User:Limabean27/sandbox

Pharmacies
Arabic arabs used their natural and cultural resources to contribute to the strong development of pharmacy where the belief that God has provided the means for a cure for every disease. However, there was confusion about the nature of some ancient plants that existed during this time.

A prominent figure that was noted as the most influential in the development of pharmacy who used the name Yūhannā ibn Māsawaiyh (circa 777-857), also referred to as "The Divine Mesue" and "The Prince of Medicine" by European scholars. Māsawaiyh led the first private medical school in Baghdad and the author of three major pharmaceutical treatises. These treatises consisted of works over compound medicines, humors, and pharmaceutical recipes that provided instructions on how they were prepared. These works were typically published together under the title "Opera Medicinalia" and were broken up into "De simplicubus", "Grabadin", and "Canones universales". Although Māsawaiyh's influence was so significant to where his writings were the most dominant source of pharmaceutical writings, his exact identity remains unclear.

In the past, all substances that were to be introduced into, on or near the human body were labeled as medicine, ranging from: drugs, food, beverages, even perfumes and cosmetics. By the seventh century, the early distinction between medicine and pharmacy began. It initially started by setting the first hospitals with pharmacy and apothecaries. Demand for drugs increased as the population increased. It was not until the ninth century where pharmacy was established as an independent and well-defined profession by Muslim scholars. It is said by many historians that upon the opening of the first private pharmacy in the eighth century, marks the independence of pharmacy on medicine.

The emergence of medicine and pharmacy within the Islamic caliphate began after the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century and by the ninth century, there was a rapid expansion of many scientific institutions, libraries, schools and then pharmacies in many Muslim cities. The rise of alchemy during the ninth century also played a vital role for early pharmacological development. While they were not successful in converting non-precious metals into precious metals, their works that consisted of techniques and lab equipment that were major contributors to the development of pharmacy. Chemical techniques such as distillation, condensation, evaporation and pulverization were often used.

The Qur'an evolved the development of professional ethics where the rise of ritual washing also enhanced the importance of hygiene in pharmacology. Pharmacies were periodically inspected by government inspectors called muhtasib, who checked to see that the medicines were mixed properly, not diluted and kept in clean jars. Work done by each muhtasib was carefully outlined in manuals that explains ways of examining and recognizing falsified drugs, foods and spices. It was forbidden for pharmacists to perform medical treatment without the presence of a physician while physicians were limited to the preparation and handling of such medications. It was feared that recipes would fall into the hands of someone without the proper pharmaceutical training. Licenses were required to run private practices. Violators were fined or beaten.