Military Medicine in Islamic Civilization until the Fall of Baghdad

Relief and rescuing the lives of the wounded, particularly the soldiers in wars is significantly important, besides, this issue can be traced in all historical periods in various forms. Furthermore, in Islamic civilization, this issue has been paid attention to by relatively appropriate scientific advances, especially in the field of health and treatment. In Islamic civilization, the rate of this process was gradual, so that it started with the presence of Muslim women for relief and first aid, and then it proceeded to form more cohesive organizations in the form of mobile hospitals. In addition, hiring skilled physicians in this field led to the formation of the first military medical organization in Islamic civilization. The aim of the current research is to study the evolution trend of military medicine and the factors affecting it in Islamic civilization.

The main materials of the present study are historical and medical information and data gathered from various sources. Along with them, new research on the medicine of the Golden Age of Islamic civilization is applied. The method of the research is descriptive-analytical and based on the data collection method, it was done by the library research method.

In agreement with the results of the current research, it can be said that paying attention to the treatment of military forces has a historical background in Islamic civilization as well as it has evolved gradually. Besides, according to the time being existed, this issue was highly relevant which can be considered as a support for the modern military medicine in the Islamic countries army units, particularly Iran.

According to the available data, the facilities and the technological level of the period being studied, several relatively appropriate actions have been carried out to create a coherent organization and employ physicians in the military hospitals. However, there were some difficulties to hospitalize the wounded soldiers. The problems were due to several factors such as lack of serious training, trouble in transferring wounded as well as the impossibility of surgery.