part in the same literary and scientific studies. All the barriers which commonly separate men were thrown down, and all worked with equal zeal in behalf of our common civilization.
With the death of Averroes (1198 A. D.), however, Arab
philosophy lost its last representative, and the Koran
resumed its full authority over freedom of thought. In the
succeeding period of decadence (thirteenth century of the
Christian era) there were no physicians of first importance,
at least in Spain and Persia; and even in Egypt and Syria,
over which reigned at this time the enlightened family of
Saladin, the leading physicians were not of the same
calibre as the men whose names I have just mentioned.
Bagdad and Cordova had by this time become cities of less
importance than Damascus, and botany and ophthalmology
were esteemed of greater value in the scheme of medical
education than at any previous time. It will not appear
strange, however, that medicine should have stood still
during this later part of the Middle Ages if we bear in mind
the fact that warfare was then such a frequently occurring
event that nobody had either time or inclination for scientific
studies. The invasions of the Mongolians and the
Crusaders were most disturbing factors.
During the twelfth century of the present era there were—so we are assured by Le Clerc—women physicians among the Arabs in Spain. It is said, for example, that Abou Bekr, a distinguished medical practitioner of that period, had a sister who was well trained in medicine, and that it was she who acted as midwife at all the confinements of the wives of the Caliph Almansur. After her death her niece officiated in the same capacity in her place. There can scarcely be any reasonable doubt that, almost from time immemorial, women as well as men have taken active part in the practice of medicine.
According to Puschmann, Spain possessed, during the twelfth century of the Christian era, seventy public libraries and seventeen institutions for instruction in the higher branches of learning. Among the residents of the city of Cordova there were, during the same period, no fewer than one hundred and fifty authors; and the smaller cities of
