The Concept of Physical Exercise and Health for the Physicians of Al-Andulas
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LEGACY OF ARABIC MEDICINE The Caged Birds The concept of physical exercise and health for the physicians of Al-Andulas – Written by Francisco Gallardo-Rodríguez, Spain Ibn Rushd’s (Averroes’) inert body arrived this is not exclusive to men but also occurs studies in physiology, dietetics or hygiene. at the port of Almeria in 1198. We know with all animals in captivity, like caged birds These treatises are attributed to Hippocrates that it was winter. His disciples placed the and others.” – Ibn Rushd (Averroes). of Kos (460-380 BC). embalmed corpse on the right side of a mule; The allusions to physical exercise in on the left they placed his manuscripts, in THE ANTECEDENTS: HIPPOCRATES AND the corpus are mainly to be found in three order to counteract the weight of his body. GALEN treatises on diet, ancient medicine and The great mystic Ibn Arabi contemplated The physicians of Al-Andalus considered aphorisms respectively. The first treatise on the scene as the procession set course for physical exercise a valuable instrument in diet covers three important dimensions of Cordoba. On seeing the difficulties the mule the conservation of health. Obviously, they medicine still topical today: to help the ill had in advancing, the slow and fatigued were not the first. to recover their health (curative medicine), way in which it bore its load, Ibn Arabi In the field of medicine, the first reference the healthy to strengthen it (preventive wondered: what weighs more, the man or of physical exercise in relation to health is medicine) and athletes to improve their his works? in ‘Corpus Hipocraticum’, where we find a condition (sports medicine). “Exercise is very healthy and the traces of number of allusions to physical exercise. It was fundamental for Hippocrates the lack of exercise are visible in those that are This corpus comprises over 50 treatises, most to know the effects of physical exercise imprisoned, with their yellowing faces, their of them short, containing everything from on the human body “because they show dishevelled appearance and the alteration of a series of general considerations about opposite influences to the ingestion of all of their natural functions. Furthermore, the profession and ethics of a physician to food, but they complement each other with 186 Image: Imaginary debate between Averroes And Porphyry, Monfredo de Monte Imperiali "Liber de herbis", 14th century. Reproduction in "Inventions et decouvertes au Moyen-Age", Samuel Sadaune. PD-Old-100 Wikimedia Commons. respect to health; while physical exercise game to be the most healthy and complete most important contributions – that of Ibn naturally produces consumption of what form of exercise. Zuhr (Avenzoar) and Ibn Rushd (Averroes), has been accumulated – depletion – food According to Galen, the fundamentals of the two most influential physicians in and drink restore what has been emptied health reside in the adequate use of natural the history of Al-Andalus who lived in the – repletion”. In this healthy equilibrium, things: 12th century; the so-called ‘golden age of between physical exercise and diet, lies the • air and atmosphere, Andalusian medicine’. conservation of health. • food and drink, Claudius Galen of Pergamon (131-200 • physical movement/exercise and rest, THE LIFE OF IBN RUSHD (AVERROES) AD), considered to be the first sports • sleep and wakefulness, Abul-Walid Ibn Rushd, known and physician in history and author of a • excretions and secretions and Latinised as Averroes, was born in Cordoba monumental scientific body of work, had • changes/alterations in mood. in 1127 when Al-Andalus was under a great influence on Arab physicians. He The physician of Pergamon was the first Almoravid rule. He was raised in the shelter held profound convictions on human to classify different types of exercise into of the family’s prestige; his grandfather dignity and, perhaps because of this, hard and easy, depending on its intensity, and father were qadis of Cordoba, carried out a huge amount of work, global or general and analytical or localised, probably of Muladi origin, meaning they providing medical care to slaves and depending on its nature. were Spanish-Roman converts to Islam. also acting as physician to the gladiators These classical works of Hippocrates and His childhood was perhaps a placid in the Pergamese gymnasium. In Rome Galen were translated into Arabic and well- one, learning to read Quranic texts and he had already been the physician of known by the physicians of Al-Andalus, browsing amongst the shelves of the prominent aristocrats and emperors especially in the 12th century, significantly family library. It was at this time that such as Marcus Aurelius, Comodus and influencing their understanding of physical he ‘incubated the Cervantian illness’ – a Septimius Severus. exercise and health. passion for books. It is said that Ibn Rushd Of his extensive medical work, two texts It