17 Facts About Ibn Zuhr

1.

Ibn Zuhr was born at Seville in medieval Andalusia, was a contemporary of Averroes and Ibn Tufail, and was the most well-regarded physician of his era.

2.

Ibn Zuhr was particularly known for his emphasis on a more rational, empiric basis of medicine.

3.

Ibn Zuhr improved surgical and medical knowledge by keying out several diseases and their treatments.

4.

Ibn Zuhr performed the first experimental tracheotomy on a goat.

5.

Ibn Zuhr is thought to have made the earliest description of bezoar stones as medicinal items.

6.

Ibn Zuhr was however, apprehended and jailed in Marrakesh in 1140.

7.

Ibn Zuhr was a great admirer of Galen, and in his writings he protests emphatically against quackery and the superstitious remedies of astrologers.

8.

Ibn Zuhr even recommended plastic surgery to alter acquired features such as big noses, thick lips or crooked teeth.

9.

Ibn Zuhr wrote the book shortly after he went out of jail for his new patron, Almohad leader Abd al-Mu'min.

10.

Ibn Zuhr recommends specific foods for each season of the year.

11.

Ibn Zuhr provided an accurate description of the esophageal, stomach and mediastinal cancers, as well as other lesions.

12.

Ibn Zuhr proposed feeding enemas to keep alive patients with stomach cancer.

13.

Ibn Zuhr was the first to give pathological descriptions of inflammations like otitis media and pericarditis.

14.

Ibn Zuhr is credited with providing one of the earliest recorded evidence of the Scabies mite, which contributed to the scientific advancement of microbiology.

15.

Ibn Zuhr is known to have performed medical procedures on animals before doing them on humans to know if they would work.

16.

In trying to sort out the controversy, Ibn Zuhr described the following medical experiment which he performed on a goat:.

17.

The Jewish physician-philosopher Maimonides admired Ibn Zuhr, describing him as "unique in his age and one of the great sages".