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Reynolds Historical Library |
Rhazes and Pharmacy
By Michael A. Flannery, Associate Director for Historical Collections
University of Alabama at Birmingham
November 1999
In the
seventh and eighth centuries A.D. the disintegration of Greco-Roman
civilization was complete and scientific inquiry thoroughly transferred to the
Arab world. At this time, as historian George Sarton puts it, "The
Arabs were standing on the shoulders of their Greek forerunners just as the
Americans are standing on the shoulders of their European ones."
Despite the European loss of cultural and scientific learning, the
Arabs took inherited knowledge and made real and significant advances.
One of the true leaders in that endeavor was al-Razi, generally
referred to as Rhazes.
Rhazes' dates
are not precisely known: some scholars such as William H. Brock give 850 to c.
923 A.D., while the historian/pharmacist Charles LaWall dates his birth as
early as 841. Born near Teheran, Rhazes appears to have devoted his entire
life to scientific inquiry and has nearly 250 written works to his credit. His
Continens Rhazes (originally Kitab-al-hawi) presents a complete
review and interpretation of ancient Greek medicine and presents one of the
earliest descriptions of measles and small pox.
Perhaps his most famous work, however, is the Secret of Secrets
in which he gives systematic attention to basic chemical operations important
to the history of pharmacy. Indeed, Brock calls it "a straightforward manual of
chemical practice." In this
work Rhazes classified materials; described distillation, sublimation, and
calcination processes; and established procedures for purification,
separation, and the mixing of substances.
By following Rhazes' instructions Europeans were able to prepare pure
sulfuric and other important acids. Of
course it would be incorrect to view even Rhazes' chemistry as anything
approximating our own; any review of the writings of Paracelsus (1493-1541) on
the subject centuries later show how far scientific chemistry had to go to
liberate itself from mystery and superstition.
That said, Rhazes' writings on the subject did represent substantive
advances in the field.
In addition to the compilation of texts, Rhazes contributed to the early practice of pharmacy in various other ways. For example, he is said to have introduced mercurial ointments into the Western world. Also, Rhazes developed apparatus used in apothecaries up through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as mortars and pestles, flasks, spatulas, beakers, phials, and glass vessels. Later investigators, like the great physician Avicenna (980-1037), would carry Rhazes' work forward in developing simple and composite drugs.
In
today's world
we tend to see scientific advance as the product of great movements, massive
grant-funded projects, and larger-than-life socio-economic forces. It is easy
to forget, therefore, that many contributions stemmed from the individual
efforts of scholars like Rhazes. Indeed, pharmacy
can trace much of its historical foundations to the singular achievements of
this ninth-century Persian scholar.