Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariya' ar-Razi

Arabic physician and alchemist, b. c. 865 (Rayy, Iran), d. 923/932 (Rayy).

Little is known about ar-Razi's early life. Some scholars believe that he was an alchemist before he entered medical practice, but his lasting fame is based on his work as a physician. He worked as the chief physician in a hospital in Rayy, Persia, and moved to Baghdad. He did not, however, enter service for the Abbasid court but worked at various small courts of minor rulers.

Ar-Razi had studied all major Greek classics and considered himself the spiritual successor of Socrates, the philosophical successor of Plato and the professional successor of Hippocrates. Though this might sound bold, his achievements certainly stand him at par with the greatest Greek physician. The European civilization knows him under his Latinized name Rhazes. Among his many works are

• Kitab al-Mansuri ("Book of Mansur"), a monograph in ten volumes written for the ruler of Rayy Mansur ibn Ishaq; in the European civilization it became famous through its Latin translation Liber Almansoris by Gerard of Cremona of the 12th century.
• Kitab al-hawi ("Comprehensive Book"), an encyclopaedia of Greek, Syrian and some Indian medicine that includes commentaries on early Arabic medicine and own observations and judgement; it was translated into Latin as Continens.
• Kitab al-jadari wal-hasbha ("Treatise on the Small Pox and Measles"), a small work considered by many the masterpiece of Arab medicine; it was translated into Latin, Byzantine Greek and several living languages.

Ar-Razi's other works include a book known in the European civilization as The Spiritual Physick of Rhazes, a combination of alchemy and ethics. Ar-Razi's philosophical writings were much less known. They include a theory of matter based on the theory of atoms.

Ar-Razi's name lives on in Muslim communities around the world. The Ar-Razi Medical Centre in Leicester, UK, is part of the British National Health Service.

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