• Born: August 26, 865 Rey
  • Died: 925, Rey
  • Full name: Muhammad ibn Zakariyā Rāzī (aka Rhazes or Rasis)
  • Dynasty:
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  • Areas of expertise: Persian[1][2] physician, alchemist and chemist, philosopher, and scholar
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(Mohammad-e Zakariā-ye Rāzi: Persian: محمد زکریای رازی). He is recognised as a polymath,[3] and biographies of Razi, based on his writings, describe him as "perhaps the greatest clinician of all times.

In his early life he could have been a musician or singer (see Ibn abi Usaibi'ah[citation needed]) but more likely a lute-player who shifted his interest from music to alchemy (cf. ibn Juljul, Sa'id, ibn Khallikan, Usaibi'ah, al-Safadi[citation needed]). At the age of 30 (Safadi says after 40) he stopped his study of alchemy because his experimentation had caused an eye disease (Cf. al-Biruni[citation needed]), obliging him to search for physicians and medicine to cure it. al-Biruni, Beyhaqi and others, say this was the reason why he began his medical studies.

He studied medicine under Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari, He became Director of the hospital of Rey

Razi was a very generous man, with a humane behavior towards his patients, and acting charitable to the poor. He used to give them full treatment without charging any fee, nor demanding any other payment.[citation needed]

Numerous “firsts” in medical research, clinical care, and chemistry are attributed to him, including being the first to differentiate smallpox from measles, and the discovery of numerous compounds and chemicals including alcohol and kerosene, among others.

 

First person to tell difference between smallpox and measles

This diagnosis is acknowledged by the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911), which states: "The most trustworthy statements as to the early existence of the disease are found in an account by the 9th-century Persian physician Rhazes, by whom its symptoms were clearly described, its pathology explained by a humoral or fermentation theory, and directions given for its treatment."

 

Discovered allergic asthma

Razi is also known for having discovered "allergic asthma," and was the first physician ever to write articles on allergy and immunology. In the Sense of Smelling he explains the occurrence of rhinitis after smelling a rose during the Spring: Article on the Reason Why Abou Zayd Balkhi Suffers from Rhinitis When Smelling Roses in Spring. In this article he discusses seasonal rhinitis, which is the same as allergic asthma or hay fever. Razi was the first to realize that fever is a natural defense mechanism, the body's way of fighting disease.

The Diseases of Children

Razi is considered the father of pediatrics for writing The Diseases of Children, the first book to deal with pediatrics as an independent field of medicine

 

 

Edward Granville Browne considers him as "probably the greatest and most original of all the physicians, and one of the most prolific as an author"

Rhazes was the greatest physician of Islam and the Medieval Ages."– George Sarton

 

 

 

 

His eye affliction started with cataracts and ended in total blindness. One of his pupils from Tabaristan came to look after him, but, according to al-Biruni, he refused to be treated, proclaiming it was useless as his hour of death was approaching.

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