Medicine languished for many centuries after the death of the Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen, medicine’s founding fathers. The bubonic plague, which started around 500 A.D., was partly to blame. It took its toll over the next 200 years and signalled the beginning of Europe’s Dark Ages. War, disease, superstition and religious zealotry were rife. Physicians practised in isolation, and monks were the principal guardians of both the spiritual and physical health of the population. Around the 7th century, however, a newly inspired and emboldened sect – Islam – spread its influence over much of the Middle East and Europe. Islam resuscitated the dying culture of Greek medicine and richly fortified it with astute observations and scholarship.
Source: Singapore Med J
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