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206-477: Apart from what al-Mas'udi writes of himself little is known. Born in Baghdad , he was descended from Abdullah Ibn Mas'ud , a companion of Islamic prophet Muhammad . It is believed that he was a member of Banu Hudhayl tribe of Arabs. Al-Masudi mentions a number of scholar associates he encountered during his journeys: Al-Mas'udi's travels actually occupied most of his life from at least 903/915 CE to very near

412-659: A Shi'i adhān (call to prayer) was implemented in Baghdad and a khutbah (sermon) was delivered in the name of the Fatimid Imam-Caliph. Despite his Shi'i inclinations, Al-Basasiri received support from Sunnis and Shi'is alike, for whom opposition to the Saljuq power was a common factor. On 10 February 1258, Baghdad was captured by the Mongols led by Hulegu , a grandson of Chingiz Khan ( Genghis Khan ), during

618-782: A clan of the Oghuz Turks from Central Asia that converted to the Sunni branch of Islam. In 1040, they destroyed the Ghaznavids , taking over their land and in 1055, Tughril Beg , the leader of the Seljuks, took over Baghdad. The Seljuks expelled the Buyid dynasty of Shiites that had ruled for some time and took over power and control of Baghdad. They ruled as Sultans in the name of the Abbasid caliphs (they saw themselves as being part of

824-530: A comprehensive education that prepared him for a successful career as a physician and philosopher. Born in the ancient city of Pergamon (present-day Bergama , Turkey), Galen traveled extensively, exposing himself to a wide variety of medical theories and discoveries before settling in Rome , where he served prominent members of Roman society and eventually was given the position of personal physician to several emperors . Galen's understanding of anatomy and medicine

1030-431: A couple of times per year on average. Annual rainfall, almost entirely confined to the period from November through March, averages approximately 150 mm (5.91 in), but has been as high as 338 mm (13.31 in) and as low as 37 mm (1.46 in). On 11 January 2008, light snow fell across Baghdad for the first time in 100 years. Snowfall was again reported on 11 February 2020, with accumulations across

1236-622: A deep understanding of historical change, tracing current conditions to the unfolding of events over generations and centuries. He perceived the significance of interstate relations and of the interaction of Muslims and Hindus in the various states of the subcontinent. He described previous rulers in China , underlined the importance of the revolt by Huang Chao in the late Tang dynasty , and mentioned, though less detailed than for India, Chinese beliefs. His brief portrayal of Southeast Asia stands out for its degree of accuracy and clarity. He surveyed

1442-706: A diverse and varied collection of peoples. He noted their independent attitude, the absence of a strong central authority among them and their paganism . He was very well informed on Rus trade with the Byzantines and on the competence of the Rus in sailing merchant vessels and warships. He was aware that the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea are two separate bodies of water. Al-Masʿudi was also very well informed about Byzantine affairs , even internal political events and

1648-463: A draft version from 947 is extant. Al-Masʿudi in his Tanbīh states that the revised edition of Murūj al-dhahab contained 365 chapters. Al-Masʿudi lived at a time when books were available and cheap. Major cities like Baghdad had large public libraries and many individuals, such as as-Suli, a friend of Mas‘udi's, had private libraries, often containing thousands of volumes. Early in the Abbasid era

1854-444: A dream in which the god Asclepius appeared and commanded Nicon to send his son to study medicine. Following his earlier liberal education, Galen at age 16 began his studies at the prestigious local healing temple or asclepeion as a θεραπευτής ( therapeutes , or attendant) for four years. There he came under the influence of men like Aeschrion of Pergamon , Stratonicus and Satyrus. Asclepiea functioned as spas or sanitoria to which

2060-504: A lord named Miklas would one day build a spectacular city around the area of Baghdad. When al-Mansur heard the story, he became very joyful, for legend has it, he was called Miklas as a child. Mansur loved the site so much he is quoted saying: "This is indeed the city that I am to found, where I am to live, and where my descendants will reign afterward". The city's growth was helped by its excellent location, based on at least two factors: it had control over strategic and trading routes along

2266-404: A male, preferably of an older, wiser, age, as well as free from the control of the passions. These passions, according to Galen, caused the psychological problems that people experienced. Galen may have produced more work than any author in antiquity, rivaling the quantity of work issued from Augustine of Hippo . So profuse was Galen's output that the surviving texts represent nearly half of all

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2472-738: A materialist reading of Galen's philosophy of mind. According to this materialist reading, Galen identifies the soul with the mixtures of the body. Another one of Galen's major works, On the Diagnosis and Cure of the Soul's Passion , discussed how to approach and treat psychological problems. This was Galen's early attempt at what would later be called psychotherapy . His book contained directions on how to provide counsel to those with psychological issues to prompt them to reveal their deepest passions and secrets, and eventually cure them of their mental deficiency. The leading individual, or therapist, had to be

2678-745: A medical text both in the Latin Middle Ages and Medieval Islam . The 11th-century Suda lexicon states that Galen died at the age of 70, which would place his death in about the year 199. However, there is a reference in Galen's treatise "On Theriac to Piso" (which may, however, be spurious) to events of 204. There are also statements in Arabic sources that he died in Sicily at age 87, after 17 years studying medicine and 70 practicing it, which would mean he died about 216. According to these sources,

2884-422: A more complete understanding of the circulatory system, nervous system , respiratory system , and other structures, his work contained scientific errors. Galen believed the circulatory system to consist of two separate one-way systems of distribution, rather than a single unified system of circulation. He believed venous blood to be generated in the liver, from where it was distributed and consumed by all organs of

3090-437: A new Provincial Council was elected. This system of 127 separate councils may seem overly cumbersome; however, Baghdad Province is home to approximately seven million people. At the lowest level, the neighborhood councils, each council represents an average of 75,000 people. The nine District Advisory Councils (DAC) are as follows: The nine districts are subdivided into 89 smaller neighborhoods which may make up sectors of any of

3296-697: A number of other locations whose names are compounds of the Middle Persian word bagh , including Baghlan and Bagram in Afghanistan, Baghshan in Iran itself, and Baghdati in Georgia , which likely share the same etymological Iranic origins. Other authors have suggested older origins for the name, in particular the name Bagdadu or Hudadu that existed in Old Babylonian (spelled with

3502-555: A number of works attributed to Galen. As a consequence, research on Galen's work is fraught with hazard. Various attempts have been made to classify Galen's vast output. For instance Coxe (1846) lists a Prolegomena, or introductory books, followed by 7 classes of treatise embracing Physiology (28 vols.), Hygiene (12), Aetiology (19), Semeiotics (14), Pharmacy (10), Blood letting (4), and Therapeutics (17), in addition to 4 of aphorisms, and spurious works. The most complete compendium of Galen's writings, surpassing even modern projects like

3708-521: A pestilence occurred which at its height killed 2,000 people a day in Rome. This was most likely the same plague (the so-called "Antonine Plague" and most likely smallpox) that struck Rome during Marcus Aurelius' reign. Galen was also physician to Septimius Severus during his reign in Rome. He complimented Severus and Caracalla on keeping a supply of drugs for their friends and mentioned three cases in which they had been of use in 198. The Antonine Plague

3914-502: A physician and a philosopher, as he wrote in his treatise titled That the Best Physician Is Also a Philosopher . Galen was very interested in the debate between the rationalist and empiricist medical sects, and his use of direct observation, dissection, and vivisection represents a complex middle ground between the extremes of those two viewpoints. Many of his works have been preserved and/or translated from

4120-472: A pig, and while it was squealing he would tie off the recurrent laryngeal nerve, or vocal cords, showing they controlled the making of sound. He used the same method to tie off the ureters to prove his theories of kidney and bladder function. Galen believed the human body had three interconnected systems that allowed it to work. The first system that he theorized consisted of the brain and the nerves, responsible for thought and sensation. The second theorized system

4326-468: A practicing physician. His public demonstrations and impatience with alternative views on medicine brought him into conflict with other doctors practicing in the city. When the Peripatetic philosopher Eudemus became ill with quartan fever , Galen felt obliged to treat him "since he was my teacher and I happened to live nearby". He wrote: "I return to the case of Eudemus. He was thoroughly attacked by

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4532-577: A series of meetings in each neighborhood to explain local government, to describe the caucus election process and to encourage participants to spread the word and bring friends, relatives and neighbors to subsequent meetings. Each neighborhood process ultimately ended with a final meeting where candidates for the new neighborhood councils identified themselves and asked their neighbors to vote for them. Once all 88 (later increased to 89) neighborhood councils were in place, each neighborhood council elected representatives from among their members to serve on one of

4738-480: A sign that can represent both bag and hu ), and the Jewish Babylonian Aramaic name of a place called Baghdatha ( בגדתא ). Some scholars suggested Aramaic derivations. Another view, suggested by Christophe Wall-Romana, is that name of "Baghdad" is derived from " Akkad ", as the cuneiform logogram for Akkad (𒀀𒂵𒉈𒆠) is pronounced " a-ga-dè " ("Agade") and its resemblance to "Baghdad"

4944-559: A significant center of Arab culture . Baghdad has faced severe infrastructural damage due to the Iraq War , which began with the United States-led invasion of Iraq , the subsequent insurgency and renewed war , resulting in a substantial loss of cultural heritage and historical artifacts . During this period, it had one of the highest rates of terrorist attacks in the world. However, terrorist attacks have gradually been on

5150-629: A significant cultural and intellectual center of the Muslim world . This, in addition to housing several key academic institutions, including the House of Wisdom , as well as a multi-ethnic and multi-religious environment, garnered it a worldwide reputation as the "Center of Learning". For much of the Abbasid era, during the Islamic Golden Age , Baghdad was the largest city in the world. Its population peaked at more than one million people. The city

