AL RAZI (OHAMMED BIN ZAKERAYA AL RAZI) "RHAZES" (865 - 923)

Al Razi known as “Rhazes” was a Muslim physician and philosopher born in Rayy near Tehran. He studied chemistry first then medicine.

He served as Chief physician in Rayy Hospital and then in Baghdad which was then the most eminent center in the world for science and medicine.

His two most significant medical books, are Kitab “Al Mansouri” and Kitab “Al Hawi”, in which he surveyed Greek, Syrian and early Arabic medicine as well as some Indian medical knowledge. Throughout his works he added his own considered judgment and medical experience as a commentary.

Al Razi emphasized the importance of proper and thorough physical examination before prescribing a prudent treatment. His attention to physical signs is reflected by the fact that he was the first to publish a detailed description of smallpox and measles. He is associated with several technical innovations including the use of animal gut for surgical sutures and plaster casts for fractures. He wrote a number of original works on gout and its effect on the kidney and bladder stones.

For centuries Al Razi’s medical writings were required reading for Islamic and European physicians in training. Al Razi is considered to have been one of the greatest physicians of the Islamic civilization.

--Editor in Chief