Gondēšāpurian Physicians of the House of Māsavayh and Islamic Medicine

In Sasanian epoch, in the city of Gondēšāpur in Xuzestān, a medicine school and a hospital were built which in the shadow of Sasanian’s political and economic supports they became so flourished that Gondēšāpur was sometimes called the “city of Hippocrates”. In the tradition of Gondēšāpur medicine, Greek, Indian, Syriac and Iranian medical knowledge and treatment methods were mixed and Gondēšāpur physicians kept old medicine heritage of Gondēšāpur and presented it to Muslims. Gondēšāpur physicians of families such as Bōḵtišu and Māsavayh having an excellent medical background in their homeland, were the physicians of caliphs and nobles of Abbāsīd caliphate for more than two centuries. They were also pioneer translators of Greek, Iranian, Indian and Syriac old texts of medicine, astrology, philosophy and other foreign knowledge into Arabic. “Islamic medicine”, which sometimes erroneously is called “Arabic medicine”, is really indebted to old heritage of Gondēšāpur physicians who like a bridge made Muslims familiar with the traditions of Greek, Siryan, Iranian and Indian medicine and in Baghdād, the capital of Abbāsīdcalliphate, they presented all their valuable medical knowledge and experience to Muslims.In this paper, adopting a descriptive/ analytic approach, the role of Gondēšāpur physicians of the house of Māsavayhin transferring powerful tradition of Gondēšāpur medicine to Islamic world and in flourishing Islamic medicine will be studied.