Ophthalmology in Persian medicine
Despite the fact that ophthalmology is one of the foremost branches of medicine, conceptualization of the structure and function of the eye barely advanced in ancient Western civilizations. At the early recovery of Persian civilization (9th century AD) after the extinction of the Sassanid Empire (7t...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Tehran University of Medical Sciences
2014-03-01
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| Series: | Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://jmehm.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jmehm/article/view/121 |
| _version_ | 1818922483543179264 |
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| author | SeyedMahmoud Tabatabaei Nastaran Sabetkish SeyedMohammadAli Tabatabaei |
| author_facet | SeyedMahmoud Tabatabaei Nastaran Sabetkish SeyedMohammadAli Tabatabaei |
| author_sort | SeyedMahmoud Tabatabaei |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Despite the fact that ophthalmology is one of the foremost branches of medicine, conceptualization of the structure
and function of the eye barely advanced in ancient Western civilizations. At the early recovery of Persian civilization
(9th century AD) after the extinction of the Sassanid Empire (7th century AD), translations of Greek medical
textbooks played an important role in the development of medicine and the emergence of great Persian physicians
such as Rhazes, Avicenna and others. Rhazes was a leading Persian physician whose medical teachings have as yet
not been thoroughly explored. In addition to numerous books and articles in various fields, he authored a great
medical Encyclopedia (al-Hawi al-Kabir) in 25 volumes. In this article, we are going to compare Rhazes’ particular
viewpoints about ophthalmology with those of other famous Persian physicians and some recent essays and
textbooks.
For this purpose we reviewed Rhazes’ second volume of al-Hawi that is dedicated exclusively to ophthalmology and
contains some major topics of ophthalmology including anatomy, physiology, pathology, diseases, disorders and
treatments. Important themes were carefully extracted and compared with the tenets of modern ophthalmology.
After collating Rhazes’ viewpoints with the latest findings in this field, it was concluded that he had brilliantly
written about the signs and symptoms, etiology and treatment of many eye disorders more than a thousand years
ago. The amazing point is that there was no accurate equipment at the time to help him in his investigations.
This study proved that Rhazes’ theories conform to recent knowledge about ophthalmology in many aspects, and
could therefore be the subject of further investigations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T01:54:16Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-70fcb560e4674b7d83b9dcf3ff638bf3 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2008-0387 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T01:54:16Z |
| publishDate | 2014-03-01 |
| publisher | Tehran University of Medical Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine |
| spelling | doaj.art-70fcb560e4674b7d83b9dcf3ff638bf32022-12-21T19:57:32ZengTehran University of Medical SciencesJournal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine2008-03872014-03-0171Ophthalmology in Persian medicineSeyedMahmoud Tabatabaei0Nastaran Sabetkish1SeyedMohammadAli Tabatabaei2Professor, Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran,Iran.Pediatric Urology Research Center, Section of Tissue Engineering and Stem Cells Therapy, Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.Postgraduate Student, Department of Periodontics, Dental Faculty, Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran.Despite the fact that ophthalmology is one of the foremost branches of medicine, conceptualization of the structure and function of the eye barely advanced in ancient Western civilizations. At the early recovery of Persian civilization (9th century AD) after the extinction of the Sassanid Empire (7th century AD), translations of Greek medical textbooks played an important role in the development of medicine and the emergence of great Persian physicians such as Rhazes, Avicenna and others. Rhazes was a leading Persian physician whose medical teachings have as yet not been thoroughly explored. In addition to numerous books and articles in various fields, he authored a great medical Encyclopedia (al-Hawi al-Kabir) in 25 volumes. In this article, we are going to compare Rhazes’ particular viewpoints about ophthalmology with those of other famous Persian physicians and some recent essays and textbooks. For this purpose we reviewed Rhazes’ second volume of al-Hawi that is dedicated exclusively to ophthalmology and contains some major topics of ophthalmology including anatomy, physiology, pathology, diseases, disorders and treatments. Important themes were carefully extracted and compared with the tenets of modern ophthalmology. After collating Rhazes’ viewpoints with the latest findings in this field, it was concluded that he had brilliantly written about the signs and symptoms, etiology and treatment of many eye disorders more than a thousand years ago. The amazing point is that there was no accurate equipment at the time to help him in his investigations. This study proved that Rhazes’ theories conform to recent knowledge about ophthalmology in many aspects, and could therefore be the subject of further investigations.https://jmehm.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jmehm/article/view/121RhazesAvicennaophthalmologyPersian medicineal-Hawi |
| spellingShingle | SeyedMahmoud Tabatabaei Nastaran Sabetkish SeyedMohammadAli Tabatabaei Ophthalmology in Persian medicine Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Rhazes Avicenna ophthalmology Persian medicine al-Hawi |
| title | Ophthalmology in Persian medicine |
| title_full | Ophthalmology in Persian medicine |
| title_fullStr | Ophthalmology in Persian medicine |
| title_full_unstemmed | Ophthalmology in Persian medicine |
| title_short | Ophthalmology in Persian medicine |
| title_sort | ophthalmology in persian medicine |
| topic | Rhazes Avicenna ophthalmology Persian medicine al-Hawi |
| url | https://jmehm.tums.ac.ir/index.php/jmehm/article/view/121 |
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