Zayn al-Din Sayyed Isma‘il ibn Husayn Gorgani (c. 1040–1136), also spelled al-Jurjani, was a

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

12th century royal Islamic physician from

Gorgan Gorgan ( fa, گرگان ; also romanized as ''Gorgān'', ''Gurgān'', and ''Gurgan''), formerly Esterabad ( ; also romanized as ''Astarābād'', ''Asterabad'', and ''Esterābād''), is the capital city of Golestan Province, Iran. It lies appro ...

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. In addition to medical and pharmaceutical sciences, he was also an adept in

theological Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the s ...

philosophic Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some s ...

, and

ethical Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns ma ...

sciences.Shams Ardekani, Mohammad Reza (Medical University of Tehran); Moatar, Fariborz (Medical University of Isfahan),
A Research Conducted on the Life and Works of Hakim Sayyid Esmail Jurjani
'. Jurjani was a pupil of Ibn Abi Sadiq and

Ahmad ibn Farrokh Ahmad ibn Farrukh, also written Ahmad-i Farrokh, was a 12th-century Persian physician from Herat. He was one of the teachers of Zayn al-Din al-Jurjani. He is author of a Persian medicine encyclopaedia titled ''Kifayah'' that is no longer extan ...

. He arrived at the court in the Persian province of

Khwarazm Khwarazm (; Old Persian: ''Hwârazmiya''; fa, خوارزم, ''Xwârazm'' or ''Xârazm'') or Chorasmia () is a large oasis region on the Amu Darya river delta in western Central Asia, bordered on the north by the (former) Aral Sea, on the ea ...

in the year 1110 when he was already a septuagenarian. There he became a

court physician A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accorda ...

to the governor of the province, Khwarazm-Shah Qutb al-Din Muhammad I, who ruled from 1097 to 1127. It was to him that he dedicated his most comprehensive and influential work, the Persian-language compendium ''Zakhirah-i Khvarazm'Shahi''. Jurjani continued as court physician to Khwarazm'Shah Qutb al-Din's son and successor, Ala al-Din Atsiz, until at some unspecified time he moved to the city of

Merv Merv ( tk, Merw, ', مرو; fa, مرو, ''Marv''), also known as the Merve Oasis, formerly known as Alexandria ( grc-gre, Ἀλεξάνδρεια), Antiochia in Margiana ( grc-gre, Ἀντιόχεια ἡ ἐν τῇ Μαργιανῇ) and ...

, the capital of the rival Seljuq Sultan

Sanjar Senjer ( fa, ; full name: ''Muizz ad-Dunya wa ad-Din Adud ad-Dawlah Abul-Harith Ahmad Sanjar ibn Malik-Shah'') (''b''. 1085 – ''d''. 8 May 1157) was the Seljuq ruler of Khorasan from 1097 until in 1118,Avicenna's ''

The Canon of Medicine ''The Canon of Medicine'' ( ar, القانون في الطب, italic=yes ''al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb''; fa, قانون در طب, italic=yes, ''Qanun-e dâr Tâb'') is an encyclopedia of medicine in five books compiled by Persian physician-phi ...

'' (c. 1025), along with al-Jurjani's own ideas not found in the ''Canon''. The work is composed of ten volumes covering ten medical fields:

anatomy Anatomy () is the branch of biology concerned with the study of the structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old science, having it ...

physiology Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

hygiene Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

diagnosis Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...

and prognosis,

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature set point. There is not a single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature with sources using val ...

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

s particular to a part of the body, surgery,

skin disease A skin condition, also known as cutaneous condition, is any medical condition that affects the integumentary system—the organ system that encloses the body and includes skin, nails, and related muscle and glands. The major function of this ...

s, poisons and

antidote An antidote is a substance that can counteract a form of poisoning. The term ultimately derives from the Greek term φάρμακον ἀντίδοτον ''(pharmakon) antidoton'', "(medicine) given as a remedy". Antidotes for anticoagulants are s ...

s, and medicaments (both simple and compound).Life and Works of Hakim Seyed Ismail Jorjani by Hakim Syed Zillur Rahman, ''Majmua-e Maqalat Kangrah Buzargdasht Hakim Seyed Ismail Jorjani'', Farhangistan Uloom Puzishki, Islamic Republic of Iran, 2000: 125–133 In

endocrinology Endocrinology (from '' endocrine'' + '' -ology'') is a branch of biology and medicine dealing with the endocrine system, its diseases, and its specific secretions known as hormones. It is also concerned with the integration of developmental event ...

