Religion - Medieval

• The church though God caused disease to test faith or as a punishment, e.g. 1348 Black Death
• What was the Prophet Muhammad?


  “For every disease Allah has a cure”

  ”Seek learning even as far as China”
• Caliphs and learning 


  • Peace and order needed for medical progress
  • Greek manuscripts translated to Arabic in Baghdad
  • House of Wisdom presented hundreds of Ancient Greek medical books
• Surgery and use of drugs


  • Arabs were very skilled in the use of drugs
  • Camphor and senna still used today
  • Anaesthetise with sponge soaked in opium
• Ibn al-Nafis 


  • Islamic doctors often used observation and experimentation
  • He challenged Galen
  • Medical ideas reached universities of Padua and Bologna, Italy, then England through trade