OphthalmologyOphthalmology is a branch of medicine which deals with the diseases and surgery of the visual pathways, including the eye, hairs, and areas surrounding the eye, such as the lacrimal system and eyelids. The term ophthalmologist is an eye specialist for medical and surgical problems...
was one of the foremost branches
in medieval Islamic medicineIn the history of medicine, Islamic medicine or Arabic medicine refers to medicine developed in the medieval Islamic civilization and written in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Islamic civilization. Despite these names, a significant number of scientists during this period were not Arab...
. The oculist or
kahhal (کحال), a somewhat despised professional in
GalenAelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamum , was a prominent Greek physician and philosopher and probably the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for well over a millennium...
’s time, was an honored member of the medical profession by the
AbbasidThe Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the Islamic Caliphates of the Islamic Empire. It was ruled by the Abbasid dynasty of caliphs, who built their capital in Baghdad after overthrowing the Umayyad caliphs from all but Al Andalus....
period, occupying a unique place in royal households. The specialized instruments used in their operations ran into scores. Innovations such as the “
injectionAn injection is an infusion method of putting fluid into the body, usually with a hollow needle and a syringe which is pierced through the skin to a sufficient depth for the material to be forced into the body...
syringeA syringe is a simple piston pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly in a tube. The plunger can be pulled and pushed along inside a cylindrical tube , allowing the syringe to take in and expel a liquid or gas through an orifice at the open end of the tube...
”, a
hollow needleA hypodermic needle is a hollow needle commonly used with a syringe to inject substances into the body or extract liquids from the body...
, invented by Ammar ibn Ali of
MosulMosul is a city in northern Iraq and the capital of the Ninawa Governorate, some 400 km northwest of Baghdad...
, which was used for the extraction by suction of soft cataracts, were quite common.
Muslim physicians deserve much praise for their descriptions of ophthalmological pathology. They were the first to describe such conditions as
pannusPannus is a medical term for a hanging flap of tissue. When involving the abdomen, it is called a panniculus and consists of skin, fat, and sometimes contents of the internal abdomen as part of a hernia. A pannus can be the result of loose hanging tissues after pregnancy or weight loss. It can...
,
glaucomaGlaucoma is a group of diseases that affect the optic nerve and involves a loss of retinal ganglion cells in a characteristic pattern. It is a type of optic neuropathy. Raised intraocular pressure is a significant risk factor for developing glaucoma...
(described as ‘headache of the pupil’), phlyctenulae, and operations on the
conjunctivaThe conjunctiva is a clear mucous membrane consisting of cells and underlying basement membrane that covers the sclera and lines the inside of the eyelids...
. They were the first to use the words '
retinaThe vertebrate retina is a light sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
' and '
cataractA cataract is a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelope, varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and obstructing the passage of light...
'. They also pioneered the field of
opticsOptics is the branch of physics which studies the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...
. The list of Muslim contributions to Ophthalmology is anything but brief.
Fertile grounds for emergence
The scientific achievements of the late Abbasid period may perhaps be attributed to the worldview that had developed as a result of the establishment of the
House of WisdomThe House of Wisdom was a library and translation institute in Abbassid-era Baghdad, Iraq. It was a key institution in the Translation Movement and considered to have been a major intellectual center of the Islamic Golden Age. The House of Wisdom acted as a society founded by Abbasid caliphs Harun...
, and intermingling of scholars from
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
, Persia, North Africa and the west, in
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
. There, an ideology began taking shape in which unlike their early Islam predecessors, did not recognize a disparity between faith and reasoning, though many doubtlessly continued to do so. The Moorish Lisan al-Din ibn al-Khatib, himself a great vizier and a man of medicine, is famous for once declaring that “whatever the traditions of the prophet might say, their remarks about exhalations from Hell cannot stand against the evidence of careful observation.” And put another way by Ibn Tufayl: “Faith is for the people. But its understanding in the light of reason, is the privilege of the intellectual elite.”
