Islam Guidance

PERSIAN PHYSICIANS

In those days there were no colleges in many places like Jundi Shahpur, where students could go and learn the science of medicine. If someone wanted to work as a physician, he had to serve for decades as an apprentice under an experienced physician. Medical knowledge could not be acquired simply by reading books, since they were not available.
Iran made little contribution to the world of science, medicine and philosophy. Only one book of astronomy is reported to have been translated from Pahlavi into Arabic in A.H. 198 by al-Fadl ibn Nawbakht, the chief librarian of ar-Rashid. Ibn al-Muqaffa translated the famous book of fables, Kalilah and Dimna, from Pahlavi into Arabic.
“Except in the arts of belle-letters Persia did not have much that was original to contribute. The aesthetic temperament of Iranian population was a sorely needed element in the cultural life of Semitic Arabians. Next to the artistic, the literary, rather than scientific or philosophical was the influence most clearly felt from Persia.
Jundi Shahpur in Iran was noted for its Academy of Medicine, which was established by Anusharwan in 555 A.D. According to some historians, the Greek system of medicine was being taught in that institute, but the language of instruction was Aramaic (Syriac). In A.D. 765 Caliph al-Mansur appointed Jurjis ibn-Bakhtishu, the dean of the hospital, as his court physician. Abbasid caliphs, who were patrons of the Academy, could not find a single book on philosophy, medicine or any scientific subject which was considered suitable for translation into Arabic.
Imam Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) did not serve as an apprentice under any Persian physician; and he could not have obtained and studied the books on medicine, written in Pahlavi script during the pre-Islamic period. It is, therefore, preposterous to presume that he had learned the science of medicine from the Iranians.
The above facts conclusively prove the contention of the Shias that their Imams had supernatural knowledge (Ilm-e-Ladunni). Said Ali Ibn Abi Talib (a.s.):
“You should know that the knowledge, which came from heaven for Adam and every kind of knowledge which adorned all the prophets of God including Prophet Muhammad (May Allah bestow His Blessings upon him and his progeny) is with his descendants.”
Aristotle, the teacher of Alexander, was well- known to the Arabs. They called him Muellim (the teacher). They must also have become familiar with the names of Ptolemy, Socrates, Plato and other philosophers of Greece and Alexandria, but they did not know what they had written and what they had said.
Imam Muhammad al-Baqir and Ja’far as-Sadiq (a.s.) knew that the Muslim world would be flooded with books of the philosophers of Greece and Alexandria and that the Muslims would blindly accept everything they had written as Gospel truth. Thus, many of their false and fallacious theories would catch their imagination, corrupt their minds, and keep them under total darkness for centuries, which is actually what happened. For example, the theory of Ptolemy that the earth is the center of universe and the sun, the planets and the stars rotate around it was generally accepted by the Muslims as correct.
The two Imams explained to their students, who were to spread their teachings among the Muslims, the theories of those philosophers, pointed out their mistakes and presented their own correct theories. Similarly they taught them physics, chemistry, geography, etc, prior to the translation of these subjects from Indian, Greek and Persian into Arabic. Because they were the Imam’s (representatives of Allah on earth) they had the knowledge of the theories of Greek philosophers and others. There can be no other explanation.

Imam Reza (AS) Network

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