5356-643: A site north of the Sassanid capital of Ctesiphon , and on 30 July 762 the caliph Al-Mansur commissioned the construction of the city. It was built under the guidance of the Iranian Barmakids . Mansur believed that Baghdad was the perfect city to be the capital of the Islamic Empire under the Abbasids. The Muslim historian al-Tabari reported an ancient prediction by Christian monks that

5562-523: A young man had come to the city and had given, like me practical demonstrations of the resources of our art; this young man was put to death by poison, together with two servants who accompanied him." When Galen's animosity with the Roman medical practitioners became serious, he feared he might be exiled or poisoned, so he left the city. Rome was engaged in foreign wars in 161; Marcus Aurelius and his then co-Emperor and adoptive brother Lucius Verus were in

5768-543: Is Bataween is currently the only active synagogue. Al-Habibiyah Jewish Cemetery . Baghdad and its vicinity is home to numerous historic Jewish sites. The city is home to over 60 synagogues, which were active before the Jewish exodus. Today, around 100 Jews live in Baghdad. Galen Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus ( Greek : Κλαύδιος Γαληνός ; September 129 – c.  216 AD), often anglicized as Galen ( / ˈ ɡ eɪ l ən / ) or Galen of Pergamon ,

5974-408: Is a mixture of nutritious blood from the liver and the vital spirit (the soul) which was attained from the lungs. The vital spirit within this medium was necessary for the body to function and eventually completely absorbed. This process was then repeated indefinitely, according to Galen, so that the body could be replenished with the soul, or the vital spirit. Several schools of thought existed within

6180-456: Is a shrine that is located in the Kādhimayn suburb of Baghdad. It contains the tombs of the seventh and ninth Twelver Shi'ite Imams , Musa al-Kadhim and Muhammad at-Taqi respectively, upon whom the title of Kādhimayn ("Two who swallow their anger") was bestowed. Many Shi'ites travel to the mosque from far away places to commemorate those imams. Before the Iraq War in 2003, Baghdad

6386-419: Is an important early source for the study of Russian history and the history of Ukraine . Again, while he may have read such earlier Arabic authors as Ibn Khordadbeh , Ibn al-Faqih , ibn Rustah and Ibn Fadlan , al-Mas'udi presented most of his material based on his personal observations and contacts made while traveling. He informed the Arabic reader that the Rus were more than just a few traders. They were

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6592-496: Is compelling. When the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur founded a completely new city for his capital, he chose the name "City of Peace" (Arabic: مدینة السلام , romanized:  Madīnat as-Salām ), which now refers to the Round City of Baghdad proper. This was the official name on coins, weights, and other official usage, although the common people continued to use the old name. By the 11th century, Baghdad became almost

6798-670: Is known as the battle of Saddam City in March 1991. However, as the situations eased, the government began beautifying the city. Saddam built numerous palaces across the country, as well as in Baghdad. He also constructed several monuments in Baghdad. Many of them were built around war-torn period. Most of the palaces were built after the two wars. In 2003, the invasion of Iraq by the United States caused huge damage to Baghdad's transportation, power, and sanitary infrastructure. The coalition forces launched massive aerial assaults in

7004-502: Is known of his means and funding of his extensive travels within and beyond the lands of Islam, and it has been speculated that like many travelers he was involved in trade. Towards the end of The Meadows of Gold, al-Masʿudi wrote: The information we have gathered here is the fruit of long years of research and painful efforts of our voyages and journeys across the East and the West, and of

7210-620: Is known to have met Abu Zayd al-Sirafi on the coast of the Persian Gulf and received information on China from him. He presumably gathered information on Byzantium from the Byzantine admiral, Leo of Tripoli , a convert-to-Islam whom he met in Syria where his last years were divided between there and Egypt . In Egypt he found a copy of a Frankish king list from Clovis to Louis IV that had been written by an Andalusian bishop. Little

7416-473: Is typically under 50% in summer due to Baghdad's distance from the marshy southern Iraq and the coasts of Persian Gulf , and dust storms from the deserts to the west are a normal occurrence during the summer. Winter temperatures are typical of hot desert climates . From December through February, Baghdad has maximum temperatures averaging 16 to 19 °C (61 to 66 °F), though highs above 21 °C (70 °F) are not unheard of. Lows below freezing occur

7622-517: The Corpus Medicorum Graecorum/Latinorum  [ de ] , is the one compiled and translated by Karl Gottlob Kühn of Leipzig between 1821 and 1833. This collection consists of 122 of Galen's treatises, translated from the original Greek into Latin (the text is presented in both languages). Over 20,000 pages in length, it is divided into 22 volumes, with 676 index pages. Many of Galen's works are included in

7828-730: The Thesaurus Linguae Graecae , a digital library of Greek literature started in 1972. Another useful modern source is the French Bibliothèque interuniversitaire de médecine Archived 2014-04-21 at the Wayback Machine (BIUM). In his time, Galen's reputation as both physician and philosopher was legendary, the emperor Marcus Aurelius describing him as "Primum sane medicorum esse, philosophorum autem solum" (first among doctors and unique among philosophers Praen 14: 660 ). Other contemporary authors in

8034-518: The Arabian Nights , are set in Baghdad during this period. It would surpass even Constantinople in prosperity and size. Among the notable features of Baghdad during this period were its exceptional libraries. Many of the Abbasid caliphs were patrons of learning and enjoyed collecting both ancient and contemporary literature. Although some of the princes of the previous Umayyad dynasty had begun to gather and translate Greek scientific literature,

8240-906: The Assyrian Church of the East and the Syriac Orthodox Church , along with the largest Armenian Apostolic and Protestant communities in Iraq, which is also located in Baghdad. The city serves as the headquarters of the Chaldean Catholic Church, with its see located in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows , while the Ancient Church of the East has its see in the Cathedral of the Virgin. The city

8446-834: The Assyrians , Babylonians , Egyptians and Persians among others. He is also the only Arab historian to refer (albeit indirectly) to the kingdom of Urartu , when he speaks about the wars between the Assyrians (led by the legendary Queen Semiramis ) and Armenians (led by Ara the Beautiful ). Al-Masʿudi was aware of the influence of ancient Babylon on Persia. He had access to a wealth of translations by scholars such as ibn al-Muqaffa from Middle Persian into Arabic. In his travels, he also personally consulted Persian scholars and Zoroastrian priests. He thus had access to much material, factual and mythical. Like other Arabic historians, he

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8652-551: The Macedonian dynasty that produced Alexander the Great . He is aware that there were kings before this, but is unclear on their names and reigns. He also seems unfamiliar with such additional aspects of Greek political life as Athenian democratic institutions. The same holds for Rome prior to Caesar . However, he is the earliest extant Arabic author to mention the Roman founding myth of Romulus and Remus . In al-Masʿudi's view

8858-589: The National Museum of Iraq was looted by Iraqi citizens during the 2003 US-led invasion. Baghdad's historic Jewish Quarter came to decline, as the war increased fear among the Jews. Numerous Assyrian Christians and Iraqi Mandaean families fled the city. Thousands of ancient manuscripts in the National Library were destroyed. The city also hosts various protests and rallies. In December 2015, Baghdad

9064-587: The Pyrrhonists . Galen was concerned to combine philosophical thought with medical practice, as in his brief work That the Best Physician is also a Philosopher he took aspects from each group and combined them with his original thought. He regarded medicine as an interdisciplinary field that was best practiced by utilizing theory, observation, and experimentation in conjunction. Galen combined his observations of his dissections with Plato's theory about

9270-525: The Renaissance . Some of Galen's treatises have appeared under many different titles over the years. Sources are often in obscure and difficult-to-access journals or repositories. Although written in Greek, by convention the works are referred to by Latin titles, and often by merely abbreviations of those. No single authoritative collection of his work exists, and controversy remains as to the authenticity of

9476-499: The Seleucid Empire , which had earlier replaced the city of Babylon. According to the traveler Ibn Battuta , Baghdad was one of the largest cities, not including the damage it has received. The residents are mostly Hanbalis . Baghdad is also home to the grave of Abu Hanifa where there is a cell and a mosque above it. The Sultan of Baghdad, Abu Said Bahadur Khan , was a Tatar king who embraced Islam. In its early years,

9682-515: The Tigris , and it had an abundance of water in a dry climate. Water exists on both the north and south ends of the city, allowing all households to have a plentiful supply, which was quite uncommon during this time. The city of Baghdad quickly became so large that it had to be divided into three judicial districts: Madinat al-Mansur (the Round City), al-Sharqiyya ( al-Karkh ) and Askar al-Mahdi (on

9888-594: The extant literature from ancient Greece. It has been reported that Galen employed twenty scribes to write down his words. Galen may have written as many as 500 treatises, amounting to some 10 million words. Although his surviving works amount to some 3 million words, this is thought to represent less than a third of his complete writings. In 191, or more likely in 192, a fire in the Temple of Peace destroyed many of his works, in particular treatises on philosophy. Because Galen's works were not translated into Latin in

10094-469: The pulmonary circulation contradicted the Galenic theory on the heart. The influence of Galen's writings, including humorism, remains strong in modern Unani medicine , now closely identified with Islamic culture, and widely practiced from India (where it is officially recognized) to Morocco. Maimonides was influenced by Galen, whom he cited most often in his medical works, and whom he considered to be

10300-435: The siege of Baghdad . Many quarters were ruined by fire, siege, or looting. The Mongols massacred most of the city's inhabitants, including the caliph Al-Musta'sim , and destroyed large sections of the city. The canals and dykes forming the city's irrigation system were also destroyed. During this time, in Baghdad, Christians and Shia were tolerated, while Sunnis were treated as enemies. The sack of Baghdad put an end to

