Al-Ruhawi

Ishāq ibn ʻAlī al-Ruhāwī (Arabic: إسحاق بن علي الرهاوي‎) was a 9th century Arab Muslim[1] physician and the author of the first medical ethics book in Islamic medicine.[2]

His Ethics of the Physician contains the first documented description of a peer review process, where the notes of a practising Islamic physician were reviewed by peers and the physician could face a lawsuit from a maltreated patient if the reviews were negative.[3]

Al-Ruhawi was probably from Al-Ruha, modern-day Şanlıurfa in Turkey, close to the border with Syria, which is often simply known as Urfa.[4]

Works

Al-Ruhawi's most celebrated work is Adab al-Tabib ("Practical Ethics of the Physician" or "Practical Medical Deontology"), the earliest surviving Arabic work on medical ethics. Al-Ruhawi regarded physicians as "guardians of souls and bodies". The work was based on Hippocrates and Galen and consisted of twenty chapters on various topics related to medical ethics.[4]

He also wrote the following books:[1]

He compiled two works based on Galen.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b Aksoy, Sahin (2004). "The Religious Tradition of Ishaq ibn Ali Al-Ruhawi : The Author of the First Medical Ethics Book in Islamic Medicine". Journal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine 3 (5): 9–11. http://www.ishim.net/ishimj/5/03.pdf. 
  2. ^ Prioreschi, Plinio (2001). A History of Medicine: Byzantine and Islamic medicine (1st ed.). Omaha, NE: Horatius Press. p. 394. ISBN 1888456043. 
  3. ^ Spier, Ray (August 2002), "The History of the Peer-Review Process", Trends in Biotechnology 20 (8): 357–358, doi:10.1016/S0167-7799(02)01985-6, ISSN 0167-7799, PMID 12127284. 
    Al Kawi, M. Zuheir (1997), "History of Medical Records and Peer Review", Annals of Saudi Medicine 17 (3): 277–278, PMID 17369721, http://www.kfshrc.edu.sa/annals/Old/173/96-301ed.pdf. 
  4. ^ a b c Levey, Martin (1967). "Medical Ethics of Medieval Islam with Special Reference to Al-Ruhāwī's "Practical Ethics of the Physician"". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series (American Philosophical Society) 57 (3): 1–100. ISSN 00659746. JSTOR 1006137. 

External links