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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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