10506-572: The "medical refrigerators of antiquity". In late antiquity, medical writing veered increasingly in the direction of the theoretical at the expense of the practical, with many authors merely debating Galenism. Magnus of Nisibis was a pure theorist, as were John of Alexandria and Agnellus of Ravenna with their lectures on Galen's De Sectis . So strong was Galenism that other authors such as Hippocrates began to be seen through Galen's eyes, while his opponents became marginalised and other medical sects such as Asclepiadism slowly disappeared. Greek medicine

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10712-434: The 13th century. However, Galen's influence was so great that when dissections discovered anomalies compared with Galen's anatomy, the physicians often tried to fit these into the Galenic system. An example of this is Mondino de Liuzzi , who describes rudimentary blood circulation in his writings but still asserts that the left ventricle should contain air. Some cited these changes as proof that human anatomy had changed since

10918-465: The 21st century, some 1.5 million people migrated to Baghdad. The 2013–2017 war following the Islamic State's invasion in 2014 caused hundreds of thousands of Iraqi internally displaced people to flee to the city. The vast majority of Baghdad's population are Iraqi Arabs . Minority ethnic groups include Feyli Kurds , Turkmen , Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriacs and Armenians . The city

11124-751: The 35 member Baghdad Regional Council. The first step in the establishment of the system of local government for Baghdad Province was the election of the Baghdad Provincial Council. As before, the representatives to the Provincial Council were elected by their peers from the lower councils in numbers proportional to the population of the districts they represent. The 41 member Provincial Council took office in February 2004 and served until national elections held in January 2005, when

11330-802: The Abbasid Caliphate. It has been argued that this marked an end to the Islamic Golden Age and served a blow from which Islamic civilization never fully recovered. At this point, Baghdad was ruled by the Ilkhanate , a breakaway state of the Mongol Empire, ruling from Iran. In August 1393, Baghdad was occupied by the Central Asian Turkic conqueror Timur ("Tamerlane"), by marching there in only eight days from Shiraz . Sultan Ahmad Jalayir fled to Syria, where

11536-666: The Abbasid regime). Tughril Beg saw himself as the protector of the Abbasid Caliphs. Baghdad was captured in 1394 , 1534 , 1623 and 1638 . The city has been sieged in 812 , 865 , 946 , 1157 , 1258 and in 1393 and 1401, by Tamerlane . In 1058, Baghdad was captured by the Fatimids under the Turkish general Abu'l-Ḥārith Arslān al-Basasiri, an adherent of the Ismailis along with the 'Uqaylid Quraysh. Not long before

11742-414: The Abbasids were the first to foster Greek learning on a large scale. Many of these libraries were private collections intended only for the use of the owners and their immediate friends, but the libraries of the caliphs and other officials soon took on a public or a semi-public character. Four great libraries were established in Baghdad during this period. The earliest was that of the famous Al-Ma'mun , who

11948-481: The Arabic. In some cases scholars have even attempted to translate from the Latin or Arabic back into Greek where the original is lost. For some of the ancient sources, such as Herophilus , Galen's account of their work is all that survives. Even in his own time, forgeries and unscrupulous editions of his work were a problem, prompting him to write On His Own Books . Forgeries in Latin, Arabic or Greek continued until

12154-640: The British during World War I . In the Mesopotamian campaign , Baghdad fell in hands of the British forces in 1917. In 1920, Baghdad became the capital of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia , with several architectural and planning projects commissioned to reinforce this administration. After receiving independence in 1932, the city became capital of the Kingdom of Iraq . During this period,

12360-462: The Byzantine Empire. All of the extant Greek manuscripts of Galen were copied by Byzantine scholars. In the Abbasid period (after 750) Arab Muslims began to be interested in Greek scientific and medical texts for the first time, and had some of Galen's texts translated into Arabic, often by Syrian Christian scholars (see below). As a result, some texts of Galen exist only in Arabic translation, while others exist only in medieval Latin translations of

12566-445: The Byzantines, that al-Mas'udi wrote shortly before his death. Ernest Renan compared al-Masʿudi to the second century A.D. Greek geographer Pausanias , while others compared him to the Roman writer Pliny the Elder . Even before al-Masʿudi's work was available in a European languages, orientalists had compared him to Herodotus , the ancient Greek historian called "The Father of History." Some early commentators on al-Masudi indicate

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12772-423: The Caliphate, had less to say about the Byzantine Empire than al-Mas'udi. He also described the geography of many lands beyond the Abbasid Caliphate , as well as the customs and religious beliefs of many peoples. His normal inquiries of travelers and extensive reading of previous writers were supplemented in the case of India with his personal experiences in the western part of the subcontinent. He demonstrates

12978-440: The Christian religion appeared in Byzantium and the centres of learning were eliminated, their vestiges effaced and the edifice of Greek learning was obliterated. Everything the ancient Greeks had brought to light vanished, and the discoveries of the ancients were altered beyond recognition. He mentions meeting influential jurists and cites the work of others and indicates training in jurisprudence. According to al-Subki , al-Mas'udi

13184-552: The Greek world confirm this including Theodotus the Shoemaker , Athenaeus and Alexander of Aphrodisias . The 7th-century poet George of Pisida went so far as to refer to Christ as a second and neglected Galen. Galen continued to exert an important influence over the theory and practice of medicine until the mid-17th century in the Byzantine and Arabic worlds and Europe. A few centuries after Galen, Palladius Iatrosophista stated in his commentary on Hippocrates that Hippocrates sowed and Galen reaped. Galen summarized and synthesized

13390-456: The Greek, such as Burgundio of Pisa 's translation of De complexionibus . Galen's works on anatomy and medicine became the mainstay of the medieval physician's university curriculum, alongside Ibn Sina's The Canon of Medicine , which elaborated on Galen's works. Unlike pagan Rome, Christian Europe did not exercise a universal prohibition of the dissection and autopsy of the human body and such examinations were carried out regularly from at least

13596-416: The Mamluk Sultan Barquq protected him and killed Timur's envoys. Timur left the Sarbadar prince Khwaja Mas'ud to govern Baghdad, but he was driven out when Ahmad Jalayir returned. In 1401, Baghdad was again sacked, by Timur. When his forces took Baghdad, he spared almost no one, and ordered that each of his soldiers bring back two severed human heads. Baghdad became a provincial capital controlled by

13802-404: The Mongol Jalayirid (1400–1411), Turkic Kara Koyunlu (1411–1469), Turkic Ak Koyunlu (1469–1508), and the Iranian Safavid (1508–1534) dynasties. In 1534, Baghdad was captured by the Ottoman Empire . Under the Ottomans , Baghdad continued into a period of decline , partially as a result of the enmity between its rulers and Iranian Safavids , which did not accept the Sunni control of

14008-552: The North. Al-Masʿudi’s global interest included Africa. He was well aware of peoples in the eastern portion of the continent (mentioning interesting details of the Zanj , for example). He mentioned that one of the most dangerous routes to travel is to the land of the Zanj, "I have sailed on many seas, but I do not know of one more dangerous than that of Zanj", also saying that several captains that he had sailed with drowned. He knows less of West Africa , though he names such contemporary states as Zagawa , Kawkaw and Ghana . He described

14214-423: The Rationalist sect and from the Empiricist sect. Galen was well known for his advancements in medicine and the circulatory system, but he was also concerned with philosophy. He developed his own tripartite soul model following the examples of Plato; some scholars refer to him as a Platonist. Galen developed a theory of personality based on his understanding of fluid circulation in humans, and he believed that there

14420-470: The Stoics' lack of scientific justification discredited their claims of the separateness of mind and body, which is why he spoke so strongly against them. There is an intense scholarly debate about soul–body relations in Galen's psychological writings. In his brief treatise Quod animi mores , Galen says both that the soul "follows" the mixtures of the body, and that the soul is a bodily mixture. Scholars have offered ways of reconciling these claims, arguing for

14626-413: The Syro-Mesopotamian heartland, one of the better-known examples being Mari , while Tell Chuera and Tell al-Rawda also provide examples of this type of urban planning existing in bronze age Syria . This style of urban planning contrasted with Ancient Greek and Roman urban planning, in which cities are designed as squares or rectangles with streets intersecting each other at right angles. Baghdad

14832-544: The West Bank). Al-Mansur also planned out al-Karkh district so that he could separate the markets from the Round City in order to keep the turbulent populace away from the Round City to ensure that the gates would not be open at night for markets. Over time, the markets became diverse and a home to merchants and craftsmen. Officials with the title of “Muhtasib” were hired to look after markets to prevent cheating and check

15038-464: The Western half known as " Karkh ". The land on which the city is built is almost entirely flat and low-lying, being of quaternary alluvial origin due to the periodic large floods which have occurred on the river. Baghdad has a hot desert climate ( Köppen BWh ), featuring extremely hot, prolonged, dry summers and mild to cool, slightly wet, short winters. In the summer, from June through August,

15244-535: The advice he found in Hippocrates' teaching and traveled and studied widely including such destinations as Smyrna (now İzmir ), Corinth , Crete , Cilicia (now Çukurova ), Cyprus , and finally the great medical school of Alexandria , exposing himself to the various schools of thought in medicine. In 157, aged 28, he returned to Pergamon as physician to the gladiators of the High Priest of Asia, one of

15450-625: The affections of the mind . He was born in September 129 AD. His father, Aelius Nicon , was a wealthy patrician , an architect and builder, with eclectic interests including philosophy, mathematics, logic, astronomy, agriculture and literature. Galen describes his father as a "highly amiable, just, good and benevolent man". At that time Pergamon (modern-day Bergama , Turkey) was a major cultural and intellectual centre, noted for its library , second only to that in Alexandria, as well as being