Education and history
To become a practitioner, there was no one fixed method or path of training. There was even no formal specialization in the different branches of medicine, as might be expected. But some students did eventually approximate to a specialist by acquiring proficiency in the treatment of certain diseases or in the use of certain drugs. “The Prince of Physicians”, the
PersianThe Persian people are the majority ethnic group in Iran. However, there are sub-groups who speak the Persian language as their mother tongue throughout the Iranian plateau. The term Persian has also a supra-ethnic significance and has been historically referred to a part of Iranian peoples...
(
IranianThe Iranian peoples are an ethnic and linguistic branch of Indo-European peoples, living mainly on the Iranian plateau and beyond in central, southern, and southwestern Asia and southeastern Europe. As a group of people, they are predominantly defined along linguistic lines as speaking the Iranian...
)
Avicenna, known as Abū Alī Sīnā or Ibn Sīnā , and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time...
, for example, was held to be more proficient than most others in his treatment of nervous diseases, and hence a large number of psychological cases were brought to him, the most famous being the
SamanidThe Samanid dynasty , also known as the Samanid Empire or simply Samanids was an important Persian state and empire in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan, named after its founder Saman Khuda who converted to Sunni Islam despite being from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility...
prince
Nooh ibn MansurNuh II was amir of the Sāmānids . He was the son of Mansur I.-Beginning and Middle of Reign:Having ascended the throne as a youth, Nuh was assisted by his mother and his vizier Abu'l-Husain 'Abd-Allah ibn Ahmad 'Utbi. Sometime around his ascension, the Karakhanids invaded and captured the upper...
who thought of himself as a cow, and who was cured by Avicenna who was no more than 17 years of age. Avicenna himself benefited from the instruction of many teachers, ranging in subject from
geometryGeometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers....
to
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
.
Nevertheless it was standard and necessary to learn and understand the works and legacy of predecessors, if one was to excel and surpass others in the field. Among those one can mention
The alteration of the eye by
Yuhanna ibn MasawayhYuhanna ibn Masawaih, also written Ibn Masawaih, Masawaiyh, and in Latin Mesue, Masuya, Mesue Major, Msuya, and Mesue the Elder was an Assyrian physician from the Academy of Gundishapur...
, the great Nestorian Christian physician, whose work can be considered the earliest work on Ophthalmology, only to be eclipsed by that of none other but Hunain ibn Ishaq, known in the west as Johannitius, for his work
The ten treatises of the eye.
Cataract extraction
The next major landmark text on ophthalmology was the
Choice of Eye Diseases written in
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
by the
IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
i Ammar bin Ali Al Mawsili
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/islamic_medical/islamic_09.html who attempted the earliest extraction of
cataractA cataract is a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelope, varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and obstructing the passage of light...
s using
suctionSuction is the flow of a fluid into a partial vacuum, or region of low pressure. The pressure gradient between this region and the ambient pressure will propel matter toward the low pressure area. Suction is popularly thought of as an attractive effect, which is incorrect since vacuums do not...
. He invented a hollow metallic
syringeA syringe is a simple piston pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly in a tube. The plunger can be pulled and pushed along inside a cylindrical tube , allowing the syringe to take in and expel a liquid or gas through an orifice at the open end of the tube...
hypodermic needleA hypodermic needle is a hollow needle commonly used with a syringe to inject substances into the body or extract liquids from the body...
