Bull. Ind. Inst. Hist. Med. Vol. XXI pp 9 to 16

THE GREEK FACTOR IN MUSLIM PHARMACYA SURVEY

ABSTRACT

HAKIM MOHAMMED SAID·

The fact that the Prophet of Islam himself ascribed the utmost importanceto medicine provided a stimu Ius to the development of medicine proper on the soilof Arabia Desert. The entry of the Greek factor into the Arab world was throughthe school of Jundi-shapur in eastern Iran. The influence of the Greek factorseems to have gained ascendancy, with the conquest of Syria and Egypt in the7th century AD. Islamic medicine employs both simple and compound remedies.Muslim physicians attained a high degree of skill in the making of polypharma-ceuticals. while the Greek factor did stimulate Muslim pharmacy. the vastlyexpanded materia medica of the middle ages led to the preparation of polyphar-maceuticals having non-Greek origin.

The fact that the Prophet of Islamhimself ascribed the utmost impor-tance to medicine provided a stimulusto the development of medicine pro-per on the soil of Arabia Deserta.Rufaida was the first female nursein human history in the proper sense.

The entry of the Greek factorinto the Arab world was through theschool of Jundi-shapur in easternlran.! The first Arabic physic ian ofwhom we have any record was Har-ith ibn Kalada al Thakesi who wasMakkan-born and received medical

training in Jundi-shapur. Havingpractised medicine for years in Iran,where he membered among hispatients the Iranian emperor,Khusraw. he ultimately returned toArabia. Ralph Major in this contextobserves:

Harith, although the physician ofMuhammad. nevar embraced Islamand may even have been a Chris-tian. This act of Muhammad inselecting an unbeliever as his phy-sician doubtless was a powerfulexample of his followers that a

*President. Hamdard University Library. P.O. Madinat AI-Hikmat. Sharea Madina! al-Hikrnat,Bund Murad Khan. Karachi.

1. Ralph H. Majm. A History of Medicine ,Springfield. III .• 1954). vol. 1. p. 228. et. EdwardG. Browne, Arabian Medicine (Cambridge, 1921). pp. 19-24.

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Muslim might exercise his judg-ment in the selection of his phvsl-sian without the theological consi-derations. His example was follo-wed by his successors, and atleasttwo thirds of the physicians in thehousehold of the celebrated Sala-din (1138-1193) were either Chris-tians or .Jews."

The influence of Galen seems tohave penetrated into what was deve-loping into Islamic medicine by the8th century A.D. Wahhab ibn-Munab-bih (died ca. 732), about whose lifenot much is known, had perhapscertain ideas about human physiologyaccording to the Greek ideas. Thushe speaks of the four primary quali-ties and the four humours related tothem and "of the balance of tempe-rament which signifies health. ,'3

The Arabic poet. at-Ferzadaq(d. 728) uses the word, ma (water)for an eye complaint. This may wellreflect the Greek influence as thewords hvpokhvmos or ket errektes(cataract) were later translated asnuzul al-ma (the descent of water)or simply al-ma.

The influence of the Greek factorseems to have gained ascendancy,

Bull. tnd, Inst. Hist. Me d, Vol, XXI

with the conquest of Syria and Egyptin the 7th century A, D, From AbuRaihan Al-Biruni's Kitsb ot-sev densb(Book of Pharmacy and Materi I,

Medica) written in the 11 th centu,'" 'l.&.A D, we find references to Gre kO ~writers like Aetoi s of Amida, Theo 'I ~ ~

rastus, Paulos Aegineta, Rufus ~\Ephesus, Pythagoras, Plato, Philum ' -J.:nos of Alexandria, Dioscorides, Phi lag-arius, Galen, Oribasius. Nicolans Dam-ascenus and Hippocrates.! Theodog(Thiyadug in Arabic) was a SyriacChristian who apparently wrote inSyriac and was physician-in-Chief toHajjaj bin Yusuf, practicised Hellenicmedicine, as did Masarjawayh, saidto have been of Jewish-Iranian des-cent and who flourished during theearlier Abbasid period. Another waslsr a'il. who was physician to theUmmayad Caliph, Sulayman bin 'Abdai-Malik (715-17».

It is not rnv intention to go intothe history of the translations ofGreek works into Arabic. The Greekfactor passed into the Arabic throughthe school of .Jundi-shapur and Syriacworks.

One work, which consists of alist of Succedanea (Ar. ebdet-el-

2. Op cit., 229.

3. Man fred Ullman, Islamic Medicine (Edinllurgh, 1978). p. 5.4. The Nakaid of Ja,;r and al-Fat zadak : ed. Anthony Ash'e v Baran (Leiden. 1905-7). nr. LXI 23,

Sami K. Hamaneh. AI-Blruni's Book on Pharmacy and Materia Medica (Karachi, 1973),Ar.pend;x III. pp. 106-37.

