User:Bruce526/sandbox

Terminology
In the writings of Muslim scholars, the term Nafs (self or soul) was used to denote individual personality and the term fitrah for human nature. Nafs encompassed a broad range of faculties including the qalb (heart), the ruh (spirit), the aql (intellect) and irada (will). Muslim scholarship was strongly influenced by Greek and Indian philosophy as well as by the study of scripture.

In medieval Islamic medicine in particular, the study of mental illness was a speciality of its own,[4] and was variously known as al-‘ilaj al-nafs (approximately "curing/treatment of the ideas/soul/vegetative mind),[5] al-tibb al-ruhani ("the healing of the spirit," or "spiritual health") and tibb al-qalb ("healing of the heart/self," or "mental medicine").[2]

Ethics and Theology
I am going to introduce some theological reasons for why the mind and mental health were viewed differently during the Golden Era of Islam as well as some topics in ethics in mental healthcare.

Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi
Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known as Rhazes in the western tradition(CE 865 – 925), was an influential Persian physician, philosopher, and scientist during the Golden Age of Islam, and among the first in the world to write on mental illness and psychotherapy. As chief physician of Baghdad hospital, he was also the director of one of the first psychiatric wards in the world. Two of his works in particular, El-Mansuri and Al-Hawi, provide descriptions and treatments for mental illness.

Abu-Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdalah ibn-Sina
Abu-Ali al-Husayn ibn Abdalah ibn-Sina, known to the west as Avicenna (980-1030), was a Persian polymath who is widely regarded for his writings on such diverse subjects as philosophy, physics, medicine, mathematics, geology, Islamic theology, and poetry. In his most widely celebrated work,the Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun-fi-il-Tabb), he provided descriptions and treatments for such conditions as insomnia, mania, vertigo, paralysis, stroke, epilepsy, and depression. He was a pioneer in the field of psychosomatic medicine, linking changes in mental state to changes in the body,

Mental Healthcare
The Golden Age of Islam was unique in that treatment of mental disorders was carried out in hospitals. Psychiatric hospitals were constructed in Baghdad(705) and Cairo(805),and there is evidence to suggest that there was also one such facility in operation Fez during the 8th century.

Treatment of Mental Illness
In addition to medication, treatment for mental illness might include baths, music, and occupational therapy reflecting the great emphasis placed on the relationship between illness of the mind and problems in the body. Medicine would be prescribed in order to rebalance the humors of the body, an imbalance of which might result in psychosis.