reproduce something comparable'. In fact, we could reproduce a thousand similar products from the work of rhetoricians, eloquent speakers, and brave poets whose formulations are more accurate and shorter. They can communicate their intentions better and their rhyming prose has a better rhythm. By God, what you tell us is amazing! They talk about a book that lists old myths and at the same time is full of contradictions and does not contain any valuable information or explanations. Then say 'Produce something comparable!' "

He was a pioneer of ophthalmology and distinguished first measles and smallpox as different diseases. As an alchemist, Razi is known for his studies on sulfuric acid and the discovery of alcohol; he was an excellent surgeon and used opium as a narcotic. Al-Razi discusses a method of preserving corpses. For this purpose, the intestines were removed, the body cavities washed out with vinegar and spirit, and then the body filled with salt. This method was practiced until modern times.

Razi became the chief physician of the hospitals in Baghdad and Rey. He placed special emphasis on healing and prevention through healthy nutrition, which, according to him, again influenced the mental state.

Avicenna (Ibn Sina) (980-1037)

Abu 'Ali al-Husayn ibn Sina is known in Europe under its Latinized name Avicenna. He was born in 980 AD in Afshaneh near Bukhara. Avicenna wrote about 450 works, from physics to philosophy, to astronomy, mathematics, logic, poetry and medicine, including the "Canon of Medicine", an encyclopedia that changed our understanding of the human body and its internal processes forever. This masterpiece of science and philosophy - or metaphysics - remained six hundred years standard work in medical studies.

His canon of medicine is an immense study of more than 1 million words. He also outlines the causes of diseases as well as the causes of good healings. The canon contains a variety of unique contributions, such as the contagious nature of diseases such as tuberculosis. This seems obvious today; However, even in the plague wave, 300 years after Avicenna's death, European medicine did not know that epidemics were transmitted from person to person. Avicenna continues to discuss how diseases spread through water and earth. Other chapters of the Canon are devoted to, for example, drug treatment, anatomy, psychology and surgery.

In addition to philosophy and medicine, the work includes texts on astronomy, alchemy, geography and geology, Islamic theology, logic, mathematics, physics and poetry.

Avicenna is considered the father of modern medicine because he made valuable efforts to introduce clinical trials and test drugs experimentally. He also designed a practical textbook for hands-on experiments to discover and test the effectiveness of natural healing practices. He summed up the four temperaments: two of the elemental qualities, hot and cold, were active, and two were passive, dry and damp. Health therefore means that the strength of all temperaments is in balance. On this basis, the doctors of his time developed various methods to cure diseases.

Avicenna not only discovered the bloodstream; He also accurately visualized the internal organs - for example, the uterus. According to the Koran, it was a mortal sin to open the human body, because that would put man in the same position as the Creator. Avicenna was likely to break the ban and secretly dissect corpses.

There are thousands of plants growing in Iran and many of them are endemic. Avicenna knew many of them: Iranian lavender helped against stomach / bowel disease; the Arum cured pneumonia and gout; the resin of the Astágalus tree helped against colds; the Persian onion looks antibacterial. Avicenna used the bitter almond against kidney stones.

The Latin-translated Avicennas plant boosted the market for Iranian medicinal herbs in Europe. Via Syria they reached Venice and from there to Central Europe. Arrived here they were more valuable than gold.

Stagnation among the Safavids

Iranian medicine was superior to European medicine in the Middle Ages and was considered a role model. It had survived the political upheavals and even evolved. The outstanding role of Persian medicine (and science) since ancient times had two main reasons: Zoroastrianism and the infastructure of the Persian empire. The Zoroastrians had elevated sanitation and scientific research to the rank of religion; the Persian empire had unique access to knowledge centers of the ancient world: Egypt, Mesopotamia and India - with contacts to China and Greece.

Although the Arab conquerors introduced Islam, their Islamic rule began to suppress the Persian tradition. However, after initially persecuting the Zoroastrian rituals and destroying libraries, they made use of Persian science as they established their rule - under Islamic seal and in Arabic.

The Persian knowledge tradition proved to be extremely tough. She had witnessed the violent change of various dynasties, and the caliphs were as dependent on Persian scholars as their ancient predecessors. Thus, the Persian tradition was preserved under Islamic rule and with it the knowledge of ancient Greece, Mesopotamia and even Egypt, which were lost in Europe in the turmoil of peoples migration and under the Catholic dogma. Under the rule of the Mongols, it was no different; the new rulers from the steppes of the East mercilessly acted in their invasion of the Islamic world; they were responsible for what was probably the country's largest genocide at that time - but they were tolerant in cultural matters, and the Persian scholars soon restored their intellectual underpinnings.

