7 Facts About Medieval Medicine

Disease is as ancient as the first man’s morning breath and twice as foul. Since time immemorial, we’ve been scratching our heads, trying to make sense of why our bodies betray us with such gleeful regularity. The Greeks had it all figured out but the rest of Europe, in its infinite wisdom, decided to take a collective nap and forget the lot. Meanwhile, the Arab world scooped up the discarded pearls of Galen and Hippocrates, polishing them to a fine sheen in Arabic and Hebrew. In the Islamic realm, medical minds bloomed like desert flowers after a rare rain. They sliced and diced with newfound finesse, erected hospitals that would make a Roman bathhouse blush, and even let the fairer sex dabble in the art of healing....