The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)
History
The growth of medicine from the earliest times to about 1800
Buck, Albert H. (Albert Henry)
Medicine -- History
Its greatness is emphasized by the fact that, except in this one
corner of the globe, everything was in a state of decadence....
Great as is the credit due the Abbaside Dynasty and its
ministers, still greater is our admiration for the Arab nation
on account of the eagerness with which it met the wishes of its
rulers and also because it pursued resolutely, and despite all
the obstacles (political and religious) which were placed in
its way, the course laid down for it to follow.... The Arabs
also knew how to choose men who were really eminent and to
rescue them from lives which otherwise would probably have been
sterile; they claimed the inheritance of Greek science; and they
revealed to the world that they were worthy of this inheritance.
Some idea of the completeness of the list of Greek medical works which
the Arabs translated may be gained from the fact that Galen’s writings
are more complete in the Arabic than they are in the Greek, the
language in which they were originally composed.
With Costa the second stage in the Arab Renaissance came to an end.
All the work accomplished at Bagdad up to this period in our history
received its inspiration from the different Caliphs belonging to
the Abbaside Dynasty. But now the political conditions in the East
underwent a change, and other Arabian dynasties, each in its turn,
gained control of the power previously wielded by Almansur, Haroun
Alraschid and their successors. Fortunately, all of these new rulers
seem to have been favorably inclined toward the revival of literature,
and consequently the Arabs continued to take an active part in the
advance of medical knowledge during the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Bagdad, however, ceased to be the centre of all this intellectual
activity, and eventually Cordova in Spain almost rivaled the capital
of ancient Greece in the eagerness with which she sought to increase
her stores of books, and in her readiness to honor scholars. By this
time the Arabs controlled, not only Persia and Arabia, but also Egypt,
Palestine, Syria, Marseilles, the coast of Asia Minor, Greece, Sicily,
the northern part of Africa and Spain. Owing to the limited space at my
command I shall be obliged to confine my account to the more salient
features of the progress made during this later or third stage of the
Arab Renaissance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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