Ancient Wisdom: Classical Islam Medicine

Course Title: Ancient Wisdom: Classical Islam Medicine

Credits: 3

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Course Description:

Ancient Wisdom explores the medical knowledge of ancient civilizations as transmitted and systematized in the Islamic Golden Age, with a focus on Ibn Sīnā’s Canon of Medicine (al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb). Through a close reading of selected texts and a systems thinking framework, students will analyze how medical traditions from Greece, Rome, India, Persia, and early Islam converged to form a comprehensive medical science that influenced global thought for centuries. Topics include humoral theory, anatomy, pharmacology, ethics, mental health, and the relationship between medicine, philosophy, law, and the state. The reading materials include selections from works by modern scholars and medical professionals, as well as Ibn Khaldūn’s writings on the history of medicine and midwifery, and Ibn Sīnā’s History of Medicine.

Theoretical and Methodological Frameworks:

This course integrates two key methodological lenses:

1. Historical-Epistemological Accounts (textual analysis): We will study the theoretical models employed by Ibn Sīnā, particularly his adaptation and refinement of earlier models (e.g., Galenic humoralism, Hippocratic ethics, Aristotelian metaphysics), to understand how knowledge was structured, validated, and transmitted.
2. Systems Thinking Framework (theoretical approach): Students will be introduced to systems thinking as a means to contextualize and explain Ibn Sīnā’s work. This approach treats medicine as a system—an interaction of structures (organs), work (physiology), energy (vital forces), and time (chronicity and healing processes). Systems thinking helps us understand how Ibn Sīnā and others viewed health, disease, and treatment as emergent properties of interacting physical and metaphysical components.

Learning Objectives

This course is designed to guide students through an exploration of classical Islamic medicine, focusing on narratives of origins, evolutions, institutions, and knowledge production. Starting with historical accounts and critical reflections by modern experts and scholars, and then, through a sustained engagement with Ibn Sīnā’s Canon of Medicine and related texts, students will develop a deeper appreciation for the historical development of medical knowledge, its philosophical underpinnings, and its enduring relevance. The course also fosters critical thinking and interdisciplinary analysis by inviting students to apply systems thinking to secondary materials and ancient texts—enabling them to see medicine not merely as a list of treatments, but as a dynamic model of interacting parts: body, soul, society, and nature.

By the end of the course, students will:

• • • Read historical accounts and critical reviews of medicine in Islamic civilization;
    • Understand the foundations of classical Islamic medicine and the diverse sources (Greek, Persian, Indian, Chinese) that informed it;
    • Analyze the structure, method, and conceptual logic of Ibn Sīnā’s Canon of Medicine;
    • Identify the principles of humoral theory, temperamental classification (mizāj), anatomy, pathology, and therapeutic systems;
    • Engage with the relationship between empirical observation, metaphysical reasoning, and ethical practice in premodern medicine; and
    • Apply systems thinking to modern and historical material to assess how Ibn Sīnā and other scholars and experts conceptualized health, disease, and healing as interrelated processes within complex systems.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completing this course, students will be able to articulate and critically analyze major themes in classical Islamic medicine using both historical and conceptual tools. They will demonstrate a capacity to read and interpret translated primary sources with contextual awareness, while also comparing and contrasting ancient and modern understandings of health and disease. Students will also gain confidence in navigating interdisciplinary knowledge that bridges science, philosophy, and history.

Specifically, students will:

• • • Describe the intellectual, social, and scientific context of Ibn Sīnā’s medical project.
    • Explain how classical Islamic medicine synthesized multiple traditions and systematized them into a coherent whole.
    • Apply the systems thinking framework to model and analyze Ibn Sīnā’s understanding of the human body, environment, and therapeutic interventions.
    • Reflect critically on how metaphysical, ethical, and epistemological assumptions shaped ancient medical practice.
    • Communicate their understanding through written work, presentations, and thoughtful contributions to class discussions.