Rhazes

Rhazes, drawing

Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā ar-Rāzī ( Persian ابو بکر محمّد بن زَکَریای رازی, DMG Abū Bakr Muḥammad bin Zakaryā-ye Rāzī ), Arabic for short ar-Rāzī , known in the western world under the Latinized name Rhazes or Rasis (born around 865 in Rey ; died in 925 ibid), was a Persian doctor , natural scientist, philosopher , Islamic religion critic and alchemist .

Life and works

Book of medicine

Before he became a doctor, Rhazes studied music theory and chemistry. He studied medicine, probably also philosophy , with Raban al-Tabri . He ran a hospital in Rey and later took on a similar position in Baghdad .

Unlike the philosopher al-Kindī , who also worked as a doctor , whose writings on natural philosophy he had studied, Rhazes was also an alchemist , while mathematical and logical questions interested him less.

He became known as the author of numerous medical books that have long been used for medical studies . He was one of the first to concentrate on the psychological aspects of medicine and healing and thought the relationship between body and soul to be determined by the soul. In his opinion, a doctor should also be a good “soul doctor”.

In addition, he valued the “thousand-year knowledge of books” far more than comparatively short-term conclusions of logicians with little experience and a philosophy based on it. Since he made a lot of experiments and tried out almost all of his statements himself, especially in medicine, he is considered a great empiricist .

Rhazes described a method of preserving corpses that was also known in Europe in the Middle Ages and which, with subsequent improvements, was able to hold up until the end of the 18th century. His method was based essentially on removing the intestines, washing the body cavities with vinegar and alcohol, and filling the corpse with aromatic powders and preserving salts.

He spent his life in Rey , where he was born and died, and at times in Baghdad . He was in great demand as a doctor. Among other things, he worked at the Samanid court. In the field of philosophy he was well received, but almost entirely rejected, which is why his writings have hardly survived and can only be reconstructed through the polemical answers of his competitors. His philosophical interest was in three things: metaphysics , epistemology and ethics .

He preached a more or less ascetic life , but lived it very little himself. He was mostly accused of criticism; but he justified himself for it in his work “The Philosophical Way of Life” shortly before the end of his life. He was rejected by other philosophers, but above all by Islamic scholars. Rhazes was a critic of the revealed religions . He therefore had many enemies among the conservative religious scholars, which led to his giving up his position in Baghdad .

Rhazes was thereafter the director of the hospital in Rey; He was to lose this post because of his theology and prophet-critical works. He probably died in 925 (932 according to other sources) as an impoverished man in his sister's apartment in Rey.

philosophy

According to the metaphysical world view of Rhazes, the universe is ordered according to five original principles that are eternal and exist from the beginning:

• A creator (god), also called "perfect intellect ", who has compassion and mercy
• Eternal matter , which is unstructured and made up of atoms
• The universal soul that strives for perfection
• The absolute and eternal time (but relative time in the created world)
• The absolute and eternal space (but relative space in the created world)

Despite the eternity of these five original principles, Rhazes also knows a story of creation , according to which the soul tries to shape matter, but fails because the latter defends itself and the world is only created out of compassion and mercy thanks to God's intervention. The bodies get all soul particles, but they do not feel well and strive upwards through a kind of system of rebirth to redemption; but if they live their life “badly”, they descend. However, they always have the same chances of all attaining salvation. Here Rhazes contradicts the Islamic conception and the teachings of the prophet Mohammed very violently, which is why he was often understood as a heretic . Because after him no one can receive special abilities, such as those of the prophet. Nevertheless, Rhazes was not an atheist , since in his teaching all life only arises with God's help and all life strives towards God or into a God-like state. His doctrine of knowledge therefore excludes prophets; he even goes so far as to call them deceivers who "blind" the people because they use miracles to "distract from the truth". In his ethical works “The Spiritual Medicine” and “The Philosophical Way of Life” he writes about how the soul can be educated to virtue and which way of life provides good prerequisites for this and ultimately for an “ascension” of the soul. Overall, his ethical system is based on the pursuit of knowledge, on good action, on compassion for others, on sensible weighing of worldly pleasures (but enjoying them in moderation), on trust in the merciful God and on the fact that everything is solved through knowledge can be. To the accusation of preaching an ascetic life similar to that of Socrates , but not living it himself, Rhazes replied in his last work, "The Philosophical Way of Life", that he preferred the way of life of the late Socrates, whom he regarded as his imam , and that a purely ascetic and withdrawn life similar to that of the Sufis is not good, since the individual is also responsible for the well-being of the individual and the community.

