Hello, I'm Mr. Marchant, and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.

I'll be guiding you through all of our resources today, and my top aim is to make sure that by the end of the lesson, you can successfully meet our learning objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on mediaeval Medicine and Health, where we've been asking ourselves, "How much was known about medicine and health?" By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to evaluate the significance of Islamic contributions to medicine in mediaeval Europe.

There are three keywords which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are: Scholar, anatomy, and Arabic.

A scholar is someone who has studied a subject and knows a lot about it.

Anatomy is the scientific study of the body and how its parts are arranged.

And Arabic is the language of Islam.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts, and we'll begin by focusing on Islamic medical beliefs.

Christianity was the dominant religion in mediaeval Europe, but not in many of the regions surrounding it.

Islam was the dominant religion in many areas close to mediaeval Europe, such as the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

What was the dominant religion in many of the areas which surrounded mediaeval Europe? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was Islam.

Islam was the dominant religion in many of the areas, such as North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean, which surrounded mediaeval Europe.

Like Christians, mediaeval Muslims believe that their God, Allah, could be responsible for illness and disease, and that there might be other natural causes of sickness, which Allah allowed to affect some people.

However, whereas some mediaeval Christians were concerned that curing a sick person would be a challenge to God's plan, Islamic teachings encouraged Muslims to find ways of combating diseases.

For example, the Prophet Muhammad told Muslims to seek knowledge even as far as China, and said that, "For every disease, Allah has given a cure." Therefore, Muslims felt comfortable to find methods which would help treat the sick.

These religious differences also led to differences between mediaeval Christian and Islamic hospitals.

Whereas, Christian-run hospitals tended to be staffed by nuns and monks who prioritised spiritual care, such as prayer for their patients, hospitals in Muslim-ruled areas had doctors present at all times and focused on treating their patients' physical conditions.

Hospitals were built in many Islamic cities and often acted as centres of learning too.

For instance, a hospital set up in Baghdad in the early ninth century also had a medical school attached to it.

Medical students in Muslim-ruled areas often trained alongside qualified doctors in hospitals at the same time as they studied medical texts.

This contrasted with physicians in mediaeval Europe who trained through book-led learning at church-controlled universities, such as Oxford and Cambridge.

Indeed, some Christian physicians never saw a patient at all during their training.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

We have a statement on the screen which reads, "Muslims and Christians both believed that disease might be sent by God." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was true.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So why is it that that original statement was correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said, "Christians believed disease was part of God's plan and Muslims believed Allah could be responsible for creating sickness." So let's try another question.

What did the Prophet Muhammad's explanation that, "For every disease, Allah has given a cure," encourage? Was it acts of penance amongst Muslims? A Muslim search for medical treatments? Or the belief that disease should not be treated? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B.

The Prophet Muhammad's explanation that "For every disease Allah has given a cure," encouraged Muslims to search for medical treatments.

And let's try another question.

This time I want you to write the missing word from the following sentence.

Doctors and medical students were commonly found in mediaeval, blank, hospitals.

So what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the missing word was Islamic.

Doctors and medical students were commonly found in mediaeval Islamic hospitals, unlike in Christian hospitals at the time where care was usually provided by religious figures such as nuns and monks.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge about Islamic medical beliefs into practise.

I want you to complete the Venn diagram.

We have five different beliefs and practises which say: God created disease, hospitals wanted to avoid challenging God's plan, doctors trained by reading and observing, encouraged to find cures, and hospitals were staffed by doctors.

You need to decide and identify which section, Muslim, Christian, or both, each of those medical beliefs and practises belongs in in our Venn diagram.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to complete the Venn diagram, and you should have done it as follows: Number one, that God created disease.

Well, that was a belief shared by both Muslims and Christians, so it should have gone in the middle of your Venn diagram.

Hospitals wanting to avoid challenging God's plan was a Christian practise.

They were worried that trying to cure patients could challenge God, so they avoided doing this.

They focused on spiritual care instead.

Our third point should have gone into the Muslim part of your Venn diagram, that doctors trained by reading and observing.

The fourth idea we had, that these people were encouraged to find cures, well, that mainly belonged to Muslims. We know that Christians were worried about challenging God's plan, whereas Muslims were encouraged by the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad who said that, "Allah had made a cure for every disease." And for our final point, that hospitals were staffed by doctors.

Again, that should have gone in the Muslim part of your Venn diagram.

We know that unlike in Christian hospitals, which were mainly staffed by religious figures, there were always doctors present in Islamic hospitals in the mediaeval period.

