'Ali ibn al-'Abbas al-Majusi
Ali ibn al-‘Abbas al-Majusi (Persian: علی بن عباس مجوسی; died 982–994), also known as Masoudi or Haly Abbas, was a Persian physician and psychologist of the Islamic Golden Age. Born in Ahvaz, he studied with Shaikh Abu Maher Musa ibn Sayyār. He is regarded as one of the three greatest physicians of the Eastern Caliphate and served as physician to Emir Adud al-Daula Fana Khusraw of the Buwayhid dynasty (r. 949–983). The Emir founded hospitals in Shiraz and Baghdad (Al-Adudi Hospital), where al-Majusi worked.
His ancestors were Zoroastrians, which is why he has the nisba al-Majusi, though he was a Muslim. He is best known for his Kitāb Kāmil aṣ-Ṣināʿa aṭ-Ṭibbiyya, The Complete Book of the Medical Art, completed around 980 and dedicated to the Emir. In the West it was called The Complete Art of Medicine and sometimes Kitāb al-Malaki. The work is a concise, practical encyclopedia of medicine and psychology, more systematic than Razes’s Hawi and more practical than Avicenna’s Canon, and it is divided into 20 discourses (ten theory, ten practice). Topics include diet, medicines (materia medica), early ideas about the body’s vessels and nerves, and clinical notes, including observations on childbirth.
A Latin translation by Constantinus Africanus (c. 1087) became Liber Pantegni, and a fuller translation by Stephen of Antioch appeared in 1127, with later Venetian printings. The book helped shape European medicine and is even referenced in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Al-Majusi stressed the doctor–patient relationship and medical ethics, and described a method of inquiry close to modern scientific thinking. He also wrote on neuroscience and psychology, detailing brain function and mental disorders such as memory loss, sleep disorders, hypochondria, coma, meningitis, vertigo, epilepsy, love sickness, and paralysis. He emphasized keeping people healthy through diet and natural remedies, reserving drugs for necessary cases. He is considered a pioneer of psychophysiology and psychosomatic medicine, noting that a healthy mind and body influence each other, and that joy and contentment can improve health.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 06:20 (CET).