The Greek Factor in Muslim Pharmacy-Said

adwiya) shows what drugs the apot-- hecary may employ as substitute'~i~ -9- ,en he cannot procure the prescri-

"-';"~ drug. Of the second work about~ l\iV. V five fragments are preserved.• 'I &,'

~ UJ}~~~n in this context observes:~ /;",I! these it can be seen that the; J k had its subject 'simple rerne-_.~J 0 s'. It deals partly with drugsLI~;~' originating in India and unknown

to ths Greeks, as for example.marsh nut and banana. On theother hand, from time to time thedegree of the effectiveness of thedrugs is mentioned, and this is typi-cal of Galen. The book must there-fore have arisen where the lines oftransmission from India and Greeceintersected and this was presum-ably Sasanid Iran .... 5

L\--

•........J

o

Singer observes about Dioscorides :After Celsus comes Dioscorides inthe first century A.D, He was aGreek military surgeon of Silicianorigin who served under Nero andin him the Greek intellect is obvi-ously beginning to flag. His workis prodigiously important for thehistory of botany yet so far asrational medicine is concerned heis almost negligible. He begins atthe wrong end, either giving listsof drugs with the symptoms thatthey are said to cure or to relieve

=», .

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or lists of symptoms with a seriesof named drugs. Clinical observa-tion and record are wholly absent,and the spirit of Hippocrates hasdeparted from this elaborate phar-macopoeia."

This judgement not withstandingus single work on Greek materiamedica has influenced Islamic phar-macy and materia medica. Not onlythe five original books of the GreekHerbal of Dioscorides but also theapocryphal books VI and VII on poi-sonous plants and animals wererendered into Arabic. The Arabicversion most widely circulated wasprepared by Istafan ibn-Basil andrevised by Hunayn ibn-Ishaq. Eventoday it is preserved in numerousmanuscripts often very beautifullyilluminated.

Indeed, almost major writers ofArabic materiae medicae have lavi-shed unstinted praise upon Diosco-rides. Ibn al-Bav tar cites him as theprimary authority and al-Biruni in hisKitab al-Saydanah says. "If Diosco-rides had lived in our country andhad turned his efforts into determi-ning the effects of the plants in ourhills and valleys, these would havebeen used as medicines (Adwiya)and the fruits WOUld,as the result ofhis experiences. have become medi-caments (ash fiya)."7

5. Manfred Ullmann. Op. cit .• p , 18.

6. Charles Singer. Medicine in "The Legacy of Greece" (Oxford. 1962) p , 241.

7. Manfred Ullmann, op , cit .• p . 12.

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Albert describes the Greek Her-bal as "a precipitation of all foregoingknowledge of the subject from Platoto Nero. "8 Major observes that Dio-scorides botanical descriptions areso excellent that Tournefort, theFrench botanist, stated in 1700 that,while he was in Levant, he was ableto Identify a great number of plantspreviously unknown to him fromDioscorides' description. It W3S fromhis description that Muslim pharma-cists prepared burnt lead or leadsulphide (Molubdos Kekeumenos ),mercury from cinnabar (Vdragures),and potash from tartar." The entryof red ochre, Lemnian earth, andflowers of copper into Muslim phar-macy owe themselves to Dioscorides.

It is most probable that duringthe Hippocratic period the materiamedica used by the Greeks came notonly from the Mediterranean regionbut also from foreign countries. Forexample. the marking nut comes fromsouthern subcontinent.

During the Homeric times some ofthe medicines and simples camefrom Egvpt In the Hippocraticworks are found many samples

Bull. Ind. tnst. Hist. Med. Vol. XXI

with the adjective, "Egyptian",e. g. Egyptian alum, Egyptianbean, Egyptian cumin and Egyptiansalt. Whether this is because ofcommerce or because Hippocratestravelled to Egypt we have no meansof knowing. In fact. even todayIslamic medicine employs prescrip-tions like Anqruya-i-Kabir and Basli-qun Kabir which are based on Hippo-crates and employs ingredients wildrue, horned poppy, celandine, roundaristolochia, Plantago zey/anica. clo-ves, and so on.!? It is quite possiblethat the Indian ingredients are theoriginal ones incorporated by Hippo-crates. Legend has it that BasliqunKabir was prepared for Basilicon byHippocrates.

Some scholars have advancedthe view that Pythagoras and othershad been to India and brought backto Greece the Indian medicinal lore."!Theophrastus states that the aromatafor salves came by ship from India.12

Nardostachys jatamansi (N. O. Vale-rianaceae) is, for example. the Nerdosof Dioscorides, who states about it :

"Of the Indian one kinde is thatwhich is called Gangeticall. from a

8. Quoted in Ralph H. Major A History cf Medicine p. 176.

9. The Greek Herbal of Dlo scor id es, Englished by John Goodyear; ed, Rober T. Gunther (NewYork 1959).

10. Qarabadin-i-Hamdard (Karachi. 1968). pp. 32-33. ef Hamdard Pharmacopoeia of EasternMedicine (Karachi. 2nd Irnpr cs sori. 1970).

11. L. von Schroeder. Pylhaqoras und die Inder (Leipzig. 1884).

12. B. LanIer, "Sino-Iranica," Field Museum of Natural History. Anthropol. Ser. 15, 185-630

( 1919).

