The Most Famous
PHYSICIANS from Iraq
This page contains a list of the greatest Iraqi Physicians. The pantheon dataset contains 726 Physicians, 1 of which were born in Iraq. This makes Iraq the birth place of the 49th most number of Physicians behind Azerbaijan, and Tunisia.
Top 2
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Iraqi Physicians of all time. This list of famous Iraqi Physicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi (1162 - 1231)
With an HPI of 57.15, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi is the most famous Iraqi Physician. His biography has been translated into 23 different languages on wikipedia.
ʿAbd al-Laṭīf al-Baghdādī (Arabic: عبداللطيف البغدادي, 1162 Baghdad–1231 Baghdad), short for Muwaffaq al-Dīn Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Laṭīf ibn Yūsuf al-Baghdādī (Arabic: موفق الدين محمد عبد اللطيف بن يوسف البغدادي), was a physician, philosopher, historian, Arabic grammarian and traveller, and one of the most voluminous writers of his time.
2. Ibn Butlan (1001 - 1066)
With an HPI of 52.25, Ibn Butlan is the 2nd most famous Iraqi Physician. His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.
Abū 'l-Ḥasan al-Muḫtār Yuwānnīs ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAbdūn ibn Saʿdūn ibn Buṭlān (Arabic: أبو الحسن المختار إيوانيس بن الحسن بن عبدون بن سعدون بن بطلان; ; ca. first quarter of the 11th century AD – 8 Šauwāl 458 AH/2 September 1066 AD) known as Ibn Buṭlān (Arabic: ابن بطلان; ) was a physician and Arab Christian theologian from Baghdad during the Abbasid era. He left his hometown for travels throughout the Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor during which he practiced medicine, studied, wrote, and engaged in intellectual debates most famously the Battle of the Physicians with Ibn Riḍwān. He was a first-hand witness of the Schism of 1054 in Constantinople, contributing a work to the discussions surrounding it for Patriarch Michael I Cerularius. After his time in Constantinople he remained in the Byzantine Empire, becoming a monk in Antioch during the end of the Macedonian Renaissance. He is most renowned for his work Taqwīm aṣ-Ṣiḥḥa (Arabic: تقويم الصحّة, lit. 'Tabular Register of Health'; ) a handbook on dietetics and hygiene. It was named for its intricate tables, similar to those found within a Taqwīm as-Sana (Arabic: تقويم السنة, lit. 'tabular register of the year'), a type of astrological almanac. He was the first person to use these tables in a non-astrological work, creating a new scientific writing format and should therefore be seen as the main influence on all subsequent uses of this format, like Ibn Ǧazla's Taqwīm al-Abdān fī Tadbīr al-Insān and Abū 'l-Fidāʾ's Taqwīm al-Buldān. The many preserved manuscripts of Latin translations of the Taqwīm aṣ-Ṣiḥḥa in Europe are thought to illustrate the relationship between early modern Europe and the Arab World in the field of medical science. Despite increased European contact with Egypt and Syria because of the Crusades and trade into the sixteenth century there are no Latin translations of medical texts from Arab writers after Ibn Buṭlān. Ibn Buṭlān is additionally noteworthy for being one of a few non-Muslim physicians about whom enough is known to paint a detailed biography, during a period when the People of the Pact, that is Christians, Jews, and Sabians, dominated the medical profession. Documents like the Cairo Geniza provide scientific records about the medical practices of such physicians but lack reliable information outside of that to create detailed biographies about them and to describe their perception and role within society. Ibn Buṭlān therefore presents an important exception to this general lack of sources.
People
Pantheon has 2 people classified as Iraqi physicians born between 1001 and 1162. Of these 2, none of them are still alive today. The most famous deceased Iraqi physicians include Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, and Ibn Butlan. As of April 2024, 1 new Iraqi physicians have been added to Pantheon including Ibn Butlan.
