Shaykh al-Ra’is (Supreme Guide) Abu Ali Hussain ibn Abdullah ibn Sina known as Avicenna (370-427 A.H./980-1037A.D.), who is the most prestigious scholar of Iran and the world of Islam. He was known as Haly Abbas to the westerners (338-384 A.H./948 - 994 A.D.) (983 AD) Īli ibn Abbas Majussi Ahwazi Arrajani who is the most noted Muslim physician after Rhazes. The interesting point is that all of the physicians mentioned in this writing are Iranian:Ību Bakr Mohammad ibn Zakariya Razi known as Rhazes (251-313 A.H./865 – 925 A.D.), the renowned Iranian physician, philosopher and chemist who wrote about 250 books and treatises Ību Bakr Rabi ibn Ahmad Akhaweyni Bukhaari who is one of the renowned physicians and the student of Abu al-Qassem Moqanei (a Rhazes’ student). The time course discussed is between the eighth and fourteenth centuries. In this writing, we will discuss cancer and the ways to diagnose and treat it in the view of a few of the most famous physicians before the Mongolian attack who used Islamic medicine. Although this figure is low at the first look, there are two issues that need to be considered: First, the trend toward alternative medicine is increasing in Iran, and second, the reported statistics is exclusive of traditional procedures of herbal extracts on which no reliable statistics is available.
Some of the physicians of this school are famous worldwide and have contributed valuable services to the scientific world.Īlthough there is no accurate statistics as to the proportion of traditional medicine to Western medicine in Iran, it is estimated that medicinal herbs constitute around 10% of the Iranian drug market. Islamic medicine has, for many centuries, been used for diagnosing and treating diseases of large populations that live in vast geographic areas. By using the scientific knowledge of ancient Iran, ancient Greece, and archaic civilizations such as India and China, and adding useful and wise Islamic teachings to them, Islamic medicine has turned into a strong and permanent medical school.
Islamic medicine is a holistic and comprehensive medical school that has an antecedent over 12 centuries.