The Greek Factor in Muslim Pharmacy-Said

certain river named Ganges runningby the hill where it grows. Beingsome-what weaker in strengthbecause it cometh out of wateryplaces, and it is higher. and hathmore eares comming out of thesame roote. both full of halres. and

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one wrapt in ye other, having apoysonous smeU",19

A rather interesting survey on theorigin of the sweet flag has beenmade by Levey and al-Khaledvf' ')in a tabular form as follows:

Ar, wajj, Acarus Calamus L, sweet-flag.

Sum. GI. DUGAkk. qanu tabuGr. exopov eonsnviov

VModern Ar, eiker, ighir. ikkur,

Turk. egurV

Hieroglyphic Egyptian ksV

Coptic kas

Sans. vucha or vaca

GUZERATDeccanMalabarConcanHindi

VPers. vaj

VAr. wajj

vazbachevazabuvaicamgara vach

The sweet-flag is from China, Japan and India,

The same authors estimate thatin the medical formulary of al-Kindi31 per cent of the medica comes fromPersian-Indian sources, 33 per centMesopotamia, 25 per cent from Greekorigins, 5 per cent from Arabic, and3 per cent from ancient Egyptianorigins. (15)

Islamic medicine employs bothsimple and compound remedies. Asfar as the field of pharmaceutics isconcerned, Galen's pharmaka hapla

and the pharmaka svnttiete, and thebooks De simplicium meaicsmento-rum temperementis ac facultibus andDe compositione medtcementorumsecundum locos et secundum generaserved as a literary model.

The criteria (qawanin) by whichdrugs can be tested were originallyformulated by Galen and followedby Muslim physicians. The first andsurest method is to try a drug on asick and a healthy body, This has

13. The Greek Herbal. Bk. I. 10.14. Martin Levey and Noury al-Khaledy, The Medical Formulary of At-Semsr qendt (Philadelphia,

1967), p. 27.15. Idem, Ibid, P. 29.

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been accepted as a canon by thepractitioners of Islamic medicine.Galen sets forth eight conditionswhich have to be fulfilled.

1. The drug must be free from everyaccidental quality.

2. The illness must be simple, notcomplex.

3. Contrary illnesses must be trea-ted with the drug.

4. The drug must be more powerfulthan the illness so that its effectcan be clearly seen.

5. One must note the length of timeduring which contrary effectsappear so that one can determinewhich of the two effects is onlyaccidental.

6. One must look for the length oftime during which contrary eff-ects present themselves so thatone may be able to determinewhich of the two effects areaccidental.

7. One must note whether the eff-ect of a drug is the same foreveryone at the same time. If so,the effect is due to the nature ofthe drug; otherwise the effect isonly accidental.

8. One must observe whether theeffect is specific for human

Bull. Ind. Inst. Hist. Med, Vol. XXI

beings In an animal it can haveanother effect. (This has set theapproach of Tibb en regard thepharmacology of a d. ug.

9. One must distinguish betweenfoods and drugs; a drug warmsthe body by its quality and afood by its entire substance.t"

The Galenic theory was elaboratedby Ibn-Sina through his study on thetemperament of 760 drugs and hisrestatement of the theory of temper-ament, vlz. hot, cold. humid and dry.

The direct influence of Oiosco-rides on al Kindi can be tracs d inseveral instances. For example, Dio-scordes (III : 86) has gl aucium (hor-ned poppy) as the juice of a harbin Heliopolis in Syria. He recomm-ends this juice for eye ailments whilethey are in their incipient stage. AI-Kindi employs shiya! mamitha (drycollyrium) in a preparation for thscure of ptergium and a yellow eyepowder.

The compound electury, iv eri],has also come from Greek materiamedica. Ali bin Rebban al-Tabari.for instance, mentions two types ofiyarij. One is iveri] arkaghanis (ofArchigenes of Apameia) and iveri]fiqara. tv eri] is derived from theGreek 'iepx' (iera). AI·Bitriq pres-cribes this electuary for the stomach,

16. Manfred Ullmann. op, cit., p , 104.

The Greek Factor in Muslim Pharmacy-Said

while al-Cindi employs it in a pres-cription for haemorrhoids of adultsand children. In another prescriptionthe sick part is moistened with iveri]and castor oil for serious epilepsy.In the Kitab et-murshia, al-Razi con-siders iyarijto be an important ingre-die nt in the compounding of drugs.1?

Muslim physicians attained ahigh degree of skill in the making ofpoly-pharmaceuticals. It has beenclaimed that this represents an evolu-ticn of the Egyptians. A proper

75remedy for any disease has to com-promise the base, adjuvants, syner-gists, and elements which might bereplaced by succedanea. This proce-dure is claimed to have originatedwith Aesclepiades. JS

While the Greek factor did stim-ulate Muslim pharmacy, the vastlyexpanded materia medica of theMiddle Ages led to the preparationof polypharmaceuticals having non-Greek origin.

17. Firdaws st-btkrnet . ed. M. Z. Siddiqui (Berlin, 1928), pp. 457-58.18. Charles H. La Wall, Four Thousand Years of Pharmacy (Philadelphia and London, 1927),

pp. 93-9.l.

16' Bull. Ind. Inst. Hist. Med. Vol. XXI

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