JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON HISTORY OF MEDICINE
Year:2015 | Volume:4 | Issue:3|Papers Count:6

During the Medieval Iranian history, many of courtiers were aware of medicine. By the thirteenth and fourteenth century, under Mongol yoke, a lot of minorities emancipated of Abasid Caliphate ties and could perform his religious deed. Because of his jewish affiliation, Rashid al-Din could join as an apothecary in the Mongolian circles. Large though Mongol numbers were, they employed Iranian sages to manage of bureaucratic affairs. First thing first, his position culminated when he acquired title of special medic and proved his competency. Under Ghazan reign, he gained bureaucratic occupations gradually. A part from his historical work,Jame al-tawarikh, Rashid al-Din wrote some treatises in medical science, music, agriculture and astronomy. Eventually, during the last Ilkhanid king, Abu said, he was blamed for death of oljeytu to wrong prescription. In this study, the investigator tries to survey of Rashid al-Din endeavors and contributions on medicine and introduce his works by using descriptive- analytical method.

Leech therapy was popular for many centuries. While many research studies have supported the medical use of Hirudo medicinalis, other species have not received that much attention. Due to the large demand and lack of supply, more research is needed to justify the medical use of other species. Ibn al Quff provided general guidelines on differentiating between the beneficial and toxic types of leeches.In his manuscript al-Oomdaa fi Senaatal-Jeraaha, Ibn al Quff described the uses, as well as different types, of leeches. A copy of the manuscript was obtained from King Abdulaziz Public Library in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Arabic). I studied the manuscript and translated it to English.Medical literaturehas proven that many leeches can be used with some efficacy. Ibn al Quff provided descriptions of the beneficial and toxic types of leeches.Additional beneficial species of leeches that can be used in medicine have been described in the literature. Ibn al Quff described and differentiated the beneficial and harmful types available during his time. Additional scientific research is necessary to classify these leeches.

Finding out about the extent to which a ritual can be similar to the human cognitive system can be very effective in understanding its development. Were the rituals influenced by brain physiology and was this the mystery to their effectiveness? Are these the rituals and continuing prayers which have caused the brain to grow and develop? Perhaps probing into such investigations would show us that human development did not occur unilaterally and is the result of a bilateral interaction between the brain and the surrounding world including the culture.Visiting the Raise Cave in Niyasar (Figure 1) was a chance to think about some of these questions during a unique experience. The Raise Cave is a man-made cave in Niyasar which dates back to the era of Archimedeans and was in fact a Mithra Temple. Mithra is one of the most important goddess in ancient Persian who is protector of truth and contracts. This cave consists of nested tunnels/corridors as short as half a meter at some points. This calm, quiet, and dark environment was used for praying and the total length of the rooms’ tunnels/corridors is 2500m. Passing through the tunnel/corridors seems to be similar to passing through different stages of a ritual. Although the whole cave could not be accessed due to the risk of falling, approximately 100m was open to the public and even this short distance was quite breath-taking.The height of the tunnels/corridors gradually decreased, which felt like passing from one ritual stage to another. This is quite compatible with seven steps of Mehr religion in Mithraism. Mithraism is a deep and ancient religion and mysterious rituals in Old Persian and Roman Empire.Passing through tunnels/corridors of the Raise Cave was quite similar to passing through brain tunnel/corridors leading humans to a novel stage of development. This similarity with the brain’s processing structure raises a question on the extent to which Mithra rituals were effective in the cognitive development of the brain. Answering the very question requires more comprehensive studies on the relationship between the brain and culture.

Many people and even some doctors, in the past, believed that only God decides about human birth. They believed that human knowledge is far from determining this. When Islamic civilization began to spread, medical knowledge made great progress too. Muslim doctors began to express their opinions about fertility and infertility. This study, which is basically a library research, is an attempt to scrutinize Muslim doctors’ ideas about fertility and infertility. This paper has investigated Muslims’ views about infertility and its treatment. The findings of the study have shown that Muslims did not believe in witchcraft and superstitious ways and methods of treating infertility.

The symptoms of today’s disease can help scientist to take a diagnostic approach toward those of the ancient times. The knowledge of the survey of disease in the ancient times is called pathology. Ancient pathology focuses on the source, evolution and progression of diseases in the human groups in history. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a lot of precise and detailed descriptive research, often dealing with pre-Columbian “syphilis”, was performed. Then, in the early twentieth century a number of scholars, strived to carry out research on various issues, ranging from trephination to schistosomiasis. However, it was not until Hooton, Stewart, and some others who combined paleopathology with paleodemography that scientists succeeded to get a population perspective on health. More recently, Jarcho and Brothwell, working on bone pathologists, gained a better understanding of the ancient diseases of the mummies. This cooperation among scholars, the most prominent one being William Ortner, led to a revolution in the study of bone biology and responses to diseases. Owing to the spread of this knowledge in the world, the aim of this article is make readers familiar with this field, and encourage them to work in and promote this field, exploring the ancient legacy of this country.

The term massage comes from the French verb” Masser” which means to rub. In Greek, it comes from the word “Masso” which means to rub with the hands. Massage Therapy has been very common among different nations since antiquity. In Iranian traditional medicine, the word “Dalk” has been used with the meaning of massage.Among various functions known for giving massage that used for the athletes referred to as sports massage, is of utmost importance. It is so crucial that nowadays almost all sport teams have professional sport masseurs.Centuries ago and before the spread of sport massage, the great Iranian physician Avicenna in his famous book “The Canon of Medicine” had some suggestions for people involved in sports. A comparison of Avicenna’s view on massage in the book “The Canon of Medicine” and the new western sources shows the effects of Avicenna on modern western viewpoints.It is worth mentioning that the “The Canon of Medicine” is still being taught in renowned universities around the world.In this study, a comparison is made between Avicenna’s view points on the function of massage and those found in the new discipline of sports massage.