Medieval Islamic Medicine or Healing beyond the Body

Medieval Islamic Medicine

Author: Peter E Pormann

The medical tradition that developed in the lands of Islam during the medieval period (c. 650-1500) has, like few others, influenced the fates and fortunes of countless human beings. It is a story of contact and cultural exchange across countries and creeds, affecting many people from kings to the common crowd. This tradition formed the roots from which modern Western medicine arose. Contrary to the stereotypical picture, medieval Islamic medicine was not simply a conduit for Greek ideas but a venue for innovation and change.

Medieval Islamic Medicine is organized around five topics: the emergence of medieval Islamic medicine and its intense cross-pollination with other cultures; the theoretical medical framework; the function of physicians within the larger society; medical care as seen through preserved case histories; and the role of magic and devout religious invocations in scholarly as well as everyday medicine. A concluding chapter on the "afterlife" concerns the impact of this tradition on modern European medical practices and its continued practice today. The book includes an index of persons and their books; a timeline of developments in East and West; and a section for further reading.

About the Author:
Peter E. Pormann is a Wellcome Trust Lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Warwick

About the Author:
Emilie Savage-Smith is professor of the History of Islamic Science at the Oriental Institute and a senior research fellow of St. Cross College, both at the University of Oxford

Table of Contents:

Acknowledgements     vii
Notes on general format, dates, and transliteration     ix
Figures acknowledgements     xi
Introduction     1
The emergence of Islamic medicine     6
Medical theory     41
Physicians and society     80
Practice     115
Popular medicine     144
Afterlife     162
Conclusion     180
Bibliography     183
Chronology     202
Index of names and works     206
General index     215

Books about: Totally Teabreads or Aroma

Healing Beyond the Body: Medicine and the Infinite Reach of the Mind

Author: Larry Dossey

Does the mind produce consciousness—or transmit it? Can machines detect love? Why has job stress become a worldwide epidemic? Why do objects sometimes seem to have minds of their own? Could war be a biological condition? Dr. Larry Dossey, one of the most influential spokespersons for the role of consciousness and spirituality in medicine, tackles all these questions and more with clarity and wit. In this book, he explores the relationship—often documented in extensive research—between science and "unscientific" topics such as prayer, love, laughter, war, creativity, dreams, and immortality.

Publishers Weekly

Internal medicine physician Larry Dossey has been a proponent of alternative medicine since the 1970s, and in Healing Beyond the Body: Medicine and the Infinite Reach of the Mind, he collects writings on health and unique ways of healing. Among the subjects these essays cover are prayer, love, laughter, creativity, dreams and hypnosis all meant to be alternatives to standard medicine. These pieces originally appeared in the peer-reviewed journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine; now they will reach a much wider audience. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Dossey, a popular author (Reinventing Medicine) and lecturer, again explores the potential of the healing mind in these essays, first published in the peer-reviewed journal Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. Organized around broad themes, the pieces explore topics such as the individual meaning of illness; the effects of love, humor, prayer, and trout fishing on disease; and, in an interesting essay that nevertheless does not seem to fit, the author's experiences in Vietnam. Dossey continues to challenge physicians, particularly medical educators, to temper their reliance on scientific principles with an appreciation for consciousness and the mind. His numerous anecdotes are based on extensive clinical experience and cited from various sources, spanning the gamut from science to parapsychology (several appear to be urban legends). For alternative health collections where Dossey is popular. Andy Wickens, King Cty. Lib. Syst., Seattle Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.