The science of Medicine flourished during the Middle Ages throughout the Islamic dynasty. The medical wealth of the Muslim physicians available in the form of practices, encyclopedias and scripts enlightened Europe for 5 centuries. Arnold and Guillaume in “Legacy of Islam” on Islamic science and medicine stated: “Looking back we may say that Islamic medicine and science reflected the light of the Hellenic sun, when its day had fled, and that they shone like a moon, illuminating the darkest night of the European middle Ages; that some bright stars lent their own light, and that moon and stars alike faded at the dawn of a new day – the Renaissance. Since they had their share in the direction and introduction of that great movement, it may reasonably be claimed that they are with us yet.”
Kitab Al-Ma’a
(The Book of Water) appears to be a strange title for the first known Encyclopedia of Medicine arranged according to the alphabet. It was recently discovered in Algeria and published in Oman. The author’s apparent reason for naming the book as Kitab Al-Ma’a was because the word Al-Ma’a (the water) appears first in the book. The author was Abu Mohammed Abdellah Ibn Mohammed Al-Azdi, known as Ibn Al-Thahabi, (died 1033 AD,) in Valencia, Muslim Spain. The manuscript contains about nine hundred pages. Under each letter of the alphabet, there are names of an illness, a medicine, a physiological process or a treatment. This is thefirst known alphabetical classification of medical terms.
In this encyclopedia, Ibn Al-Thahabi not only lists the names but adds numerous original ideas about the functioning of the human organs. Indeed, he explains an original idea of how vision takes place. He described how seeing is a process of an image which goes through the pupil of the eye and strikes the vision nerves. The brain, then, unifies the two images into one and stores it in its memory bank. Such explanation resembles the vision theory of Ibn Al-Haitham who died in 1040, just 33 years before the death of Ibn Al-Thahabi. However, it is not certain whether they met or were aware of each other’s work. The book contains treatment, usually herbal, of a vast number of ailments and diseases. It also contains a course for the treatment of psychological problem. The main thesis of his medication is that cure must start from controlled food and exercise and if it persists then specific individual medicines if it still persists then medical compounds.
