Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (936-1013 CE), Icon of Medieval Surgery.

Abu al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (936-1013 common era [CE]), also known in the West as Albucasis, was a great Arab physician and surgeon of the late 10th and early 11th centuries CE. He is best known for his surgical knowledge and expertise. His greatest contribution to medicine is the Kitab al-Tasrif, which includes thirty treatises on medical sciences. His early and great contributions to the field of surgery were seminal. For his endeavors in this field, a number of surgeons and scholars have dubbed him the "Father of Operative Surgery".

Wild melancholy. On the historical plausibility of a black bile theory of blood madness, or hæmatomania.

Nineteenth-century art historian John Addington Symonds coined the term hæmatomania (blood madness) for the extremely bloodthirsty behaviour of a number of disturbed rulers like Ibrahim II of Ifriqiya (850-902) and Ezzelino da Romano (1194-1259). According to Symonds, this mental pathology was linked to melancholy and caused by an excess of black bile. I explore the historical credibility of this theory of 'wild melancholy', a type of melancholia that crucially deviates from the lethargic main type. I conclude that in its pure form Symonds' black bile theory of hæmatomania was never a broadly supported perspective, but can be traced back to the nosology of the ninth-century physician Ishaq ibn Imran, who practised at the Aghlabid court, to which the sadistic Ibrahim II belonged.

Views on ocular cancer in Arabo-Islamic medicine and the leading influence of the ancient Greek medicine.

In the ophthalmological treatises of the medieval Arabo-Islamic physicians such as al-Mawsili (9th-10th century), al-Kahhal (ca. 940-1010), Haly Abbas (10th century) and al Sadili (14th century) we may find references about ocular cancer, focusing on eyelid tumors and cancerous ulcers of the cornea. These references are similar to the analogous ones of ancient Greek physicians as these are preserved in the medical texts of the most famous Byzantine doctors, indicating the influence of ancient Greek medicine in the Arabo-Islamic one.

Overview of research on the mental health impact of violence in the Middle East in light of the Arab Spring.

This is a baseline of published research in the trauma field by Arab researchers. It highlights groundbreaking attempts by Arab researchers to investigate the mental health impact of violence in their countries before the Arab Spring. Peer-reviewed articles (N = 157) were identified through computerized searches in PubMed, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, and Pilots Database, 1995 to 2012. A synopsis of the published research included (a) country, (b) screening instruments, (c) sample size, (d) methods, and (e) results. The findings reveal that domestic violence attracted most attention after civil strife in Palestine and Lebanon. Torture survivors and victims of sexual violence received little attention. Study instruments were borrowed from Western researchers without being validated within local Arab cultures. No clinical outcome studies were found. In light of the Arab Spring, it is urgent that Arab researchers conduct studies that are evidence based and culturally valid addressing the mental health care of all traumatized citizens.

Contributions of Medieval Islamic physicians to the history of tracheostomy.

Tracheostomy was first described by Greco-Roman physicians, including Paulus of Aegina. Medieval Islamic clinicians extended the Greco-Roman ideas with substantial contributions to the field of surgery, including tracheostomy. Although Al-Zahrawi (936-1013 CE) stated that he had not heard or read of any Islamic physicians having performed tracheostomy, there is evidence that many prominent Islamic surgeons did practice this lifesaving procedure during medieval times. Throughout the Islamic Golden Age, Muslim physicians advanced the practice of tracheostomy with many modifications of the procedure, instrumentation, and adjuvant medicinal prescriptions.

[The Justinian plague (part two). Influence of the epidemic on the rise of the Islamic Empire]. / La peste di Giustiniano (seconda parte). L'influenza dell'epidemia sulla formazione dell'Impero Islamico.

The Islamic Empire started its tumultuous and rapid expansion from the year 622 A.D. (the year of Mohammed's Egira). This rapid growth coincided with the epidemic spread of the bubonic plague in the Middle East. Although a first epidemic event had been documented in the year 570 A.D. (pre-Islamic phase), in the Arabic peninsula, classically according to M.W. Dols five severe episodes of plague sub-epidemics are considered in the middle-eastern geographic area: the first occurred in 627 and 628 A.D., the fifth in 716 A.D.. Anyway, we may state that at the onset of Islam the geographic region including Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, and Iran was involved by endemic plague. In their work, on the ground of a literature review, the Authors describe the characteristics of the epidemic phenomenon, and analyze the how the plague affected the interpretation of Prophet's Koran and Hadits. The passive attitude demonstrated by many Muslims during early Islam was not shared by all believers, since others moved towards a more soft approach, which included the behaviour of the so called moving aside , when the contagion was of concern. The epidemic plague significantly contributed to the weakening of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the rapid decline of the Persian Empire, while during the early expansion phases of Islam, it indirectly favoured the nomadic Arab tribes which, moving on desert or semi-desert territories, succeeded in escaping the contagion more easily. Subsequently, when the Arab population became sedentary, after occupying the conquered cities, this initial advantage was significantly reduced.

The pharmacological tables of Rhazes.

This article deals with the 22nd volume of Muhammad ibn Zakariyaʾ al-Raziʾs (Rhazes, d. 313/925) medical encyclopedia al-Hawi fi l-tibb. Volume twenty-two is dedicated to pharmacology and pharmacological tables, and introduced by a short treatise in which Rhazes explains his unusual choice of tabular design and terminological arrangement. Following upon a brief bio-bibliographical survey and forming the core of this article, Rhazesʾ introductory treatise is re-edited here in the original Arabic and further made accessible through an annotated English translation. Edition and translation, in turn, are followed by a detailed study of both the treatise and the tables, including explanatory diagrams, statistical evaluations, a source-critical analysis, and some observations regarding the tradition of synoptic tables in Arabic pharmaceutical literature ­ thus gradually emerges the conceptual originality of Rhazesʾ implementation, and new light is thrown on his broad linguistic interests and abilities. The article concludes with an excursion into the realm of Persian-Chinese intellectual exchange, suggesting the possibility of a stimulus to Rhazesʾ imagination from a remote and otherwise mostly hidden corner.

