Pharmaceuticals were originated from herbal, animal and mineral sources in ancient medicine. Making syrups, Tablets and other drugs is a part of Islamic medicine. Some of the Muslim physicians were pharmacists as well. Muhammad ibn Zakariya Râzī was a great physician that a significant part of his works is devoted to pharmacy. This article is a study on the influence and role of Razi and his ideas about drugs. The results of this research shows that Râzī’s profession on Chemistry and properties of minerals, enabled him to produce new drugs. He presented numerous instructions for caking of compound drugs that was unprecedented among Muslims. Razi’s method was easy; he used food instead of drugs. He knew the drugs nature and harms. He was, firstly, used alcohol for disinfection, mercury as a laxative and also using some pharmaceutical compounds for abirritating. He also cited drugs for Veterinary.

The Renaissance was the start of a new age of science, creativity and critical thinking in the West, however, the research methods and perspectives have been prevailed since the early twentieth century. Nevertheless, the Muslim scholars in the glorious age of Islamic civilization have had their own methods and insights. Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi(Rhazes) was a great Iranian physician who used the particular research methods and approaches in his works which can be compared with his European counterparts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries AD. Rhazes composed his valuable works by his mastermind and critical gift as well as putting emphasis on the clinical observations and experimental techniques to explore the medical science. He used the research methods such as expression of the study, aim of research, question and hypothesis, sources criticism, introduction, discussion and conclusion that are common today. This article examines the major works of Rhazes in medicine, presenting the examples of his research methods and perspectives that are much beyond his age and similar to today.

be traced back to several centuries ago. A careful study of Rhazes’Treatments on Gout reveals a lot about the nature and therapy of gout.Methods: We managed to study the perceptions about pathogenesis, symptomatology, diagnosis, and treatment of gout that have changed over time. We also discussed some of the past and present fallacies regarding this disease.Results: Rhazes provided a detailed description on the vital role of genetics and the relationship between the development of gout, an indulgent way of living, and tophi at a period of time between 1st and 6th centuries AD.Conclusion: This study showed that the findings of Rhazes about treatments of gout were consonant with modern medical theories.

Context: Persia has been the cradle of science across human history. Many of today’, s concepts in science, such as the fi, nite speed of light and alcohol distillation, were fi, rst proposed by Persian scientists. Mohammad ibn Zakariya Razi (Rhazes) is undoubtedly one of the greatest Persian scientists over human history. Evidence Acquisition: In this paper, in addition to a brief review of the history of pharmacy and chemistry sciences in Persia, Rhazes’,valuable books in the fi, elds of pharmacy and chemistry, along with a brief description of them, were introduced. Data were extracted from diff, erent historical and bibliography books and also the citation databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar. Results: Rhazes’,books and treatises in the fi, elds of pharmacy and chemistry have been classifi, ed into three categories: 1) the books and treatises containing some sections on pharmacy like Al-Hawi fi,al-Tibb (Liber Continens) and Al-Mansouri fi,al-Tibb, 2) those written merely on pharmacy, like Qarabadin (pharmacopeia), and 3) the books focusing on alchemy (kimia), like Sirr al-Asrar (Secret of secrets) and Al Asrar (Liber Secretorum). Three volumes of Al Hawi fi,al-Tibb were applied as a reference in pharmacology in Western universities for many years. Sirr al-Asrar is his most important book on alchemy, describing raw materials used in alchemy, experimental apparatus necessary for alchemical investigations, and detailed procedures for the chemical manipulation of arsenic and sulfur. Conclusions: These valuable manuscripts demonstrate the ancient heritage of Persians and the great roles and contributions of Persian scientists in the history of science.

Background: Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known in the west as Rhazes, was born in 865 AD in the ancient city of Rey, near Tehran and died in the same town about 925 AD. He was the first person who distinguished the infectious rashes, in particular smallpox, from measles in a masterful demonstration of clinical observations, providing valid guidelines for the sound treatment of both. This study compares Rhazes Diagnostic Differentiation of Smallpox and Measles.Methods: There is an attempt in this study to compare modern microbiology with the chapters of Rhazes’s fi Aljadari wa-al-hasbah. We used this book in its original language (Arabic) along with its Persian and English translations.Results: Rhazes was among the first to recognize the need for sanitation of infected patients in hospitals. Rhazes prepared Al-Jodari Wa Hasbah, the first treatise ever written on smallpox and measles for diagnostic differentiation between these two infections, which is the basis for new medicine to diagnose and treat smallpox and measles, according to his experience of patients in hospital. He also noted that the cause of these infections was the yeast transmitted by the blood route. Today, the cause of smallpox and measles is known to be viruses. Rhazes not only classified the type of infections based on location and the time of the appearance of the symptoms in these two infections, but also he scaled the degree of severity and prognosis of infections according to the color and location of rashes.Conclusion: The method of differential diagnosis of measles and smallpox was precisely described based on his clinical experience and observation in hospitals; it is the best reference in the history of medicine for recognition of these two infections. This article is a review of Rhazes’s views in medicine and their comparison with the modern microbiology.

Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakaria Razi, known in the western literature as Rhazes, was born in 865 CE in Reyy, a township south of modem Tehran. In his youth, he pursued the craft of goldsmith and was lead gradually to the art of Alchemy. He excelled in this art such that his genial contributions and historic discoveries helped convert the superstition shrouded alchemy into the experiment-based rational chemistry. Rhazes is also credited for a scientific classification of minerals, purification of oils and the first description of chemical reduction. Rhazes was the first to produce colored glass and synthesis of paints.

Dear Editor: I read with interest the article by Tabatabaei et al.1 on the brilliant description of facial palsy by the genius Persian physician Razi (Rhazez) (865 – 925 AD). The authors have well discussed a very fascinating, albeit challenging, medical condition. The condition is also a multi-disciplinary disease of interest to different subspecialties, including neurologists, neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, otolaryngologists, ophthalmologists, and psychiatrists.

“Al-Hawi" (The Continents) written by the famous Persian polymath scientist Rhazes, has been carefully studied in order to enlighten the contribution Iran has played in the development of medical science. Two hundred and eighty six sources including references to 112 scholars were investigated. From this list, a total of 20 books and references to 38 scholars have been recorded with mistaken identity in the literature. In this paper, biographical data of these scientists have been scrutinized with the anticipation to provide a reliable guide for further studies.