A Survey on the Status Pharmacies and their Monitoring System in Iran and Islam

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Ph.D., Assistant Professor of History of Islamic Civilization, Bushehr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Bushehr, Iran

Abstract

As one of the important departments of the hospital during the Islamic civilization in Iran and Islam, the Pharmacy with its various functions, namely manufacturing and providing medicine, has played an important role and gained special status in medical contexts. Different names given to pharmacy in texts belonging to the in Islamic period ranges from Khizāna al Adawiya (lit. spice store), Khizāna al-Sharāb (lit. wine1 store), pharmacy, Sydnh, to Sydnhnani. Since this research has taken a historical approach, by examining the historical status of hospital pharmacies in Iran and Islam, it seeks to examine the status and performance of hospital pharmacies in Iran and Islam in the period of Islamic civilization.
A library research method was used for this historical study in which the data was collected from the library. Having found and collected historical sources and references, we categorized the contents to investigate and give an account of the status of the hospital pharmacy in Iran and Islam.
Pharmacies in Iran and the Islamic world were one of the most important departments of the hospital, and pharmacists, along with physicians, played an important role in manufacturing drugs and medicine and giving them to patients. Pharmacists were ranked lower than physicians, and their performance was always monitored by Mohtasib to make sure that their function was in accordance to the law of sharia and o fake medicine was given to the patient. The history of pharmacies was closely related to the social, economic, cultural and therapeutic history of its time, comprising an integral part of Islamic culture and civilization.
During the Islamic period, pharmacies in Iran and the Islamic world played an important role. In the Islamic period, there was a hierarchy in hospital pharmacies, including the head, the capacitor, pharmacist assistants and a number of vendors who worked under the supervision of the higher-rank staff or the senior pharmacist. They played an important role in improving patients’ health status.

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