Lutz Richter-Bernburg
Oriental Institute at the University of Leipzig
Keywords:
Rhazes , Islamic philosophy, Islamic medicine
Abstract
A-Razi (Rhazes, with variants, in Medieval Latin), Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya' (al-Rayy, close to modern Teheran, Iran, A.D. 865-925), is rightly considered one of the greatest medical practitioners and writers in the period between Galen and the renaissance reemergence of medicine as an empirical discipline (apart from his ranking as one of the most original and independent-minded philosophers of Islam). The following biobibliographical survey- in the format of an encyclopaedia article- will focus on those of his medical works which either had the gratest impact on posterity and/or attest most solidly to al-Razi's outstanding combination of textual scholarship and clinical observation, outstanding at least with reference to the horizon of his culture.
