- Also called:
- Unani tibb, Arabian medicine, or Islamic medicine
- Related Topics:
- medicine
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What is Unani medicine?
Unani medicine is a traditional healing and health maintenance system practiced in South Asia that originated with ancient Greek physicians like Hippocrates and Galen. It was later developed and refined by Arab scholars, notably Avicenna.
Hakims, or practitioners of Unani medicine, emphasize natural healing based on harmony and balance, uniting the physical, mental, and spiritual. Treatment normalizes external factors and may include diet, pharmacotherapy, and regimental therapies like massage and exercise.
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Where and when did Unani medicine originate?
Unani medicine originated from the doctrines of ancient Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen. It was later developed and refined through systematic experimentation by Arabs, most prominently by the Muslim scholar-physician Avicenna. During the Caliphate (beginning in 632 ce), the bulk of Greek knowledge was translated into Arabic, including the principles of medicine. With additional contributions of medical wisdom from other parts of the Middle East and South Asia, Unani medicine came to be known as Arabian, or Islamic, medicine.
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What are the main beliefs or principles of Unani medicine?
Unani medicine is a traditional healing system from South Asia rooted in the doctrines of ancient Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen. It emphasizes natural healing based on harmony and balance, uniting the physical, mental, and spiritual realms.
Key principles include the seven basic physiological principles, al-umoor al-tabiyah, such as elements, temperament, bodily humours, organs and systems, vital spirit, faculties or powers, and functions. The four essential temperaments (mizaj) are hot, cold, moist, and dry. Each individual has a unique humoral makeup, and health relies on maintaining the balance of these elements. Treatment normalizes external factors and may involve diet, natural medicines, or regimental therapies to restore well-being.
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How does Unani medicine explain health and disease?
In Unani medicine, health is maintained by the balance of seven physiological principles, al-umoor al-tabiyah, which include elements, temperament, humours, organs and systems, vital spirit, faculties or powers, and functions. Each person has a unique humoral makeup, with a balance in the quality and quantity of humours (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) that guarantees health.
Disease arises when this balance is disturbed. The theory of humours, nazaria-e-akhlat, is the basis of Unani medicine, stating that the four humours result from the digestion process. These humours circulate throughout the body, affecting physical and behavioral well-being, and are most stable in a healthy person.
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What kinds of treatments are used in Unani medicine?
Unani medicine uses a range of treatments to restore balance and well-being. The initial approach involves normalizing external factors like air, water, and food. If needed, natural medicines may be recommended to boost the body's tabiyat, or self-regulating capacity.
Therapeutic approaches include:
* Dietotherapy (Ilaj-bi-ghiza) Specific diets are recommended, considering both the amount and quality of food.
* Pharmacotherapy (Ilaj-bi-dawa) This involves using medicines from herbal, mineral, and animal sources. The Unani system has a large collection of over 2,000 medicines.
* Regimental Therapies (Tadabeer) These include massage, baths, exercise, and procedures like cupping and leeching to remove impurities from the body.
* Organotherapy (Ilaj-bi-misla) Though less common today, this treatment involves using tissue extracts from a healthy animal's organ to heal the same diseased organ in a patient.
* Surgery (Ilaj-bil-yad) Surgical interventions are considered a last resort and are typically beyond the expertise of a hakim.1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How is Unani medicine practiced today and where is it popular?
Unani medicine, rooted in ancient Greek doctrines and refined by Arab scholars like Avicenna, is a traditional healing system practiced today, particularly in South Asia. Treatment begins with normalizing external factors like air, water, and food. If necessary, natural medicines are used to boost the body's tabiyat (self-healing capacity).
Various therapies are available, including dietotherapy, pharmacotherapy (using herbal, mineral, and animal-based medicines), and regimental therapies like massage and cupping.
The World Health Organization recognized Unani in 1976, increasing its international acceptance. Institutions in India, such as the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM), promote research and standardization of Unani drugs.
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News •
Unani medicine, a traditional system of healing and health maintenance observed in South Asia. The origins of Unani medicine are found in the doctrines of the ancient Greek physicians Hippocrates and Galen. As a field, it was later developed and refined through systematic experiment by the Arabs, most prominently by Muslim scholar-physician Avicenna. During the Caliphate (the political-religious Muslim state that began in 632 ce), the bulk of Greek knowledge was translated into Arabic, part of that knowledge being the principles of medicine. With additional contributions of medical wisdom from other parts of the Middle East and South Asia, Unani medicine came to be known also as Arabian, or Islamic, medicine.
Principles of Unani medicine
The history of Unani medicine can be characterized by the work of its practitioners, or hakims, who relied on natural healing based on principles of harmony and balance, uniting the physical, mental, and spiritual realms.