, which he applied through the sclerotic and successfully extracted the cataracts through suction. He wrote the following on his invention of the hypodermic needle and how he discovered the technique of cataract extraction while
experimentIn scientific research, an experiment is a method of investigating causal relationships among variables, or to test a hypothesis. An experiment is a cornerstone of the empirical approach to acquiring data about the world and is used in both natural sciences and social sciences...
ing with it on a patient:
Other contributions
Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen) made important contributions to ophthalmology and improved on previous conceptions of the processes involved in
sightSight may refer to:*Visual perception*Sight , used to assist aim by guiding the eye*Sight , a 2005 Concert DVD by Keller Williams*Sight, a first-person shooter video game created by FPS Creator...
and
visual perceptionVisual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision...
in his
Book of OpticsThe Book of Optics was a seven-volume treatise on optics, physics, mathematics, anatomy and psychology written by the Iraqi Muslim scientist, Ibn al-Haytham , from 1011 to 1021, when he was under house arrest in Cairo, Egypt.The book...
(1021), which was known as
Opticae Thesaurus in Europe. He was also the first to hint at the
retinaThe vertebrate retina is a light sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
being involved in the process of
imageAn image is an artifact, for example a two-dimensional picture, that has a similar appearance to some subject—usually a physical object or a person....
formation.
Avicenna, known as Abū Alī Sīnā or Ibn Sīnā , and commonly known in English by his Latinized name Avicenna , was a Persian polymath and the foremost physician and philosopher of his time...
, in
The Canon of MedicineThe Canon of Medicine is a 14-volume medical encyclopedia written by Islamic scientist and physician Ibn Sīnā...
(c. 1025), described sight as one of the five external
senseSenses are the physiological methods of perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology , and philosophy of perception...
s. The Latin word "
retinaThe vertebrate retina is a light sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
" is derived from Avicenna's
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
term for the organ.
In his
Coliget,
AverroesAbū 'l-Walīd Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn Rushd , better known just as Ibn Rushd , and in European literature as Averroes , was an Andalusian Muslim polymath of Moroccan origins; a master of Islamic philosophy, Islamic theology, Maliki law and jurisprudence, logic, psychology, politics, Arabic music...
(1126-1198) was the first to attribute photoreceptor properties to the
retinaThe vertebrate retina is a light sensitive tissue lining the inner surface of the eye. The optics of the eye create an image of the visual world on the retina, which serves much the same function as the film in a camera. Light striking the retina initiates a cascade of chemical and electrical...
, and he was also the first to suggest that the principle organ of
sightVisual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision...
might be the
arachnoid membraneThe arachnoid mater is one of the three meninges, the membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. It is interposed between the two other meninges, the more superficial dura mater and the deeper pia mater, and is separated from the pia mater by the subarachnoid space.The delicate,...
(
aranea). His work led to much discussion in 16th century Europe over whether the principle organ of sight is the traditional
GalenAelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus , better known as Galen of Pergamum , was a prominent Greek physician and philosopher and probably the most accomplished medical researcher of the Roman period. His theories dominated and influenced Western medical science for well over a millennium...
ic crystalline
humourHumorism, or humoralism, was a theory of the makeup and workings of the human body adopted by Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers...
or the Averroist
aranea, which in turn led to the discovery that the retina is the principle organ of sight.
Ibn al-Nafis wrote a large textbook on ophthalmology called
The Polished Book on Experimental Ophthalmology in which he made a number of original contributions to the field. The book is divided into two sections: "On the Theory of Ophthalmology" and "Simple and Compunded Ophthalmic Drugs". Ibn al-Nafis discovered that the
muscleMuscle is the contractile tissue of the body and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to...
behind the
eyeEyes are organs that detect light, and send electrical impulses along the optic nerve to the visual and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system...
ball does not support the
ophthalmic nerveThe ophthalmic nerve is one of the three branches of the trigeminal nerve, the fifth cranial nerve. Like the maxillary branch of the trigeminal nerve, the ophthalmic branch carries sensory fibers only.-Branches:*Nasociliary nerve...
