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In
the 7th century ad a vast portion of the Eastern world was
overrun by Arab conquerors. In Persia (now Iran), the Arabs
learned of Greek medicine at the schools of the Nestorian
Christians, a sect in exile from the Byzantine Empire. These
schools had preserved many texts lost in the destruction of
the Alexandria Library. Translations from Greek were instrumental
in the development of an Arabic system of medicine throughout
the Arab-speaking world. Followers of the system, known as
Arabists, did much to elevate professional standards by insisting
on examinations for physicians before licensure. They introduced
numerous therapeutic chemical substances and excelled in the
fields of ophthalmology and public hygiene.
Important
among Arabist physicians was al-Razi, who was the first to
identify smallpox and measles and to suggest blood as the
cause of infectious diseases. Avenzoar was the first to describe
the parasite causing the skin disease scabies and was among
the earliest to question the authority of Galen. Maimonides
wrote extensively on diet, hygiene, and toxicology, the study
of chemicals and their effect on the body. Al-Quarashi, also
known as Ibn al-Nafis, wrote commentaries on the writings
of Hippocrates and treatises on diet and eye diseases. He
was the first to determine the pathway of blood, from the
right to the left ventricle via the lungs
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