Zakariya ar-Razi had a clear opinion of the Koran : "They claim that the obvious miracle in the form of the Koran is available to everyone. They say 'Whoever denies this should reproduce something similar'. In fact, we could reproduce a thousand similar products , from the work of rhetoricians, eloquent speakers and brave poets, whose formulations are more accurate and shorter. They can communicate their intentions better and their rhyming prose has a better rhythm. By God, what they tell us amazes us very much! They talk about a book that enumerates ancient myths and at the same time is full of contradictions and has no valuable information or explanations. Then they say, 'Produce something similar!' "

Alchemy

Rhazes avoids speculations about the structure of matter, in contrast to the school of Jabir ibn Hayyan (Giver) with its doctrine of the balance of elements with fixed relationships based on the Pythagorean harmony ideas. Instead, he orientates himself on the experiment, presented in his book The Secret of Secrets . In it, he deals with chemical devices and processes, minerals and chemicals in a matter-of-factly sober manner, whereby he describes four spirits (sulfur, arsenic, mercury, salmiac), seven bodies (metals), thirteen rocks, six vitriols (which he also includes alum ) and eleven Salts differs. The aim of alchemy is an elixir that enables substances to be transformed.

There seems to have been a more extensive twelve-volume account of Rhazes' alchemy, but only fragments and the introduction (Kitāb al-mudḫal at-taʿlīmī) have survived.

In the Latin Middle Ages, some other texts were ascribed to him such as the Lumen Luminum (light of lights) and The Book of Alums and Salts , which was published in Spain in the 11th / 12th centuries. Century, was translated into Latin in the 13th century and influenced, among others, Roger Bacon . The pseudo-Geber (a Latin author who used the name Gebers) with his Summa Perfectionis was influenced by Rhazes.

meaning

Illumination in a manuscript from Naples containing a Latin translation of ar-Rāzī's medical work. A doctor holds a vessel with urine in the presence of a patient. Torino, Biblioteca Nazionale, DI14, fol. 1, written in 1460.

Rhazes was a prolific writer who excelled with 183 publications (books or text contributions) in the most varied areas of science and philosophy.

Alongside Abu Ali al-Hussein Ibn Abdallah Ibn Sina (Latinized: Avicenna ), he is probably the most important doctor not only of the Middle Ages . Among other things, he structured and translated Galen's huge work and created from it, without uncritically adopting Galen's views, a curriculum for the study of medicine that was valid for centuries. He also describes smallpox and measles in detail . He also documents other diseases such as appendicitis or cramps during pregnancy. He also published a list of the most important remedies. His works were also used in medical teaching in European cultures. He is said to have been the first to succeed in producing higher percentage alcohol by distilling wine.

August 27th each year is the official day of remembrance for Mohammad Zakaria Razi in Iran.

Honors

According to Rhazes bennnat, the plant genus is Rhazya Decne. from the family of the dog poison plants (Apocynaceae).

Works, text editions, translations

• Kitābu's-sīrati'l-falsafiyyati (كتاب السيرة الفلسفيّة), "The Book of the Development of Philosophy".
• Paul Kraus : Abi Bakr Mohammadi Zachariae Ragemsis (Rāzīs) Opera philosophica 1, Fragmenta que quae supersunt, Pars Prior, Cairo 1939 (Arabic text of his essays on ethics and philosophical fragments)
• Kitābu'ṭ-ṭibbi'r-rūhānī (كتاب الطب الروحاني), "The Book of Spiritual Medicine"
• Kitābu'l-manṣūrī fī'ṭ-ṭibb (before 903, dedicated to Abū Ṣalīḥ Manṣūr ibn Isḥāq , Latinized Almansor )
  • Translation into Latin in 1175 by Gerhard von Cremona : Liber (medicinalis) ad Almansorem / Almansorius, Liber ad Almansorem, Liber nonus; Chapters 26–58 also as Pseudo-Aristotle or Pseudo- Albertus Magnus : Physiognomia ; Book 2 also as pseudo-Aristotle: Physiognomia
    • Manuscripts and a. Ms. DI 14. 2 volumes, Bibliotheca Nazionale Universitaria di Torino, Turin 1460.
    • Prints u. a. Venice 1490 ( digitized ), 1493 ( digitized Yale ), 1497 (digitized: BSB Munich , Yale )
  • modern partial translations:
    • Pieter de Koning: Traite sur le calcul dans les reins et dans la vessie par Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā 'al-Rāzī , Leiden 1896.
    • Pieter de Koning: Trois traites d'anatomie arabes par Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Rāzī, 'Ali ibn al-'Abbas and' Ali ibn Sina , Brill, Leiden 1903 (reprinted Institute for the History of Arab-Islamic Sciences, Frankfurt 1986, 2 -89).
• Kitāb Sirr al-asrār (Book of the Secret of Secrets), his main alchemical work (Latin translation as Liber secretorum , not to be confused with the Secretum secretorum )
  • Facsimile edition Tehran 1964
  • Julius Ruska : Al-Razi's book Secret of the Secrets. With introduction and explanations in German translation. Springer, Berlin 1937 (= Sources and Studies on the History of Natural Sciences and Medicine, Volume VI)
• Kitāb al-mudḫal at-taʿlīmī, his first alchemical work

