A History of Muslim
Pharmacy
Arabic
pharmacy (Saydanah) as a profession with a separate entity from medicine
was recognized by the beginning of the third/ninth century. This century
not only saw the founding and an increase in the number of privately owned
pharmacy shops in Baghdad and its vicinity, but in other Muslim cities as
well. Many of the pharmacists who managed them were skilled in the apothecary's
art and quite knowledgeable in the compounding, storing, and preserving of
drugs. State-sponsored hospitals also had their own dispensaries attached
to manufacturing laboratories where syrups, electuaries, ointments, and other
pharmaceutical preparations were prepared on a relatively large scale. The
pharmacists and their shops were pericldically inspected by a government
appointed official al-Muhtasib, and his aides. These officials were to check
for accuracy the weights and measures as well as the purity and unadulteration
of the drugs used. Such supervision was intended to prevent the use of deteriorating
compounded drugs and syrups, and to safeguard the public.
This early rise and development of professional pharmacy in Islam -over four
centuries before such development took place in Europe- was the result of
three major occurrences: the great increase in the demand for drugs and their
availability on the market; professional maturity; and the outgrowth of intellectual
responsibility by qualified pharmacists.
Pharmaceutical Contributions During the Third/Ninth
Century
Medecin prenant le pouls d'un patient Miniature d'un recueil
de fables Kalila Dinna. Bagdad 1343. (Le Caire, Bibliotheque nationale).
The third/ninth century in Muslim lands witnessed the richest period thus
far in literary productivity insofar as pharmacy and the healing arts were
concerned. This prolific intellectual activity paved the way for still a
greater harvest in the succeeding four centuries of both high and mediocre
caliber authorship. For pharmacy, manuals on materia medica and for instructing
the pharmacist concerning the work and management of his shop were circulating
in increasing numbers. Only a few authors and their important works will
be briefly discussed and evaluated.
One of the contributors to Arabic pharmacy in the third/ninth century was
the Nestorian physician, Yuhanna b. Masawayh (Latin Mesue, 160-242/777-857),
the son of an apothecary. In his book on aromatic simples, Ibn Masawayh lists
about thirty aromatics, their physical properties methods of detecting adulteration,
and pharmacological effects. On ambergris, far example, he explains that
there are many types, the best among them the blue or gray (gray-amber) fatty
as-salahiti is Used mixed with the choicest of aromated mixtures (ghaliyyahs,
perfumes, or medical cosmetics), and in geriatric electuaries. Only vaguely
did Ibn Masawayh know that the ambergris is affected from certain seafish
(a concreation from the intestinal tract of the sperm whale, physeteridae
found in tropical seas or on the
shores).
Preparation d'un vin aromatique pour la toux. Page d'une traduction arabe
de la Materia medica de Dioscoride. Bagdad, 1224. (New York, Metropolitan
Museum of Art).
Of camphor, he reports, with some uncertainty, that it originates in China
and that the wood and the crystalline substance was brought to Arab lands
by trade through India. This substance was extensively used in Arabic medical
therapy. Ibn Masawayh also recommended saffron for liver and stomach ailments.
He noted that sandalwood, whether yellow (the best), white, or red is brought
from India where it is used in the manufacture of perfumes. In Islam it entered
pharmaceutical preparations as early as the second/eighth century, if not
earlier. It soon thereafter became associated with the profession: hence
the pharmacist 'was called as-saydanani or as-saydalani (he who sells or
deals with sandalwood), and savdanah for pharmacy.
In his medical axioms, Ibn Masawayh recommended the use of only a few well
known medicinal plants which should be utilized with the aim of building
up a natural resistance to diseases. He urged physicians to prescribe one
remedy for each disease, using empirical and analogous reasoning. He finally
stated that the physician who could cure by using only diet without drugs,
was the most successful and lucky.
Ibn Masawayh's book al-Mushajjar al-Kabir is, to some extent, a tabulated
medical encyclopedia on diseases and their treatment by drugs and diet.
This is in contrast with his other small treatises such as those on barley
water, how to prepare it and its therapeutic uses; on dentifrices; and on
the amelioration of purgative drugs.
A countryman and a younger colleague of Ibn Masawayh was Abu Hasan 'Ali b.
Sahl Rabban at- Tabari who was born in 192/808. At about thirty years of
age, he was summoned to Samarra by caliph al-Mu'tasim (217-227/833-842),
where he served as a statesman and a physician. At-Tabari wrote several medical
books, the most famous of which is his Paradise of Wisdom, completed in 235/850
(a Syriac version of it was simultaneously prepared by the author). contains
discussions on the nature of man, cosmology, embryology, tempera-ments, psychotherapy,
hygiene, diet, and diseases -acute and chronic -and their treatment, medical
anecdotes, and abstracts and quotations from Indian source material. In addition,
the book contains several chapters on materia medica, cereals, diets, utilities
and therapeutic uses of animal and bird organs, and of drugs and methods
of their preparation.
