LEARNING AND ISLAM

~ 61 ~ Qasim az-Zohrawi (d. after 1009), usually known in Latin as Abulcasis. While Arabic medicine thus reached its highest point in the early eleventh century, it continued to hold sway for many more centuries. The gift of careful observation did not disappear and certain fourteenth century Arab doctors in Spain wrote knowledgeably, about the plague as they had experienced it in Granada and Almeria.24 Abdullah ibn Baytar (d. 1248) was the best known botanist and pharmacist of Spain, in fact, of the Muslim world. He travelled as a herbalist in Spain and throughout North Africa, and later entered the service of the Ayyubid al-Malik al- Kamil in Cairo as chief herbalist. From Egypt he made extensive trips throughout Syria and Asia Minor. One of his two celebrated works, Al-Mughni fi al Adwiyah alMufradah, is on materia medica. The other, Al-Jami’ fi al Adwiya al-Mufradah, is a collection of “simple remedies from the animal, vegetable and mineral worlds embodying Greek and Arabic data supplemented by the author’s own experiments and researches.” It stands out as the foremost medieval