The Fascinating World of Medieval Medicine

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Let’s go on a bloody and painful journey. Medicine in medieval Europe was wildly different to that of current standards and knowledge. Some of the practices were… mind-boggling to say the least. The medical knowledge of the times had common ties with Arab medicine throughout medieval Europe, all of which looks back to Greek scholars and doctors. 

During the middle ages, European and Arab doctors believed in the four humours, which were primary bodily fluids. Superstition also played some part during these times, which led to people praying to saints in order to cure some illnesses, but a great many remedies of that time involved balancing out the humours. This knowledge derived from Greek medicine and has consistently undergone development, expansion and revision through generations of scholars and practitioners alike until modern times. This knowledge was transmitted to the Western world by the Arabs.

 

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The humoural theory, created from Greek medical ideas, was used by practitioners in medieval Europe. This was a Hippocratic medicine, after Hippocrates of Cos 460 BCE – 370 BCE who was a Greek physician, and was a theory based on four humours: blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. Hippocratic medicine was considered 'The most influential theory' (Brunton, 2008) and was derived from observation and reason. Although it comes across as utterly bizarre compared to what we know today, these interpretations by practitioners offered an explanation for illnesses, thus, they were widely accepted. Once diagnosed, the practitioners treated illness and disease with drugs, food uptake, and lifestyle changes in order to balance out the 'disrupted' humours.

Looking at medical teaching, it is important to consider that translation of medical manuscripts covered every aspect, particularly Hippocrates and Galen, in medical knowledge prior to its spread to Western Europe in the early Middle Ages. Although there were already medicines and treatments in existence, the reputation of Greek medicine and doctrine was enough for practitioners and alike to seek this knowledge, so a need for translation of Greek medical works escalated. Therefore, medical teaching became more disciplined and structured with translated textual theories to follow and educate from. The founding of European universities in the thirteenth Century led to a body of texts being studied, and medical knowledge becoming well established, with the help of a collection of writings. Most notably Ibn Sina's Canon, which remained a medical authority until the early nineteenth Century.

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Similarities between Arab and European medicine were vast, although some Arab remedies grew around the use of plants and urine and milk from animals. These remedies were used in conjunction with, or instead of, humoural medicine. In some cases the remedies 'absorbed elements of Greek practice.' (Brunton, 2008). The similarities are present because the standard medical text in both Europe and the Arab world up until the eighteenth Century was Ibn Sina's Canon. Said medical text revolutionised medicine and was described as a medical bible for a longer time than any other work (Osler, 2004).

Greek and Arab medical knowledge spread through Europe in the eleventh Century after medical texts underwent translation from Greek into Latin via Arabic, with Latin being the universal language of scholarship in medieval Europe. The need to translate into Latin from Arabic was brought about after the reconquest of parts of Europe by Christian princes. With these came a medical knowledge exchange between the Middle East and Europe which, in itself, became the prerequisite to borrowing and common use of ancient Greek medical knowledge.

European cultural factors also had an impact on this new knowledge. This can be seen with the irrational use of superstition taking precedence over medical treatments, such as self-harm to rid their bodies of sin through further pain, or to cure illnesses such as the plague. Another problem with understanding and using this new knowledge in the medieval period was that only the most highly educated people could speak and read Latin. In addition to this, those that could speak and read Latin had the problem of the high cost of manuscripts. Although Arab medical knowledge was as sophisticated and current as could be, for these reasons expansion and revision of the texts was hindered.

When considering European practitioners' attitudes towards medical knowledge it is clear to see that they had faith in Greek medicine as 'the canon still provided a coherent and systematic account of humoural medicine.' (Brunton, 2008). Arab practitioners also attempted to preserve existing humoural medicine as traditional knowledge. In addition to this, extension to this knowledge was commonly sought with new innovations and texts produced 'adding to the existing body of knowledge' (Brunton, 2008). European practitioners turned their back on some Arab translations in favour of the Greek texts, predominantly due to translation difficulties and transliteration complications. Having said that, it is clear that both Arab and European practitioners favoured Greek methods and this strengthens the view that they co-existed in medieval Europe with minor variation.

Medical knowledge and practice used by both European and Arab practitioners was based predominantly around the Hippocratic humoural system. The basis for the view that similarities far outweigh differences between the two is supported by the understanding that both groups of practitioners and scholars used the Hippocratic humoural system as the accepted theory of the makeup and working of our bodies, which became the most commonly held view of medical knowledge until the nineteenth Century in favour of French medicine.

When considering the similarities between Arab and European medicine in medieval Europe, both medical entities have little disparity, supported by their foundations being one and the same thing with only minor differences. The variation that developed between them was due to cultural differences, misconceptions with translation, and transliteration errors. To that avail, it is Arab medicine that we owe thanks to – particularly for understanding bodily functions and establishing hospitals. While Arab scholars and doctors were shaping medicine in medieval times, Europeans were in the Dark Ages and following the lead of their Arab counterparts.

Bibliography

Brunton, D. (2008) 'From Greece To The Middle East To Europe: The Transmission of Medical Knowledge' in Brown, R. (ed) Cultural Encounters (The Arts Past and Present) Chapter 5, (Pages 149 – 189.) Milton Keynes.

Ibn Sīnā, (completed in Arabic, 1025). The Canon of Medicine.

Osler, William (2004), The Evolution Of Modern Medicine, Kessinger Publishing, p. 71.