Muslim pharmacy )Saydalah( as a profession and a separate entity from
medicine was recognised by the beginning of the ninth century. This
century not only saw the founding and increase in the number of
privately owned pharmacy shops inBaghdadand its vicinity, but in other
Muslim cities as well. Many of the pharmacists who managed them were
skilled in the apothecary's art and quite knowledgeable in the
compounding, storing, and preserving of drugs.
State-sponsored hospitals also had their own dispensaries attached to
manufacturing laboratories where syrups, electuaries, ointments, and
other pharmaceutical preparations were prepared on a relatively large
scale. The pharmacists and their shops were periodically inspected by
a government appointed official, 'Al-Muhtasib', and his aides. These
officials were to check the accuracy in weights and measures as well
as the purity of the drugs used. Such supervision was intended to
prevent the use of deteriorating compounded drugs and syrups, and to
safeguard the public.
This early rise and development of professional pharmacy in Islam -
over four centuries before such development took place inEurope- was
the result of three major occurrences: the great increase in the
demand for drugs and their availability on the market, professional
maturity, and the outgrowth of intellectual responsibility by
qualified pharmacists.
The ninth century in Muslim lands witnessed the richest period thus
far in literary productivity insofar as pharmacy and the healing arts
were concerned. This prolific intellectual activity paved the way for
still a greater harvest in the succeeding four centuries of both high
and mediocre calibre authorship. For pharmacy, manuals on materia
medica and for instructing the pharmacist concerning the work and
management of his shop were circulating in increasing numbers. A few
authors and their important works will be briefly discussed and
evaluated.
Abu Hasan At-Tabari:
One of the contributors to Muslim Pharmacy was Abu Hasan 'Ali
At-Tabari. He was born in 808. At about thirty years of age, he was
summoned toSamarraby Caliph al-Mu'tasim )833-842(, where he served as
a statesman and a physician. At-Tabari wrote several medical books,
the most famous of which is his Paradise of Wisdom, completed in 850.
It contains discussions on the nature of man, cosmology, embryology,
temperaments, psychotherapy, hygiene, diet, and diseases - acute and
chronic - and their treatment, medical anecdotes, and abstracts and
quotations from Indian source material. In addition, the book contains
several chapters on materia medica, cereals, diets, utilities and
therapeutic uses of animal and bird organs, and of drugs and methods
of their preparation.
At-Tabari urged that the therapeutic value of each drug be utilised in
accordance with the particular case, and the practitioner should
always choose the best of samples. He explained that the finest types
of samples come from various places: black myrobalan comes fromKabul;
clover dodder from Crete; aloes from Socotra; and aromatic spices
fromIndia.
He was also precise in describing his therapeutics. He said, 'I have
tried a very useful remedy for the swelling of the stomach; the juices
of the liverwort )water hemp( and the absinthium after being boiled on
fire and strained to be taken for several days. Also, powdered seeds
of celery )marsh parsley( mixed with giant fennel made into troches
and taken with a suitable liquid, release the wind in the stomach,
joints and back )arthritis(.'
To strengthen the stomach and to insure good health he prescribed
'black myrobalan powdered in butter, mixed with dissolved plant sugar
extracted from liquorice and this remedy should be taken daily.' For
storage purposes he recommended glass or ceramic vessels for liquid
)wet( drugs; special small jars for eye liquid salves; lead containers
for fatty substances. For the treatment of ulcerated wounds, he
prescribed an ointment made of juniper-gum, fat, butter, and pitch. In
addition, he warned that one Mithqaal )about 4 grams( of opium or
henbane causes sleep and also death.
The first medical formulary to be written in Arabic is Al-Aqrabadhin
by Saboor bin Sahl, who died in 869 AH. In it, he gave medical recipes
stating the methods and techniques of compounding these remedies,
their pharmacological actions, the dosages given of each, and the
means of administration. The formulas are organised in accordance with
their types of preparations into which they fit, whether tablets,
powders, ointments, electuaries or syrups. Each class of
pharmaceutical preparation is represented along with a variety of
recipes made in a specific form; they vary, however, in the
ingredients used and their recommended uses and therapeutic effects.
Many of these recipes and their pharmaceutical forms are remindful of
similar formulas given in ancient documents from the Middle East and
the Greco-Roman civilisations. What is unique is the organization of
Saboor's formulary-type compendium purposely written as a guidebook
for pharmacists, whether in their own private drugstores or in
hospital pharmacies.
Hunayn bin Is'haaq:
He was an Arab scholar who died in 873 AH. His translations of Plato,
Aristotle, Galen, Hippocrates, and the Neoplatonists made accessible
to Arab philosophers and scientists the significant sources of Greek
thought and culture.
Hunayn was a Nestorian Christian who studied medicine in Baghdad and
became well versed in ancient Greek. He was appointed by Caliph
Al-Mutawakkil to the post of chief physician to the court, a position
that he held for the rest of his life. He travelled to Syria,
Palestine, and Egypt to gather ancient Greek manuscripts. From his
translators' school in Baghdad, he and his students transmitted Arabic
and )more frequently( Syriac versions of the classical Greek texts
throughout the Islamic world. Especially important are his
translations of Galen, most of the original Greek manuscripts of which
are lost.
Hunayn's book of the Ten Treatises on the Eye was completed in 860 AH.
After finishing the ninth treatise, the author felt the need for a
closing treatise to be devoted to compounded drugs for eye medication.
He extracted some recipes from earlier treatises and added more
prescriptions recommended by Greek authors.
As one obvious example of the uses and therapeutic values of using
compounded drugs, Hunayn gave that of the theriac - the universal
antidote against poisoning. Hunayn, who knew Greek, defined the Greek
word theriac as an animal that bites or snaps. Since these antidotes
were used against animal bites, the word eventually was applied to all
antidotes, especially when snake flesh was incorporated.
Hunayn corrected the translation in Arabic of the major part of
Dioscorides', Materia Medica, undertaken by his associate Istifaan bin
Basil )about mid ninth century( in Baghdad. Due to the influence of
this work, several books of materia medica were written in Arabic.
Dioscorides definitely influenced the writing and direction of Sabur's
formulary, which has been mentioned earlier.
Hunayn's Herbal Treatise established the basis for Arabic
pharmacology, therapy, and medical botany. It also provided a
description of the physical properties of drugs, types, and means of
testing their purity, and usefulness. As a result, Muslim pharmacology
advanced beyond the Greco-Roman contribution. In turn, this helped and
influenced a similar development in Europe through the Renaissance.
--
--
-
Regards,
NAJIMUDEEN M/
-
-
-
*- Online Translator -*
http://translate.google.com/m?hl=en
* I welcome to Visit - http://aydnajimudeen2.blogspot.in/
to Read More Useful ISLAMIC & GENERAL ARTICLES - to IMPROVE YOUR "IQ & GK"/
No comments:
Post a Comment