WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The earliest documented hospital established by an Islamic ruler was built in the 9th century in Baghdad probably by the vizier to the caliph Harun al-Rashid.

Detailed explanation-2: -Early Arabs also contributed to the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases such as smallpox and measles, and Muslim doctors were the first to incorporate surgery, then a separate discipline, into the study of medicine and to develop its practice and techniques.

Detailed explanation-3: -The early hospitals were primarily almshouses, one of the first of which was established by English Quaker leader and colonist William Penn in Philadelphia in 1713.

Detailed explanation-4: -Besides Ibn Sina, the other Arab Islamic physicians who contributed to medical knowledge and influenced medical thinking in the West were Al Razi (Rhazes), Ibn Nafis, and Al-Zarawi. Their contributions and important discoveries will be discussed separately in subsequent issues of the journal.

Detailed explanation-5: -The first medical center was established in Persia (Iran) in the 6th century; in the 800s, the great Islamic doctor Al Razi oversaw Baghdad’s Audidi Hospital, with its two dozen doctors on staff. By 1000, Baghdad had five public hospitals, and hospitals were founded in Cairo, Aleppo, Damascus and Al-Andalus.