What is ‘Islamic’ in Islamic Medicine? An Overview

Abstract

What is ‘Islamic medicine’ and how did it develop? What is ‘Islamic’ in Islamic medicine and when did this term appear in the medical historiography, considering that it was never used during the medieval period in the Islamic countries or by any Muslim physicians or historians? With the exception of specific literatures on spiritual healing or the books of Medicine of the Prophet, the Tebb al-Nabi, or the Tebb al-A’emma (medicine of the Imams) which consist of the sayings and living habits (sunnah) of the Prophet and the Shiites Imams, there are no titles of medical treatises written by Islamic scholars which allude to Islam or religion. The major books of Râzi (tenth century) were titled the Kitab al-Mansuri (dedicated to Caliph al-Mansur), and the al-Hâwi (Comprehensive, or Continent).