So really well done if you identified each of those ideas and practises correctly in your Venn diagram.

And now we're ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today where we're going to focus on Islamic medical knowledge.

Several important contributions to mediaeval medical knowledge were provided by Muslim scholars and medics.

These contributions included both the preservation of ancient Greek and Roman works and the improvement of knowledge about diseases, treatments, and human anatomy.

The ancient Greeks and Romans had written widely on many topics, including those on medicine.

Many of these ancient medical works were translated into Arabic by Muslim scholars in the early mediaeval period.

For example, in the eighth century CE, hundreds of ancient Greek and Roman works, including books by Hippocrates and Galen, were translated into Arabic and stored in a vast library in Baghdad, which later became known as the House of Wisdom.

In this way, ancient medical knowledge was preserved into the mediaeval period through the efforts of Muslim scholars.

So thinking about what we've just heard, what did Muslim scholars do with ancient Greek and Roman medical texts? Was it that they burned them, ignored them, or translated them? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.

Muslim scholars translated many ancient Greek and Roman medical texts.

Many Muslim medics helped improve Islamic medical knowledge, and amongst these were Al-Razi, also known as Rhazes to many Europeans.

Ibn Sina, who's also been known as Avicenna, and Ibn al-Nafis.

Al-Razi, like Hippocrates and Galen before him, emphasised the importance of observing patients closely.

Partly because of this, Al-Razi was the first person to distinguish that measles and smallpox, which are both viral infections, were separate diseases.

During his life, Al-Razi wrote over 150 books, including one called "Doubts About Galen." Despite the fact that Al-Razi followed many of Galen's ideas, he also told his readers and students that they should try to improve the work of their teachers, not just accept them.

Ibn Sina also wrote many books on medicine, the most famous of which was "The Canon of Medicine," which he finished in 1025.

This book contained chapters on anatomy, various health conditions, natural treatments, and even listed the medical properties of 760 different drugs.

Importantly, Ibn Sina's work included ancient knowledge like Galen's, but also built upon it by including new discoveries and knowledge.

Ibn al-Nafis, a 13th century physician, not only built upon Galen's ideas, but also highlighted some of Galen's mistakes about human anatomy.

For example, whereas Galen had believed that blood passed straight from the left-hand side of the heart to the right, al-Nafis correctly described that blood circulated around the body via the lungs.

So let's check our understanding of everything we've just heard.

Al-Razi was the first person to distinguish which two diseases from one another? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answers.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answers were measles and smallpox.

Al-Razi was the first person to distinguish these two viral infections apart from one another.

This was because he believed in closely observing patients.

And let's try another question.

Who wrote "The Canon of Medicine?" Was it Al-Razi, Ibn al-Nafis, or Ibn Sina? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.

"The Canon of Medicine" was written by Ibn Sina.

And let's try another question.

This time we have a statement which reads, "Muslim medics refused to criticise Galen's work." Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false.

But we need to be able to justify our response.

So how can we tell that original statement was incorrect? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, so well done everybody who said, "Ibn al-Nafis corrected Galen's view of how blood circulates around the body, and Al-Razi wrote a book called 'Doubts about Galen.

'" So that puts us in a good position to put all of our knowledge about Islamic medical knowledge into practise.

I want you to complete the table by describing how Muslim scholars and medics made the following contributions to mediaeval medicine.

So the areas of contribution you need to think about are: The preservation and knowledge, knowledge of diseases, knowledge of treatments, and knowledge of anatomy.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I ask you to complete the table by describing how Muslim scholars and medics made the following contributions to mediaeval medicine.

And your answers may have included: For preserving knowledge, the ancient Greek and Roman works were translated into Arabic and stored in libraries like the House of Wisdom.

For knowledge of diseases, you may have written that Al-Razi was the first person to distinguish that measles and smallpox were separate diseases.

For knowledge of treatments, you may have put that Ibn Sina's "The Canon of Medicine" listed the medical properties of 760 different drugs.

And for knowledge of anatomy, you may have put that Ibn al-Nafis corrected Galen by describing that blood circulates around the body via the lungs.

So now we're ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson for today, where we're going to think about Islamic medicine and Europe.

Islamic contributions to mediaeval medicine influenced knowledge and practises across Christian Europe, including in Britain.

However, historians have debated the extent and nature of this influence.

Communications created through trade and warfare, especially during the Crusades, helped Islamic medical ideas to spread to Christian Europe.

For instance, the first translations of Muslim medical texts in Latin, the language of Christianity, to arrive in mediaeval Italy were brought by a merchant and physician known as Constantine the African.

