Islam Creator of the Modern Age
3. Muslim Contribution to Science
~ 109 ~
fifth and fourth centuries B.C. However, very little
is known about his life. The historians of later times
have estimated that Hippocrates was probably born
in 460 B.C. and died in 377 B.C. Some historians, on
the other hand, even have doubts about his being a
historical figure. It has also been questioned
whether the books on philosophy and medicine
supposedly written by him were not actually
written by someone else and later attributed to
him.”
52
Galen is considered the second most important
philosopher and physicist of this period of
antiquity. He was born probably in A.D. 129 and
died in A.D. 199. Galen had to face stiff opposition
in Rome, and most of his writings were destroyed.
The remainder would also have been lost to
posterity if the Arabs had not collected them in the
ninth century and translated them into Arabic.
These Arabic translations were later to reach
Europe, in the eleventh century, where they were
translated from Arabic into Latin. The
Encyclopaedia
Britannica
(1984) concludes its article on Galen:
“Little is known of Galen’s final years.”
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