At a time when Europe was still navigating the shadows of the Dark Ages, a Persian scholar in Baghdad was transforming medicine.

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, known in the West as Rhazes, produced comprehensive medical texts that travelled across continents and over ages, becoming foundational references in European medical education.

His fame rests on several major works, including Kitab al-Mansoori, Al-Hawi, Kitab al-Mulooki, and Kitab al-Judari wa al-Hasabah. He also authored Man la Yahzuruhu al Tabib, the first Islamic home medical guide aimed at helping ordinary citizens, travelers, and the poor.

While much of the West lagged in systematic medical practice at the time, Razi’s contributions to medicine and pharmacy established him as one of the foremost physicians of the Middle Ages.

His death anniversary, on August 27, is commemorated as Pharmacists' Day in Iran.

First pharmacist physician

Razi is remembered as one of the great early pharmacists in the world. His work emerged at a time when pharmacy was becoming a distinct profession in Baghdad.

He meticulously recorded the preparation, properties, and applications of drugs, offering a level of detail that foreshadowed modern pharmaceutical science.

The medical genius tested drugs on animals before humans, which was a radical departure from the speculative remedies of his day and a precursor to modern clinical trials.

At a time when most of Europe’s healing practices relied on folk cures and superstition, Razi was treating pharmacy as an independent, systematic field.

This separation of pharmacy from medicine practiced in the Islamic world would later become a defining feature of Western medical practice.

The famous Iranian pharmacist documented the preparation, testing, and properties of drugs in ways that set a standard for the field. Al Razi bridged the gap between medicine and drug formulation centuries ahead of the West.

The Western world, especially Europe, adopted his practices as pharmacy developed in universities and apothecaries centuries later.

Medical encyclopedias that reached Europe

Razi's Kitab al-Mansoori became one of his most influential works. Comprising ten volumes, it compiled Greco-Arabic medical knowledge alongside his clinical observations.

The text was translated into Latin in the 15th century by Girardus Cremonensis as Liber Almansorem. Individual volumes were later published separately in Europe, spreading the Persian polymath's approach to diagnosis, treatment, and pharmacology across the continent.

His encyclopedic work, Al-Hawi fi al-Tibb, known in Latin as Liber Continens, was the largest medical compilation of its time, consisting of 26 volumes. It was translated into Latin in 1297 and contained extensive information on diseases, treatments, and medicines.

Volumes two through five of the book focused on pharmacy, the strength of medicines and foods, compound drugs (qarabadin), simple medicines and their processing (tadabir), and the preparation of remedies, including their color, smell, and taste.

These texts provided Western physicians and apothecaries with structured methods for preparing and applying medicines.