15656-610: The alimentary tract via a patient's diarrhea and stools. If the stool was very black, the patient died. He says that the amount of black stools varied. It depended on the severity of the intestinal lesions. He observes that in cases where the stool was not black, the black exanthema appeared. Galen describes the symptoms of fever, vomiting, fetid breath, catarrh , cough, and ulceration of the larynx and trachea. Galen continued to work and write in his final years, finishing treatises on drugs and remedies as well as his compendium of diagnostics and therapeutics, which would have much influence as

15862-684: The ancient period, and because of the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West, the study of Galen, along with the Greek medical tradition as a whole, went into decline in Western Europe during the Early Middle Ages , when very few Latin scholars could read Greek. However, in general, Galen and the ancient Greek medical tradition continued to be studied and followed in the Eastern Roman Empire , commonly known as

16068-522: The arrival of the Saljuqs in Baghdad, al-Basasiri petitioned to the Fatimid Imam-Caliph al-Mustansir to support him in conquering Baghdad on the Ismaili Imam's behalf. It has recently come to light that the famed Fatimid da'i , al-Mu'ayyad al-Shirazi, had a direct role in supporting al-Basasiri and helped the general to succeed in taking Mawṣil , Wāsit and Kufa . Soon after, by December 1058,

16274-548: The art of papermaking was brought to the Islamic world by Chinese prisoners after the battle of Talas and most large towns and cities had paper mills. Available cheap writing material contributed to the lively intellectual life. Al-Mas'udi often refers readers to his other books, assuming their availability. The high literacy and vigor of the Islamic world with its rich cultural heritage of Greek philosophy, Persian literature, Indian mathematics, contrasted with that of Europe, when

16480-481: The attempt to quell the violence. The Jews experienced further hardships. Between 1950 and 1951, Jews were targeted in series of bombings. According to Avi Shlaim , Israel was behind bombings, which is also believed by the majority of the Iraqis. The city's population grew from an estimated 145,000 in 1900 to 580,000 in 1950. A development plan for Greater Baghdad was planned during the reign of King Faisal II. However,

16686-478: The author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was writing. Islamic Abbasid society of al-Masʿudi's world manifested a knowledge seeking, perceptive analytical attitude and scholarly-minded people associated naturally in this highly civilized atmosphere. Al-Mas'udi was a pupil, or junior colleague, of prominent intellectuals, including the philologists al-Zajjaj, Ibn Duraid , Niftawayh and ibn Anbari. He

16892-428: The average maximum temperature is as high as 44 °C (111 °F) and accompanied by sunshine. Rainfall has been recorded on fewer than half a dozen occasions at this time of year and has never exceeded 1 mm (0.04 in). Even at night, temperatures in summer are seldom below 24 °C (75 °F). Baghdad's record highest temperature of 51.8 °C (125.2 °F) was reached on 28 July 2020. The humidity

17098-458: The blood back into the lungs to be exhaled. In order to receive air from the lungs in the left ventricle, the new blood needed to get there from the right ventricle. Thus, Galen asserted that there are small holes in the septum dividing the left and right sides of the heart; these holes allowed the blood to pass through easily to receive air and exchange the aforementioned waste products. Although his anatomical experiments on animal models led him to

17304-479: The body and that the soul, as a whole, contributed to the health of the body, strengthening the "natural functioning capacity of the organ or organs in question". The rational soul controlled higher level cognitive functioning in an organism, for example, making choices or perceiving the world and sending those signals to the brain. He also listed "imagination, memory, recollection, knowledge, thought, consideration, voluntary motion, and sensation" as being found within

17510-458: The body to its function indicated the role of an intelligent creator. His creationism was anticipated by the anatomical examples of Socrates and Empedocles . Although the main focus of his work was on medicine, anatomy, and physiology, Galen also wrote about logic and philosophy. His writings were influenced by earlier Greek and Roman thinkers, including Plato , Aristotle , the Stoics , and

17716-503: The body. He posited that arterial blood originated in the heart, from where it was distributed and consumed by all organs of the body. The blood was then regenerated in either the liver or the heart, completing the cycle. Galen also believed in the existence of a group of blood vessels he called the rete mirabile in the carotid sinus. Both of these theories of the circulation of blood were later (beginning with works of Ibn al-Nafis published c.  1242 ) shown to be incorrect. Galen

17922-459: The body. More important is that it includes details of more than 150 single and compound formulations of both herbal and animal origin. The book provides an insight into understanding the traditions and methods of treatment in the Greek and Roman eras. In addition, this book provides a direct source for the study of more than 150 single and compound drugs used during the Greco-Roman period. As

18128-436: The brain. He conducted many anatomical studies on animals, most famously an ox, to study the transition from vital to psychic pneuma . Although highly criticized for comparing animal anatomy to human anatomy, Galen was convinced that his knowledge was abundant enough in both anatomies to base one on the other. In his treatise On the usefulness of the parts of the body , Galen argued that the perfect suitability of each part of

18334-454: The central part of the building, there was a green dome that was 39m high. Surrounding the palace was an esplanade , a waterside building, in which only the caliph could come riding on horseback. In addition, the palace was near other mansions and officer's residences. Near the Gate of Syria, a building served as the home for the guards. It was made of brick and marble. The palace governor lived in

18540-475: The circulatory system. The blood created in the liver would eventually flow unidirectionally into the right ventricle of the heart via the great vein. Galen also proposed a theory on how blood receives air from the lungs to be distributed throughout the body. He declared that the venous artery carried air from the lungs into the left ventricle of the heart to mix with created blood from the liver. This same venous artery allowed for an exchange of waste products from

18746-591: The city has a small area at just 673 square kilometers (260 sq mi). It is the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo , and the second-largest city in West Asia after Tehran . Baghdad is historically known as a global cultural hub. In 762 AD, Baghdad was founded as the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate , and became its most notable major development project. Within a short time, it evolved into

18952-627: The city in 1967 and 1973 were delivered by the Polish planning office Miastoprojekt-Kraków, mediated by Polservice. Saddam International Airport was opened in 1982. However, the Iran–Iraq War of the 1980s was a difficult time for the city, as money was diverted by Saddam Hussein to the army and thousands of residents were killed. Iran launched a number of missile attacks against Baghdad in retaliation for Iraqi Army's continuous bombardments of Tehran's residential districts. Between 1990 and 1991,

19158-455: The city in the war. After the invasion, the airport was renamed as Baghdad International Airport. Following the fall of Baghdad , the government lost its power. Saddam's statue was toppled at Firdos Square , which marked the overthrow of his regime. Also two minor riots took place in 2003, on 21 July and 2 October, caused some disturbance in the population. Religious and ethnic minorities such as Christians, Mandaeans and Jews began leaving

19364-515: The city is also many churches , mandis and synagogues . Through its airport, Baghdad is known as the "Gateway of Iraq". The name Baghdad is pre-Islamic, and its origin is disputed. The site where the city of Baghdad developed has been populated for millennia. Archaeological evidence shows that the site of Baghdad was occupied by various peoples long before the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia in 637 CE, and several ancient empires had capitals located in

19570-470: The city served as administrative centers for the delivery of municipal services but until 2003 had no political function. Beginning in April 2003, the U.S. controlled Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) began the process of creating new functions for these. The process initially focused on the election of neighborhood councils in the official neighborhoods, elected by neighborhood caucuses. The CPA convened

19776-624: The city was impacted by the Gulf War. The multinational alliance targeted numerous sites in Baghdad, in the Gulf War air campaign . Baghdad was bombed during the Gulf War by the multinational alliance force . Shortly after the end of the war, civil unrest began in the city, during the 1991 uprisings. Sadr City , a Shia populated neighborhood, was sight of clashes between Shia rebels and the Ba'ath Forces Republican Guard led by Qusay Hussein , which

19982-462: The city was known as a deliberate reminder of an expression in the Qur'an , when it refers to Paradise . It took four years to build (764–768). Mansur assembled engineers, surveyors, and art constructionists from around the world to come together and draw up plans for the city. Over 100,000 construction workers came to survey the plans; many were distributed salaries to start the building of the city. July

20188-433: The city's nine district councils. The number of neighborhood representatives on a district council is based upon the neighborhood's population. The next step was to have each of the nine district councils elect representatives from their membership to serve on the 37 member Baghdad City Council. This three tier system of local government connected the people of Baghdad to the central government through their representatives from

20394-543: The city's population was between 1.2 million and 2 million. Baghdad's early meteoric growth eventually slowed due to troubles within the Caliphate , including relocations of the capital to Samarra (during 808–819 and 836–892), the loss of the western and easternmost provinces, and periods of political domination by the Iranian Buwayhids (945–1055) and Seljuk Turks (1055–1135). The Seljuks were

20600-554: The city's population were Iraqi Shi'ites . Sunni Muslims make up 29–34% of Iraq's population and they are still a majority in west and north Iraq. As early as 2003, about 20 percent of the population of the city was the result of mixed marriages between Shi'ites and Sunnis. Following the civil war between the Sunni and Shia militia groups during the U.S. occupation of Iraq , the population of Sunnis significantly decreased as they were pushed out of many neighborhoods. Masjid Al-Kadhimain

20806-553: The city, with fear of getting targeted in the attacks. As they were subjected of kidnapping, death threats and attacks. The Iraqi Film Archive building was also bombed by the coalition forces. The Iraq War took place from 2003 to 2011, but an Islamist insurgency lasted until 2013. It was followed by another war from 2013 to 2017 and a low-level insurgency from 2017, which included suicide bombings in January 2018 and January 2021 . Priceless collection of artifacts in

21012-444: The city. Administratively, Baghdad Governorate is divided into districts which are further divided into sub-districts . Municipally, the governorate is divided into 9 municipalities, which have responsibility for local issues. Regional services, however, are coordinated and carried out by a mayor who oversees the municipalities. The governorate council is responsible for the governorate-wide policy. These official subdivisions of

