Abstracts Health Sciences

Epilepsy in medieval Islamic history

by Paula. Jolin

Epilepsy in Medieval Islamic History focuses on the perception, etiology and treatment of epilepsy in the work of four medieval Islamic scholars, Ibn Sina, Razi, Ibn Qayyim and S&dotbelow;anawbari, while attempting to place their views in the wider context of a medieval Islamic cultural milieu. This work suggests that the understanding of epilepsy in the medieval Islamic period was both porous and flexible. Despite the fact that these scholars believed they were writing in different genres, in fact, they shared both healing techniques and theoretical perspectives. The Islamic culture which shaped all of these writers imbued them with a synthesized world-view which transcends the genre of each work. Medieval Islamic understandings and treatment of epilepsy were undeniably influenced by Greek medicine and the Middle Eastern cultural milieu; nonetheless, they represent a distinct cultural interpretation of the disease.