Al Razi Research Paper

AL-RAZI, OR RHAZES
Medieval Persian Physician and Alchemist “If everyone could just take advantage of their talents, the world is the promised paradise that everyone wants” Razi.
Scientists and alchemists with progress in the field of medicine and pharmacy have played significant role in the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases. From time immemorial, they have been able to pave the path of development of human knowledge. Mohammad Zakariya Razi, physician, philosopher and Persian alchemist, including the scientist with academic credentials and his experience, surpassed the physicians of his time.
Although Baghdad was only 50 years old in the 9th century, it was at the peak of its political power; a powerhouse of learning and the leading
medical centre of the time. It was there that many important Greek works were translated into Arabic, including “Dioscorides Materia medica” , which formed the basis for Arabic pharmacology. While Islamic physicians revered Greek medicine and seldom questioned it, they began to add comments and to contribute views in the 9th century CE, and observations of their own.
Of the physicians who worked in Baghdad during this era, one stands out as quite exceptional.
Al-Razi, or Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn-Zakariya al-Razi, known simply as Rhazes in the Latin West, was born in the Persian city of Rey around 854, and died there around 925 – 935. In fact, “Al-Razi” means that he was from the city of Rey, which is a Persian city on the famous Silk Road, not far from present day Tehran. He is generally regarded as being one of the greatest Muslim physicians and medical philosophers of the medieval era, on a par with Avicenna himself. Like Avicenna, who came a century later, Al-Razi was not just a physician, but also a philosopher and polymath, distinguishing himself in many fields besides medicine, such as music and alchemy. Like Avicenna, Al-Razi’s medical works and treatises were highly sought after, and translated into Latin for the benefit of European physicians and medical scholars
everywhere.
He was a man well-mannered and diligent study. He paid special attention to patients and the diagnosis of their disease and the proportion of the poor and the needy would not be very gracious. Razi Unlike many doctors who are more willing to treat kings and Commanders and nobles, most of the ordinary people dealt with him. He mentioned in one of his book which called “Hospital properties” that no one worthy to become a Doctor.
One of his two most influential books, “on medicine dedicated to al-Mansur” became one of the most widely read medieval medical manuals in Europe because of translation into Latin during the twelfth century by Gerard of Cremona as Liber ad Almansoris. The Second one was named “al-Hawi”, one of the world's first medical encyclopaedias, which gained fame in the West under the Latin name Liber Continents. This book is organized as follows: chapters one to six deal with diet, hygiene, anatomy, physiology, general pathology, and surgery, subjects that were somehow considered as mainly theoretical by the author. The last four chapters as consist of: practical aspects of medicine, such as diagnosis, therapy, special pathology, and practical surgery.
Razi didn’t follow common philosophical thoughts of his time Aristotle - Plato's philosophy, and had his own ideas as a result was vilified by philosophers in his time and after her. He also expressed ideas about religions that cause to be excommunicated by religious, and most of his work in this field has been eliminated. There is no specific notice of the Razi’s opinion except as provided in the writings of opponents.
At a time when Razi lived, Islamic philosophical thought two contrasting theories of the fundamental structure of the physical world came to be predominant. These were the Aristotelian-Avicennan theory of form and matter, and (2) Ash'arite-Maturidite .
Hylomorphism (theory of matter and form) and atomism (theory of atoms and accidents) have been the two main Islamic physical theories attempting to account for the structure of the world, the former defended by the philosophers and the other by the theologians.
Not every Muslim alchemist accepted the validity of transmutation, however, and indeed opponents and defenders of theory conducted a scholarly debate among themselves until the beginning of the fiftieth century.
Al-Rāzi himself was obliged to refute Ya'kub ibn Isaac al-Kindi (AD 800—67), who wrote that humankind is unable to achieve those things which are peculiarly the preserve of Nature; Abu 'Alial—Husain ibn Sina (AD 980—1037), known in the West as Avicenna, flatly denied that either transmutation or manufacture of gold were at all possible.
Apparently Razi’s contemporaries believed that he had obtained the secret of turning iron and copper into gold. Razi’s interest in alchemy and his strong belief in the possibility of transmutation of lesser metals to silver and gold were attested half a century after his death by Ibn an-Nadim’s book The Philosophers Stone (Lapis Philosophorum in Latin). Nadim attributed a series of twelve books to Razi, plus an additional seven, including his refutation to al-Kindi’s denial of the validity of alchemy. Al-Razi was the first physician in history who described in details the symptoms and signs of smallpox and measles based on clinical examination, and he was the first who distinguished between these two diseases by putting what is called now the differential diagnosis. This was very clear in his book: “The Book on Smallpox and Measles” .
Razi in the last days of life continued to treat patients, and had been blind due to continuous work
with chemicals.
No doubt that al-Razi was the first physician in the history of medicine who differentiated between smallpox and measles, and considered them as two diseases. The influence of his concepts in the diagnosis of these diseases on the Muslim physicians was very clear. Al-Razi was a Hakim, which is much more than just a physician in the Muslim medical tradition; it also includes the distinction of being a medical philosopher as well. And as a Hakim in the Golden Age of Muslim science and learning, Al-Razi’s contributions to the field of medicine are fully on a par with those of the great Avicenna, who came a century later.