21218-464: The city. Between 1623 and 1638 , it returned to Iranian rule before falling back into Ottoman hands. Baghdad has suffered severely from visitations of the plague and cholera , and sometimes two-thirds of its population has been wiped out. The city became part of an eyalet and then a vilayet . For a time, Baghdad had been the largest city in the Middle East. The city saw relative revival in

21424-518: The crystalline lens is located in the anterior aspect of the human eye. At first reluctantly but then with increasing vigor, Galen promoted Hippocratic teaching, including venesection and bloodletting , then unknown in Rome. This was sharply criticized by the Erasistrateans , who predicted dire outcomes, believing that it was not blood but pneuma that flowed in the veins. Galen, however, staunchly defended venesection in his three books on

21630-555: The curriculum at the universities of Naples and Montpellier . From that time, Galenism took on a new, unquestioned authority, Galen even being referred to as the "Medical Pope of the Middle Ages". Constantine the African was amongst those who translated both Hippocrates and Galen from Arabic. In addition to the more numerous translations of Arabic texts in this period, there were a few translations of Galenic works directly from

21836-439: The date of the foundation of the city would be astrologically auspicious, and Mashallah , a Jew from Khorasan , Iran . Within a generation of its founding, Baghdad became a hub of learning and commerce . The city flourished into an unrivaled intellectual center of science , medicine , philosophy , and education , especially with the Abbasid translation movement began under the second caliph Al-Mansur and thrived under

22042-556: The decline since the territorial defeat of the Islamic State militant group in Iraq in 2017, and are very rare now. A major center of Islamic history , the city is known for its numerous historic mosques . It includes museums such as the Iraq Museum , Baghdadi Museum and Abd al-Karim Qasim Museum . Baghdad is also nicknamed as "City of Palaces", as its home to numerous palaces such as Abbasid Palace , Radwaniyah Palace and Al-Faw Palace . Previously being multi-religious city,

22248-425: The difference between motor and sensory nerves , discussed the concept of muscle tone , and explained the difference between agonists and antagonists . Galen's work on animals led to some inaccuracies, most notably his anatomy of the uterus which largely resembled a dog's. Though incorrect in his studies of human reproduction and reproductive anatomy, he came very close to identifying the ovaries as analogous to

22454-472: The directions of these destinations. The distance between these gates was a little less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi). Each gate had double doors that were made of iron; the doors were so heavy it took several men to open and close them. The wall itself was about 44 m thick at the base and about 12 m thick at the top. Also, the wall was 30 m high, which included merlons , a solid part of an embattled parapet usually pierced by embrasures . This wall

22660-402: The dissection of human cadavers since roughly 150 BC. Because of this restriction, Galen performed anatomical dissections on living ( vivisection ) and dead animals, mostly focusing on primates . Galen believed that the anatomical structures of these animals closely mirrored those of humans. Galen clarified the anatomy of the trachea and was the first to demonstrate that the larynx generates

22866-410: The districts above. The following is a selection (rather than a complete list) of these neighborhoods: Baghdad's population was estimated at 7.22 million in 2015. The surrounding metropolian region's population is estimated to be 10,500,000. It is second largest city in the Arab world, after Cairo and fourth largest metropolitan area in the Middle East after Cairo and Tehran. At the beginning of

23072-468: The end of 2014, only 1,500 Assyrians remained in Dora. The majority of the citizens are Muslims with minorities of Christians , Yezidis , Jews and Mandeans also present. There are many religious centers distributed around the city including mosques, churches, synagogues and Mashkhannas cultic huts. The city historically has a predominantly Sunni population, but by the early 21st century around 52% of

23278-821: The end of his life. His journeys took him to most of the Persian provinces, Armenia , Georgia and other region of the Caspian Sea ; as well as to Arabia , Syria and Egypt. He also travelled to the Indus Valley , and other parts of India, especially the western coast; and he voyaged more than once to East Africa. He also sailed on the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and the Caspian. Al-Masʿudi may have reached Sri Lanka and China although he

23484-411: The epidemic, referring to it as very long lasting, and described its symptoms and his treatment of it. His references to the plague are scattered and brief. Galen was not trying to present a description of the disease so that it could be recognized in future generations; he was more interested in the treatment and physical effects of the disease. For example, in his writings about a young man afflicted with

23690-521: The exclusive name for the world-renowned metropolis. Christophe Wall-Romana has suggested that al-Mansur's choice to found his "new city" at Baghdad because of its strategic location was the same criteria which influenced Sargon's choice to found the original city of Akkad in the exact same location. After the fall of the Umayyads , the first Muslim dynasty, the victorious Abbasid rulers wanted their own capital from which they could rule. They chose

23896-564: The first element can be traced to boghu and is related to Indo-Iranian bhag and Slavic bog "god." A similar term in Middle Persian is the name Mithradāt ( Mehrdad in New Persian ), known in English by its borrowed Hellenistic form Mithridates , meaning "Given by Mithra " ( dāt is the more archaic form of dād , related to Sanskrit dāt , Latin dat and English donor ), ultimately borrowed from Persian Mehrdad . There are

24102-534: The formation of Mu'tazili theology, as well as Al-Tabari culminating in the scholarship on the Quranic exegesis . Baghdad is likely to have been the largest city in the world from shortly after its foundation until the 930s, when it tied with Córdoba . Several estimates suggest that the city contained over a million inhabitants at its peak. Many of the One Thousand and One Nights tales, widely known as

24308-499: The greatest physician of all time. In India many Hindu physicians studied Persian and Urdu languages and learnt Galenic medicine. This trend of studies among Hindu physicians began in the 17th century and lasted until the early 20th century (Speziale 2018). From the 11th century onwards, Latin translations of Islamic medical texts began to appear in the West, alongside the Salerno school of thought, and were soon incorporated into

24514-542: The greatest contribution of the Greeks was philosophy. He was aware of the progression of Greek philosophy from the pre-Socratics onward. He also was keenly interested in the earlier events of the Arabian peninsula. He recognized that Arabia had a long and rich history. He also was well-aware of the mixture of interesting facts in pre-Islamic times, in myths and controversial details from competing tribes and even referred to

24720-690: The human body. His anatomical reports remained uncontested until 1543, when printed descriptions and illustrations of human dissections were published in the seminal work De humani corporis fabrica by Andreas Vesalius , where Galen's physiological theory was accommodated to these new observations. Galen's theory of the physiology of the circulatory system remained unchallenged until c.  1242 , when Ibn al-Nafis published his book Sharh tashrih al-qanun li' Ibn Sina ( Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon ), in which he reported his discovery of pulmonary circulation . Galen saw himself as both

24926-600: The human concerns of their officials and ordinary subjects. One of the more interesting passages is the account of the symposium held at the home of Harun al-Rashid 's famous vizier Yahya the Barmakid on the topic of love. A dozen leading thinkers provide their definition of love and then a thirteenth, a Magian judge, speaks at greater length on that theme. Kitāb al-Tanbīh wa’l-Ishrāf ( كتاب التنبیه والأشراف ), ‘Book of Admonition and Revision’; an abridged Murūj al-Dhahab , about one-fifth its length, containing new material on

25132-683: The influence of religious antagonisms. The Sunni scholar Ibn Hajar wrote: "[al-Mas'udi's] books are imprecise because he was a Shi‘a, a Muʿtazili .". Adh-Dhahabi believed he espoused heretical Mu'tazili doctrine. However, according to Al-Subki al-Mas'udi was a student of ibn Surayj, the leading scholar of the Shafi'ite school. Al-Subki claimed he found al-Mas'udi's notes of ibn Surayj's lectures. Al-Mas'udi also met Shafi'ites during his stay in Egypt. He also met Zahirites in Baghdad and Aleppo such as Ibn Jabir and Niftawayh; modern scholarship leans toward

25338-479: The latter part of the 18th century, under Mamluk government. Direct Ottoman rule was reimposed by Ali Rıza Pasha in 1831. From 1851 to 1852 and from 1861 to 1867, Baghdad was governed, under the Ottoman Empire by Mehmed Namık Pasha . The Nuttall Encyclopedia reports the 1907 population of Baghdad as 185,000. Baghdad and southern Iraq remained under Ottoman rule until 1917, when they were captured by

25544-399: The latter part of the building and the commander of the guards in the front. In 813, after the death of caliph Al-Amin , the palace was no longer used as the home for the caliph and his family. The roundness points to the fact that it was based on Arabic script . The two designers who were hired by Al-Mansur to plan the city's design were Naubakht , a Zoroastrian who also determined that

25750-401: The male testes. Reproduction was a controversial topic in Galen's lifetime, as there was much debate over if the male was solely responsible for the seed, or if the woman was also responsible. Through his vivisection practices, Galen also proved that the voice was controlled by the brain. One of the most famous experiments that he recreated in public was the squealing pig: Galen would cut open

25956-697: The medical field during Galen's lifetime, the main two being the Empiricists and Rationalists (also called Dogmatists or Philosophers), with the Methodists being a smaller group. The Empiricists emphasized the importance of physical practice and experimentation or "active learning" in the medical discipline. In direct opposition to the Empiricists were the Rationalists, who valued the study of established teachings in order to create new theories in

26162-403: The medical work of Galen , with Ptolemaic astronomy , with the geographical work of Marinus and with the studies of Islamic geographers and astronomers. In The Meadows of Gold, al-Mas'udi wrote his famous condemnation of revelation over reason: The sciences were financially supported, honoured everywhere, universally pursued; they were like tall edifices supported by strong foundations. Then

26368-608: The medieval and early modern Islamic Middle East. Job of Edessa is said to have translated 36 of Galen's works into Syriac, some of which were later translated into Arabic by Hunain ibn Ishaq . Galen's approach to medicine became and remains influential in the Islamic world. The first major translator of Galen into Arabic was the Arab Christian Hunayn ibn Ishaq . He translated ( c.  830–870 ) 129 works of "Jalinos" into Arabic . Arabic sources, such as Muhammad ibn Zakarīya al-Rāzi (AD 865–925), continue to be

