Public
Health
Possibly
the earliest hospital in Islam was a mobile dispensary
following the Muslim armies, dating from the time of Prophet
Mohammed (PBUH); a tradition which remained throughout
the centuries of Islamic Civilisation.
Decades elapsed, before the first hospital building was
built in Damascus in 706 by Al-Walid, the Ummayad Caliph.
It was to cater for all sorts of patients (including the
blind, and even the lepers). Its equipment, staff and
organisation, served as model for other hospitals to follow.
Both Caliphs Harun al-Rashid and Al-Mansur had hospitals
built in Baghdad. In Cairo, the first hospital was established
at al-Fustat by Ibn Tulun, governor of the city in 872.
By
the 12th century, the hospital had become a very advanced
institution, witness al-Nuri hospital, built in 1156 by
Nur al-Din Zangi, a hospital where patients were well
fed, and cared for, and where there was a large library
for teaching. In Cairo, in 1285, Sultan Qalaun al-Mansur
built the largest of all hospitals, described by Durant.
`Within
a spacious quadrangular enclosure four buildings rose
around a courtyard adorned with arcades and cooled with
fountains and brooks. There were separate wards for diverse
diseases and for convalescents; laboratories, a dispensary,
out-patient clinics, diet kitchens, baths, a library,
a chapel, a lecture hall, and particularly pleasant accommodations
for the insane.
Treatment
was given gratis to men and women, rich and poor, slave
and free; and a sum of money was: disbursed to each convalescent
on his departure, so that he need not at once return to
work. The sleepless were provided with soft music, professional
story-tellers, and perhaps books of history.
What
is Taught: The Italian Giovanni Morgagni
is regarded as the father of pathology because he was
the first to correctly describe the nature of disease.
What Should be Taught:
Islam's surgeons were the first pathologists. They fully
realized the nature of disease and described a variety
of diseases to modern detail. Ibn Zuhr correctly described
the nature of pleurisy, tuberculosis and pericarditis.
What
is Taught: The concept of quarantine was first
developed in 1403. In Venice, a law was passed preventing
strangers from entering the city until a certain waiting
period had passed. If, by then, no sign of illness could
be found, they were allowed in.
What Should be Taught: The concept of quarantine
was first introduced in the 7th century A.D. by the prophet
Muhammad, who wisely warned against entering or leaving
a region suffering from plague. As early as the 10th century,
Muslim physicians innovated the use of isolation wards
for individuals suffering with communicable diseases.
What
is Taught: The first sound approach to the
treatment of disease was made by a German, Johann Weger,
in the 1500's.
What Should be Taught:
Harvard's George Sarton says that modern medicine is entirely
an Islamic development and that Setting the Record Straight
the Muslim physicians of the 9th through 12th centuries
were precise, scientific, rational and sound in their
approach.
Johann
Weger was among thousands of Europeans physicians during
the 15th through 17th centuries who were taught the medicine
of ar-Razi and Ibn Sina. He contributed nothing original.
What
is Taught: Medical treatment for the insane
was modernized by Philippe Pinel when in 1793 he operated
France's first insane asylum.
What Should be Taught:
As early as the 1lth century, Islamic hospitals maintained
special wards for the insane.
They
treated them kindly and presumed their disease was real
at a time when the insane were routinely burned alive
in Europe as witches and sorcerers.
A
curative approach was taken for mental illness and, for
the first time in history, the mentally ill were treated
with supportive care, drugs and psychotherapy.
Every
major Islamic city maintained an insane asylum where patients
were treated at no charge. In fact, the Islamic system
for the treatment of the insane excels in comparison to
the current model, as it was more humane and was highly
effective as well.
God
emphasizes in the Qur'an the sacredness of the soul and
condemns acts of terror and injustice.
"If
anyone slays a human being – unless it be [in punishment]
for murder or for spreading corruption on earth –
it shall be as though he had slain all mankind: whereas,
if anyone saves a life, it shall be as though he had saved
the lives of all mankind.” (5:32).
It is derived from this verse that any act of safety made
for saving a human life is therefore considered Islamic.
Thus,
Islam promotes safety regulations in traffic, industrial
and public places, supports medicinal child-proof-bottling
and other accident-preventing measures.
This
principle of safety applies to the ecological system and
promotes cleaner and healthier environment for all the
creations of God.
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