Background
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi was born at Ray, a city not far from modern Teheran in northeastern Iran in 854.
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Excerpt from A Treatise on the Small-Pox and Measles In drawing up this bibliography, considerable assistance has been derived from several friends in London, who have consulted the libraries at the British Museum, the College of Physicians, the College of Surgeons, the Medical and Chirurgical Society, and the London Medical Society; and also from Dr. Marx, of Gottingen, and Dr. Batemberg, of Paris. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi was born at Ray, a city not far from modern Teheran in northeastern Iran in 854.
He is believed to have devoted his early years to the study of music and philosophy.
Authorities differ on precisely when al-Razi began to study medicine. Some maintain that he first left Ray and journeyed to Baghdad as a mature man, and others that he was still a youth when he arrived in the capital city of the Abbasid empire. As Baghdad at that time was the cultural and intellectual center of the Islamic world, there seems to be little doubt that he learned much about the healing art in Baghdad's well-equipped hospitals and remarkable libraries and in the research institutes that the Abbasid caliphs had richly endowed.
Returning to Ray, al-Razi was appointed chief administrator of the municipal hospital. He was soon summoned again to Baghdad, having been offered the post of chief physician and director of a great hospital in the capital. His appointment occurred during the caliphate of al-Muktafi, who reigned at Baghdad from 902 to 907.
Al-Razi's success as chief physician of Baghdad is indisputable, and his services were in constant demand. Much of the remainder of his life was spent in traveling from city to city attending rulers and nobles as well as the poor, to whom he bestowed alms and ministered without charge.
Diet was a fundamental therapeutic procedure in al-Razi's medical methodology. He emphasized the importance of consulting the wishes of the patient concerning food, especially during the period of convalescence. Theoretically, no single factor in the treatment of the sick was more important to al-Razi than was the doctor-patient relationship. He stressed that a physician by a cheerful countenance and encouraging words should instill hopes of recovery in his patient even when the practitioner doubted that the case could terminate successfully. He also advised patients always to choose a physician in whom they had confidence and then to abide by his instructions exclusively. In practice, however, al-Razi's relations with his own patients were scarcely ever as placid as these calm injunctions would seem to indicate.
Al-Razi's writings, according to one authority, number over 230 and range in subject matter from medicine and surgery to mathematics, chess, and music. During the Middle Ages his most esteemed composition in the West was the concise handbook of medical science that he wrote for a ruler named Mansur, generally believed to be Mansur ibn Ishaq, who was appointed governor of Ray in 903. Called by al-Razi the Kitab al Mansuri, the Latin translation was known in Europe as the Liber de medicina ad Almansorem or Liber Almansoris, and its ninth book in particular formed part of the medical curriculum of almost every European university through the 16th century.
Al-Razi's most important medical work, the Kitab al-Hawi, is a compilation of the notes on his thoughts, reading, and practice that he amassed throughout his entire medical life. Perhaps never intended to appear as a single book, it was assembled posthumously by al-Razi's friends and students. In consequence, though the complete title of al-Hawi in Arabic means "System of Medicine, " the book lacks the unity of design that only its author could have given it. Because of its immense size, copies of this medical encyclopedia were always rare, and even in the Islamic world it was not until modern times that a complete Arabic text was compiled for publication.
Since it is composed of extracts drawn from the writings of Greek, Islamic, and Hindu physicians enriched by al-Razi's own observations and comments, the book's utility was recognized early in the West, where a Latin version, entitled Continens, was prepared for Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily, in 1279 by the Jewish scholar Farj ibn Salim, who was known also by his Latin name, Farragut. The first Latin edition of the Continens, published at Brescia in 1486, is the largest and heaviest book printed before 1501. The Continens has been termed one of the most valuable and interesting medical books of antiquity, and al-Razi's reputation as the greatest Islamic clinician rests in large part on the case histories recorded in this work.
Though the place and date of his death are uncertain, one rather reliable Islamic chronologer places it at Ray on October 15, 925.