26574-429: The meeting of al-Mansur and a blind poet unaware of the identity of his distinguished interlocutor. The poet on two separate occasions recites praise poems for the defeated Umayyads to the Abbasid caliph; al-Mansur good naturedly rewards him. There is the tale (p. 28 ff.) of the arrow that landed at al-Mansur’s feet with verses inscribed in each of the three feathers and along the shaft causing him to investigate

26780-473: The mental and the physical. This was a controversial argument at the time, and Galen agreed with some Greek philosophical schools in believing that the mind and body were not separate faculties. He believed that this could be scientifically shown. This was where his opposition to the Stoics became most prevalent. Galen proposed organs within the body to be responsible for specific functions. According to Galen,

26986-495: The most influential and wealthy men in Asia. Galen claims that the High Priest chose him over other physicians after he eviscerated an ape and challenged other physicians to repair the damage. When they refused, Galen performed the surgery himself and in so doing won the favor of the High Priest of Asia. Over his four years there, he learned the importance of diet, fitness, hygiene, and preventive measures, as well as living anatomy, and

27192-483: The name of medical advancements. The Methodists formed somewhat of a middle ground, as they were not as experimental as the Empiricists, nor as theoretical as the Rationalists. The Methodists mainly utilized pure observation, showing greater interest in studying the natural course of ailments than making efforts to find remedies. Galen's education had exposed him to the five major schools of thought (Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics, Epicureans, Pyrrhonists), with teachers from

27398-552: The neighborhood, through the district, and up to the city council. The same process was used to provide representative councils for the other communities in Baghdad Province outside of the city itself. There, local councils were elected from 20 neighborhoods ( Nahia ) and these councils elected representatives from their members to serve on six district councils ( Qada ). As within the city, the district councils then elected representatives from among their members to serve on

27604-407: The nervous system. Galen went on to be the first physician to study what happens when the spinal cord is transected on multiple different levels. He worked with pigs and studied their neuroanatomy by severing different nerves either totally or partially to see how it affected the body. He even dealt with diseases affecting the spinal cord and nerves. In his work De motu musculorum , Galen explained

27810-537: The north fighting the Marcomanni . During the autumn of 169 when Roman troops were returning to Aquileia , a great plague, most likely one of the first appearances of smallpox (then referred to as the Antonine Plague ) in the Mediterranean world, broke out, and the emperor summoned Galen back to Rome. He was ordered to accompany Marcus and Verus to Germany as the court physician. The following spring Marcus

28016-471: The original Greek, although many were destroyed and some credited to him are believed to be spurious. Although there is some debate over the date of his death, he was no younger than seventy when he died. Galen's Greek name Γαληνός ( Galēnós ) comes from the adjective γαληνός ( galēnós ) 'calm'. Galen's Latin name (Aelius or Claudius) implies he had Roman citizenship . Galen describes his early life in On

28222-490: The plague, he concentrated on the treatment of internal and external ulcerations. According to Niebuhr, "this pestilence must have raged with incredible fury; it carried off innumerable victims. The ancient world never recovered from the blow inflicted upon it by the plague that visited it in the reign of M. Aurelius." The mortality rate of the plague was 7–10 percent; the outbreak in 165–168 would have caused approximately 3.5 to 5 million deaths. Otto Seeck believes that over half

28428-479: The pleasures of the body and was moved by feelings of enjoyment. This third part of the soul is the animalistic, or more natural, side of the soul; it deals with the natural urges of the body and survival instincts. Galen proposed that when the soul is moved by too much enjoyment, it reaches states of "incontinence" and "licentiousness", the inability to willfully cease enjoyment, which was a negative consequence of too much pleasure. In order to unite his theories about

28634-515: The population of the empire perished. J. F. Gilliam believes that the Antonine plague probably caused more deaths than any other epidemic during the empire before the mid-3rd century. Although Galen's description is incomplete, it is sufficient to enable a firm identification of the disease as related to smallpox . Galen notes that the exanthema covered the victim's entire body and was usually black. The exanthem became rough and scabby where there

28840-521: The project was ceased, when new the government came to power. On 14 July 1958, members of the Iraqi Army , under Abdul-Karim Qasim , staged a coup to topple the Kingdom of Iraq . King Faisal II , former Prime Minister Nuri al-Said , former Regent Prince Abd al-Ilah , members of the royal family, and others were brutally killed during the coup. Many of the victim's bodies were then dragged through

29046-426: The rational soul. The functions of "growing or being alive" resided in the spirited soul. The spirited soul also contained our passions, such as anger. These passions were considered to be even stronger than regular emotions, and, as a consequence, more dangerous. The third part of the soul, or the appetitive spirit, controlled the living forces in our body, most importantly blood. The appetitive spirit also regulated

29252-433: The relations of African states with each other and with Islam. He provided material on the cultures and beliefs of non-Islamic Africans. In general his surviving works reveal an intensely curious mind, a universalist eagerly acquiring as extensive a background of the entire world as possible. Al-Masʿudi describes Sistan, Iran, in 947 AD: " ... is the land of winds and sand. There the wind drives mills and raises water from

29458-453: The remaining space in the center is unknown. The circular design of the city was a direct reflection of the traditional Near Eastern urban design . The Sasanian city of Gur in Fars , built 500 years before Baghdad, is nearly identical in its general circular design, radiating avenues, and the government buildings and temples at the center of the city. Much earlier, circular cities had existed in

29664-578: The resulting Anglo-Iraqi War and after Rashid Ali al-Gaylani and his government had fled, the Mayor of Baghdad surrendered to British and Commonwealth forces. On 1–2 June, during the ensuing power vacuum , Jewish residents were attacked following rumors they had aided the British. In what became known as the Farhud , over 180 Jews were killed, 1,000 injured and hundreds of Jewish properties were ransacked. Between 300 and 400 non-Jewish rioters were killed in

29870-497: The scholarship involved not only Arabs, but also Persians , Syriacs , Nestorians , Jews , Arab Christians , and people from other ethnic and religious groups native to the region. These are considered among the fundamental elements that contributed to the flourishing of scholarship in the Medieval Islamic world. Baghdad was also a significant center of Islamic religious learning, with Al-Jahiz contributing to

30076-420: The seventh caliph Al-Ma'mun . Baytul-Hikmah or the "House of Wisdom" was among the most well known academies, and had the largest selection of books in the world by the middle of the 9th century. Notable scholars based in Baghdad during this time include translator Hunayn ibn Ishaq , mathematician al-Khwarizmi , and philosopher Al-Kindi . Although Arabic was used as the international language of science,

30282-426: The sick would come to seek the ministrations of the priesthood. Romans frequented the temple at Pergamon in search of medical relief from illness and disease. It was also the haunt of notable people such as the historian Claudius Charax, the orator Aelius Aristides , the sophist Polemo , and the consul Cuspius Rufinus . Galen's father died in 148, leaving Galen independently wealthy at the age of 19. He then followed

30488-453: The similarity between some of this material and the legendary and story telling contributions of some Middle Persian and Indian books to the Thousand and One Nights . Ahmad Shboul notes that al-Mas'udi is distinguished above his contemporaries for the extent of his interest in and coverage of the non-Islamic lands and peoples of his day. Other authors, even Christians writing in Arabic in

30694-489: The site of a large temple to the healing god Asclepius . The city attracted both Stoic and Platonic philosophers, to whom Galen was exposed at age 14. His studies also took in each of the principal philosophical systems of the time, including Aristotelian and Epicurean . His father had planned a traditional career for Galen in philosophy or politics and took care to expose him to literary and philosophical influences. However, Galen states that in around 145 his father had

30900-441: The soul and how it operated within the body, he adapted the theory of the pneuma , which he used to explain how the soul operated within its assigned organs, and how those organs, in turn, interacted together. Galen then distinguished the vital pneuma , in the arterial system, from the psychic pneuma , in the brain and nervous system. Galen placed the vital pneuma in the heart and the psychic pneuma ( spiritus animalis ) within

31106-486: The soul as having one part, which was the rational soul and they claimed it would be found in the heart. Galen, following Plato's idea, came up with two more parts to the soul. Galen also rejected Stoic propositional logic and instead embraced a hypothetical syllogistic which was strongly influenced by the Peripatetics and based on elements of Aristotelian logic. Galen believed there is no sharp distinction between

31312-440: The soul. Plato believed that the body and the soul were separate entities, rivaling the Stoics. Plato proclaimed that the soul is immortal, so it must exist before one is born, beyond the human body. This influenced Galen's thinking that the soul had to be acquired because the soul does not always reside within the human body. Plato's influence in Galen's model showed itself most prominently in what Galen dubbed arterial blood, which

31518-622: The source of discovery of new or relatively inaccessible Galenic writings. One of Hunayn's Arabic translations, Kitab ila Aglooqan fi Shifa al Amrad , which is extant in the Library of Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences , is regarded as a masterpiece of Galen's literary works. A part of the Alexandrian compendium of Galen's work, this 10th-century manuscript comprises two parts that include details regarding various types of fevers (Humyat) and different inflammatory conditions of

31724-503: The streams, whereby gardens are irrigated. There is in the world, and God alone knows it, no place where more frequent use is made of the winds" Lunde and Stone have provided the English reader with a fluent translation of some three-quarters of al-Masʿudi's material on the Abbasids from the Murūj al-dhahab . This is in the form of more than two hundred passages, many of these containing amusing and informative anecdotes. The very first one recounts

