The Eastern Mediterranean region (also called the Levant and encompassing North Africa, the Middle East, and Arabic regions of the world) is where an ancient comprehensive system of Greco-Arabic medicine originated. Today, that system of medicine is known as Unani medicine. Originally known as Galenics, it later became known as Unani Tibb. Unani is an Arabic word derived from the word “Ionian” that means “things Greek” in reference to the medical work of Hippocrates (ca. 460-370 BC) and Galen (ca. AD 129-199) (Abdelhamid, 2013). Tibb is an Arabic word for “medicine (Amri & Abu-Asa, 2015). Aesculapius is credited as the originator of this system with Hippocrates (also known as Buqrat and said to be a descendant of Aesculapius) and is recognized as the “father of Unani medicine” (Ahmad, 2007; Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2017).
The roots of Unani (or Yunani) medicine go back over 2,500 years to Egypt and Mesopotamia (Amri & Abu-Asa, 2015; National Health Portal [NHP], 2015; Nunn, 2002). It is believed to have evolved over four time periods—each in a different geographic area (Ahmad, 2007):
- Greek period
- Arab-Persian period
- Spanish period
- Indian period
During the several hundred years after its origination, many Persian and Arab scholars (including Rhazes (al-Razi) Al-Zahrawi, and Ibn Nafis) enriched the system (NHP, 2015). The most well-known among the scholars was Ibn Sina (980-1037 AD), also known as Avicenna. Avicenna was an Arab philosopher and physicist who wrote Kitab-al-shifa (Book of Healing) and the Canon of Medicine (WHO, 2010). His writings were aimed at ridding medicine of superstition and basing it on empirical observations, objectivity, and rationalism while developing a base of understanding within a holistic, integral approach (Abu-asab, Amri, & Micozzi, 2013).