Origin and Development of Unani Medicine: An Analytical Study

Abstract

This study traces the history of the origin and development of Unani
medicine in the Islamic world and its later blossoming in Persia. Based mainly on
Arabic, Persian, Urdu and English sources, the study focuses on the intellectual
legacy of the Muslims in the development of Unani medicine and their interest
in the progress of medical sciences, when a number of classical works were
produced by great Muslim scholars during this period that provide evidence
of organized medical care that provided the basis for modern medicine as it
emerged from the 17th century onwards in Europe. The early Muslim scholars’
works were focused on the integration or Islamicisation of human knowledge
in the areas of medical and health-care sciences as well as those who seek
to understand the role of moral values and Maqaṣid al-Sharīʿah (‘objectives
of Sharīʿah) in medical and healthcare practices in a more comprehensive
framework, exposing the dynamic contribution of Islamic civilization to
medical progress that was later obscured in modernity by Western ideologies.