Articles · Vol. 2 No. October Issue (2026)

The Place of Abū Bakr Al-Rāzī in the Science of Medicine

Authors

  • Abdulloh Yusufkhujaev Master’s student in History (Islamic civilization), International Islamic Academy of Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Keywords

Abū Bakr al-Rāzī history of medicine Islamic civilization hospital immunity smallpox Kitāb al-Ḥāwī fī al-ṭibb Baghdad Rayy medieval science

Abstract

The article examines the contribution of Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī (865–925) to the science of medicine against the background of the rise of learning in Islamic civilization. It sets out the conditions that gave rise to the first hospitals and medical institutions in the Caliphate, describes al-Rāzī’s path into medicine, his direction of the hospitals of Baghdad and of his native Rayy, and the method by which he chose the site of a hospital. The article further examines his insistence that the physician verify theoretical knowledge in practice and keep a record of the case history of the patient, his researches into infectious diseases and his demonstration of the acquisition of immunity after smallpox and measles, his work as a surgeon, his classification of substances in the history of chemistry, and the fate of his medical works, which were translated into Latin and served for centuries as textbooks in the medical faculties of the universities of Western Europe.

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