Al-Umoor al-tabiyah: basic physiological principles
According to practitioners of Unani medicine, the health of the human body is maintained by the harmonious arrangement of al-umoor al-tabiyah, the seven basic physiological principles of the Unani doctrine. These principles include (1) arkan, or elements, (2) mizaj, or temperament, (3) akhlat, or bodily humours, (4) aaza, or organs and systems, (5) arwah, or vital spirit, (6) quwa, or faculties or powers, and (7) afaal, or functions. Interacting with each other, these seven natural components maintain the balance in the natural constitution of the human body. Each individualās constitution has a self-regulating capacity or power, called tabiyat (or mudabbira-e-badan; vis medicatrix naturae in Latin), or to keep the seven components in equilibrium.
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Arkan and mizaj: elements and temperament
As four simple, indivisible entitiesāarz (earth), maa (water), nar (fire), and hawa (air)āarkan not only constitutes the primary components of the human body but also makes up all other creations in the universe. There are predictable consequences to the actions and interactions (imtizaj) of the four arkan. As these elements act upon and react with each other, they continually undergo change into various states of āgenesis and lysisā (generation and deterioration), due to ulfat-e-keemiyah (acceptance of a medicine by the body) and nafarat-e-keemiyah (rejection of a medicine). Skilled hakims claim that they can perceive, recognize, and observe such states.
The four essential mizaj (temperaments) are hot, cold, moist, and dry. Four more are compounded of those single temperamentsānamely, hot and dry, hot and moist, cold and dry, and cold and moist. Possessed in different proportion, mizaj is balanced by all entities in the cosmos, including all plants, minerals, and animals. The equilibrium of the individualās elemental combination and resulting mizaj, as determined by tabiyat, provides a stable constitution to that individualāin other words, health. Just as elemental balance keeps an individual in a healthy state, changes in natural temperament cause the health of an individual to suffer. Therefore, mizaj plays a pivotal role in Unani in characterizing a personās normal state (physical, mental, and social), as well as the nature of a disease.
Doctrine of akhlat
Hippocrates propounded the doctrine of fluids, or humours, of the body, and he categorized the humours into four groups based on their colour. These groups were refined by Galen and later by Avicenna. They appear in Unani practice as dam (blood), balgham (phlegm), safra (yellow bile), and sauda (black bile). The human dispositions corresponding to these humours are, respectively, sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic. Each person is considered to have a specific humoral makeup, determined by the predominance of a given humour in his or her constitution. The quality and quantity of the humours in an individualāa personās unique, proper, and proportionate humoral makeupāis said to guarantee health. Conditions other than this balance signal ailment or disease.
The theory of humours (nazaria-e-akhlat), which is the essence of the practice of Unani medicine, holds that the four humours are derived from and utilized in the digestive process. Their continuous action and reaction results in the breakdown of complex macromolecules into simpler molecules, which are then incorporated throughout the body in the form of fluid. These humours, the akhlat, suffuse the bodyās cells, interstitial spaces, and vascular channels, affecting physical and behavioral well-being, and are most stable in a healthy individual.
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Relationship between tabiyat and asbab-e-sittah-zarooriah
In the Unani system of medicine, tabiyat is an individualās internal power or capacity to withstand or combat disease and to perform normal physiological functions. Believing that it is only tabiyat that is engaged in actually curing a disease, Unani hakims hold that they only assist from āoutsideā by prescribing therapeutic relief. If not adversely affected, tabiyat can eradicate most infections without medical treatment, using what may be thought of as the natural defense system of the mind and body.
Unani medicine recognizes six physical, or external, factors, called asbab-e-sittah-zarooriah, which are essential in establishing a synchronized biological rhythm and thus living a balanced existence. The six asbab-e-sittah-zarooriah are:
Hawa (air), in which the quality of the air a person breathes is thought to have a direct effect on his or her temperament and, thus, health.
Makool-wo-mashroob (food and drink), in which the nutritional value and the quality and quantity of oneās food and drink are believed to ensure physical fitness by strengthening tabiyat.
Harkat-wo-sakoon-e-jismiah (bodily exercise and repose), which emphasizes the positive effects of balanced physical exercise on an individualās internal resistance and tabiyat.
Harkat-o-sakoon nafsaniah (mental work and rest), which emphasizes the simultaneous engagement of the human mind in numerous emotional and intellectual activities. Just as the body needs systematic and planned exercise and rest, Unani medicine holds that the human mind and brain need adequate stimulation and proper relaxation as well.
Naum-o-yaqzah (sleep and wakefulness), in which an individualās health and alertness are understood as being dependent on a specific amount of sound sleep in the course of a 24-hour (circadian) cycle.
Ihtebas and istifragh (retention and excretion), which considers the metabolism of food and liquid as both affecting and being regulated by tabiyat. According to Unani medicine, the assimilation of food and liquid facilitates the elimination from the body of excessive and noxious substances. Therefore, to maintain a harmonic and synchronized tabiyat, certain beneficial end-products of kaun-o-fasad (genesis and lysis) are retained in the body while harmful ones are expelled.
These six factors are believed by Unani practitioners to directly affect the harmony of the human mind and body. Socioeconomic, geographic, and environmental factors are considered secondary factors (asbab-e-ghair-zarooriah) in the Unani system and therefore indirectly influence tabiyat. However, both the primary and the secondary factors must be closely considered in the Unani process of treatment.