, that they do not get in contact with it, and that the
optic nerveThe optic nerve, also called cranial nerve II, transmits visual information from the retina to the brain.-Anatomy:The optic nerve is the second of twelve paired cranial nerves but is considered to be part of the central nervous system as it is derived from an outpouching of the diencephalon during...
s
transectA transect is a path along which one records and counts occurrences of the phenomenão of study .It requires an observer to move along a fixed path and to count occurrences along the path and, at the same time, obtain the distance of the object from the path...
but do not get in touch with each other. He also discovered many new treatments for
glaucomaGlaucoma is a group of diseases that affect the optic nerve and involves a loss of retinal ganglion cells in a characteristic pattern. It is a type of optic neuropathy. Raised intraocular pressure is a significant risk factor for developing glaucoma...
and the weakness of
visionThe visual system is the part of the central nervous system which enables organisms to see.It interprets the information from visible light to build a representation of the world surrounding the body...
in one eye when the other eye is affected by
diseaseA disease or medical condition isan abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions, associated with specific symptoms and signs...
.
Other famous landmarks in ophthalmology include Rhazes’
Continens, Ali Ibn Isa’s
Notebook of the Oculists, and
Jibrail BukhtishuJabril ibn Bukhtishu, also written as Bakhtyshu, was an 8-9th century physician from the famous Bukhtishu family of Persian Nestorian physicians from the Academy of Gundishapur...
’s
Medicine of the Eye, among numerous others.
Certification and malpractice
Being an ophthalmologist was not an easy profession then, for a license was required to be able to practice. The granting or withholding of this rested with the hakim-bashi, the chief physician to the Caliph. However, in addition to this test of certification, there was an additional means of checking for malpractice: Aside from the chief physician whom to which the Caliph delegated his powers to, there was another official known as the
MuhtasibA mutasib was a supervisor of bazaars and trade in the mediæval Islamic countries. His duty was to ensure that public business was conducted in accordance with the law of sharia....
, or Inspector–General, who was appointed to oversee the practice of medicine by all physicians.
Before the year 931CE, there was hardly any means of professional certification, for in that year the Abbasid Caliph
al-MuqtadirAl-Muqtadir was the Abbasid Caliph in Baghdad from 908 to 932.After the previous Caliph, al-Muktafi, was confined for several months to his sick-bed, intrigue was made for some time as to his successor. The choice was between al-Muktafi's minor brother whom the Caliph himself favored, and a...
, was informed that the mistake of a private medical practitioner had resulted in the death of a patient. The Caliph therefore issued orders to the Inspector-General Ibrahim Muhammad ibn Abi Batiha to see to it that the practice of medicine by anyone who had not been examined and approved by
Sinan ibn ThabitSinan ibn Thabit ibn Qurra was an Arab physician, mathematician and astronomer. He was the son of Thabit ibn Qurra and the father of Ibrahim ibn Sinan.-See also:*List of Arab scientists and scholars....
ibn Qurra be prohibited. Sinan thus only authorized physicians to practice whom he personally endorsed. He furthermore would suggest to each applicant what branch of medicine he ought to practice in. It is said that he examined a total number of physicians exceeding the number 860 in
BaghdadBaghdad is the capital of Iraq and of Baghdad Governorate, with which it is coterminous. Having a municipal population estimated at 6.5 million, it is the largest city in Iraq and the second largest in the Arab World....
alone during the first year.
The chairing of the board was later passed to Sinan’s son Ibrahim, who became chief physician of Baghdad, and Abu Sa’id Yamāni of Basra who certified the practice of 700 physicians through examinations. The board continued to function, being chaired by the likes of Ibn al-Tilmiz, court physician to caliph
Al-MustazhirAl-Mustadhir was the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad from 1094 to 1118. He succeeded his father al-Muqtadi. During his twenty-four year incumbency he was politically irrelevant, despite the civil strife at home and the appearance of the First Crusade in Syria. An attempt was even made by crusader...
.
Both the offices of the chief physician and the inspector general formed part of the royal caliphate. Among the Muhtasib’s duties were the administering of the
Hippocratic OathThe Hippocratic Oath is an oath traditionally taken by doctors swearing to ethically practice medicine. It is widely believed to have been written by Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, in Ionic Greek , or by one of his students, and is usually included in the Hippocratic Corpus...
