The transmission of medical knowledge can be traced to some of the earliest writings in human history. Yet a particularly fruitful period for advancement in medical science emerged with the rise of Islam. For the most part, Western scholarship belittles the contribution of the physicians of the Islamic world. They are usually perceived as simple purveyors of Greek science to the scholars of the Renaissance. However, as it is argued convincingly in the following article, the facts show otherwise.

The Simurgh: A Symbol of Holistic Medicine in the Middle Eastern Culture in History by: Nil Sari
This article discusses the view that the simurgh, a mythological bird with supernatural characteristics, was also a symbol of miraculous life and treatment, as related in stories and miniature pictures. Such as view is described specifically with examples of Turkish miniatures.

Turkish Medical History of the Seljuk Era by: FSTC Limited
The Great Seljuk state was part of the medieval Islamic civilization. Most of its scientific institutions and educational traditions were inherited from previous and contemporary Muslim and Turkish states. In this well documented article, the late Professor Ali Haydar Bayat focuses on the medical life of the Seljuk State. After a short historical survey, he describes the medical tradition during the Turkish Seljukid period, focussing on hospitals, medical education, the physicians and their work, the healing of epidemics, and the practice of folk medicine.

The Missing Link in the History of Urology: A Call for More Efforts to Bridge the Gap by: Professor Rabie E. Abdel-Halim
With few exceptions, most of the current publications on history of urology still ignore the scientific and technological events of the more than a thousand years between the Greco-Roman times and the modern era. This has broken an important link in the globally continuous line of progress and evolution of world civilizations. In this article, Professor Rabie E. Abdel-Halim restores this missing-link. He attracts the attention on the medical works of the scholars of the Islamic civilisation who lived and practiced between the 9th and the 13th centuries and whose Latinized books were available in Europe as early as the 12th century with their influence lasting until the 18th century: Ibn al-Nafis, Ibn Zuhr, Al-Razi, Ibn Al-Jazzar, Al-Zahrawi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Zuhr, Ibn Rushd, Muhadhdhab Al-Din Al-Baghdadi, Ibn Al-Baytar and Ibn El-Quff.

Pericardial Pathology 900 Years Ago: A Study and Translations from an Arabic Medical Textbook by: Rabie E. Abdel-Halim and Salah R. Elfaqih
This is a study and translation of the section on pericarditis in Kitab al-taysir fi al-mudawat wa-'l-tadbir (Book of Simplification Concerning Therapeutics and Diet) written by the Muslim physician Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) who lived and practiced in Al-Andalus between 1091-1162 CE. Ibn Zuhr described the serous type of pericarditis as well as the pathological findings in fibrinous pericarditis. His description of the latter may also fit with the picture of chronic fibrous pericarditis. He also described acute purulent pericarditis and involvement of the pericardium in cases of acute carditis with hectic fever. Ibn Zuhr's description of the pericardial effusion in serous pericarditis as "looking like urine" indicates that he must have seen a sample of the fluid obtained either by pericardiocentesis or during a post-mortem examination. However, his description of "solid substances accumulating on the inside of the heart's covering looking like layers upon layers of membranes" could not have been made possible without post-mortem dissection.

Paediatric Urology 1000 Years Ago by: Professor Rabie E. Abdel-Halim
Professor Rabie E. Abdel-Halim

In this study, we present a brief commentary on four books written by Muslim physicians and medical authors who lived between the ninth and the eleventh centuries, having to do with urology, with a special view toward aspects of paediatric urology. The books are: Al-Hawi fi al-tibb by Muhammad al-Razi, Risala fi siyasat as-sibian wa-tadbirihim by the scholar of Qirawan Ibn al-Jazzar, Kitab at-tasrif li-man 'ajiza 'an at-ta'lif by the Andalusian physician al-Zahrawi and Al-Qanun fi al-tibb, the famous Canon of Medicine by Al-Shaykh al-Ra'is Abu 'Ali Ibn Sina.