Journal of Research on History of Medicine
Volume:3 Issue: 2, May 2014

Spine Surgery began its evolution in the beginning of the 19th century in order to reach nowadays the point of being considered an important subspecialty of Neurosurgery and Orthopaedics. The purpose of this historical review is the search and evaluation of the progress in spine surgery until the middle of the 20th century. This review concerns the inauguration and evolution of this field in Greece. Special references are made to the first achievements of this field, to the pioneers physicians and surgeons (general surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons) who inaugurated this subspecialty and to clinical and scientific work of that era. Eventually, the progress of medicine and technology who led to the first achievements of this subspecialty are shown and also the difficulties (both social and scientific) that the pioneers of this field faced are demonstrated. In Greece, with small exceptions, the new techniques emerged with a certain delay.

A Large number of people are affected by cancer and the primeval history of this malady has attracted attention toward complementary and alternative therapies to manage this disease. The present study has performed a survey on cancer in the Iranian Traditional Medicine during the Islamic era (ITM) by focusing on cancer terminologies and related diseases over a millennium, from medieval to the early modern era. Seven ITM medical texts, in Arabic and Persian languages, from 7th to 18th century AD were evaluated. These medical literatures have been our the sources of ITM cancer recognition clues. These clues have been related to some cancer and cancer-like diseases. The terminologies could be helpful for future ethnopharmacologic assay about cancer in ITM.

Medical books written in Islamic societies have devoted special chapters to preventive medicine named Hefzossehha’. Nowadays, Ferdous Alhekmah is considered as the first medical text authored by Muslim scientists in Islamic countries. But in this review study we offer a more ancient text that belongs to Ali Ibn Musa (Imam Reza PBUH), the 8th Imam of shi’ites. This text was written about 815-818 AD while Imam Reza was in Marv, the Abbasid’s capital city during the al-Ma’mun’s governance (813-833). This precedes the book of Tabari (810-855), Ferdous Alhekmah. This text was written specifically about preventive medicine and contains nutritional patterns; the effect of weather, sleep, four temperaments and humors on health; personal hygiene; cupping and phlebotomy; health care in travels; sex hygiene and its influence on fetus health and prevention of some especial diseases. This text was different from many books in this field in some ways. Thus, al-Ma’mun commanded some scribes to write the text with gold and therefore it is famous to “Resaleh Zahabieh” which means golden letter.

Al-Akhawayni Bukhari(?-983 AD), great 10th century Persian physician, in his extant book entitled Hidayat(Guide) discussed different aspects of some neurologic diseases that include prevention, clinical findings, treatment, and sometimes prognosis. Without doubt, Al-Akhawayni’s knowledge on neurology, in addition to his familiarity to the works of his predecessors is obviously indebted to his experimental approach to medicine. These features resulted in providing a number of innovations. Another evidence is that, Al-Akhawayniwas known as insane’s physician during his lifetime as a doctor. Therefore, it seems to be essential that this physician’s only surviving book is evaluated with more emphasis, and Al-Akhawayni is being introduced to the modern world of science.

Although experts and historians hardly share the same opinion over the first signs of Hisbat (Hisbat) in the history of Islam, by looking at the history of Islam, the creation of Hisbat system can be sought in Madinat-AI-Nabi in the Prophet era. And whereas the Hisbat system, in this period of time, was not popular and organized like what was shaped in the Abbasid era, it established a structured system of monitoring urban and public affairs in the Islamic civilization. The principle of “enjoining the good and forbidding the evil” forms the foundation of Hisbat which can be searched in Quranic verses. Besides the Quran, Hadiths in the Islamic society are also the important source of Hisbat. Muslim lawyers and jurists, regardless of different sects they belong to, have emphasized that in a Muslim community it is obligatory to follow Hisbat and the principle of “enjoining the good and forbidding the evil”. Hisbat, as a duty as well as a religious and moral/ethical job, attracted the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), Caliphates and Muslim rulers and with the advancement of Islamic societies, it became more structured and organized. It is based on the command “to do well and prevent evil deeds” which is expected to be applied in the Muslim community and Dhimmitude under Islamic governing on bail. This has led to the development of people’s life under the auspice of Hisbat’s principles. Treatment, along with public health, was one of the issues observed and followed under the supervision of Hisbat and the principle of “enjoining the good and forbidding the evil” since the era of the Prophet Mohammad(pbuh). This prophetic tradition was institutionalized in the Islamic civilization and as a religious and social affair has organized and implemented Islamic justice and fair supervision in this field of civil affairs of the Islamic world. This article studies how the Prophet monitors social and economic matters in general, and public health and hygienic affairs in particular. Quality Hisbat system as a regulatory body in Baqdad and Cairo, the two important capital cities of Islamic civilization, is also investigated.

From the antiquity, Muslim scholars have always been interested in working on the Hadiths(talks) of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). Since then, the hadiths, in all fields, especially in fields of health and medicine, have attracted the attention of many scholars, leading to the publication of a number of books on Hadiths as well as the collection of Hadiths, including those related to health. The books, whether having the title “Prophetic medicine” or not, contain issues such as Phlebotomy. This study has analyzed one of these books entitled Al-teb Al-nabavyof Shamsuddin Zahabi in terms of its composition, size and style. The present study, following the descriptive-analytic method, has shown that the writer of this book has been quite aware of the preceding books written in this field and has attempted to use and include the medical knowledge of other nations in his book. The writer has utilized verses and poems as well as narratives and stories. However, the dominant style of the writer is employing the narrative style and story- telling.