Psychiatric and neurologic lessons in the oldest Persian medical liber. Akhawayani Bokhari (?-died 983 AD), physician of insane.
There is a rich history of medicine in Persia. Experiences and knowledge of medicine in this area continued and connected to a new era named Islamic golden age (9th–twelfth century AD). Great Persian physicians such as Raban Tabari , Rhazes, Haly Abbas, Akhawayani Bokhari, Avicenna, and jurjani all grew up, studied and worked in this period. Akhawayani Bokhari (Abubakr Rabi ibn Ahmad alAkhawayni al-Bokhara,?-died 983 AD), most likely worked and lived all his life in Bukhara, a city currently at the Republic of Uzbekistan. Bukhara was prospered during the Samanid dynasty (875–999 AD). Samanids established an autonomic state in north east of Persia and revived the Persian literature and traditions that had lost its official status after the Arab conquest in seventh century. During the Samanid rulers Persian language and culture revived and started to be used in art and sciences with increasing nationalistic vigor. Akhawayni was the student of one of the razes follower. He collected his medical experiences in a compendium named; Hidayat al-Mutaallemin fi al-Tibb (Learner’s Guide to Medicine). In this book he has referenced to his predecessors, Galen, Hippocrates, Rhazes, Yahya ibn Sarabyun, Dioscurides, Archigenes and Aristoteles, (1–3) Hidayat al-Mutaallemin fi al-Tibb is the oldest treatise on medicine written in Persian . Hidayat Al-Mutallimin fi al-Tibb consists of 185 chapters (Baabe). Five chapters are completely devoted to psychiatry, including’s; Ba ab mania (chapter on Mania),baabe Malikholia( chapter on Melancholia), baabe Kaboos (chapter incubus), Baabe Raja(chapter on pseudocyesis), Baabe Ghotrab(chapter on Hebpherenia/schizophrenia),baabe Honag-Al –Rahem ( conversion disorder ), there are also many psychiatric notes distributed in another parts of the text (4). As he quotes in his book, he had great success in the treatment of psychiatric and melancholic patient, and for this reason he was named pezeshk divanegan ( physician for the insane ). The oldest preserved script of this book (1058 AD) is the manuscript of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, The second, and third scripts are copies of the Fatih Library of Istanbul and the Iranian National Library of Malek in Tehran in succeeding (5, 8). Jalal Matini, a contemporary Persian scholar, compared the tree manuscripts and published a literary edition in 1965 (4). The following passages are extracted from this edition. Each passage is followed by simple explanation.