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Much of the legacy surrounding the Islamic influence of modern hospitals and science can be found in the discoveries and techniques introduced by scholars and physicians working in these institutions. Many of these techniques laid the foundation for medical development in Europe. Among the discoveries in astronomy, chemistry, and metallurgy, developed techniques such as distillation and the use of alcohol as an antiseptic, are still found in medical institutions today. Prior to the Islamic era, most European medical care was offered by priests in sanatoriums and annexes to temples. However, with the influence of early Islamic and Arabian hospitals, medical institutions were introduced to various new concepts and structures that are still found in modern hospitals, like the implementation of wards based on disease and gender, pharmacies, housing of medical records, and an overall increase in personal and institutional hygiene.

Another lasting legacy that vastly changed the ways through which medical practices were developed, was the method of education and perpetuation of medical knowledge. Seeing as how one of the chief objectives of Islamic hospitals was the training of new physicians, students, senior physicians, and other medical officers would often hold instructive seminars in large lecture halls detailing diseases, cures, treatments, and techniques from classic manuscripts. Islamic hospitals were also the first to adopt practices involving medical students, accompanied by experienced physicians, into the wards for rounds to participate in patient care, not unlike modern residency programs found in today’s hospitals. This came at a time when much of Europe’s medical practices were much less advanced, and with the compilation and creation of Ibn Sina’s (Avicenna) medical textbook, the “Canon of Medicine”, these groundbreaking Islamic discoveries were able to influence Europe and the rest of the world for centuries to come.

Advancements in Medicine
With the development and existence of early Islamic hospitals, came the need for new ways in which to treat patients. While the institution of a complex hospital was still comparatively new, Islamic Hospitals brought forth many groundbreaking medical advancements in Islamic culture during this time, and eventually spread to the entire world. These revolutionary medical practices came not only from Islamic Hospitals, but also distinguished physicians of this era. In turn, such developments were used to improve various hospitals and patient care as well. The products of these medical developments came in the form of surgeries, techniques, discoveries and cures for ailments, and the invention of countless medical instruments.

Al-Mawsili and Ibn Isa
Among the many developments stemming from Islamic Hospitals, were those designed to treat specific ailments, diseases, and anatomy. For example, a revolutionary treatment for cataracts was developed by Al-Mawsili, a 10th century physician. The practice included a hollow syringe (which he developed) and removing the cataract through suction. Although this procedure has further developed throughout the centuries, the basic treatment remains the same even today. Diseases of the eye were further expanded upon during this era by ʻAli ibn ʻIsa al-Kahhal or Ibn Isa (died circa 1038), who practiced and taught in the Al-Adudi Hospital in Baghdad. He wrote and developed the Tadhkirat al-kaḥḥālīn (“The Notebook of the Oculist”), which detailed more than 130 eye diseases based on anatomical location. The work was separated into three portions consisting of 1) Anatomy of the eye, 2) Causes, symptoms and treatments of diseases, and 3) Less apparent diseases and their treatments. This work was then translated into Latin in 1497, and then into several other languages which allowed it to benefit the medical community for centuries to come.

Al-Zahrawi
Perhaps the largest contribution to Islamic surgical development, came from Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn al-‘Abbās al-Zahrāwī, Abū al-Qāsim, or Al-Zahrawi (936-1013). He contributed to advancements in surgery by inventing and developing over 200 medical instruments which constituted the first independent work on surgery. Such instruments included tools like forceps, pincers, scalpels, catheters, cauteries, lancets, and specula, which were accompanied by detailed drawings of each tool. Al-Zahrawi also wrote the At-Taṣrīf limanʿajazʿan at-Taʾālīf, or At-Taṣrīf (“The Method”), which was a 30-part text based on earlier authorities, such as the Epitomae from the 7th-century Byzantine physician Paul of Aegina. It was largely composed of medical observations, including what is considered the earliest known description of hemophilia. The 30-volume encyclopedia also documented Zahrawi and his colleagues’ experiences with treatment of the ill or afflicted. Aside from the documentation of surgical instruments, the work included operating techniques, pharmacological methods to prepare tablets and drugs to protect the heart, surgical procedures used in midwifery, cauterizing and healing wounds, and the treatment of headaches. Although Zahrawi was somewhat disregarded by hospitals and physicians in the eastern Caliphate (no doubt due to his Spanish roots, being near Córdoba, Spain), his advancement and documentation of medical tools and observations contained in his work had a vast influence on the eventual medical development in Christian Europe, when it was translated into Latin during the 12thcentury.

Al-Razi (Rhazes)
The Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad underwent extreme intellectual and medical experimentation during the 10th and 11th centuries. Among the many skilled physicians and intellectuals there was Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī, or in Latin, Rhazes (854-925). Rhazes served as chief physician in a hospital in Rayy, Iran, before holding a similar position in the Baghdad hospital. He developed two significant works regarding advancements in medicine and philosophy. The Kitāb al-Manṣūrī and the Kitāb al-ḥāwī, (“Comprehensive Book”) which surveyed early Greek, Syrian, and Arabic medicine, and added his own judgement and commentary. He also wrote several minor treatises, perhaps the most famous being Treatise on Small Pox and Measles. This treatise was translated into several modern languages as well as Latin and Byzantine Greek for teaching purposes and medical treatment of such infectious diseases.

Ibn Sina (Avicenna)
Although surgical developments and advancements made in the medieval Islamic period are of extreme importance, the largest and most wholesome contribution to the medical world stemming from Islamic medicine and hospitals came from the Baghdad firmament from Ibn Sina, or “Avicenna” in the West. Ibn Sina, who had already become a doctor by the age of 18, developed the Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (Canon of Medicine). This work is largely known as one of the most famous medical works of all time. The ways in which Ibn Sina’s Canon of Medicine worked to bring together various disciplines and cultures, essentially revived Greek authors and philosophers and fostered new thought patterns to develop much of the future medical practices we see today. Ibn Sina did this by combining the medical developments of Greek physician and philosopher Galen, with the philosophy of Aristotle. Furthermore, as Islamic medicine recognized that many diseases are contagious, such as leprosy, smallpox, and sexually transmitted diseases, Ibn Sina added tuberculosis to this list and defined how they are spread as well as necessary steps for quarantine. The Canon of Medicine continued to be studied by European medical professionals and institutions even into the 18th century. This combination and rationalization of practical science, religion, and thought highlighted the pinnacle of Muslim medical scholarship, and the nature of the true developments which were made in the medical world.