31930-403: The streets of Baghdad. Baghdad was also site for opposition and coup attempts against Qasim's rule by Arab nationalists. During the 1970s, Baghdad experienced a period of prosperity and growth because of a sharp increase in the price of petroleum , Iraq's main export. New infrastructure including modern sewerage, water, and highway facilities were built during this period. The masterplans of

32136-485: The study of Galen and other Greek works almost disappeared in the Latin West. In contrast, in the predominantly Greek-speaking eastern half of the Roman empire (Byzantium), many commentators of the subsequent centuries, such as Oribasius , physician to the emperor Julian who compiled a Synopsis in the 4th century, preserved and disseminated Galen's works, making them more accessible. Nutton refers to these authors as

32342-552: The subject and in his demonstrations and public disputations. Galen's work on anatomy remained largely unsurpassed and unchallenged up until the 16th century in Europe. In the middle of the 16th century, the anatomist Andreas Vesalius challenged the anatomical knowledge of Galen by conducting dissections on human cadavers. These investigations allowed Vesalius to refute aspects of Galen's theories regarding anatomy. Galen's interest in human anatomy ran afoul of Roman law that prohibited

32548-402: The substantial Jewish community (probably exceeding 100,000 people) comprised between a quarter and a third of the city's population. On 1 April 1941, members of the " Golden Square " and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani staged a coup in Baghdad . Rashid Ali al-Gaylani installed a pro- German and pro- Italian government to replace the pro-British government of Regent Abd al-Ilah . On 31 May, after

32754-481: The surrounding area. Arab authors, realizing the pre-Islamic origins of Baghdad's name, generally looked for its roots in Middle Persian . They suggested various meanings, the most common of which was "bestowed by God". Modern scholars generally tend to favor this etymology, which views the word as a Persian compound of bagh ( [REDACTED] ) "god" and dād ( [REDACTED] ) "given". In Old Persian

32960-479: The three attacks of quartan ague, and the doctors had given him up, as it was now mid-winter." Some Roman physicians criticized Galen for his use of the prognosis in his treatment of Eudemus. This practice conflicted with the then-current standard of care , which relied upon divination and mysticism . Galen retaliated against his detractors by defending his own methods. Garcia-Ballester quotes Galen as saying: "In order to diagnose, one must observe and reason." This

33166-450: The time, streets were frequently washed free of debris and trash. In fact, by the time of Harun al-Rashid, Baghdad had a few thousand hammams . These baths increased public hygiene and served as a way for the religious to perform ablutions as prescribed by Islam. Moreover, entry fees were usually so low that almost everyone could afford them. In the center of the city lay the mosque , as well as headquarters for guards. The purpose or use of

33372-559: The title of Doubts on Galen by al-Rāzi implies, as well as the writings of physicians such as Ibn Zuhr and Ibn al-Nafis , the works of Galen were not accepted unquestioningly, but as a challengeable basis for further inquiry . A strong emphasis on experimentation and empiricism led to new results and new observations, which were contrasted and combined with those of Galen by writers such as al-Rāzi, Ali ibn Abbas al-Majusi , Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi , Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Zuhr, and Ibn al-Nafis. For example, Ibn al-Nafis' discovery of

33578-522: The tomb of Galenus in Palermo was still well preserved in the tenth century. Nutton believes that "On Theriac to Piso" is genuine, that the Arabic sources are correct, and that the Suda has erroneously interpreted the 70 years of Galen's career in the Arabic tradition as referring to his whole lifespan. Boudon-Millot more or less concurs and favors a date of 216. Galen contributed a substantial amount to

33784-427: The treatment of fractures and severe trauma, referring to their wounds as "windows into the body". Only five deaths among the gladiators occurred while he held the post, compared to sixty in his predecessor's time, a result that is in general ascribed to the attention he paid to their wounds. At the same time he pursued studies in theoretical medicine and philosophy. Galen went to Rome in 162 and made his mark as

33990-872: The understanding of pathology. Under the Hippocratic bodily humors theory, differences in human moods come as a consequence of imbalances in one of the four bodily fluids : blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Galen promoted this theory and the typology of human temperaments . In Galen's view, an imbalance of each humor corresponded with a particular human temperament (blood – sanguine, black bile – melancholic, yellow bile – choleric, and phlegm – phlegmatic). Thus, individuals with sanguine temperaments are extroverted and social; choleric people have energy, passion, and charisma; melancholics are creative, kind, and considerate; and phlegmatic temperaments are characterised by dependability, kindness, and affection. Galen

34196-600: The unfolding of palace coups. He recorded the effect of the westward migration of various tribes upon the Byzantines, especially the invading Bulgars . He spoke of Byzantine relations with western Europe. And, of course, he was attentively interested in Byzantine-Islamic relations. One example of al-Masʿudi's influence on Muslim knowledge of the Byzantine world is that the use of the name Istanbul (in place of Constantinople ) can be traced to his writings during

34402-414: The unity of the two subjects and their views. Using their theories, combined with Aristotle's, Galen developed a tripartite soul consisting of similar aspects. He used the same terms as Plato , referring to the three parts as rational, spiritual, and appetitive. Each corresponded to a localized area of the body. The rational soul was in the brain, the spiritual soul was in the heart, and the appetitive soul

34608-642: The unjust imprisonment of a distinguished notable from Hamadan. There is the story of the singer Harun al-Rashid asks to keep singing until the caliph falls asleep. Then a handsome young man arrives, snatches the lute from the singer's hand and shows him how it really should be done. On awakening Harun is told of this and suggests his singer had a supernatural visitation. Al-Mas'udi quotes the lines (five in English) of this remarkable song. These anecdotes provide glimpses of other aspects of these prominent people, sharing, actually, greater realization of their humanity and

34814-652: The use of the phrases "I am going Downtown" or "I am going into the City" by those who live near say Chicago or London respectively. He has some knowledge of other peoples of eastern and western Europe, even far away Britain and Anglo-Saxon England . He names it, though he is sketchy about it. He knows Paris as the Frankish capital. He obtained a copy of a list of Frankish rulers from Clovis to his own time. He makes several references to people interpreted as Vikings , described by him as Majus, they came to Al-Andalus from

35020-459: The various nations that lie beyond the regions of Islam . The author of this work compares himself to a man who, having found pearls of all kinds and colours, gathers them together into a necklace and makes them into an ornament that its possessor guards with great care. My aim has been to trace the lands and the histories of many peoples, and I have no other. We know that al-Masʿudi wrote a revised edition of Murūj al-dhahab in 956 CE; however, only

35226-554: The vast areas inhabited by Turkic peoples , commenting on what had been the extensive authority of the Khaqan , though this was no longer the case by al-Mas'udi's time. He conveyed the great diversity of Turkic peoples, including the distinction between sedentary and nomadic Turks. He spoke of the significance of the Khazars and provided much fresh material on them. His account of the Rus

35432-529: The view that al-Mas'udi was an adherent of the latter school. Baghdad Baghdad is the capital and largest city of Iraq . Situated on the Tigris , it is part of the Baghdad Governorate and is located near the Diyala River . With a population variously estimated at 6 or over 7 million, Baghdad forms 22% of Iraq's total population. In comparison to its large population,

35638-471: The voice. In one experiment, Galen used bellows to inflate the lungs of a dead animal. Galen's research on physiology was largely influenced by previous works of philosophers Plato and Aristotle, as well as from the physician Hippocrates. He was one of the first people to use experiments as a method of research for his medical findings. Doing so allowed him to explore various parts of the body and its functions. Among Galen's major contributions to medicine

35844-530: The weighs and measures of stocks. Baghdad eclipsed Ctesiphon, the capital of the Sassanians, which was located some 30 km (19 mi) to the southeast. Today, all that remains of Ctesiphon is the shrine town of Salman Pak , just to the south of Greater Baghdad which is where Salman the Persian is believed to have been buried. Ctesiphon itself had replaced and absorbed Seleucia , the first capital of

36050-420: The work of his predecessors, and it is in Galen's words (Galenism) that Greek medicine was handed down to subsequent generations, such that Galenism became the means by which Greek medicine was known to the world. Often, this was in the form of restating and reinterpreting, such as in Magnus of Nisibis' 4th-century work on urine, which was in turn translated into Arabic. Yet the full importance of his contributions

36256-460: The year 947, centuries before the eventual Ottoman use of this term. He writes that the Greeks (i.e. the Byzantines of the tenth century) call it "the City" ( bulin in the Arabic script , which lacks the letter p: so Greek polin ); "and when they wish to express that it is the capital of the Empire because of its greatness they say Istan Bulin. They do not call it Constantinople. It is only Arabs who so designate it". A present-day analogy would be

36462-446: Was a Roman and Greek physician , surgeon , and philosopher . Considered to be one of the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity , Galen influenced the development of various scientific disciplines, including anatomy , physiology , pathology , pharmacology , and neurology , as well as philosophy and logic . The son of Aelius Nicon , a wealthy Greek architect with scholarly interests, Galen received

36668-495: Was a hectic city during the day and had many attractions at night. There were cabarets and taverns, halls for backgammon and chess, live plays, concerts, and acrobats. On street corners, storytellers engaged crowds with tales such as those later told in Arabian Nights. Storytelling became a profession called " al-Qaskhun " which survived until the modern era. The four surrounding walls of Baghdad were named Kufa , Basra , Khurasan , and Syria ; named because their gates pointed in

36874-424: Was a physiological basis for mental disorders. Galen connected many of his theories to the pneuma and he opposed the Stoics ' definition of and use of the pneuma . The Stoics, according to Galen, failed to give a credible answer for the localization of functions of the psyche, or the mind. Through his use of medicine, he was convinced that he came up with a better answer, the brain. The Stoics only recognized

