An Arabian savant was supposed to be equally well educated in philosophy, jurisprudence, theology, mathematics, and medicine, and to practise law, theology, and medicine with equal skill upon occasion.

It is easy to understand, therefore, why these religious fanatics were willing to employ unbelieving physicians, and their physicians themselves to turn to the scientific works of Hippocrates and Galen for medical instruction, rather than to religious works.

Even Mohammed himself professed some knowledge of medicine, and often relied upon this knowledge in treating ailments rather than upon prayers or incantations.
He is said, for example, to have recommended and applied the cautery in the case of a friend who, when suffering from angina, had sought his aid.
The list of eminent Arabian physicians is too long to be given here, but some of them are of such importance in their influence upon later medicine that they cannot be entirely ignored.

One of the first of these was Honain ben Isaac (809-873 A.D.), a Christian Arab of Bagdad.

He made translations of the works of Hippocrates, and practised the art along the lines indicated by his teachings and those of Galen.