[Arabic medical literature in the nineteenth century]

Abstract

The first Arabic medical publication was a book on smallpox written by a French author, translated by a Syrian translator and printed in Cairo around the year 1800. A few years later in 1827, a medical school, teaching in Arabic, was opened in Cairo, followed by a similar medical school in Beirut in 1867. The two schools triggered the production of a host of Arabic textbooks, dictionaries and medical journals. Despite the lack of available information, this paper endeavours to review the Arabic medical literature that appeared at the time of these two pioneer schools in the nineteenth century