literature

Older literature

• G. Heym Al-Razi and alchemy Ambix, Volume 1, 1938, pp. 184-191.
• JR Partington: The chemistry of Razi , Ambix, Vol. 1, 1938, pp. 192-196.
• TJ DeBoer: History of Philosophy in Islam. Frommanns Verlag, Stuttgart 1901, pp. 69-89.
• George Speirs Alexander Ranking: The life an works of Rhazes (Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakarīya ar-Rāzī). In: Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Congress of Medicine (London) 23, 1913, pp. 237-268.
• Julius Ruska: Al Razi (Rhases) as a chemist. In: Journal of Applied Chemistry . Volume 35 (103), 1922, pp. 719-721, ISSN  0932-2132
• Julius Ruska: Al-Birūni as a source for the life and writings of al-Rāzi’s . In: Isis. Volume 5, 1923, pp. 26-50.

Newer literature

• L. Richter-Bernburg: Abū Bakr Muhammad al-Rāzī's (Rhazes) medical works . In: Medicina Nei Secoli . tape 6 , no. 2 , 1994, p. 377-392 , PMID 11623416 .
• Shlomo Pines : Al-Rāzī, Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā . In: Charles Coulston Gillispie (Ed.): Dictionary of Scientific Biography . tape 11 : A. Pitcairn - B. Rush . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1975, p. 323-326 .
• Bernard Joly: Rhazes , in Claus Priesner, Karin Figala: Alchemie , Beck 1998, 302 ff.
• Heinrich Schipperges : Rhazes (865 to 925). In: René Dumesnil, Hans Schadewaldt (ed.): The famous doctors. 2nd edition Cologne 1960, pp. 41–43.
• Heinrich Schipperges †: Ar-Rāzī, Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā (Rhases - "the man from Raiy"). In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , pp. 1217-1219.
• Ulrich Rudolph: Islamic Philosophy. From the beginning to the present. Publishing house CH Beck. Munich 2004, pp. 22–28. ISBN 3-406-50852-9

Web links

Commons : Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Rhazes in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ↑ Arabic أبو بکر محمد بن زکریا الرازی, Rāzī is the Arabic-Persian Nisbe of Ray (the ancient Rhages / Rhagai, south of today's Tehran). Thus it translates as: "... from / from Ray".
2. ↑ There is a letter from al-Biruni , which gives the dates of life as born in Rey on August 28, 865, died on October 26, 925. Cf. Julius Ruska: Al-Birūni as a source for the life and writings of a-Rāzi’s . In: Isis. Volume 5, 1922, pp. 26–50 ( digitized at archive.org ),
3. ↑ Magdalena Hawlik-van de Water: The beautiful death. Ceremonial structures of the Viennese court at death and burial between 1640 and 1740 , Freiburg / Wien 1989, pp. 203–211 (on "The methods of embalming from antiquity to modern times").
4. ^ Heinrich Schipperges: Ar-Rāzī. In: Encyclopedia of Medical History. 2005, p. 1217.
5. ↑ JJ Lagowski; Chemistry: foundations and applications; ISBN 978-0-02-865722-6
6. ↑ German translation Tangsir | Source: Jennifer Michael Hecht, “Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson,” pp. 227-230.
7. ^ Bernard Joly, Rhazes, in: Claus Priesner, Karin Figala: Alchemie. Lexicon of a Hermetic Science, Beck 1998, p. 303
8. ^ English translation: Robert Steele: Practical chemistry in the twelfth century: Rasis De aluminibus et salibus, translated by Gerard of Cremona . In: Isis 12, 1929, pp. 10–46 (with reproduction of an abbreviated Latin version); German translation: Julius Ruska : The book of alums and salts. Verlag Chemie, 1935
9. ↑ Joachim Telle : Book of alums and salts. In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages , II, 811 f.
10. ^ Gundolf Keil, Ahmed M. Mokhtar and Hans-Jürgen Thies: Galenkritik bei Rhazes. On the evaluation of the criticism of authority in the Islamic Middle Ages. In: Medical Monthly Bulletin 25, 1971, pp. 559-563
11. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
12. ↑ See Ch. B. Schmitt, D. Knox: Pseudo-Aristoteles Latinus. A guide to latin works falsely attributed to Aristotle before 1500 . London 1985.
13. ↑ See HE Stapleton et al .: Chemistry in Iraq and Persia in the tenth century AD , in: Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal [Calcutta] 8/6 (1927), 317-418, 345ff.