The treatise not only reflects the new chemical medicine of the European Paracelsians, but also described for the first time in Arabic a number of `new' diseases, such as scurvy, chlorosis, anaemia, the English sweat (a type of influenza), and plica polonica (an eastern European epidemic of matted and crusted hair caused by infestation with lice). Many of the medicaments required distillation processes and plants that were indigenous to the New World, such as guaiacum and sarsaparilla. Therapy was primarily a drug therapy, with diseases explained in terms of salt, quicksilver and sulphur rather than the Galenic theory of the balance of humors. 1637), professor of medicine at Wittenberg. 1609), professor of medicine at the University of Marburg, and Daniel Sennert (d. Ibn Sallum incorporated into his book The Culmination of Perfection in the Treatment of the Human Body ( Ghayat al-itqan fi tadbir badan al-insan ) translations of several Latin Paracelsian writings, such as those by Oswald Croll (d. Sali ibn Nasr ibn Sallum, a physician born in Aleppo, Syria, and later court physician in Istanbul to the Ottoman ruler Mehmet IV (ruled 1648-1687/1058-1099 H) was greatly influenced by these writings. 1541), whose `chemical medicine' employed mineral acids, inorganic salts, and alchemical procedures in the production of remedies.

In the 17th century, early modern European medical theory had an impact upon Islamic medicine through the writings of the Paracelsians, followers of Paracelsus (d. The illuminated opening of the Arabic treatise on Paracelsian medicine, The Culmination of Perfection in the Treatment of the Human Body ( Ghayat al-itqan fi tadbir badan al-insan), written in the 17th century by Ibn Sallum.ДЄ provincial Ottoman copy finished 26 October 1749 (2 Sha`ban 1162 H) by scribe Sami` Mustafa Efendi al-Sha`ir.

Da'ud al-Antaki also relied heavily upon medieval Islamic writers and earlier Greek sources, for which he learned Greek so as to study them directly. For example, Da'ud al-Antaki, a Syrian physician who died in 1599 (1008 H), included a similar description of syphilis and China Root in his Arabic medical encyclopedia. This new drug for treating a new disease was rapidly incorporated into Arabic medical writings. In his Persian treatise on syphilis written in 1569 (977 H), he followed the European practice of advocating for its treatment the use of China Root ( Chub-chini), the rhizome of an Old World species of Smilax found in eastern Asia. This was written by `Imad al-Din Mas`ud Shirazi, a physician at the hospital in Mashhad in northeast Iran. In the latter half of the 16th century, Islamic medicine then became receptive to some of the ideas, techniques, and drug therapies developing in Europe.Д®arly modern European influence can first be seen in the earliest Islamic treatise on syphilis. Within two more centuries, however, vitality and creativity had disappeared, the medical literature had stultified, and the practice of medicine deteriorated to the point where it no longer represented the medieval tradition at its best. Nonetheless, the learned medical community remained quite productive through the 14th century, particularly in Syria and Egypt. With the expansion of the population, the remaining hospitals and dispensaries proved inadequate. Consequently, the hospitals tended to deteriorate and eventually fall into disuse, except for a few such as the Nuri hospital in Damascus which continued to operate as a hospital until the end of the 19th century. The hospitals were dependent upon charitable endowments for their maintenance, and with time these funds became insufficient to support them, or, not infrequently, the lands supporting the endowment were confiscated. The Mamluk rulers in Egypt managed to hold off the Mongol invasions, and it is no doubt for that reason that the medical community there remained active longer than elsewhere, with the exception of Safavid Iran. Spain was lost, European crusaders made repeated invasions into the central lands, and in the 13th century Mongol invasions from the east disrupted life. As the Islamic world became increasingly fragmented, the patronage and accompanying prestige and security enjoyed by the leading physicians declined.

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