Rabi Rashidi (Rashidi Quarters): a late thirteen to early fourteenth century Middle Eastern Medical School.

INTRODUCTION: Following the Mongolian invasion of the Middle East in the thirteenth century, a regional power called the Ilkhanid emerged and was ruled by the heirs of Temujin from Mongolia. Embracing present-day Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, areas of Russia, Turkey, and Pakistan, and nearby Middle Eastern territories, the Ilkhanid state patronized medicine and various other professions. Centered in Tabriz (Tauris), a city in the northwest of present-day Iran, was a non-profit-making educational and medical complex founded by Grand Minister Rashid al-Din Fazlollah Hamadani. METHODS: This paper reviews the literature regarding the rise and fall of the thirteenth century university and the Rabi Rashidi, emphasizing the structure of its medical school. CONCLUSIONS: The background training of Rashid al-Din and his keen interest in science turned this complex, Rabi Rashidi (literally meaning the Rashidi Quarters), into a cosmopolitan university that freely trained medical scholars nationally and internationally. The possibility that Rashid al-Din was inspired by university developments in Europe is discussed.

Sleep paralysis in medieval Persia - the Hidayat of Akhawayni (?-983 AD).

Among the first three manuscripts written in Persian, Akhawayni's Hidayat al-muta'allemin fi al-tibb was the most significant work compiled in the 10th century. Along with the hundreds of chapters on hygiene, anatomy, physiology, symptoms and treatments of the diseases of various organs, there is a chapter on sleep paralysis (night-mare) prior to description and treatment of epilepsy. The present article is a review of the Akhawayni's teachings on sleep paralysis and of descriptions and treatments of sleep paralysis by the Greek, medieval, and Renaissance scholars. Akhawayni's descriptions along with other early writings provide insight into sleep paralysis during the Middle Ages in general and in Persia in particular.

Hakim Esmail Jorjani (1042-1137 AD: ): Persian physician and jurist.

The great 11th-12th century Persian physician Seyed Esmail Jorjani (known as Hakim Jorjani) is known for his 750,000 word encyclopedia of medicine, the Treasure of King Khwarazm, which has been ranked along with Avicenna's Canon and the works of Haly Abbas. Translations of this work provide modern readers with a detailed insight into medical practice in medieval Persia. Parts of the Treasure are devoted to guidance about midwifery and perinatal care. In this article we present translations of excerpts from this part of the work.

Illustration of the heart and blood vessels in medieval times.

Throughout history, illustrations had played a key role in the promotion and evolution of medicine by providing a medium for transmission of scientific observations. Due to religious prohibitions, color drawings of the human body did not appear in medieval Persia and during the Islamic Golden Age. This tradition, however, has been overlooked with the publication of the first color atlas and text of human anatomy, Tashrihi Mansuri (Mansur's Anatomy), by Mansur ibn Ilyas in the fourteenth century AD. Written in Persian and containing several vivid illustrations of the human body, this book gained widespread attention by both scholars and lay persons. In this article, a brief history of Mansur's Anatomy and an English translation of selected sections from this book regarding the heart and blood vessels are presented.

Vasovagal syncope in the Canon of Avicenna: the first mention of carotid artery hypersensitivity.

Ibn Sina, known as Avicenna in the West, was a celebrated Persian thinker, philosopher, and physician who is remembered for his masterpiece, The Canon of Medicine. The Canon that served as an essential medical encyclopedia for scholars in the Islamic territories and Europe for almost a millennium consisted of 5 books. In the third book, Avicenna described patients with symptoms of carotid hypersensitivity syndrome. These patients, who had excessive yawning, fatigue, and flushing, dropped following pressure on their carotids. Based on such history, it seems that Avicenna was the first to note the carotid sinus hypersensitivity, which presents with vasovagal syncope following compression of the carotid artery. In this paper, we presented a brief account of Avicenna's life and works and discuss his description of the so-called carotid hypersensitivity syncope. Notwithstanding his loyalty to the Greek theory of humoralism, Avicenna set forth his own version of "theory of spirits" to explain the mechanism of this disease. An account of the theory of spirits is also given.

Systematic analysis of animals used in medieval Azerbaijan medicine.

In order to study the special composition of animals used in the medieval medicine of Azerbaijan, a wide range of medieval sources on medicine and pharmacognosy from the collection of the Institute of Manuscripts of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences in Baku has been studied. About 40 medieval sources from the 10-18th centuries including 17 manuscripts in Turkic, Persian and Arabic have been selected as the objects of this study. As a result, 150 species of animals described in medieval Azerbaijani books on medicine and pharmacy have been identified. Many of the identified animals are mammals, (47 species or 31% of total number of identified species). The medieval authors describe 12 species of reptiles and 4 species of Amphibians (frogs, toads, salamanders and tree-frogs (Hyla arborea). 15 species of fishes described in medieval manuscripts have been identified. The identified molluscs are cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis), mussel (Mytilus edulis), octopus (Octopus vulgaris) and snail (Helix pomatia). Most crustaceans used in medieval Azerbaijan medicine belong to Decopoda. Medieval manuscripts contain numerous names of various worms and insects (ants, flies, beetles, etc.), however their exact identification is rather difficult. As usual, medieval authors unite a number of species under one name and do not give sufficient information about their morphology. Results of the research create grounds for the idea that the recommendations of the medieval authors on the medicinal application of animals can be applied to modern medicine once they have been experimentally and clinically tested.