History of Medicine in Islamic Countries in Unknown Aspects

Painting himself, Sabuncuoğlu showed the etching methods in this way

We will take a look at a subject that is the subject of volumes and volumes of books, with unknown aspects, outlines and a different point of view.

Terminology

Islam literally means "to attain salvation, to submit, to surrender" and it means to submit to Allah's commands and attain salvation. In the Holy Qur'an, Surah Al-Imran, verse 19, it is stated that "Islam is the true religion in the sight of Allah" and in verse 85 of the same sûra, it is stated that "Whoever seeks any religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted from him and he will be lost in the Hereafter". 

Medicine means "knowing, understanding, knowledge" in Aramaic.

Hakim comes from the same root as the Arabic word Hakim and means "wise, sage, philosopher, physician".

Health: Old Turkish right means "muteber". It is derived from the Old Turkish verb sa- "to count, esteem" with the suffix +Iğ. In Divan-i Lugat-it Turk, right is translated as "auspicious side, right side". 

In the Book of Dede Korkut, sağaltmak is used in the sense of "to heal": "Dede, you see my hand healed".

Hippocrates, who was born on the Greek island of Kos in 460 B.C. and is considered the father of medicine, used the first rule of medicine: "Primum non nocere: First, do no harm." Since then, this rule has never changed. Modern medicine has only added moralizing and partly curing the patient.

 Jesus healing the sick in the Gospels

Among the miracles given to Jesus (pbuh) were the healing of congenital blindness and pied pox. The Gospel of John records in Chapter 5 that a cripple was healed on the Sabbath (Saturday), and in Chapter 9 that Jesus made mud with his saliva and applied it to the eyes of a man who was blind from birth, and after saying "go and wash", his eyes opened after he was washed. Again in the Gospel of John, Chapter 11, it is narrated that when a man named Lazarus prayed to God at his grave after his death, "the dead man came out with his hands and feet bound in bandages and his face wrapped in a loincloth". 

hapter 1 of the Gospel of Mark tells of a "leper" being healed, Chapter 2 tells of a "paralytic" being cured, and Chapter 10 tells of blind Bartimaeus regaining his sight after Jesus prayed.

Chapter 7 of the Gospel of Matthew tells of a "leper" and a "paralytic" being healed, Chapter 9 tells of "two blind men and a mute" being healed, and Chapter 20 tells of two blind men having their eyes opened.

In the Gospel of Luke, chapters 4 and 5, it is narrated that Jesus healed many lepers and paralyzed patients. The healing of the sick by Jesus in the Qur'an

"... Likewise, I can heal the blind and the blind from birth, and even raise the dead by the permission of Allah..." Al-Imran:3/49. The story of Jesus being given a miracle by Allah is repeated in Surah al-Ma'ida. "Consider you: By My permission you opened the eyes of the blind and healed the blind. Imagine that by My permission you were bringing the dead out of the grave alive." Al-Ma'idah, 5/110.

Health in Islam

Surah Al-Baqarah, verse 155 says: "We will certainly test you with fear and hunger, and with loss of wealth, lives and crops; give good news to those who are patient". Here, the loss of lives refers to the health problems that people will suffer, and patience refers to being patient with these problems and making efforts to cure them. Islam emphasizes preventive medicine, especially cleanliness.

Verses of healing

In Surat al-Tawbah, verse 14: "And that it may refresh the hearts of a believing people".

In Surah Yunus, verse 57: "Here is a healing for the hearts and a guidance and mercy (the Qur'an) for those who believe".

In Surah Nahl, verse 69: "In it is healing for mankind".

In Surah Isrâ, verse 82: "We send down from the Qur'an such a thing that it is healing and mercy for the believers."

"It is He who heals me when I am sick" in verse 80 of Shu'ârâ sûra

In Surat al-Fussilet, verse 44: "Say: "It is a guidance and healing for those who believe..."

The Prophet was not given miracles like Jesus was given miracles. His greatest miracle is the Qur'an. He was sent as a mercy to the worlds. From time to time, he expressed his opinion on certain events like any other human being. However, he did not have a duty and practice characterized as medicine of the Prophet.

First Hospital in Islamic States

It is also mentioned in the sources that the Prophet had his Companions treated by Haris bin Kelede, a physician trained in the hospital in Jundishapur. The hospital in question belonged to the Sassanids and Muslims did not establish hospitals until the Umayyad period. Some sources mention the tent set up in the Prophet's time to treat the wounded during the Battle of the Trench as the first bîmarhâne of Islam. Bîmarhâne is Persian and means "sick house

The first hospital in Islamic states was opened in 707 (88 AH) by the Umayyad Caliph Walid b. Abdulmalik in Damascus. After the Umayyads, hospitals became so popular in the Islamic geography that the region became a leader in the field of medicine. European states even sent students to the Andalusian Umayyads' medical hospital in Qurtuba and tried to build hospitals like theirs, which they could only build hundreds of years later.