, which required physicians to swear that they would prepare, administer, or entrust no poisonous drafts to any unauthorized persons: that they would avoid gazing upon unrelated women folk within the sick household they visit: and that they would never reveal to any third person anything revealed to them in confidence by the patient. So important was this oath that Hunain ibn Ishaq was said to have reminded the Caliph of his oath when asked to prepare a lethal poison for an enemy of the Amir.
It was also the Muhtasib’s duty to see that physicians possessed proper instruments of his calling that were necessary and befitting for practice, as was with all the other branches of medicine. He would further, if he wished, require them to undergo a further examination. For example, physicians would be required to be thoroughly familiar with the ‘Ten treatises on the eye’, and were forbidden to practice unless they demonstrated knowledge of the gross anatomy of the eyeball. Rhazes, for instance, when about to undergo an operation for his deteriorating vision, orally examined his surgeon on the anatomy of the eye, and finding him lacking in knowledge refused to submit to his blade for the operation.
Ophthalmologists hence had to satisfy the examiner that they knew the principal diseases of the eye as well as their intricate complications, and were able to properly prepare collyria and ophthalmic ointments. Moreover they had to assert under oath not to allow unauthorized persons access to any surgical instruments, such as the
lancetLancet may refer to:* In medicine:** Lancet , a medical instrument with a double-edged blade** The Lancet, a medical journal** Lancet, a needle used in a blood-sampling device* In architecture:** Lancet arch** Lancet window* In fiction:...
that was used for cases of
pannusPannus is a medical term for a hanging flap of tissue. When involving the abdomen, it is called a panniculus and consists of skin, fat, and sometimes contents of the internal abdomen as part of a hernia. A pannus can be the result of loose hanging tissues after pregnancy or weight loss. It can...
and
pterygiumPterygium most often refers to a benign growth of the conjunctiva. A pterygium commonly grows from the nasal side of the sclera. It is associated with, and thought to be caused by ultraviolet-light exposure , low humidity, and dust...
, or the
curetteA curette is a surgical instrument designed for scraping biological tissue or debris in a biopsy, excision, or cleaning procedure. In form, the curette is a small hand tool, often similar in shape to a stylus; at the tip of the curette is a small scoop, hook, or gouge...
used for cases of
trachomaTrachoma is an infectious eye disease, and the leading cause of the world's infectious blindness. Globally, 84 million people suffer from active infection and nearly 8 million people are visually impaired as a result of this disease...
.
The penalties for disregarding proper professional conduct varied from the warning of divine punishment on the Day of Resurrection, to more drastic measures such as the beating of the soles of the feet. The Muhtasib had such authority as to even inspect shops during after hours, as frequently and unexpectedly as he wished. He could enter shops and observe operations being performed. The inspector-general would oversee the preparation of certain ointments and destroy jars that he determined to be old or smelly. The rules for maintaining sanitary conditions were quite severe for such places including those of the druggists, public eating houses, and butchers. In earlier days, the Muhtasib had the right to punish, even by death, gross neglect of the health of the public. It was not uncommon to hear of a baker be thrown into his own furnace for selling poisonous corn, or for a cook to be boiled in his own cauldron for selling carrion or putrid meat.
Still, the sheer number of ignorant and fraudulent eye-charlatans caused many problems. So shocking was the conduct of these ignorant doctors that it was the declared duty of the Muhtasib to see that such men perform no operation upon the eyes, and never give a patient any preparation intended to be applied within the lids. Rhazes poured out his wrath when encountering quacksters and charlatans.
In the
Ottoman EmpireThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
, and well into the Republic of Turkey of the 20th century, a class of ambulatory eye surgeons, popularly known as the ‘kırlangıç oğlanları’ (‘sons of the swallow’) operated on cataract using special knifes. From contemporary sources can be glimpsed that the reputation of these “blinding frauds” was far from spotless.
