Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known in the Latin West as Rhazes, was a Persian physician, philosopher and alchemist of the Islamic Golden Age who served as chief physician of hospitals in Baghdad and in his native Ray. He was among the first physicians to clinically distinguish smallpox from measles, wrote the first known monograph on pediatrics, and pioneered work in obstetrics and ophthalmology. His comprehensive medical compendium al-Hawi drew on both Greek and his own clinical experience and, once translated into Latin, became a standard reference in European medical education for centuries.
Facts
Birth YearAlternate sources give 864. Death YearAlternate sources give 935. Connections
Specialist In
Al-Razi is widely credited as an early pioneer of pediatric medicine, first to differentiate smallpox and measles.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Al-Razi
Wikipedialead sentenceQuote, lead sentence
864 or 865-925 or 935 CE, was a Persian physician, philosopher and alchemist who lived during the Islamic Golden Age.
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Why is Al-Razi remembered for smallpox and measles?
He was among the first physicians to clinically distinguish smallpox from measles.
Al-Razi, chief physician of hospitals in Baghdad and in his native Ray, was among the first physicians to clinically distinguish smallpox from measles. His book On Smallpox and Measles is among the earliest surviving books to describe the two as distinct diseases, and a book of the same name by Thabit ibn Qurra is counted alongside it. Historians therefore credit him as one of the first, not the only, physician to make the distinction.
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