NEUROPSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS IN THE OLDEST MEDICAL TEXTBOOK IN PERSIAN WRITTEN AROUND 990 A.D.

Written around 990 A.D Hidayat-Motaallemin Fil Tibb (Students’ Guide in Medicine) is the oldest general medical Text known to have been written in modern Persian. Little is known of the author other than the fact that he was apparently a well experienced practicing physician by t he name of Abu Bakr Rabi'bin Ahmadal-Akhawaini from Bukhara who claimed to be a second generation student of Razi. The neuropsychiatric sections of the book arc of particular interest because the author apparently had a personal interest in and reputation for treating the insane. According to one of the manuscripts he was known as the "Physician of the Insane" by his contemporaries. Following the line of olher Islamic medical writers. the author has described the major neuropsychiatric disorders in the chapter dealing with the "Diseases of the Head and Brain". These include Melancholia. Mania. Epilepsy, Phlebitis, Lethargy and Delirium. hysteria is, however. described among the diseases of the female reproductive system. Both the terminology used and the authorities quoted betray the author’s schooling in and devotion to the Greco-Roman medical traditions adopted by early Islamic medical writers. He emerges as a hardheaded organic physician dedicated to the humoral doctrines of mental illness.