Fees and income
There was a good deal of drama surrounding the men of medical professions in those days. A physician could on the one hand receive no less than an astronomical sum of 4,000,000 dirhams a year, as did
BukhtishuBakhtshooa Gondishapoori were a armenian family of Nestorian Christian Persian physicians from the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, spanning 6 generations and 250 years. Ibn Sina, the famous Persian physician, refers in his book the Canon of Medicine to them as Syriac...
ibn Jurjis, chief physician to the great Caliph
Harun al-RashidHārūn al-Rashīd was the fifth and most famous Abbasid Caliph...
; or pay for the unfortunate death of his patient or failure of his treatment with his own life, as was often the case with physicians treating many a royalty.
But in general, the fee varied according to the status of the physician and the patient. The life of Ibn Masawayh, can perhaps be quite instructive in this regard: When still unknown and still a so called “road-side” physician in Baghdad, in return for successfully treating a servant suffering from
OphthalmiaOphthalmia is inflammation of the eye. It is a medical sign which may be indicative of various conditions, including sympathetic ophthalmia , ophthalmia neonatorum , and actinic conjunctivitis...
, he was paid with a daily allowance of bread and meat and sweets and a promise of a monthly salary of a few silver and copper coins. When The Vizier fell ill and Ibn Masawayh achieved similar success with him, his salary rose to 600 silver dirhams a month, food for two mules, and the services of five servants. And when he finally obtained the rank of chief ophthalmologist to the Khalifah, his salary was fixed at 2000 dirhams a month plus gifts valued at 20,000 dirhams a year, including forage for his mules as well as the services of a number of servants.
However, fees paid to ophthalmologists were measly in comparison to the elephantine fees which others were apt to receive overall. At the time when Ibn Masawayh received 2000 dirhams a month as ophthalmologist-in-chief to the Caliph Harun al-Rashid, Jibrail the physician was receiving 10,000 dirhams per month.
As to the means of obtaining the fee, in cases deemed chronic requiring multiple visits, they would receive the fee only on the fair conclusion of the case. If the patient recovered, there was, in most cases, no question of refusal to pay. But if the case ended fatally, then the relatives could if they so choose, show the chief physician of the city a copy of all prescriptions and medicaments which he ordered for the sick person. If the Hakim-bashi determined they were proper and fitting for the case and that the physician was exempt of any negligence or fault, he could declare that the person’s life had reached its allotted span by the will of Allah, and that the fees had to be paid in full. If on the other hand, the chief physician found evidence of neglect, he would direct the relatives to collect dieh (or blood money) for their kinsman from the physician, ‘for it is he who slew him by his poor skill and negligence.’
Nevertheless, some ophthalmologists would be fortunate enough to work as personal ophthalmologist to an Amir of good heart and intellect, and some Caliphs were even known to have kept a personal ophthalmologist in addition to a personal physician.
So well ingrained did the science of ophthalmology become in medieval Islamic culture that the word used for "wisdom" in Arabic is "al-Basirah", meaning
the ability to see. In fact, one refers to loved ones as "Nour al-Ayni" meaning
the light of my eyes.
See also
- Islamic medicine
In the history of medicine, Islamic medicine or Arabic medicine refers to medicine developed in the medieval Islamic civilization and written in Arabic, the lingua franca of the Islamic civilization. Despite these names, a significant number of scientists during this period were not Arab...
- Islamic science
Science in medieval Islam, also known as Islamic science, is a term used in the history of science to refer to the science developed in the Islamic world between the 7th and 16th centuries, a period also known as the Islamic Golden Age. Scientists from the region were also known to develop many...
- Islamic Golden Age
The Islamic Golden Age or the Islamic Renaissance, is traditionally dated from the 9th to 13th centuries for 400 years C.E., but has been extended to the 15th century by recent scholarship...
- List of Arab scientists and scholars
- List of Iranian scientists and scholars