Trade networks continued to spread these translated texts throughout Europe so that they also reached areas such as Germany, France, and England.

So thinking about what we've just heard, what does Constantine the African's example suggest helped Islamic medicine to spread to Europe? Is it technology, trade, or war? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B.

Constantine the African's example suggests that trade helped Islamic medicine to spread to Europe because Constantine was a merchant.

So as he traded with different parts of the world, he was able to help spread Islamic medical ideas to Europe.

The work of Muslim scholars to translate ancient Greek and Roman medical works was very important for medicine in Christian Europe.

In the Early mediaeval period, many of these medical texts had become lost to Western Europe.

The translation of these books into Arabic helped to preserve the knowledge they contained.

Once they were translated back into Latin, this knowledge helped medics from Italy to England.

Muslim texts, including new knowledge about anatomy, disease, and treatments, also reached Europe through Latin translations from the 11th century onwards.

Al-Razi's books and Ibn Sina's "The Canon of Medicine" even became standard textbooks used to train physicians across Christian Europe, including at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

However, whilst the knowledge in his books was influential, Al-Razi's encouragement that students should try to improve the work of authors like Galen was often ignored in Europe.

Similarly, although Ibn al-Nafis had corrected Galen's views about the circulation of blood in the body, his books were not read in Europe.

Consequently, Galen remained fundamental to medicine in Christian Europe and criticism of his works, including its mistakes, continued to be discouraged.

So let's check our understanding.

I want you to write the missing word from the following sentence: Works by Muslim authors like Al-Razi and Ibn Sina became standard medical textbooks in European, blank.

So what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the missing word was universities.

Works by Muslim authors like Al-Razi and Ibn Sina became standard medical textbooks in European universities where Christian physicians were trained.

Let's try another question.

How did Islamic medicine affect the influence of Galen in mediaeval European medicine? Was it that it discouraged challenges to Galen's influence? That it encouraged challenges to Galen's influence? Or that it had minimal impact on Galen's influence? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.

Islamic medicine had minimal impact on Galen's influence in mediaeval Europe.

For instance, Ibn al-Nafis's corrections on some of Galen's mistakes about the circulation of blood weren't even published in mediaeval Europe.

So we're now in a good position to put all of our knowledge of Islamic medicine in Europe into practise.

I want you to answer the following question: How significant were Islamic contributions for medical progress in Christian Europe during the mediaeval period? In your answer, you may consider the benefits of Islamic contributions and the limitations on the Islamic influences.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your effort during that task.

So I asked you, "How significant were Islamic contributions for medical progress in Christian Europe during the mediaeval period?" And your answer may have included: Medical progress in Christian Europe during the mediaeval period benefited from translation of medical works produced by Muslim medics.

For example, Ibn Sina's "The Canon of Medicine" was translated from Arabic into Latin and spread throughout Europe, becoming a standard textbook to train physicians.

This allowed medics in Christian Europe to benefit from the ancient Greek and Roman knowledge, which Sina's work preserved, as well as from the new knowledge of anatomy, disease, and treatments which had been developed by Muslim medics.

However, whilst many Islamic medical works spread across Europe and increased medical knowledge, not all of the ideas contained in these works was accepted in mediaeval Europe.

For instance, Al-Razi encouraged people to try and improve the works of Galen and Ibn al-Nafis even highlighted a key error in Galen's understanding of anatomy.

Nevertheless, Galen's ideas remained highly influential in Europe, and criticism of his work was not accepted.

Therefore, whilst Islamic contributions were significant for expanding European medical knowledge in the mediaeval period, this influence was partially limited as it was unable to overcome Galen's significant influence.

So really well done, especially if your own response looks something similar to that model which we've just seen.

And that means we've now reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise our learning about the nature and importance of Islamic medicine and surgery.

We've seen that Islamic teachings encouraged increases in medical knowledge and efforts to find new treatments for disease.

Many ancient Greek and Roman medical texts, including Galen's books, were preserved by Muslim scholars who translated them into Arabic.

Muslim medics such as Al-Razi, Ibn Sina, and Ibn al-Nafis contributed to new medical knowledge of diseases, treatments, and human anatomy.

Islamic medical works such as "The Canon of Medicine" were translated into Latin, spread through Europe, and became key medical textbooks.

But Muslim challenges to Galen's work, including Ibn al-Nafis's corrections of his mistakes, were not accepted in mediaeval Europe.

So really well done for all of your hard work during today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you through our resources today, and I look forward to seeing you again in the future as we continue to think about mediaeval medicine and health.