Islam Creator of the Modern Age
1. Islam: Creator of the Modern Age
~ 61 ~
Qasim az-Zohrawi (d. after 1009), usually known in
Latin as Abulcasis.
While Arabic medicine thus reached its highest
point in the early eleventh century, it continued to
hold sway for many more centuries. The gift of
careful observation did not disappear and certain
fourteenth century Arab doctors in Spain wrote
knowledgeably, about the plague as they had
experienced it in Granada and Almeria.
24
Abdullah ibn Baytar (d. 1248) was the best known
botanist and pharmacist of Spain, in fact, of the
Muslim world. He travelled as a herbalist in Spain
and throughout North Africa, and later entered the
service of the Ayyubid al-Malik al- Kamil in Cairo
as chief herbalist. From Egypt he made extensive
trips throughout Syria and Asia Minor. One of his
two celebrated works,
Al-Mughni fi al Adwiyah al-
Mufradah,
is on materia medica. The other,
Al-Jami’
fi al Adwiya al-Mufradah,
is a collection of “simple
remedies from the animal, vegetable and mineral
worlds embodying Greek and Arabic data
supplemented by the author’s own experiments and
researches.” It stands out as the foremost medieval
