CHAPTER XVIII
BEGINNING OF THE ARAB RENAISSANCE UNDER THE CALIPHS OF BAGDAD
Toward the end of the sixth century A. D. the prospects
for the perpetuation and further evolution of Greek medicine
looked decidedly dark. In Rome and in the larger
Italian towns of the Roman Empire, physicians were
doubtless still to be found, but they must have led very
precarious lives and they certainly could not have had any
leisure or opportunity for scientific work. In these earlier
years of the Middle Ages the monks conducted the larger
part of whatever medical practice was required in the
districts in which the monasteries were located. In
Byzantium, also, the outlook at this period of Roman history
was very unfavorable; and nowhere else, as a matter
of fact, would it have been possible for the casual observer
to discover any signs that indicated the approach of a
revival in the study of the sciences. And yet, even at that
seemingly darkest moment in the history of medicine, there
were forces at work which would soon revive these precious
seeds of Greek knowledge, and, after transplanting them
to a richer soil, cause them to produce even better fruit
and in larger quantities than ever before.
The rulers under whose auspices the first steps in the great Arab Renaissance were taken, belonged to what is known as the Abbaside Dynasty, the founder of which was Abbas (566-652 A. D.), the uncle of Mohammed. His descendants ruled as Caliphs of Bagdad, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, for many centuries (from 750 A. D. onward).[1] Almansur, the second Caliph of this dynasty,
- ↑ The account which is given in this and the following chapters is based largely on Dr. Lucien Le Clerc's Histoire de la Médecine Arabe, Paris, 1876.
