Islamic Embryology and Galen

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Islamic Embryology and Galen Introduction Many Muslims frequently refer to the supposedly miraculous information on Embryology in the Qur’an as evidence of their Scriptures Divine authorship. How, they ask, could a simple illiterate man like Mohammed have known such things, other than being told by God? The standard response from critics of Scientific Miracles in the Qur’an is to say that the Qur’an is not scientifically accurate and that it’s ideas about Embryology were copied from the Ancient Greeks and Romans, especially Galen. Here is the evidence – Judge for yourselves!

The Qur'an, Surah 23 verses 13-14:

Galen (AD 129 – 199) English translation: "Thereafter We made him (the offspring of Adam) as a Nutfah (mixed drops of the male and female sexual discharge and lodged it) in a safe lodging (womb of the woman). Then We made the Nutfah into a clot (Alaqa, a piece of thick coagulated blood), then We made the clot into a little lump of flesh (Mudghah), then We made out of that little lump of flesh bones, then We clothed the bones with flesh, and then We brought it forth as another creation. So blessed be Allah, the Best of Creators!"

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Galen: On Semen

English translation: "But let us take the account back again to the first conformation of the animal, and in order to make our account orderly and clear, let us divide the creation of the foetus overall into four periods of time. 1.

The first is that in which, as is seen both in abortions and in dissection, the form of the semen prevails (Arabic Nutfah). At this time, Hippocrates too, the all-marvelous, does not yet call the conformation of the animal a foetus; as we heard just now in the case of semen voided in the sixth day, he still calls it semen.

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But when it has been filled with blood (Arabic Alaqa), and heart, brain and liver are still unarticulated and unshaped yet have by now a certain solidarity and considerable size, this is the second period; the substance of the foetus has the form of flesh and no longer the form of semen. Accordingly you would find that Hippocrates too no longer calls such a form semen but, as was said, foetus.

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3. The third period follows on this, when, as was said, it is possible to see the three ruling parts clearly and a kind of outline, a silhouette, as it were, of all the other parts (Arabic Mudghah). You will see the conformation of the three ruling parts more clearly, that of the parts of the stomach more dimly, and much more still, that of the limbs. Later on they form "twigs", as Hippocrates expressed it, indicating by the term their similarity to branches. 4. The fourth and final period is at the stage when all the parts in the limbs have been differentiated; and at this part Hippocrates the marvellous no longer calls the foetus an embryo only, but already a child, too when he says that it jerks and moves as an animal now fully formed (Arabic `A new creation')."[1]

The first stage of Galen corresponds to [Nutfah], the drop of semen. The second stage, a bloody vascularised embryo with unshaped brain, liver and heart ("when it has been filled with blood") corresponds to [Alaqa], the blood clot; The third stage "has the form of flesh" and corresponds to [Mudghah], the morsel of chewed flesh. The fourth and final stage was when all the organs were well formed, joints were freely moveable, and the foetus began to move.

If the reader is in any doubt about the clear link being described here between the Galenic and the Quranic stages, it may be pointed out that it was early Muslim doctors, including Ibn-Qayyim, who first spotted the similarity. Basim Musallam, as Director of the Centre for Middle Eastern Studies in Cambridge, U.K. concludes: "The stages of development which the Qur'an and Hadith established for believers agreed perfectly with Galen's scientific account ... There is no doubt that medieval thought appreciated this agreement between the Qur'an and Galen, for Arabic science employed the same Quranic terms to describe the Galenic stages."[2] Given the close similarity between Galen's stages and the rather less detailed description of development in Surahs 22:5 and 23:13-14, it is particularly significant that some 26 books of Galen's work were translated into Syriac as early as the sixth century AD by Sergios of Resh' Aina (Ra's al-Ain). [3] Sergios was a Christian priest who studied medicine in Alexandria and worked in Mesopotamia, dying in Constantinople in about AD 532.

