Achievements: Medicine

During the medieval Islamic world, medicine was a central study for many Muslims since they were very much concerned with reactions to different circumstances and situations where medical knowledge and practice was needed. With this, a flowering of knowledge and intellect later influenced the Western world with the medical practice and education.

Arguably, many of the medical achievements during this era were based on the initiatives made by the Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews. However, the Muslims during this time corrected the fallacies made by the previous scientists and discovered other concepts as well. Making the Greek tradition for the rest of the medieval world was crucial so many Islamic scholars ordered and made more systematic the vast but inconsistent Greco-Roman knowledge of medicine by publishing encyclopedias and summaries.

In addition to the blossoming of medical knowledge during the golden age of Islam, hospitals were built and running in major cities in the Islamic empire such as in Cairo, the Qalawun hospital. It was sufficiently staffed with physicians,  pharmacists and nurses.

The picture below is the description of the eye according to Hunain in Ishaq,  from a manuscript dated circa 1200.