Search

Avicenna (980-1037 AD), also known as Sheikh or-Raeis, was an Muslim philosopher, physician, surgeon, astronomer, politician, encyclopedist, and mathematician. Avicenna's writings comprise of five books, know as the Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine) and the canon covers a wide variety of medical issues. This canon of medicine was the main reference for medical education in Western countries up until the 16th century and in the Middle East until the 19th century. Several chapters of the 3rd book of the Canon are devoted to a detailed description of gastrointestinal diseases including bowel obstruction, hemorrhoids anal fissures, perianal fistulas and perianal itching. Additionally, that same volume contains an illustration of an enema device. The aim of this paper was to present a brief review of Avicenna's 11th century views on bowel obstruction and to present his description of an enema device that has remained relatively unnoticed until now. Finally, this article illustrates similarities between Avicenna's explanation and modern medical science that celebrate Avicenna as an important contributor to medieval knowledge on gastrointestinal diseases, the science of which has been passed on to later generations.

Neuropathic pain is supposed to be a post-renaissance described medical entity. Although it is often believed that John Fothergill (1712-1780) provided the first description of this condition in 1773, a review of the medieval Persian medical writings will show the fact that neuropathic pain was a medieval-originated concept. "Auojae Asab" [Nerve-originated Pain] was used as a medical term in medieval Persian medical literature for pain syndromes which etiologically originated from nerves. Physicians like Rhazes (d. 925 CE), Haly Abbas (d. 982 CE), Avicenna (d. 1037 CE), and Jorjani (d. 1137 CE) have discussed multiple aspects of nerve-originated pain including its classification, etiology, differentiating characteristics, different qualities, and pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic treatments. Recognizing medieval scholars' views on nerve-originated pain can lighten old historical origins of this concept.

Abubakr Rabi-ibn Ahmad Akhawayni Bukhari, also known as Al-Akhawayni, was a Persian physician who lived in the Near East during an age in which medical knowledge blossomed in the Islamic world. This era, the "Islamic Golden Age," extended from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. During his lifetime as a physician, Al-Akhawayni was famous for his expertise in medicine, including disorders that would be considered neurological today. In his extant book Hidayat al-Muta`allemin fi al-Tibb [A Scholar's Guide to Medicine], he provided an early description of what is probably meningitis. He illustrated the membranes surrounding the brain tissue in detail and described manifestations resulting from their inflammation.

Since antiquity, heart function and the mechanism of blood circulation within the human body have been the focus of attention of scientists from different parts of the world. Over the passage of time, the theories and works of these scientists have resulted in the achievement of today's knowledge of circulation. The medieval Persian scholar, Al-Akhawayni Bukhari (?-983AD), is among the physicians who investigated both the anatomy and the physiology of the human body. Al-Akhawayni describes the mechanism of pulmonary circulation in his only extant book, "Hidayat al-Muta`llemin fi al-Tibb" (A Scholar's Guide to Medicine) with which he made a contribution to the development of knowledge regarding this mechanism in the medicine of the Islamic world. In this paper, Al-Akhawayni's viewpoints on anatomy and the function of the heart, its related vessels, and also pulmonary circulation will be briefly discussed., (© 2013.)