Ibn Bajja on medicine and medical experience.

This article lists the medical works written by Ibn Bajja, overviews those that have come down to us and studies the super-commentary of Galen's commentary to Hippocrates' "Aphorisms (Sharh fi al-Fusul)". This text shows a deep influence of al-Farabi, namely in a conception of medical experience which stems from the latter's construal of experience (tajriba) as the inductive process described by Aristotle in "Posterior Analytics" which brings the premises of demonstration. On this basis, Ibn Bajja advocated for a less scholastic, more empiric medicine, and his claim was echoed by Ibn Rushd. There are some similarities between Ibn Bajja's text and Ibn Rushd's "K. al-Kulliyyat fi al-tibb" which suggests that the latter had read "Sharh fi al-Fusul". This work gives moreover some evidence that human dissection could have been performed during Ibn Bajja's time.

The formation of the Arabic pharmacology between tradition and innovation.

The pharmacological tradition in the medieval Islamic world developed on the basis of the Greek tradition, with the works of Dioscorides and Galen being particularly popular. The terminology was influenced not only by Greek, but also Middle Persian, Syriac, and indigenous Arabic words. Through recent research into Graeco-Arabic translations, it has become possible to discern the evolution of pharmacological writing in Arabic: in the late eighth century, the technical terms were being developed, with transliterations being used; by the mid-ninth century, many standard Arabic translations for Greek words have been established. Various authors, however, expanded the pharmacology inherited from the Greeks. Galen had established a system of degrees of primary faculties (dry or moist, and warm or cold) that various physicians in the Islamic world modified. Al-Kindi, for instance, invented a theory of how to calculate these degrees in compound drugs, whereas ar-Razi criticised the epistemology that underlies Galen's theories. Ibn Sina (Avicenna) complemented the various degrees in his description of simple drugs. Furthermore, both Ibn Sarabiyun and al-Kaskari integrated new drugs from the Islamic heartland, and the Far East into the Greek system. In these ways, the Arabic pharmacology developed in a creative tension of tradition and innovation.

Complicating common ideas about medical tourism: gender, class, and globality in Yemenis' international medical travel.

Three cases of international medical travelers from Yemen, a capital­poor country in the southwest corner of the Arabian Peninsula, help to counter misconceptions within discussions of medical tourism. These misconceptions include the suggestion of leisure in medical tourism, the role of gender and class, and the ease with which we dismiss the health concerns of wealthy individuals. Instead, this article proposes, we should uncover commonalities and differences within international medical travel while avoiding slipping into generalities and stereotypical portrayals.

An empirical analysis of the effects of consanguineous marriages on economic development.

In this study, development experiences toward economic development are investigated to provide an alternative analysis of economic development, human capital, and genetic inheritance in the light of consanguineous marriages. The countries analyzed in the study are discussed in accordance with consanguineous marriage practices and classified by their per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth. A broad range of countries are analyzed in the study. Arab countries that experienced high rates of growth in their gross national income during the twentieth century but failed to fulfill adequate development measures as reflected in the growth in national income, countries undergoing transition from tight government regulation to free market democracy, and African nations that have experienced complications in the process of development show important differences in the process of economic development. It is shown that the countries that have reached high average development within the context of per capita GDP have overcome problems integral to consanguineous marriage.

Between universal feminism and particular nationalism: politics, religion and gender (in)equality in Israel.

This article argues that one of the many "idiosyncrasies" of the Israeli case, namely Israel's continuing, violent conflict with its Arab neighbours, is of highly influential relevance to the issue of gender relations. Viewed by many Israeli Jews as a struggle for the very existence of the Jewish state, the Arab-Israeli conflict has overshadowed most other civil and social issues, rendering them "secondary" to the primary concern of securing the safe existence of the state. This has pushed such pressing issues as gender equality and women's rights aside, thus allowing for the perpetuation of discriminatory, sometimes rather repressive treatment of women in Israel. The most blatant expression of this is the turning of the struggle for civil marriage and divorce into a non-issue. Following a short introduction of the relevant political context, we discuss women's positivist and legal status, then conclude with an analysis of the women's movement, highlighting the emergence of religious feminism.

Hebrew and Latin astrology in the twelfth century: the example of the location of pain.

The formative period of Latin and Hebrew astrology occurred virtually simultaneously in both cultures. In the second quarter of the twelfth century the terminology of the subject was established and the textbooks which became authoritative were written. The responsibility for this lay almost entirely with two scholars: John of Seville for the Latins, and Abraham ibn Ezra for the Jews. It is unlikely to have been by coincidence that the same developments in astrology occurred in these two cultures. John of Seville and Abraham ibn Ezra were both brought up within the Islamic culture of Spain, and their astrology was Arabic astrology. Moreover, some scholars have thought that John's origins were Jewish, while Ibn Ezra is known to have collaborated with Latin scholars (whose names are not recorded). It cannot be a coincidence that they forged the science of astrology for their respect co-religionists at almost the same time. Yet, very little research has been done on the possible relations between the two scholars. The purpose of this paper is to begin to explore this relationship, and to illustrate it in particular by their shared doctrine concern the location of pain.