is not within the scope of this article (Averroes) only stopped studying on two allude to physical activity and its role in to analyse the allusions to physical exercise days of his life: the day his father died and maintaining health: ‘On the conservation and health in medical texts written his wedding day. of health’ and ‘About physical exercise by throughout the time of the Muslim presence During his adolescence Averroes learnt way of ball games’ – he believed this type of in Spain. I will limit the discussion to the Mailiki law with his father. He studied 187 LEGACY OF ARABIC MEDICINE medicine and philosophy with Ibn Harum suffering the humiliation of being expelled 3 months, so Leon of Africa tells us, to be of Trujillo and Ibn Tufail. Ibn Harum was from the mosque after going there to pray taken later to Cordoba where he was buried a renowned physician in Seville after he with one of his sons. His books were burnt alongside the family tombs in the Ibn Abbas successfully healed the qadi's brother of an in public. He was barred from Cordoba and cemetery. ocular lesion. Ibn Tufail, the Latin Abentofail, exiled to Lucena, the town acclaimed by wrote The Autodidact Philosopher, a Jewish nostalgia as being ‘the pearl of the THE LIFE OF IBN ZUHR (AVENZOAR) philosophical novel precursor according to Sefarad’. Abu Marwan Abd al-Malik ibn Zuhr specialists in literary genealogy, of Daniel The causes of this persecution are (1091-1161), Latinised as Avenzoar, belonged Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Rousseau’s controversial. Some authors have claimed to the clan of the Ibn Zuhr, six consecutive Emile. Ibn Tufail was the one who introduced that Yusuf Al-Mansur expelled him from generations of physicians, who served the Averroes into the vertiginous conspiracy of the palace upon reading in a text of his the Almoravid emirs and the Almohad caliphs. the palace, origin of most of the contentions expression “the king of the Berbers”; an Some contemporary historians consider of his life. However, before this fundamental expression which his old friend used in order Abu Marwan Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) the event in Averroes life, other cares and other to avoid calling him “prince of believers” as greatest Muslim physician after the Persian hazards occupied his time. Such as receiving he liked to be referred to. He was pardoned al-Razi, Rhazes, even perhaps of all time the so-called iyaz, the licence in medicine 3 years later and summoned to the court after Galen. Nicolas Monardes writes that that authorised Averroes to teach the books at Marrakesh, where he died a few months he was born in Peñaflor, between Seville that he had learnt, especially the Canon by later on Thursday 10 December 1198, aged 72. and Cordoba; other authors, amongst them Ibn Sina, between 1141 and 1146. Ibn Rushd (Averroes) was buried in Leon of Africa, affirm that he was born in At a young age Averroes married the cemetery of the gate of Tangazut for the medina of Seville. For many centuries he Zainab. Official biographers do not refer to any daughters when they talk about his descendants. They do vaguely mention various sons, at least four, one of them being a jurist and physician like his father. We know that Ibn Rushd (Averroes) first travelled to the Maghreb in 1153 where he collaborated in the education reform proposed by the Almohad caliph Abd al- Mumin. From this year on he made frequent trips to Andalusia and Morocco. He had been living in Marrakesh for a number of years when, in 1169 he gained the confidence of the Almohad caliph Yusuf al-Mansur. He was named qadi of Seville and, in 1171, of Cordoba, where he maintained his treasured library. In this period, Ibn Rushd (Averroes) would affirm: “Cordoba was the great land of the wise and Seville of the musicians.” In spite of the relevance of his official role, the personal life of the philosopher in these years is shrouded in mystery. He most likely gave lectures to a select group of disciples and in 1162 he finished writing his great medical work Kulliyyat or The book of general medicine. When Ibn Tufayl stepped down from the post of court physician in 1182, Yusuf al-Manusr designated Ibn Rushd (Averroes) as his successor. At the end of 1195 he was Image: Ibn Rushd (Averroes) - detail cropped from the "The School of Athens" by Raffaello persecuted after falling out with the caliph, Sanzio, 1511. PD-Old-100 Wikimedia Commons. 188 was considered to be a Jewish physician, an uncommon practice. He refused to teach CONCEPT OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE AND error that the prestigious Bibliotheca Arabic- logic to his students of medicine and in his HEALTH Hispanic (1760) by Casiri perpetuated. al-Taysir he harshly criticises the Sophists. Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) in his Kitab al- He was in no doubt an extraordinary Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar) was ahead of his Taysir or Book that facilitates therapeutics clinician, eminently practical compared time.