Islam Creator of the Modern Age
3. Muslim Contribution to Science
~ 110 ~
It is a fact that ancient Greece produced some very
fine brains and some very high thinking in this
field. But the respective fates of Galen and
Hippocrates show that the atmosphere in ancient
Greece was conducive neither to the rise of such
people to their due eminence, nor to the growth of
medicine as a science. Different kinds of
superstitious beliefs were an obstruction in the path
of free enquiry; for instance, the attribution of
diseases to mysterious powers, and the
sanctification of many things, such as plants, which
had healing properties.
The science of medicine came into being in ancient
Greece about 200 years before the Christian era and
flourished for another two centuries. In this way,
the whole period extended over about four or five
hundred years. This science did not see any
subsequent advance in Greece itself. Although a
European country, Greece did not contribute
anything to the spread of its own medical science in
Europe, or to modern medicine in the West. These
facts are proof that the atmosphere in ancient
Greece was not favourable to the progress of
medicine.
