Islam Creator of the Modern Age
1. Islam: Creator of the Modern Age
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into Latin as the
Continens,
(the comprehensive
book). It was the first encyclopaedia of all medical
science up to that time, and had to be completed by
his disciples after his death. For each disease he
gave the views of Greek, Syrian, Indian, Persian and
Arabic authors, and then added notes on his clinical
observations and expressed a final opinion.
The greatest writer on medicine was Ibn Sina or
Avicenna. He was also one of the two greatest
Arabic philosophers. His eminence in medicine was
due to his ability to combine extensive theoretical
knowledge and systematic thought with acute
clinical observation. His vast
Canon of Medicine
(Al-Qanun fi’t-Tib)
was translated into Latin in the
twelfth century and was used much more than the
works of Galen and Hippocrates. It dominated the
teaching of medicine in Europe until at least the end
of the sixteenth century. There were sixteen printed
editions of it in the fifteenth century, one being in
Hebrew, twenty editions in the sixteenth century
and several more in the seventeenth. Roughly
contemporary with Avicenna was the chief Arabic
writer on surgery and surgical instruments, Abul
