History of Medicine in the Middle East

History of Medicine in the Middle East
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History of Medicine in the Middle East
1.0 Introduction
The practice of medicine in the Middle East has a long history of interchanges with the Western approaches. The deeper societal understanding of the interests of diversity and globalism has resulted in the less Western-centric, increased appreciative interchanges, and a geographically broader history of medicine of differing cultural and racial composition and pluralities in diverse health contexts (Andrews, 2011). During the late medieval period, there was a massive transfer of scientific and medical knowledge from the Arabic world to the Western Europe, and the modern colonial period saw the western European states medicalizing a number of the new states in the Middle East. According to Shaki, Carniel and Mostafavi, 2016), prior to the 19th century, many of these new states were yet to be constituted as independent countries. In addition, much of the contemporary work in the history of medicine in the Middle East has largely focused on the imperial use of medicine as a way of cultural subjugation and repression in the formulation of nation-states. Almost the entire area of the Middle East, which stretches from Morocco in North of Africa to Iran, was at some point in the 19th and 20th century occupied by imperial powers, primarily the British and the French (Sharaki, Carniel, & Mostafavi, 2016). Although many cultures in the Middle East clearly had their own unique local medical practices beginning from the 8th century CE and onwards, they shared medical systems, which were centred on three interlinking medical systems whose formulations differed from place to place over some time (de Vetten, 2018). These systems included the Graeco-Arabic medicine, Quranic medicine, and the “vernacular medicine” as known to many modern practitioners.
During the medieval period, the Persians and the Arabs were keen translators of the Greek knowledge, and the term Graeco-Arabic medicine stems from the combination of both the Galenic and Hippocratic medical ideas and the indigenous Arabic healing beliefs (Saad & Said, 2011). Some of the Arabic medical doctrines were borrowed from Ayurveda in India and other forms of medical practices in the East. Scientific learning was highly valued and promoted within the Islamic world, leading to the classic Islamic medical scholars such as Ibn Razi Ibn Rushd, and Ibn Sina to polish and advance the Greek medicine during the golden age of Islamic medicine (Hajar, 2013). There was great emphasis placed on public health nutrition, and the connection between the soul and body. Later, the ethical approach to healthcare merged with the growing area of Quranic medicine that endorsed the approach to welfare, which drew on the Quran and hadith, “sayings” of Prophet Mohammed. Saad and Said (2011) content that in some instances, this approach involved the use of amulets that were inscribed with Quranic verses, prayers, and tinctures from Quranic ink, but also shared common beliefs in astrology in Graeco-Arabic healing. The healing approaches were supplemented by “vernacular medicine” that was largely based on pre-Islamic herbalism and...