At- Tabari urged that the therapeutic value of each drug be utilized in accordance
with the particular case, and the practitioner should always choose the best
of simples. He explained that the finest types of simples come from various
places: black myrobalan comes from Kabul; clover dodder from Crete; aloes
from Socotra; and aromatic spices from India. He was also precise in describing
his therapeutics. He said, 'I have tried a very useful remedy for swelling
of the stomach; the juices of the liverwort (water hemp) and the absinthium
after being boiled on fire and strained to be taken for several days. Also
powdered seeds of celery (marsh parsley) mixed with giant fennel made into
troches and taken with a suitable liquid release the wind in the stomach,
joints and back (arthritis). To strengthen the stomach and to insure
good health he prescribed 'black myrobalan powdered in butter, mixed with
dissolved plant sugar extracted from the licorice and that this remedy should
be taken daily.' For storage purposes he recommended glass or ceramic vessels
for liquid (wet) drugs; special small jars for eye liquid salves; lead containers
for fatty substances. For the treatment of ulcerated wounds, he prescribed
an ointment made of juniper-gum, fat, butter, and pitch. In addition, he
warned that one mithqal (about 4 grams) of opium or henbane causes sleep
and also death.
The first medical formulary to be written in Arabic is al-Aqrabadhin tly
Sabur b. Sahl (d. 255/869). In it, he gave medical recipes stating the methods
and techniques of compounding these remedies, their pharmacological actions,
the dosages given of :cc each, and the means of administration. The formulas
are organized in accordance with their types of preparations into which they
fit, Whether tablets, powders, ointments, electuaries or syrups. Each class
of pharmaceutical preparation is represented along with a variety of recipes
made in a specific form; they vary, however, in the ingredients used and
their recommended uses and therapeutic effects. Many of these recipes and
their pharmaceutical forms are remindful of similar formulas given in ancient
documents from the Middle East and the Greco-Roman civilizations. What is
unique is the organization of Sabur's formulary-type compendium purposely
written as a guidebook for pharmacists, whether in their .Own private drugstores
or in hospital pharmacies.
A few books related to pharmacy were written by the famous Muslim scholar
Ya'qub b. Ishaq al-Kindi (Philosopher of the Arabs, d. 260/874). His contributions
to philosophy, mathematics and astrology, however, were greater than those
on medicine and therapy. Nevertheless it is to his credit that he was an
outspoken critic of alchemists and attacked their procedures and claims as
deceptive under the circumstances.
Hunayn's book of the Ten Treatises on the Eye was completed in 245/860.
After finishing the nine treatise the author felt the need for a closing
treatise to be devoted to compounded drugs for eye medication. He extracted
some recipes from earlier treatises and added more prescriptions recommended
by Greek authors. In this tenth treatise, compounded eye remedies were divided
into four types:
1. A kneaded soft mass (mess) in which dry ingredients are pounded, then
mixed (blended) with water, a little at a time. This produced a dough-like
eye paste (or ointment).
2. Cory eye powders (kuhls) were used to sharpen vision, and prevent eye
itching, Corneal opacities, pterygium and roughness. These powders included
such simples as burnt vitriol, verdigris, vitriol, sarcocol, aloes
horned poPpy, antimony, and Scoria of silver.
3. Wet (liquid) eye salves or collyria were useful against trachoma and dimness
of vision. They were prepared from such substances as honey, olive oil anointing
extract (duhn) of balsam asafetida and fennel.
4. Eye compresses or poultices (plaster) which were bandaged Over the eye
and medications were made of such simples as mill dust powdered frankincense,
argil, myrrh, gum Arabic and opium mixed with egg white. The text included
ill over 44 recipes in which Hunayn described methods of preparations, techniques
ill employed, vehicles and solvents used, the doses of ingredients in the
mixtures and the therapy .
As one obvious example of the uses and therapeutic values of using compounded
drugs, Hunayn gave that of the theriac, the universal antidote against poisoning
Hunayn, who knew Greek, defined the Greek word theriake as an animal that
bite or snaps. Since these antidotes were used against animal bites the word
eventually was applied to all antidotes, especially when snake flesh was
incorporated. The Arabs, in a distorted transliteration of the Greek work,
called this Tiryaq; hence the Latin theriaca. The originator of the theriac
was the Greek sage Magnus. It was then perfected by Andromachus in the first
century. In the second century, it was revised by Galen who made known its
action and effectiveness and the manner in which it should be used.
Concerning Galen's Phenix, which comprises two treatises (one on medicine,
and the other on books of philosophy, logic and rhetoric) Hunayn explained
that it was translated first into syriac by Ayyub ar-Ruhawi al-Abrash in
the early third/ninth century, then by himself to Dawud, the physician. He
added to it other books not mentioned by Galen. Later, Hunayn translated
it into Arabic for his patron, Abu ja'far Muhammad b. Musa. Also for his
brother, Abu al-Hasan Ahmad b. Musa, Hunayn translated, Galen's treatise
on the arrangement (classification for readers) of his books (maratib kutubih),
as they were known among Muslim authors ever since.
Hunayn corrected the translation into Arabic of the major part of Dioscorides',
Materia Medica, undertaken by his associate Istifan b. Basil (about mid third/ninth
century) in Baghdad. Due to the influence of this work, several books of
materia medica were written in Arabic. Dioscorides definitely influenced
the writing and direction of sabur's formulary, which has been mentioned
earlier. Dioscorides in his Herbal emphasized the need to know better the
crude drugs from the three natural , kingdoms, as well as an intelligent
choice of the best simples suited for the com. pounding of medical recipes.
His Herbal treatise established the basis for Arabic pharmacology, therapy,
and medical botany. It also provided a description of the physical properties
of drugs, types, and organoleptic means of testing their purity, and usefulness.
As a result, Arabic pharmac: and pharmacognosy advanced beyond the Greco-Roman
contribution. In turn, this helped and influenced a similar development in
Europe through the Renalssance.