President: Iran Can Be Regarded As Major Global Medical Source

Tehran, Nov 13, IRNA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that relying on its rich ancient history of medical sciences, Iran can be considered as a major medial source in the world. The President made the remarks while attending a ceremony to inaugurate new building of Tehran’s first hospital (Sina) which was built 140 years ago. Minister of Health Marziyeh Vahid-Dastjerdi and Head of Tehran’s Medical Sciences Faculty Mohammad Baqer Larijani were also present in the ceremony. The practice and study of medicine in Persia has a long and prolific history. The Iranian academic centers like Jondishapour University (3rd century AD) were a breeding ground for the union among great scientists from different civilizations. These centers successfully followed their predecessors’ theories and greatly extended their scientific research through history. Avicenna, for instance, was a famous Persian polymath who was regarded as the most famous and influential polymath of the Islamic Golden Age. He had almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 40 have concentrated on medicine. The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities, was one of his two famous works which was used as a text-book in the universities of Montpellier and Leuven as late as 1650./end