Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi

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Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi

Al-Razi was one of the greatest eastern scholars, he made a lot of contributions which have a great impact on eastern society and many sciences. He was born in Rayy, Iran in the year 865 AD (251 AH), and died there in 925 AD. During his life Razi was physician, philosopher, and scholar who made fundamental and enduring contributions to the fields of medicine, alchemy, and philosophy, he wrote more than 184 books and articles in various fields of science, his most important accomplishment being the discovery of alcohol(Wikipedia,2006). He was well versed in Greek medical knowledge and added substantially to it from his own observations.

In Persian, Razi means "from the city of Rayy, an ancient town in the south of the Caspian Sea, situated near Tehran, Iran. In this city he accomplished most of his work. In his early life he could have been a jeweler, a money-changer but more likely a lute-player who changed his interest in music to alchemy. At the age of forty he stopped his study of alchemy because its experiments caused an eye-disease, obliging him to search for physicians and medicine to cure it. This was the reason why he began his medical studies. His teacher was 'Ali ibn Rabban al-Tabari, a physician and philosopher born in Merv about 192 (Wikipedia, 2006). Al-Razi studied medicine and probably also philosophy with ibn Rabban al-Tabari. Therefore his interest in spiritual philosophy can be traced to this master, whose father was a Rabbinist versed in the Scriptures. Al-Razi took up the study of medicine after his first visit to Baghdad, when he was at least 30 years old, under the well-known physician Ali ibn Sahl. He showed such a skill in the subject that he quickly surpassed his master, and wrote no fewer than a hundred medical books. He also composed 33 treatises on natural science, mathematics and astronomy.

A lot of discoveries were made by Razi in many sciences. One of his contributions in alchemy was discovering of sulfuric acid, which became the "work horse" of modern chemistry and chemical engineering. Ethanol and its refinement and use in medicine were also firstly found by Razi (1001 Inventions, 2005). So it can be understood that he was one of the greatest Islamic scholars, and his discoveries had a great influence not only on Asia, but also had positive impact on European science and medicine.

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