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 CHAPTER XVIII

BEGINNING OF THE ARAB RENAISSANCE UNDER THE CALIPHS OF BAGDAD

Toward the end of the sixth century A. D. the prospects for the perpetuation and further evolution of Greek medicine looked decidedly dark. In Rome and in the larger Italian towns of the Roman Empire, physicians were doubtless still to be found, but they must have led very precarious lives and they certainly could not have had any leisure or opportunity for scientific work. In these earlier years of the Middle Ages the monks conducted the larger part of whatever medical practice was required in the districts in which the monasteries were located. In Byzantium, also, the outlook at this period of Roman history was very unfavorable; and nowhere else, as a matter of fact, would it have been possible for the casual observer to discover any signs that indicated the approach of a revival in the study of the sciences. And yet, even at that seemingly darkest moment in the history of medicine, there were forces at work which would soon revive these precious seeds of Greek knowledge, and, after transplanting them to a richer soil, cause them to produce even better fruit and in larger quantities than ever before.

The rulers under whose auspices the first steps in the great Arab Renaissance were taken, belonged to what is known as the Abbaside Dynasty, the founder of which was Abbas (566-652 A. D.), the uncle of Mohammed. His descendants ruled as Caliphs of Bagdad, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, for many centuries (from 750 A. D. onward). Almansur, the second Caliph of this dynasty,