A Treatise on the Small-Pox and Measles — Al-Razi

📖 Public Domain Classic — Islamic Golden Age

Description

A Treatise on the Small-Pox and Measles is a 9th–10th century medical treatise by Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (known in the West as Rhazes), the leading physician of the Islamic Golden Age and head of the great hospital in Baghdad. It is the earliest known work to clearly distinguish smallpox and measles as separate diseases, describing their causes, symptoms, progression, and treatment with a clinical precision that would not be matched in Europe for centuries. Translated into Latin, Greek, and other European languages from the Middle Ages onward, it remained a standard medical reference well into the early modern period. This edition presents William Alexander Greenhill's 1848 English translation, published for the Sydenham Society, including the Translator's Introduction, al-Razi's own Author's Preface, and the full fourteen chapters of the treatise.

Author & Genre

Author: Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi (Rhazes)
Genre: History of Medicine / Islamic Golden Age Non-Fiction
Translator: William Alexander Greenhill (1848)

"As to any physician who says that the excellent Galen has made no mention of the Small-Pox, and was entirely ignorant of this disease, surely he must be one of those who have either never read his works at all, or who have passed over them very cursorily."