Treccani History of Science

Science in Islamic civilization

C5 – Medicine and life sciences

Edited by Roshdi Rashed, Ursula Weisser
The sciences in classical Islam and the periodisation of the history of science
Roshdi Rashed
Healing traditions in Islamic culture
Ursula Weisser
The Galenic tradition
Gotthard Strohmaier
• 1. Galenic doctrine and the Alexandrian School
• 2. Arabic translations and reworkings of the Galenic tradition
Medical knowledge and manuals
Ursula Weisser
• 1. The new manuals
• 2. A first attempt: the Paradise of wisdom
• 3. The manuals of Galenic medicine
• 4. The pinnacle of medical encyclopedism: The Canon
Theoretical and empirical contributions of Arabic medicine
Ursula Weisser
• 1. The conception of medicine between tradition and practice
• 2. Tradition and progress
• 3. From educational collections to systematic and speculative contributions
• 4. Empirical contributions: clinical pictures
• 5. Diagnostics and therapeutics: the development of general methods
• 6. Specializations
• 7. The problem of contagion: the plague
Between science and religion: the ‘medicine of the Prophet’
Julia Bummel
• 1. Collections of religious traditions on medicine
• 2. The medical-religious writings
• 3. The interaction between scientific medicine, the medicine of the Prophet and the folk medicine
The ‘natural things’: Structure and function of the body
Ursula Weisser
• 1. Galenic physiology and its reception in the Islamic world
• 2. The fundamental concepts of physiology
• 3. The seven categories
• 4. Functional anatomy and its source in Galen
• 5. Practical anatomy and the renunciation of dissection in the Islamic world
• 6. Observations on the human skeleton of ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī
Diseases in medical theory
Danielle Jacquart
• 1. The disease between cause and sign
• 2. Against Nature and not natural
• 3. Accidents and signs: the symptoms of diseases
• 4. Nosology: the principles of classification
• 5. The Byzantine heritage: diseases a capite ad calcem
• 6. Fever and fevers
• 7. The comparison with reality: from the particularities of diseases to the diversity of the sick
Materia medica and pharmacological theory
Nouha Stéphan
• 1. In search of medicinal drugs
• 2. The pharmacological theory on the effectiveness of simple drugs
• 3. The presentation of the materia medica in medical and pharmacy texts
• 4. Sugar and wine
General medicine
Aurora Cano Ledesma
• 1. Diagnostics
• 2. Dietetics and hygiene
Surgery
Emilie Savage-Smith
• 1. Sources and texts of surgery
• 2. Surgical literature and practical surgery
• 3. Illustrations and practical surgery
Ophthalmology
Emilie Savage-Smith
• 1. The main texts and protagonists
• 2. Pharmacological and surgical therapies
• 3. The therapies of the cataract
• 4. Ophthalmic surgery
Mental and psychosomatic diseases
Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt
Pharmaceutics
Mehrnaz Katouzian-Safadi, Nouha Stéphan
• 1. The profession of pharmacist
• 2. Writings on compound drugs: the quantification of pharmacy
• 3. The preparation of compound drugs
The medical profession
Hans Hinrich Biesterfeldt
Regional traditions and developments in medicine
Fernando Girón Irueste, Danielle Jacquart, Mauro Zonta
• 1. The tradition of Andalus
• 2. Latin translations
• 3. Hebrew translations
Botany
Mauro Zonta
• 1. Ancient sources and their reception
• 2. The botanical doctrines of the Arabs
• 3. Encyclopaedists and Arabic botany in Hebrew translations
Agronomy
Mohamed El Faïz, Expiración García Sánchez
• 1. ʿIlm al-filāḥa: agronomy between science, art and craft
• 2. The sources of Arab-Muslim agronomy
• 3. The Andalusian agronomic school
• 4. The contribution of the Muslim East
Zoology, zoography and veterinary medicine
Herbert Eisenstein
• 1. The scientific status of zoology in science classifications
• 2. Sources and texts of zoology
• 3. The description of animals: from lexicographic works to mirabilia
• 4. Classifications of the animal kingdom
• 5. Veterinary medicine