Abu'l Hasan 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi was a Persian doctor and psychologist of the Islamic Golden Age. He was the court physician of Adud al-Dawla-Fana Khusraw.
Background
Abu'l Hasan 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi was born in the first quarter of the tenth century in Ahvaz, southwestern Persia. Nothing is known of al-Majusi’s ancestry except that the nickname Majusi suggests that he, his father, or most probably his more distant ancestors were originally Zoroastrian and that he does not seem to have traveled much outside his native country.
Education
Al-Majusi received his medical training under the physician Abu Mahir Musa ibn Sayyar, author of a commentary on phlebotomy.
Career
Al-Majusi served King ‘Adud al-Dawla, to whom he dedicated his only medical compendium, Kamil al-Sina'ah al-Tibbiyyali, called al-Maliki (Liber regius) in honor of his patron, who bore the title Shahanshah (“king of kings”). The Emir was a great patron of medicine and founded a hospital at Shiraz in Persia and in 981 the Al-Adudi Hospital in Baghdad, where al-Majusi worked.
Al-Majusi's Kamil consists of twenty treatises on the theory and practice of medicine (ten on each). In it, the author referred to how he has studied and used indigenous medicinal plants, as well as animal and mineral products, as therapeutics.
Al-Majusi's ancestors were Zoroastrian (whence the nisba "al-Majusi"), but he himself was a Muslim. The name of his father was Abbas, and according to Iranica, is not the kind of name typically taken by a neophyte, a fact which suggests that conversion to Islam took place in the generation of his grandparents, if not earlier. He himself seems to have been lacking in Muslim zeal, since no mention is made of the prophet Moḥammad in his introductory remarks, while his argument for the excellence of medicine is based entirely on pragmatic reasoning without recourse to the Koran or the Sunna. Moreover, by calling himself "Ali b. Abbas Majusi", the author intentionally calls attention to his Zoroastrian background.
Views
Although several important physicians and natural scientists appeared in tenth-century Iraq and Persia, only a few seem to have been known to or acknowledged by al-Majusi. For example, he referred to the two books of al-Razi (865-925), the most prolific and original medical author in tenth-century Persia and the leading clinician, social scientist, and alchemist of his time. Yet al-Majusi did not mention his countryman and contemporary al-Husayn ibn Nuh al-Qumri, author of the famous book Ghana wa-Mana (“On Life and Death”), or Ahmad ibn Abi al-Ash'ath of Mosul, author of a praiseworthy text on the powers and utility of the materia medica entitled Quwa 'l-Adwiya 'l-Mufrada and one of the best medical educators of his time. From the introductory remarks in the Kamil, al-Majusi seems to have been critical of his predecessors, even those whom he quoted and whose writings influenced him, such as Hippocrates, Galen, Oribasius (fourth century), Ahrun the Priest (sixth century), and Yuhanna ibn Sirabiyun (ninth century). He did, however, praise Hunayn ibn Ishaq as a reliable translator and fine scholar.
Al-Majusi gave the following interesting, surprisingly accurate, and almost modern description of pleurisy: “Pleurisy is an inflammation of the pleura, with exudation which pours materials over the pleura from the head or chest ... Following are the four symptoms that always accompany pleurisy: fever, coughing, pricking in the side, and difficult breathing (dyspnea).” In defining theoretical medicine, he recognized three areas: 1. Knowledge of natural (instinctive) matters, such as the elements, temperaments, humors, actions, faculties (or powers), and parts. 2. Knowledge of things not part of human (instinctive) nature. This he apparently copied from Hunayn ibn Ishaq’s Ars medica (al-Masa'il fi 'l-Tibb), which defined them as the six essential principles: the air we breathe and how to be free from pollution, work and rest, diet, wakefulness and slumber, use of vomit-inducing drugs and laxatives, and psychological impulses. 3. Knowledge of things outside the realm of natural conditions of the human body and which are concerned with diseases, their causes, and their symptoms.
In describing the arteries and veins, al-Majusi spoke of their divisions into numerous thin tubules spreading like hairs and of the connection between arteries and veins through tiny pores. He also described the function of the three valves in each of the pulmonary arteries, the aorta, and the two in what he called the veinal artery (most probably referring to the atrioventricular valves).
Al-Majusi also propagated health measures to preserve normal conditions of body and mind, such as diet, rest and work, bathing, and physical exercises. For example, he cited three advantages of exercise: 1. It awakens and increases innate heat to enable the attraction and digestion of foods for assimilation by body organs (metabolism). 2. It helps relieve the body of its superfluities and cleans and expands its pores. 3. It solidifies and strengthens the body's organs by inducing contacts among them so that the body functions harmoniously and is able to resist disease.
Furthermore, he said of sleep that it helps to relax and refresh the brain and the senses, as well as assisting in digestion and normalizing humors.
Long before Ibn Sina, al-Majusi emphasized the importance of psychotherapy and the relationship between psychology and medicine. Emotional reactions (manifestations, a'rad nafsaniyya), he explained, may cause sickness or promote good health, depending on how they are controlled. He also spoke of passionate love and how it can cause illness if it has no fulfillment.
In addition, al-Majusi discussed meteorology, hygiene, human behavior, and surgery, recommending frequent use of phlebotomy. In the section on embryology, he clearly explained the presently accepted fact that the fetus is pushed out in parturition. His discussion of poisons, their symptoms, and their antidotes is an important chapter in the history of medieval toxicology. Furthermore, al-Majusi elaborated on the effects of the use of opiates in a manner which is of interest to the history of drug addiction and abuse. His general discussions of materia medica and the therapeutics of crude and compound drugs are based on Dioscorides and Galen, with additions of indigenous, familiar drugs. Like his predecessor al-Razi, he used and promoted chemotherapy.
Regarding medical deontology, al-Majusi emphasized the highest ethical standards and asked his colleagues, as well as all practitioners and medical students, to observe them as ordered and upheld in the Hippocratic writings. He also opposed the use of contraception, or of drugs that cause abortion, except in cases involving the physical or mental health of the mother, attitudes still heard and commended today.
Al-Majusi boasted that in his Kamil he covered the three most important points of a medical text: dealing with the most needed and highly honored art of healing; presentation of a much-improved medical compendium; and comprehensive coverage of the topic. In several areas, however, he seems to have fallen short of his objectives.
Connections
It isn't known whether al-Majusi was married or had any children.