Monthly Archives: November 2019

Medieval Muslim medicine

Posted on November 26, 2019 by Ruth

Medicine in the Muslim regions was at once better and slightly worse than in the Christian areas. In the academic realm, all the best books were in Arabic, and the cutting-edge research (such as it was) was too. But at … Continue reading →

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Medieval discrimination against Jewish doctors

Posted on November 23, 2019 by Ruth

Medieval Christians often feared that Jews were not bound by the same moral rules as Christians. Their helplessness in the face of disease or medical hocus-pocus made them suspicious that their medicine might be poison. Leprosy had already established medicine … Continue reading →

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My son, the Jewish doctor!

Posted on November 20, 2019 by Ruth

During the Middle Ages, Jews became prominent as doctors, but it took a few centuries for this to happen. There was no real Jewish medical tradition, apart from common sense patient care. The first step toward Jewish medicine was that … Continue reading →

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Avicenna

Posted on November 13, 2019 by Ruth

Avicenna was one of the first medieval scholarly medical doctors. “Avicenna” is how his name came into Latin, the way al-Khwarismi came to us as algorithm. It’s a shortening of Ibn Sina, son of Sina, which was actually his family’s … Continue reading →

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Dr. Maimonides, 1138-1204

Posted on November 11, 2019 by Ruth

When the Almohad Berber dynasty conquered most of Muslim Spain, their puritanical, tough-nomad attitudes brought persecution on religious minorities. They ended the practice of “dhimmi” minorities as a protected class paying a higher tax. Now, Christians and Jews had to … Continue reading →

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