Medicine and Nephro-Urology in Ancient Iran: Part V: Al-Akawayni Notions in Kidney Diseases

Abstract

Masoumeh Mohkam MD* How to Cite This Article: Mohkam M. Medicine and Nephro-Urology in Ancient Iran: Part V: Al-Akawayni Notions in Kidney Diseases. J Ped. Nephrology 2014;2(3):94-95. Pediatric Infections Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran *Corresponding Author Masoumeh Mohkam Mofid Children’s Hospital, Tehran, Iran E-mail: mohkam@pirc.ir Telefax: +98 (21) 22227033 Abubakr al-Akawayni al-Bokhari (?–983 AD) was by far the most outstanding scholar and medical practitioner who collected one of the earliest medical laws. He was one of the greatest Iranian physicians of the fourth century whose medical works have been reliable references in most periods of the history of medicine. Akhawayani Bokhari was born in the city of Bokhara. Bokhara was an ancient Iranian city which is currently located in the Republic of Uzbekistan. It was also the residence of Avicenna and became one of the intellectual centers of the world during the Middle Ages. Abubakr al-Akawayni wrote Hidayat al-Mutallimin fi-al-Tibb (Learner’s guide to medicine) in the closing decades of the 10th century. The Hidayat was a simplified book of medicine at the time providing a high level of medical knowledge and practice in the Samanid period [1,2]. This book was written in Persian or Farsi and was dedicated to his son and students of medicine. The Hidayat consisted of five major sections and 184 Babs (chapters). In his book, Akhawayni categorized useful knowledge on neuropsychiatry and was the first to describe sleep paralysis. He presented his descriptions of important disorders like “Lisarghos” (meningitis), mania, “Malikhulia” (psychosis) and “Ghotrab” (dementia). He also had a discourse on pulse disorders. The main chapters of the book addressed the kidney and urinary tract anatomy, and kidney and urinary tract diseases, and there was a single closing chapter on uroscopy [3-5]. The aim of this article is to summarize some aspects of the Hidayat which are related to the kidney and urinary tract.