ABSTRACT
Physician, philosopher, chemist and freethinker, al-Rāzī (c. 250/864–313/925 or 320/932), known to the Latins as Rhazes, was born, as his name suggests, in Rayy, near present-day Tehran. Well versed, according to tradition, in musical theory and practice, he is said to have been an alchemist before his formal training in medicine. He headed hospitals in Rayy and later in Baghdad, returning often to Rayy, where he died. His great houses in Rayy and elsewhere in the south Caspian district of Jibal attested his wealth. The author of some two hundred works, he is said to have taught the Jacobite Christian philosopher/translator Yaḥyā ibn ‘Adī (893–974) and was called “the unsurpassed physician of Islam”. 1 But later thinkers generally rejected his philosophical ideas, typically with repugnance, although influenced by him even in rebuttal.