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He was one of a number of Nestorian (Syriac) Christians who translated the Greek medical corpus into Syriac. The Nestorians experienced persecution from the mainstream church and fled to Persia, where they brought their completed translations of the Greek physicians' works and founded many schools of learning. The most famous of these by far was the great medical school of Jundishapur in what is now southeast Iran, founded in AD 555 by Anusharwan. The major link between Islamic and Greek medicine must be sought in late Sasanian medicine, especially in the School of Jundishapur rather than that of Alexandria. At the time of the rise of Islam Jundishapur was at its prime. It was the most important medical centre of its time, combining the Greek, Indian and Iranian medical traditions in a cosmopolitan atmosphere, which prepared the ground for Islamic medicine. The combining of different schools of medicine foreshadowed the synthesis that was to be achieved in later Islamic medicine.[4] According to Muslim medical historians, including ibn Abi Usaybia and al-Qifti, the most celebrated early graduate of Jundishapur was a doctor named al Harith ibn Kalada. [5] Faced with the collection of Syriac manuscripts of Greek physicians, which had recently been introduced to Jundishapur, it is inconceivable that he would not have been aware of Galen's theories. Furthermore, al Harith was an older contemporary of Mohammed and became one of the Companions of the Prophet. We are told by Muslim historians that Mohammed actually sought medical advice from him [6], and his "teachings undoubtedly influenced the latter" [i.e., Mohammed].[7] Cyril Elgood writes: "Such medical knowledge as Mohammed possessed, he may well have acquired from Haris bin Kalda, an Arab, who is said to have left the desert for a while and gone to Jundishapur to study medicine ... On his return Haris settled in Mecca and became the foremost physician of the Arabs of the desert. Whether he ever embraced Islam is uncertain, but this did not prevent the Prophet from sending his sick friends to consult him."[8] One further point should be made here. According to Muslim traditions part of at least one of the verses in the Qur'an relating to the developing human came originally from human lips. While Mohammed was dictating verse 23:14 to `Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh, the latter got carried away by the beauty of what he heard about the creation of man, and when Mohammed reached the words "another creature" his companion uttered the exclamation "Blessed be God, the best of creators!" Mohammed accepted these words as though they were the continuation of his revelation and told ibn Abi Sarh to write them down, even though they were quite clearly his companion's words, not Mohammed’s or Allah's words. [9] Since we know that some of the words in this aya came from one of Mohammed’s companions, what is there to stop us believing that other words in this passage came

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from another of his companions, namely al Harith, who was summarising Galen's theory of embryological development?

Conclusion From the evidence cited above a number of things become clear. 1. The works of Galen, Hippocrates and Aristotle, written originally in Greek were translated into Syriac in the century preceding the birth of Muhammed. 2. The Syriac translations were kept, and taught, in the newly founded medical school at Jundishapur, in what is now Iran. 3. One of the earliest and most celebrated doctors to graduate from Jundishapur was al Harith ibn Kalada. 4. Al Harith ibn Kalada became a companion of the Prophet and influenced his medical beliefs, according to Muslim historians of this period. 5. At least one phrase from Surah 23:14 comes from human lips. `Abdullah ibn Abi Sarh, on listening to Muhammed reciting Surah 23:14 added the words "Blessed be God, the best of creators!" and Muhammed considered these additional words to be part of God's inspired Qur'an too. 6. Putting all this together, it is entirely reasonable to conclude that other phrases could, and indeed were, added to the Quranic verses on human reproduction. These phrases were none other than Mohammed’s summaries of what he heard his companion al Harith tell him about human reproduction and development, which in turn was based upon his education at Jundishapur in the Greek tradition. 7.

Thus when the Qur'an says in Surah 40:67, "It is He Who has created you from dust, then from a Nutfah [mixed semen drops of male and female sexual discharges (i.e. Adam's offspring)] then from a clot (a piece of coagulated blood), then brings you forth as an infant, then (makes you grow) to reach the age of full strength, and afterwards to be old ... that you may reach an appointed time in order that you may understand", what are Mohammed’s readers to understand from this? Similarly, why does Surah 22:5 begin "O, Mankind! If you are in doubt about the Resurrection, then verily, We have created you (i.e. Adam) from dust..."? The answer is crystal clear. They are to understand the significance of that which was common knowledge - the stages of embryology as taught by Greek physicians. This knowledge was to be a sign to encourage the listeners to turn to God and believe.

The above should more than suffice to justify the accusation that the Qur'an plagiarises ancient Greek science.

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References [1] Corpus Medicorum Graecorum: Galeni de Semine (Galen: On Semen) (Greek text with English trans. Phillip de Lacy, Akademic Verlag, 1992) section I:9:1-10, pp. 92-95 [2] B. Musallam (Cambridge, 1983) Sex and Society in Islam. p. 54 [3] G. Sarton, (Williams and Wilkins, 1927) Introduction to the History of Science, vol I, pp. 423-424 [4] H. Bailey (ed) (Cambridge University Press, 1975) Cambridge History of Iran, vol 4, p. 414 [5] E. G. Browne (Cambridge University Press, 1962) Arabian Medicine, p. 11 [6] M. J. L. Young et al., (Cambridge University Press, 1990) Cambridge History of Arabic Literature: Religion, Learning and Science in the `Abbasid Period, p. 342 [7] A. A. Khairallah (American Press, Beirut, 1946) Outline of Arabic Contributions to Medicine, p. 22 [8] C. Elgood (Cambridge University Press, 1951) A Medical History of Persia, p. 66 [9] Commentary of al-Baydhawi (Lights of Revelation (Dar al Geel)) p. 184. A detailed discussion can be found on the pages regarding Ibn Abi Sarh.