Causes and Remedies for the Decline of Islamic Medicine in the Last Five Centuries

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5915/28-4-8086 The period between the 9th and the 15th centuries spotlights a bright era when, according to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, the Arabs extended their field of activity right up to Spain. They played the pivotal role of guardians and caretakers of scientific thought, achieving supremacy especially in biological sciences. Indeed, biology came to be known as an Arab science. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the world of Islam has surprisingly neglected its great men of medicine and science, philosophers, mathematicians, critics, commentators, statesmen, and men of letters. It completely overlooked the fundamental achievements of those great scholars. The pioneering work in science and technology, accomplished during the glorious period between the 9th and 15th centuries, was lost sight of and not the slightest heed was paid to the three million manuscripts of that illustrious era that remain preserved in several libraries of the world. These three million manuscripts contain creative works, research, discoveries, and inventions of the Muslims and Arabs. The entire infrastructure of all the scientific and technological advancement of today is based upon the groundwork of those scholars.