Role of Jundi-Shapur in Streamlining of ILM-E-TIBB (Medicine)

Abstract

People have always felt the need to seek the knowledge from time immemorial. Be it the knowledge of religion or science or philosophy or astronomy. The knowledge of medicine was confined to cultures till 4th century AD. Every subcontinent and every civilization was having its own traditions to treat the diseases, e.g. Ayurved in India, Egyptian traditional medicine in Egypt, Chinese traditional medicine in China, Iranian Traditional medicine in Iran etc etc. It was during the 5th century AD when Roman Empire cracked down on its seminaries and the intellectuals were forced to leave the country. Those intellectuals were given refuge by Persian Empire where in a city was established with ultimate autonomy under Khusro, Jundi-Shapur became a prosperous metropolis, refuge, and melting pot for intellectuals from many regions. Shapur II (309-379 A.D.) is credited for conceiving and establishing the nucleus of the university in the latter part of the fourth century. The closing of the Athenian school by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian (AD 539) also drove many leaned Greek physicians to Jundi-Shapur. This was the start of the integration of different traditional medicine of different civilizations. This formed the basis of what we see today as modern medicine. In this way JundiShapur has important role in the development of Medical knowledge and it remained in the leading role until 9th Century AD.