The Umayyads of Andalusia were very advanced in the field of medicine. Some of the medical instruments they invented are even used in today's medicine.

According to the Andalusian medical scholar Ibn Rushd, the aim of medicine is not to cure diseases but to do what needs to be done in a timely manner. Therefore, medicine is an art that aims to protect the human body and eliminate diseases based on correct principles.

Later, during the reign of Harun Rashid, the Christian physician Jibrāil b. Bahtishū from Jundishapur was commissioned to establish a hospital in Baghdad. The hospitals established in Egypt experienced their first bright times and Islamic Medicine made great progress.

After the Abbasids, the Tolunids and the Ikhshidids also opened hospitals. In the hospital built by Ahmad b. Tolun, patients were treated free of charge and a social state policy was adopted in hospitals.

After the Umayyads and Abbasids, many Islamic states such as Ayyubids and Buwayhids also established hospitals and benefited from the hospitals that had already been established.

It is also mentioned in the sources that Saladin Ayyubî had a mental hospital established. In the West at that time, the mentally ill were thought to be possessed by the devil and were tried to be controlled by various bigoted methods far from being considered as treatment. It is also recorded in the records that patients discharged from the hospitals established by Saladin Ayyubî were given some pocket money.

The Seljuks, like other Islamic countries, used and even improved the hospitals established before them. An example of this is Tugrul Beg's development and reorganization of the hospital founded by Jibrāil b. Buhtīshū. This hospital became the largest medical center of its time.

The oldest surviving Seljuk hospital is the Bimaristan built by Dukak b. Tutuş. Nureddin Zengi, the Atabeg of Damascus, built another bimaristan next to Tutuş's hospital. The Bimaristan that Nureddin Zengi had established in Damascus in 1154 in his own name was built with the ransom of Joscelin de Courtenay, Count of Tel-Bâshir, who was captured during the Crusades. 

The world's first doctoral thesis

The fact that an academic study, which is considered to be the world's first doctoral thesis, was written during the Seljuk period in Bimaristân-ı Adûdî, which Harun Reşid had Jibrâile establish, is an indication of how much the science of medicine had developed. The aforementioned work was written in 1178 and is about Calinus' Hıfzıs-Sıhhası. In the preface, it is stated that it was read and accepted as a thesis by Chief Physician Abu Said al-Harawi.

The Bimaristan of the Seljuks were so impressive that Europeans and Mamluks imitated the Seljuks and tried to model their hospitals after theirs. Medical education became academic during the Seljuk period. Theoretical and practical education was given together in bimaristan. One of the most important hospitals built by the Seljuks was Kayseri Gevher Nesibe Darüşşifa and Gıyaseddin Medical Madrasah. The Gevher Nesibe Madrasah had a physician, surgeon, kehhal (ophthalmologist) room and wards for the mentally ill. One of the most important points is the bimarhane section built for the mentally ill. Consisting of 18 chambers, what makes the section unique are the acoustic sound channels running through the walls. It is known that with these channels, the patients inside the chambers were treated by making suggestions accompanied by water and music. For every kind of disease, which makam, at which time and with which dose of music was to be treated was practiced in a detailed and systematic manner. Abu Bakr Razi (854-932), Abu Nasr Farabi (870-950) and Ibn Sina (980-1037), who were important scholars of Islamic history both as physicians and musicologists, examined the therapeutic effect of music. Another scholar who studied the effect of maqams was Gevrekzade Hasan Efendi, who lived in the Ottoman Empire. (1727 - 1801). In his work Neticetü'l -Fikriyye ve Tedbir'i Veladeti'l Bikriyye (Neticetü'l -Fikriyye ve Tedbir'i Veladeti'l Bikriyye), which he wrote on pediatric diseases, he also explained which musical maqams were good for which pediatric diseases.

Treatment with music in the world

Although Turkish physicians carried out the first known serious studies in the field of music therapy in the world in this madrasah, the fact that we have almost no international activity in the field of Music Therapy today is a very sad and important point to be mentioned.

In the USA, music therapy has been used effectively in psychiatry-based illnesses since the 1950s. In 1977, music therapy was recognized as a science.

Organization map of the European Music Therapy Confederation across Europe

The tradition of music therapy, which started at that time, was applied systematically, academically and scientifically in Seljuk and Ottoman healhouses. But now we are not even a member of the European Confederation of Music Therapy. This subject is not being researched in our medical faculties.

References

Qur'ân al-kerîm

The Bible

The religion of truth, the language of the Qur'an Elmalılı M. Hamdi Yazır, 2017- Sistem printing

Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, Osmanlı da Bilim ve Eğitim, Medreselerin Tarihi Serüveni.Kronik Yay. Istanbul, 2019

al-Bukhari, al-Sahih, Tıb 25. 

Prof. Dr. Mehmet Özdemir Andalusian Muslims Culture and Civilization TDVY 2013