Investigating the Role of Single Herbal Medicine Trade in the Development of Pharmacological Knowledge in Fars in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries AH

One of the most important conditions for the development of medical and pharmacological knowledge in human societies is the availability of drugs. In the past, the most important and widely used types of medications were medicinal herbs. The trade in herbal medicines, imported mainly from India, China, and Southeast Asia, flourished in Fars in the eighth and ninth centuries AH. Examination of the writings of prominent Shirazi physicians and pharmacists, such as Najm al-Din Mahmud ibn Ilyas al-Shirazi, Haji Zain Al-Attar and Muhammad ibn Abdullah Lari, showed that the development of pharmacological knowledge in Fars in the eighth and ninth centuries AH was mainly due to the availability and trade of herbal medicines. The medicine trade was reflected in the poems of Kamal Ghias and Boshaq Atameh Shirazi, the poets of the eighth and ninth centuries AH, as well. This research, based on a descriptive-analytical method and library sources, seeks to find out how the trade of single herbal medicament was in Fars in the eighth and ninth centuries AH and what effects it had on the development of pharmacological knowledge. The findings indicate that the prosperity of the single herbal medicine trade played an important role in the development of the Fars medical school in the mentioned centuries.