In Iran, Avicenna's birthday (Iranian Month: Shahrivar 1st=August 23) is commemorated as the national doctor's day. A ceremony was held this morning, August 22, in the University of Medical sciences in which the significance of research was emphasized in medicine.
Today,
concurrent with the birthday of noted Iranian physician and philosopher
Avicenna, national doctor's day was celebrated in Iran. A ceremony was held in
University of Medical sciences with the attendance of health minister in which
veteran physicians were honored.
Chancellor
of Tehran University of Medical Sciences Bagher Larijani delivered a speech at
the beginning saying that the doctors are national and social investments.
He
said: “The medical society should try to expand Avicenna’s efforts and points
of view; accordingly we are establishing an interdisciplinary college and the
university is holding sessions of spiritual physician.”
He
then talked about the national medical productions and researches saying that
some 40% of Iran’s productions in international fields are made by medical
professors.”
Moreover,
director of Research center for Quranic sciences, hadith and medicine Mohammad
Mehdi Isfahani talked about the comprehensive perspectives of Avicenna and The
Canon.
George
Sarton called Avicenna “the most famous scientist of Islam" and one of the
most famous of all races, places, and times.” He is considered by many to be
“the father of modern medicine.
Avicenna’s
most famous works are The Book of Healing, a vast philosophical and scientific
encyclopedia, and The Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at
many medieval universities.
Isfahani
said that the books’ titles even indicate his knowledge’s universality; he
named a book Canon which mostly holds the theories of medicine while the other
book is mostly philosophical.
He
underlined: “Many countries tried to use the scholar for their own purpose but
Avicenna is an Iranian physician and more than 200 of his manuscripts are kept
in our libraries.”
He
went on to say that nowadays The Canon of Medicine is a main source in Indian
subcontinent and Iran’s traditional medicine field. He had created precious
works and many contemporary scholars spend years to understand and analyze
them.
In
other news, Health Minister Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi delivered a speech and said
that medicine is a precious and unique knowledge.”
She
added: “8 new medicines will be unveiled, in the coming week, which are the
results of the doctors’ researches.”
Doctors
including Alireza Marandi, Abbas Sheibani, Mahmoud Tabatabaee, Jamaluddin
Sajjadi, Abtahi, Mousavi zadegan, Reza Malek zadeh, Nader Jelveh and Shams
Shariat were honored during the ceremony.
Source:
IBNA News Agency