Muhadhdhabuddin Abd al-Rahim bin Ali bin Hamid al-Dimashqi ( ar, مهذب الدين عبد الرحيم بن علي بن حامد الدمشقي) known as al-Dakhwar ( ar, الدخوار) (1170–1230) was a leading

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

physician who served various rulers of the

Ayyubid dynasty The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish origin, Saladin ...

.Ali, 1996, p.40. He was also administratively responsible for medicine in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

and

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

. Al-Dakhwar educated or influenced most of the prominent physicians of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

in the century, including writer

Ibn Abi Usaibia Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa Muʾaffaq al-Dīn Abū al-ʿAbbās Aḥmad Ibn Al-Qāsim Ibn Khalīfa al-Khazrajī ( ar, ابن أبي أصيبعة‎; 1203–1270), commonly referred to as Ibn Abi Usaibia (also ''Usaibi'ah, Usaybea, Usaibi`a, Usaybiʿah'' ...

and Ibn al-Nafis, the discoverer of blood circulation in the human body.

Early life

Al-Dakhwar was born and brought up in Damascus, the son of an

oculist Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a medic ...

. Initially, he too was an oculist at the Nuri Hospital of Damascus,Mahfuz, 1935, p.16. but afterward he studied medicine with Ibn al-Matran.Meyerhof, 1968, p.9.

Physician of the Ayyubids

In 1208,

al-Adil Al-Adil I ( ar, العادل, in full al-Malik al-Adil Sayf ad-Din Abu-Bakr Ahmed ibn Najm ad-Din Ayyub, ar, الملك العادل سيف الدين أبو بكر بن أيوب,‎ "Ahmed, son of Najm ad-Din Ayyub, father of Bakr, the Just K ...

, the

Sultan of Egypt Sultan of Egypt was the status held by the rulers of Egypt after the establishment of the Ayyubid dynasty of Saladin in 1174 until the Ottoman conquest of Egypt in 1517. Though the extent of the Egyptian Sultanate ebbed and flowed, it generall ...

, told his vizier al-Sahib ibn Shukur, that he was in need of another physician with the equivalent skill of the chief of medicine at the time, Abd al-Aziz al-Sulami. Al-Adil believed that al-Sulami was busy enough serving as physician of the army. Ibn Shukur recommended al-Dakhwar for the post and offered him 30

dinar The dinar () is the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, and its historical use is even more widespread. The modern dinar's historical antecedents are the gold dinar and the silver dirham, the main coin ...

s a month. Al-Dakhwar turned him down, citing that al-Sulami receives 100 dinars a month and stating "I know my ability in this field and I will not take less!"Leiser and al-Khaledy, 2004, p.5. Al-Sulami died on June 7 and soon after al-Dakhwar himself came into contact with

, and the latter was greatly impressed by him. He not only appointed him as his personal physician, but also as one of his confidants. When al-Adil died, his son and successor in Damascus, al-Mu'azzam, made him chief superintendent of the Nasiri Hospital. There he wrote books and gave lectures on medicine to his students. Later, when al-Adil's other son

al-Ashraf __NOTOC__ Al-Ashraf, either from ( ar, الأشرف, 'the most noble') or (, 'the nobles'), may refer to: People * Al-Ashraf Al-Barsbay, Burji Mamluk sultan of Egypt (1422–1438) * Al-Ashraf Qansuh al-Ghuri, Mamluk Sultan (1501–1516) * Al-As ...

annexed Damascus after al-Mu'azzam died, al-Dakhwar was promoted as chief medical officer of the Ayyubid state.Ali, 1996, p.41.

Books

Medicine

*''al-Janinah'' ("The Embryo") *''Sharh Taqdimat-il-Ma'rifah'' ("Commentary on the Introduction of Knowledge") *''Mukhtasar-ul-Hawl-il-Razi'' ("Resume of al-Hawi by al-Razi")

Poetry

*''Kitab ul-Aghani'' (a summarized version of "The Book of Songs" by al-Isfahani)

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dak 1170 births 1230 deaths People from Damascus 13th-century Egyptian physicians Physicians from the Ayyubid Sultanate 13th-century Arabs