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Averroës  

Abu al-Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Rushd, more commonly known as Averroës, was born in Córdoba, Spain. His father, a judge in Córdoba, instructed him in Muslim jurisprudence. In his native city he also studied theology, philosophy, and mathematics under the Arab philosopher Ibn Tufayl and medicine under the Arab physician Avenzoar. Averroës was appointed judge in Seville in 1169 and in Córdoba in 1171; in 1182 he became chief physician to Abu Yaqub Yusuf, the Almohad caliph of Morocco and Muslim Spain. Averroës's view that reason takes precedence over religion led to his being exiled in 1195 by Abu Yusuf Yaqub al-Mansur; he was restored to favor shortly before his death.

Averroës held that metaphysical truths can be expressed in two ways: through philosophy, as represented by the views of Aristotle and through religion which is truth presented in a ...

Article

Doctor Jack  

Steven J. Niven

root doctor and physician, first appears in the historical record in the early 1830s as a slave in Maury County, Tennessee. At the time he was owned by William H. Macon, who hired him out to practice medicine in six counties in the middle Tennessee frontier. Doctor Jack seems to have begun his general practice throughout Tennessee in the 1820s, though he may well have attended to the medical needs of his fellow slaves and others in the community for several years before. Like Cesar and other slave physicians in early America, Doctor Jack probably gained a knowledge of traditional African folk remedies using roots and herbs from other slaves though he may also have learned of various cures from Native Americans or European settlers in the region In the late 1820s one of his patients expressed the view that the world would be peopled a great ...

Article

Durham, James  

Betty E. Plummer

physician, was born a slave in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His surname is sometimes spelled Derham. Despite his slave status, he learned basic reading and writing skills from his first owners, whom he described as Christians. Durham also received his medical training from his masters. At that period most American physicians acquired their medical education through the apprenticeship system. Durham began a form of apprenticeship at the age of eight, when he became the slave of John A. Kearsley Jr., a physician who taught him to compound medicines and to perform routine medical procedures. Durham later belonged to other doctors in Philadelphia, at least one of whom was a British sympathizer. This association with a Loyalist master probably explains why Durham later became the property of George West, a surgeon in the British Sixteenth Regiment.

Along with his new master Durham performed amputations on wounded troops along the ...

Article

Ibn Daniyal, Shams al din Muhammad  

Allen J. Fromherz

Egyptian playwright, was an eye doctor originally from Mosul, Iraq, and possibly of Christian background. He was most famous for his lightly veiled satirical shadow plays, especially for those aimed at the moralist Mamluk Sultan al-Zahir Baybars (r. 1260–1277) in Cairo.

Although some scholars have wrongly claimed that Islam lacked a theatrical tradition because of various religious proscriptions, the art form of shadow puppetry has a long history. Shadow plays, called Khayal al-Zill in Arabic were very popular during the month of Ramadan as a form of entertainment to wile away the late night hours Beginning as early as the tenth century and perhaps before the popularity of shadow play as an art form reached its peak just as Ibn Daniyal began writing Ibn Daniyal was especially creative with his shadow characters including the popular Sahib al Dabbus Man with a Club referring to a man with an oversized ...

Article

Ibn Ridwan  

Allen J. Fromherz

was an important doctor and known polemicist in Fatimid Egypt The vivid details of Ibn Ridwan s life are well preserved in his compelling autobiography Although the original manuscript is lost a version of the autobiography survives in the work of another author Ibn Abi Usaybiʿa The life of Ibn Ridwan is a remarkable story of perseverance and accomplishment despite humble beginnings From a poor and relatively unknown family Ibn Ridwan began his life around 998 in the slums of Giza near Cairo From the beginning he supported himself and his family through magical predictions and astrology Something of a Fatimid Benjamin Franklin Ibn Ridwan was self taught He relied on his own insatiable appetite for books to learn how to practice medicine He did not go through the standard apprenticeship expected of doctors at the time His intimate knowledge of the medical literature however soon allowed him to surpass ...

Article

Ibn Tufayl  

Stephen Cory

North African philosopher and physician who worked in the court of the North African Almohad dynasty, which ruled North Africa and Islamic Spain from the mid-twelfth century through the early thirteenth century. Ibn Tufayl was probably born in the city of Guadix in southern Spain during the second decade of the twelfth century. His full name was Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Tufayl al-Qaysi. The exact date of his birth is unknown, and very little is known about his family background or childhood. A supporter and friend of the philosopher Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Ibn Tufayl is best known as the author of Hayy ibn Yaqzan a philosophical tale about a man raised on a desert island The story was later translated into Latin Dutch and English among other languages It is thought to have influenced such philosophers and writers as Daniel Defoe John ...

Article

Isaac Israeli ben Solomon  

Joab Eichenberg-Eilon

Jewish neo-Platonic philosopher active in Egypt, was born in Qayrawan (present-day Tunisia). Other forms of his name are Yitzhaq ben Shelomo ha Yisraeli, Ishaq al-Israʿili, Abu Yaʿqub Ishaq ibn Sulaiman al-Israʿili, Isaac Judaeus, and Isaac Israeli the elder. He was a predecessor of Solomon Ben Judah Ibn Gabirol, Moses ben Jacob ibn Ezra, and the early kabbalists of the Geronese school. The originator of the emanation theory (Atziluth) in Jewish thought, he is also known for his theory of prophecy in relation to philosophy.

He was the physician of the founder of the Fatimid dynasty, Caliph ʿAbd Allah al-Mahdi Billah; and many of his medical books, written originally in Arabic, were translated into Latin, Spanish, and Hebrew and used in medical education. They include Kitab al Hummayat, on fevers; Kitab al adwiya al mufrada wa al aghdhiya (Latin Diaetae universales et particulares; Hebrew Tivʾei haMezonoth ...

Article

Maimonides, Moses  

Allen J. Fromherz

philosopher, physician, and rabbinical scholar, was born around 1135 in that ornament of the world the city of Córdoba in Muslim controlled al Andalus In fact Maimonides would spend his whole life in lands under Muslim control mainly in Morocco and Egypt Also known as Rambam and Ibn Maymun he and his thought were fundamentally influenced by the Islamic and mainly Arabic speaking civilization in which he lived At the same time he had a profound knowledge of Jewish literature and scriptural commentary as well as Greek thought In this way Maimonides integrated the major historical and cultural traditions of the Mediterranean the Middle East and Africa Faced with powerful attacks on Judaism from Christian and Muslim scholars such as Petrus Alfonsi and Ibn Hazm attacks based on a use of Greek reason and logic Maimonides was able to respond with his own application of reason to Jewish theology ...