, in particular, al-Jurjani was one of "the first to associate

exophthalmos Exophthalmos (also called exophthalmus, exophthalmia, proptosis, or exorbitism) is a bulging of the eye anteriorly out of the orbit. Exophthalmos can be either bilateral (as is often seen in Graves' disease) or unilateral (as is often seen in ...

with

goitre A goitre, or goiter, is a swelling in the neck resulting from an enlarged thyroid gland. A goitre can be associated with a thyroid that is not functioning properly. Worldwide, over 90% of goitre cases are caused by iodine deficiency. The term is ...

," which was not repeated until Caleb Parry (1755–1822) in 1825, and later by Robert James Graves (1796–1853) and Carl von Basedow (1799–1854). Al-Jurjani also established an association between goitre and

palpitation Palpitations are perceived abnormalities of the heartbeat characterized by awareness of cardiac muscle contractions in the chest, which is further characterized by the hard, fast and/or irregular beatings of the heart. Symptoms include a rapi ...

. On "Drugs recommended for lice control," Gorgani recommends the following method: Most of the above botanicals have recently been shown to possess especially insecticidal properties.Cyrus Abivardi, "Iranian Entomology", Published by Springer, 2001. pg 484.

Works

Some of his works are: # Zakhireh-i Kharazmshahi, a ten volume encyclopedia of medical sciences # Khafi Alayee, a summary of Zakhireh-i Kharazmshahi # Al-Iqraz al-Tebbieh and Al-Mabahis al-Alaieh, # Tib Yadegar # Kitab-fi-Hifz al-Sihat (Book on Preserving Health) # Book on Anatomy # Zubdah al-Tib, a discussion of medicine and pharmacology (Arabic) # Al tazkereh al-Ashrafyeh fi Asnaah al-Tebbieh, an Arabic translation of Khafi Alayee # Al-Tib al-Mulkuki # Kitab al-Manbah or Al-Risalah al-Manbah, a book on ethics and resisting desires and passions, # Kitab Tadbir al-Yaum va Laylah, a book on ethics and morality, # Kitab Nameh, about ethics # Fi al-Qias, a philosophical work # Fi al-Tahlil, another philosophical work # Al-Zakhireh al-Kharazmshahieh, a translation of Zakhireh-i Kharazmshahi into Arabic # Al-Kazemieh, a philosophical treatise # Al-Javiah al-Tebbiah va al Mabahes al-alaiyeh, (authorship disputed) # Kitab fi al-Rad al-Phalasifah

References

Golshani S A. Sayyed Ismael Jorjani, The famous Iranian physician and philosopher. Jorjani Biomed J. 2014; 2 (2) :71-69. URL: http://goums.ac.ir/jorjanijournal/article-1-318-fa.html]

Sources

* Gignoux, P. (2015) “Anatomy and Therapy of Eye-Diseases in Esmā῾īl Gorgānī Compared to Syriac Sources,” in Krasnowolska, A. and Rusek-Kowalska, R. (eds) Studies on the Iranian World: Medieval and Modern. Jagiellonian University Press, pp. 341–346. * B. Thierry de Crussol des Epesse, Discours sur l'oeil d'Esma`il Gorgani (Teheran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1998), pp. 7–13. * Lutz Richter-Bernburg, Persian Medical Manuscripts at the University of California, Los Angeles: A Descriptive Catalogue, Humana Civilitas, vol. 4 (Malibu: Udena Publications, 1978). pp. 208 * C.A. Storey, Persian Literature: A Bio-Bibliographical Survey. Volume II, Part 2: E.Medicine (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1971), pp 207–211 no. 361 * The article "Djurdjani" by J. Schacht in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, ed. by H.A.R. Gibbs, B. Lewis, Ch. Pellat, C. Bosworth et al., 11 vols. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960–2002) (2nd ed.), vol. 2, p. 603 * The article "Dakira-ye Kvarazmshahi" by `Ali-Akbar Sa`idi Sirjani in Encyclopædia Iranica, ed. Ehsan Yarshater, 6+ vols. (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul and Costa Mesa: Mazda, 1983 to present), vol. 6 (1999) pp. 609–610. * Shoja MM, Tubbs RS. The history of anatomy in Persia. J Anat 2007; 210:359–378.
A Research Conducted on the Life and Works of Hakim Sayyid Esmail Jurjani
Mohammad Reza Shams Ardekani, Fariborz Moatar. ''Journal of the International Society for the History of Islamic Medicine'', Vol 4, No 7, April 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gorgani, Al- 1136 deaths 12th-century Iranian physicians Pharmacologists of medieval Iran People from Gorgan 1040s births Iranian inventors Court physicians

Works

See also

References

Sources