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Spain / Iran: European depiction of the Persian physician and polymath al-Razi, Receuil des traites de medecine, Gerard of Cremona (1250–1260).

Spain / Iran: European depiction of the Persian physician and polymath al-Razi, <i>Receuil des traites de medecine</i>, Gerard of Cremona (1250–1260).

Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi, also known by his Latinized name Rhazes or Rasis (854 CE – 925 CE), was a Persian polymath, physician, alchemist, philosopher, and important figure in the history of medicine.

A comprehensive thinker, Razi made fundamental and enduring contributions to various fields, which he recorded in over 200 manuscripts, and is particularly remembered for numerous advances in medicine through his observations and discoveries. An early proponent of experimental medicine, he became a successful doctor, and served as chief physician of Baghdad and Rey hospitals.

Gerard of Cremona (Latin: Gerardus Cremonensis), c. 1114–1187, was an Italian translator of scientific books from Arabic into Latin. He worked in Toledo, Spain and obtained the Arabic books in the libraries at Toledo. Some of the books had been originally written in Greek and were unavailable in Greek or Latin in Europe at the time.

Gerard of Cremona is the most important translator among the Toledo School of Translators who invigorated medieval Europe in the twelfth century by transmitting the Arabs and ancient Greek knowledge in astronomy, medicine and other sciences, by making the knowledge available in the Latin language.

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