The history of Arabic medicine based on the work of Ibn Abi Usabe’ah 1203-1270

By M.N. Istanbouli

PhD Dissertation, Loughborough University, 1981

Abstract: My cardinal objective is to introduce a comprehensive and up-to-date document covering the most important aspects of the historiography of Arabic Medicine. The lack of scholarly material on this subject strengthened my determination. This work presents the History of Arabic Medicine during the Golden Ages of Muslim learning, approximately from the seventh through to the thirteenth Century, based on the work of the bibliography of Ibn Abi Unaybelah Ahmad. Although the main objective of this thesis is to trace the history of Arabic Medicine some-effort is made to explain the history of medicine during the ancient civilization as an introduction.

In Chapter two, a full explanation of the development of Arabic Medicine during the various periods, pre Islam, during Islam, the Prophet medicine, the medicine during the various caliphates, and at the end of Chapter three, some effort is made to explain the situation of hospitals during the heyday of Arabic Civilization. As the whole work is based on the work of Ibn Abi Usaybe’ah Ahmad, an in-depth discussion is made to give a full picture about his life, his work and the evolution of the work. To give an example of his writing, a translation is made of the fifteenth Chapter of his masterpiece “Yun al Anb Fi Tabakat al Attebalt” (sources and information of the classes of physicians). The fourth Chapter of this thesis is devoted to an extensive study of the present situation of the Arabic medical historiography and to present some proposals for future development.


Click here to read this thesis from Loughborough University