Academy of Gundishapur
From Freepedia
The Academy of Gundishapur (also Jondishapoor, Jondishapur, and Jondishapour, Gondeshapur, GONDÊ SHÂPÛR, etc.) was the intellectual center of the Sassanid empire. Its Academy offered training in medicine, philosophy, theology and science. The faculty were versed not only in the Zoroastrian and Persian traditions, but in Greek and Indian learning as well. According to The Cambridge History of Iran, it was the most important medical center of the ancient world (defined as Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East) during the 6th and 7th centuries. (Vol 4, p396. ISBN 0521200938).
Founded in 271 CE by a ruler of the Sassanid dynasty, Gundishapur was home to the world's oldest known teaching hospital, and also comprised a library and a university. It was located in the present-day province of Khuzestan, in the southwest of Iran, not far from the Karun river.
The Manichean prophet Mani's imprisonment and death are also said to have taken place in Gundishapur.
Contents |
The rise of Gundishapur
Gundishapur was one of the major cities in Khuzestan province of the Persian empire. The name Gundishapur comes from the Persian language compound term Gund-dez-i Shapur (military fortress of Shapur). Most scholars believe Shapur I, son of King Ardeshir (Artaxexes), to have founded the city after defeating a Roman army led by the emperor Valerian. Shapur II made Gundishapur his capital. However, a few scholars believe that there may have been a city at this location under the Parthian dynasty of what is now Iran proper and Khvarvaran province what is today known as Iraq.
It was under the rule of the Sassanid monarch Khosrau I (531-579 CE), known as Anushiravan, the blessed, and as Chosroes by the Greeks and Romans, that Gundishapur became known for medicine and erudition. Khosrau I gave refuge to various Greek philosophers, Syriac-speaking Christians, and Nestorians fleeing religious persecution by the Byzantine empire. The Sassanids had long battled the Romans and Byzantines for control of present day Iraq and Syria, and were naturally disposed to welcome the refugees.
The king commissioned the refugees to translate Greek and Syriac texts into Pahlavi. They translated various works on medicine, astronomy, philosophy, and useful crafts. The philosophers are said to have been unhappy in Persia, however, and later returned to Greece.
Anuhsiravan also turned towards the east, and sent the famous physician Borzouyeh to India, to invite Indian and Chinese scholars to Gundishapur. These visitors translated Indian texts on astronomy, astrology, mathematics, and medicine, and Chinese texts on herbal medicine and religion. Borzouyeh is said to have himself translated the Panchatantra from Sanskrit into Persian, as Kelileh and Demneh.
Significance of Gundishapur
According to Cyril Elgood in A Medical History of Persia, "to a very large extent, the credit for the whole hospital system must be given to Persia" (Cambridge University Press, p. 173). (For an alternate view of nationalistic history, see Nationalism and Historiography and nationalism.
In addition to systemizing medical treatment and knowledge, the scholars of the academy also transformed medical education; rather than apprenticing with just one physician, medical students were required to work in the hospital under the supervision of the whole medical faculty. There is even evidence that graduates had to pass exams in order to practice as accredited Gundishapur physicians (as recorded in an Arabic text, the Tarikh al-hikama).
George Ghevarghese Joseph, in his Crest of the Peacock (Princeton University Press, 2000) claims that Gundishapur also had a pivotal role in the history of mathematics.
Gundishapur under Muslim rule
The Sassanid dynasty fell to Muslim Arab armies in 638 CE. The academy survived the change of rulers and persisted for several centuries as a Muslim institute of higher learning. It was later rivaled by an institute established at the center of power, in the Abbasid dynasty capital of Baghdad. In 832 CE the caliph Al-Ma'mun founded the famous Bayt al-Hikma, the House of Wisdom there, copying the methods of Gundishapur and indeed staffing it with graduates of the older school. It is believed that the House of Wisdom, as a formal institution, was dispersed under Al-Ma'mun's successor Al-Mutawakkil (ruled 847-861). However, the intellectual center of the Abbasid empire seems to have then shifted to Baghdad, as henceforth there are few references to Gundishapur as university or hospital.
The significance of the center gradually then declined. According to LeStrange's 1905 compendium of Arab geographers (The Lands of the Eastern Caliphate), the 10th century writer Muqaddasi described Gundishapur as falling into ruins (LeStrange, 1905, p. 238).
Gundishapur today
Under the Pahlavi dynasty, the heritage of Gundishapur was memorialized by the founding of the Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences, near the city of Ahvaz [1].
Ancient Gundishapur is also slated for an archaeological investigation. Experts from the Archaeological Research Center of Iran's Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) and the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago plan to start excavations in early 2006 [2].
Some famous physicians of Gundishapur
- Burzoe, chief physician of Khosrau I.
- Bukhtishu, a Nestorian Persian Christian.
- Masawaiyh, a Nestorian Persian Christian.
- Sarakhsi, Ahmad Tayyeb, died 900 CE.
- Sahl, Shapur ibn. Wrote one of the first medical books on antidotes, titled the Aqrabadhin.
Sources
- The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol 4, ISBN 0521200938
- Dols, Michael W. "The origins of the Islamic hospital: myth and reality": 1987, 61: 367-90; review by: 1987, 61: 661-62
- Elgood, Cyril. A medical history of Persia, Cambridge University Press, 1951.
- Frye, Richard Nelson. The Golden Age of Persia, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1993.
- Hau, Friedrun R. "Gondeschapur: eine Medizinschule aus dem 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr.," Gesnerus, XXXVI (1979), 98-115.
See also
- Higher education in Iran
- Nizamiyyah
- List of universities in Iran
- Darolfonoon
- List of Iranian scientists from the pre-modern era.
- Modern Iranian scientists and engineers
- List of Iranian Research Centers
- National Library of Iran