37080-510: Was a student of Ibn Surayj, the leading scholar of the Shafi'ite school. Al-Subki claimed he found al-Mas'udi's notes of Ibn Surayj's lectures. Al-Mas'udi also met Shafi'ites during his stay in Egypt. He met Zahirites in Baghdad and Aleppo such as Ibn Jabir and Niftawayh; modern scholarship leans toward the view that al-Mas'udi was an adherent of the latter school. Al-Masʿudi knew leading Mu'tazilites , including al-Jubba, al-Nawbakhti, ibn Abdak al-Jurjani and Abu'l-Qasim al-Balkhi al-Ka'bi. He

37286-404: Was acquainted with famous poets, including Kashajim, whom he probably met in Aleppo . He was well read in philosophy, the works of al-Kindi and al-Razi , the Aristotelian thought of al-Farabi and the Platonic writings. It is probable that al-Masʿudi met al-Razi and al-Farabi, but only a meeting with al-Farabi’s pupil Yahya ibn Adi, of whom he spoke highly, is recorded. He was familiar with

37492-404: Was also a pioneer in research about the human spine. His dissections and vivisections of animals led to key observations that helped him accurately describe the human spine, spinal cord , and vertebral column . Galen also played a major role in the discoveries of the central nervous system . He was also able to describe the nerves that emerge from the spine, which is integral to his research about

37698-415: Was also a skilled surgeon, operating on human patients. Many of his procedures and techniques would not be used again for centuries, such as the procedures he performed on brains and eyes. His surgical experiments included ligating the arteries of living animals. Although many 20th-century historians have claimed that Galen believed the lens to be in the exact center of the eye, Galen actually understood that

37904-419: Was also home to a large Jewish community and regularly visited by Sikh pilgrims from India. The historic "Assyrian Quarter" of the city — Dora , which boasted a population of 150,000 Assyrians in 2003, made up over 3% of the capital's Assyrian population then. The community has been subject to kidnappings , death threats , vandalism, and house burnings by al-Qaeda and other insurgent groups. As of

38110-410: Was also well acquainted with previous Mu'tazilite literature. His reasoning, his phraseology, and his expressed high esteem for Mu'tazilities could suggest that he was one of their number. However, Shboul points out that his extant works do not specifically state that he was. Al-Mas'udi included the history of the ancient civilizations that had occupied the land upon which Islam later spread. He mentions

38316-457: Was caliph from 813 to 833. Another was established by Sabur ibn Ardashir in 991 or 993 for the literary men and scholars who frequented his academy. This second library was plundered and burned by the Seljuks only seventy years after it was established. This was a good example of the sort of library built up out of the needs and interests of a literary society. The last two were examples of madrasa or theological college libraries. The Nezamiyeh

38522-438: Was chosen as the starting time because two astrologers , Naubakht Ahvazi , an Iranian Zoroastrian , and Mashallah , an Iranian Jew , believed that the city should be built under the sign of the lion , Leo . Leo is associated with fire and symbolizes productivity, pride, and expansion and Leo's connection symbolically to Mithra. The bricks used to make the city were 18 in (460 mm) on all four sides. Abu Hanifah

38728-485: Was designed as a circle about 2 km (1.2 mi) in diameter, leading it to be known as the "Round City". The original design shows a single ring of residential and commercial structures along the inside of the city walls, but the final construction added another ring inside the first. Within the city there were many parks, gardens, villas, and promenades. There was a large sanitation department, many fountains and public baths, and unlike contemporary European cities at

38934-414: Was founded by the Persian Nizam al-Mulk , who was vizier of two early Seljuk sultans. It continued to operate even after the coming of the Mongols in 1258. The Mustansiriyah madrasa , which owned an exceedingly rich library, was founded by Al-Mustansir , the second last Abbasid caliph, who died in 1242. This would prove to be the last great library built by the caliphs of Baghdad. By the 10th century,

39140-444: Was his work on the circulatory system . He was the first to recognize that there are distinct differences between venous (dark) and arterial (bright) blood. In addition to these discoveries, Galen postulated much more about the nature of the circulatory system . He believed that blood originated in the liver, which follows the teachings of Hippocrates. The liver converted nutrients gathered from ingested food into blood to be used in

39346-463: Was home to a large Jewish community, which numbered around 150,000, constituting around 25% of the population. Baghdad was leading center for Jewish learning in the 19th century. Due to increase in persecution of Jews, most of them fled Iraq in 1951. Until the 2003 war, Iraq retained a substantial Jewish community of 1,000 people. Around 500 to 600 Jews lived in Baghdad, primarily in old Jewish quarters of Bataween and Shorja . Meir Taweig Synagogue

39552-425: Was home to more than 300,000 Christians, primarily concentrated in several neighborhoods with a Christian majority, the most notable being al- Karrada and al-Dora , which had around 150,000 Christians before the war. The Christian community in Baghdad is divided among various denominations, mainly the Chaldean Catholic Church and the Syriac Catholic Church . There is also a significant presence of followers of

39758-440: Was in the liver. Galen was the first scientist and philosopher to assign specific parts of the soul to locations in the body because of his extensive background in medicine. This idea is now referred to as localization of function. Galen's assignments were revolutionary for the time period, which set the precedent for future localization theories. Galen believed each part of this tripartite soul controlled specific functions within

39964-494: Was largely destroyed at the hands of the Mongol Empire in 1258, resulting in a decline that would linger through many centuries due to frequent plagues and multiple successive empires, such as the Mesopotamian Mamluk Sultanate and the Ottoman Empire, until the World War I. The city served as capital of the former British Mandate of Mesopotamia . With the recognition of Iraq as an independent monarchical state in 1932, Baghdad gradually regained some of its former prominence as

40170-407: Was named after Marcus Aurelius' family name of Antoninus. It was also known as the Plague of Galen and held an important place in medicinal history because of its association with Galen. He had first-hand knowledge of the disease, and was present in Rome when it first struck in 166, and was also present in the winter of 168–69 during an outbreak among troops stationed at Aquileia. He had experience with

40376-426: Was no ulceration. He states that those who were going to survive developed a black exanthem. According to Galen, it was black because of a remnant of blood putrefied in a fever blister that was pustular. His writings state that raised blisters were present in the Antonine plague, usually in the form of a blistery rash. Galen states that the skin rash was close to the one Thucydides described. Galen describes symptoms of

40582-409: Was not appreciated until long after his death. Galen's rhetoric and prolificity were so powerful as to convey the impression that there was little left to learn. The term Galenism has subsequently taken on both a positive and pejorative meaning as one that transformed medicine in late antiquity yet so dominated subsequent thinking as to stifle further progress. After the collapse of the Western Empire

40788-404: Was part of Greek culture, and Syrian Christians came in contact with it while the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) ruled Syria and western Mesopotamia, regions that were conquered in the 7th century by the Arabs . After 750, these Syrian Christians made the first translations of Galen into Syriac and Arabic . From then on, Galen and the Greek medical tradition in general became assimilated into

40994-524: Was persuaded to release Galen after receiving a report that Asclepius was against the project. He was left behind to act as physician to the imperial heir Commodus . It was here in court that Galen wrote extensively on medical subjects. Ironically, Lucius Verus died in 169, and Marcus Aurelius himself died in 180, both victims of the plague. Galen was the physician to Commodus for much of the emperor's life and treated his common illnesses. According to Dio Cassius 72.14.3–4, in about 189, under Commodus' reign,

41200-831: Was principally influenced by the then-current theory of the four humors : black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm, as first advanced by the author of On the Nature of Man in the Hippocratic corpus . Galen's views dominated and influenced Western medical science for more than 1,300 years. His anatomical reports were based mainly on the dissection of Barbary apes . However, when he discovered that their facial expressions were too much like those of humans, he switched to other animals, such as pigs . While dissections and vivisections on humans were practised in Alexandria at this time, Galen did not have Imperial permission to perform his own, and had to use animals instead. Galen would encourage his students to go look at dead gladiators or bodies that washed up in order to get better acquainted with

41406-406: Was selected by UNESCO as the first Arab city of the center of literary creativity. The city attracted global media attention on 3 January 2020, when Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was assassinated in a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad Airport. The city is located on a vast plain bisected by the Tigris river. The Tigris splits Baghdad in half, with the eastern half being called " Risafa " and

41612-407: Was surrounded by another wall with a thickness of 50 m. The second wall had towers and rounded merlons, which surrounded the towers. This outer wall was protected by a solid glacis , which is made out of bricks and quicklime . Beyond the outer wall was a water-filled moat. The Golden Gate Palace, the residence of the caliph and his family, was in the heart of Baghdad, in the central square. In

41818-419: Was the basis of his criticism of the doctors who proceeded alogos and askeptos." However, Eudemus warned Galen that engaging in conflict with these physicians could lead to his assassination. "Eudemus said this, and more to the same effect; he added that if they were not able to harm me by unscrupulous conduct they would proceed to attempts at poisoning. Among other things he told me that, some ten years before,

42024-406: Was the counter of the bricks and he developed a canal, which brought water to the work site for both human consumption and the manufacture of the bricks. Marble was also used to make buildings throughout the city, and marble steps led down to the river's edge. The basic framework of the city consists of two large semicircles about 19 km (12 mi) in diameter. The inner city connecting them

42230-401: Was the heart and the arteries, which Galen believed to be responsible for providing life-giving energy. The last theorized system was the liver and veins, which Galen theorized were responsible for nutrition and growth. Galen also theorized that blood was made in the liver and sent out around the body. One of Galen's major works, On the Doctrines of Hippocrates and Plato , sought to demonstrate

42436-405: Was unclear on the Achaemenid dynasty , though he knew of Kurush ( Cyrus the Great ). He was much clearer on the more recent dynasties and his estimation of the time between Alexander the Great and Ardashir is much more accurately depicted than it is in al-Tabari . His wide-ranging interests included the Greeks and the Romans. Again, like other Arabic historians, he was unclear on Greece before

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