But in the early modern period, Persian medicine stagnated. The Safavids came to power in the 16th century, and they belonged to the Shiites. To distinguish themselves from their Ottoman enemies, they elevated the Zwölferschia to the state religion. Early Islam had already fought the Zoroastrian tradition and with it the traditional medicine inseparably linked. But she was able to rebuild herself under the new sign. However, not only did Muslims refer the Zoroastrians (as well as Jews and Christians) to the subordinate positions, but one Islamic school, the Shia, suppressed the other, the Sunnis. Therefore, Iranian Sunnis emigrated in large numbers, especially scholars and among them many physicians. From then on they worked for the liberal mogul of India, liberal compared to the Shiite jurists. In the Safavid period, however, Hakim continued to work in Iran, so the Iman Reza hospital flourished and their doctors described the effects of countless medications.

The geographical location no longer offered the advantage as an interface between the advanced civilizations of antiquity and the Middle Ages: the Shiites were also a minority in Islam, and the focus on the Shia isolated the Iranian politically and wiped out the transfer of knowledge. While Avicenna and Razi advocated enlightened views, behind which the former Europe was far behind, came the enlightenment of the 18th century from Europe and seeped into Iran at specific points.

Although imperialist in the 19th century, Iran remained sovereign, but at the same time became isolated. The British ruled India and the coast of the Persian Gulf; in the north stood the Russian Empire, and Iran was cut off from modernization. Iranians now traveled to Europe and compared the industrial societies there with the "backward" Iran.

Modern medicine in Dar al-Fonun

The fourth Quajar king, Naserad Din Shah ruled from 1848-1896. He wanted to modernize Iran and his minister Amir Kabir should take the necessary measures. In 1851, Amir Kabir founded the first modern institute for higher education, the so-called "Dar al-Fonun", the House of Technology. One of the subjects was medicine; Today, the then established study is regarded as the main step to introduce modern medicine in Iran. Initially, the students in Dar al-Fonun were mainly educated by Austrians, with the help of local interpreters. Already in 1860, however, the lecturers of the medical faculty were multinational.

So, European doctors taught at the House of Technology, so Iranian doctors learned western medicine and wrote books on modern medicine practiced in the West. Among the doctors in Dar al-Fonun, Dr. Johan Louis Schlimmer, a Dutch doctor. Born in 1819, he graduated from the Medical University of Leiden. In 1849 he came to Iran and was sent to Talesh. He then worked in Rashat, Guila Province in northern Iran, where he devoted some years to the treatment of lepers. In 1855 he became the deputy of Dr. med. Jacob Eduard Polak (1818-1891) in Dar al-Fonun; the Austrian worked there as a medical lecturer. Worse worked until 1864 in the college, first in French, later he learned Persian and taught the students in their native language. He researched diseases such as leprosy and cholera and was responsible for the clinical education of medical students at the state hospital, which was built in 1852.

The Iranian Mirza Reza Mohandes planned the institute, and the architect Taqi Khan Memar-Bashi built it under the supervision of Quajariprinzen Bahram Mirza. These included a theater, a library, a cafeteria and a publishing house. But in 1930, Mirza Yahya Khan Qaragozlu had it destroyed and rebuilt - in a Russian design.

Today's medicine in Iran

In 1849, with the founding of Dar-al-funun, a new era of Iranian medicine began. By the time Tehran University was founded, Dar-al-funun was the only modern medical center in the country. In 1925, 650 trained Hakim practiced there in Iran. In 1938, the Tehran University School of Medicine was founded, and Iranian graduates returned from Europe's medical schools. Thus, Iran found the connection to the modern specializations and the already based on "apparatus" practice. The Pahlavi Hospital (now Iman Khomeini Hospital) constructed spaces for endocrinology and metabolism.

In the decades following the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the population of Iran doubled, but the number of universities and students increased tenfold. All foreign doctors in the clinics were replaced by young Iranian graduates. Despite the difficult circumstances, an eight-year war with Iraq, political brainwashing, the exclusion of Iranian scientists in international journals, and the sanctions of the Western world, which made necessary technical equipment lacking, medical science developed in Iran.

Iranian doctors

Doctor is a highly recognized profession in today's Iran. This is partly due to the historical size of Persian medicine, but also to the, compared to Western Europe, massive social problems. Being a doctor means the certainty of having a well-paid job and being part of the educational elite. Only the best are admitted to medical school, and who sets up as a doctor has also undergone extensive training. The level of universities in Iran is high, and many Iranians also study abroad.

The number of doctors among citizens with an Iranian immigrant background is very large: In Austria, for example, every 13th Austroiran graduate is a medical student.

Many internationally known doctors come from Iran, for example Prof. Samii in Hanover, who linked microchips to nerve cells and thus enabled deaf people to hear. Now he is researching methods that are supposed to cure paraplegics. Also in Hanover Azmi and Dr. Rahimi, who developed new surgical methods that prevent amputations. The Iranian doctors founded the "Association of Iranian Doctors and Dentists in the Federal Republic of Germany" (VIA) in 1961. (Somayeh Ranjbar)

References:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763401000252

http://www.sid.ir/en/vewssid/j_pdf/5066620120302.pdf

http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/_Academy_of_Gundishapur.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avicenna

www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/alrazi.aspx

http://www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Geography/gondi_Shapur_medical_school.htm