Abu Bakr al-Razi

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, philosopher and physician, author of the "al-Mansuri" on medicine. ¹

Al-Mas'udi saw a book of his which mentions the doctrines of the Harranian Sabians, and distinguishes them from other Sabians, the Kaymariyun. Al-Mas'udi says that it contains matters too long to mention and which are ugly in the view of many people. ¹

He says that al-Razi refuted al-Kindi's treatise on refuting the craft of gold, and wrote books on the mineral stones and the manner of their work. ²

Ibn al-Nadim relates from him that he held that a philosopher's knowledge is not sound unless the science of alchemy is sound, and that the ancient philosophers used to practise it, and he called Jabir ibn Hayyan "our master". ³

Ibn al-Nadim describes him, in the art of physicians, as unique in his age, combining the knowledge of the ancients especially medicine, and he wrote "al-Mansuri", and had a friendship with Mansur ibn Isma'il. He was generous and kind to the poor, and became blind at the end of his life. He mentions from the index of his books "al-Hawi" and "The Doubts on Galen". ⁴

His birth and death years need an additional source.

Tareq al-Suwaidan presents Abu Bakr al-Razi as 'the humane physician and encyclopaedic scholar', applying to him the creativity equation: early start, passionate love of learning, extraordinary memory ^{5 6 7}. Of his life: born in Rayy 251 AH, learning music, mathematics, philosophy and medicine young; his own saying — that if a book unread or a scholar unmet existed he turned to nothing else, however harmful, until finishing the whole book; and he wrote in one year over twenty thousand sheets by his own hand ^{6 8 7 9}. After completing his studies in Baghdad he returned to direct Rayy's hospital at Mansur ibn Ishaq's invitation, composing for him al-Mansuri fi al-Tibb and, complementing it, al-Tibb al-Ruhani; then headed Baghdad's Mu'tadidi hospital — the greatest in the Muslim world — moving between the two cities; glaucoma took his sight and he died in Rayy 313 AH ^{10 11 12 13 14}. Of his balance: he grew widely rich yet spent on poor patients paying them monthly stipends — jarayat — devoted to family and friends without sinking into the world ^{15 16}. Facing charges of unbelief from the envious, he composed a book showing the Wise Creator's wisdom in the human body and another on the perfection of creation — his faith standing on evidence ^{17 18 19}. Of his philosophy of learning: 'none can master this craft who does not follow the example of those before him' — begin where others ended — for medicine's science outlasts any lifetime ^{19 20 21 22}. Of his medical contributions: he invented surgical sutures and mercury ointments, detailed children's, women's, obstetric and eye diseases and their surgery, ran trials on monkeys before humans — pioneering empirical research — used blood, urine and pulse analysis, first distinguished smallpox from measles, and treated the patient's psyche alongside the body ^{23 24 25 26}. Of his works: near two hundred books; al-Hawi fi al-Tibb — the encyclopaedia translated and printed in Italy in 1486 in twenty-five volumes, the West's medical reference to the seventeenth century — citing Greek and Indian sources with precise attribution; Kitab al-Shukuk ala Jalinus criticising twenty-eight of Galen's books; and Sirr al-Asrar in chemistry ^{27 28 29 30 31 32 33}. Of al-Jami' al-Kabir: he worked on it fifteen years night and day until his sight weakened and his hand's muscles failed — then hired a reader and a scribe ^{30 34 35}. In optics: he refuted Euclid's emission theory — light passes from the seen object to the eye — some seven centuries before Ibn al-Haytham (the speaker's claim) ^{36 32}. The old woman's tale: told 'this is al-Razi, who has a thousand proofs of God's existence', she said 'had he not a thousand doubts he'd not need a thousand proofs' — and he exclaimed 'O God, grant me the faith of old women' ^{37 38 39}.