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A number of contradictory works and statements about religion have been ascribed to Razi. According to al-Biruni's Bibliography of Razi (Risāla fī Fihrist Kutub al-Rāzī), Razi wrote two "heretical books": "Fī al-Nubuwwāt (On Prophecies) and "Fī Ḥiyal al-Mutanabbīn (On the Tricks of False Prophets). According to Biruni, the first "was claimed to be against religions" and the second "was claimed as attacking the necessity of the prophets. " In his Risala, Biruni further criticized and expressed caution about Razi's religious views, noting an influence of Manichaeism. However, Biruni also listed some other works of Razi on religion, including Fi Wujub Da‘wat al-Nabi ‘Ala Man Nakara bi al-Nubuwwat (Obligation to Propagate the Teachings of the Prophet Against Those who Denied Prophecies) and Fi anna li al-Insan Khaliqan Mutqinan Hakiman (That Man has a Wise and Perfect Creator), listed under his works on the "divine sciences". None of his works on religion are now extant in full.
Other views and quotes that are often ascribed to Razi are found in a book written by Abu Hatim al-Razi, called Aʿlām al-nubuwwa (Signs of Prophecy), and not in any extant work of Razi himself. Abu Hatim was an Isma'ili missionary who debated Razi, but whether he has faithfully recorded the views of Razi is disputed. According to Abdul Latif al-'Abd, Islamic philosophy professor at Cairo University, Abu Hatim and his student, Ḥamīd al-dīn Karmānī (d. after 411AH/1020CE), were Isma'ili extremists who often misrepresented the views of Razi in their works. This view is also corroborated by early historians like al-Shahrastani who noted "that such accusations should be doubted since they were made by Ismāʿīlīs, who had been severely attacked by Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā Rāzī". Al-'Abd points out that the views allegedly expressed by Razi contradict what is found in Razi's own works, like the Spiritual Medicine (Fī al-ṭibb al-rūḥānī). Peter Adamson concurs that Abu Hatim may have "deliberately misdescribed" Razi's position as a rejection of Islam and revealed religions. Instead, Razi was only arguing against the use of miracles to prove Muhammad's prophecy, anthropomorphism, and the uncritical acceptance of taqlīd vs naẓar. Adamson also points out to a work by Fakhr al-din al-Razi where Razi is quoted as citing the Quran and the prophets to support his views.
Some historians, such as Paul Kraus and Sarah Stroumsa, accept that the extracts found in Abu Hatim's book were either said by Razi during a debate or were quoted from a now lost work. They suggest that this lost work is either his famous al-ʿIlm al-Ilāhī or another shorter independent work called Makharīq al-Anbiyāʾ (The Prophets' Fraudulent Tricks). Abu Hatim, however, did not explicitly mention Razi by name in his book, but referred to his interlocutor simply as the mulḥid (lit. "heretic"). According to the debate with Abu Hatim, Razi denied the validity of prophecy or other authority figures, and rejected prophetic miracles. He also directed a scathing critique on revealed religions and the miraculous quality of the Quran. Because of being seemingly unrestrained by any religious or philosophical tradition, Razi came to be admired as a freethinker by some.
Quotations:
He wrote the following on medical ethics:
"The doctor's aim is to do good, even to our enemies, so much more to our friends, and my profession forbids us to do harm to our kindred, as it is instituted for the benefit and welfare of the human race, and God imposed on physicians the oath not to compose mortiferous remedies. "
In his declining years, al-Razi was hindered by the slow deterioration of his sight. An anecdote relates that when urged to have the films removed from his eyes surgically, the old man rejected the proposal, replying that he had already seen enough of the world.
Quotes from others about the person
"Rhazes was the greatest physician of Islam and the Medieval Ages. "– George Sarton.
"His writings on smallpox and measles show originality and accuracy, and his essay on infectious diseases was the first scientific treatise on the subject. " – The Bulletin of the World Health Organization (May 1970).