muhammad ibn zakariya al razi

 

muhammad ibn zakariya al razi

A Famous Persian Physician and Philosopher (1774–1831)

muhammad ibn zakariya al razi (1773-1831), was born on 17 July 1773, in Ahlobakh, Iran in present-day Pakistan. His father was a famous Persian scholar and physician, known as Khaznavi, who had been educated at a local madrasah, then studied at the royal court of Persia. In his early years, he went to study Arabic and Persian with fellow scholars, learning their lessons by heart. For the first 20 years of his life, Ibn Zakariya worked as an astronomer and mathematician at the royal court of Persia for the court of the Abbasid Empire (1792–1830). He later returned to his homeland, where he stayed until 1825 when he started teaching at the university, but because of reasons unknown he decided to go back home. From there in 1826, after being appointed by the minister of state at the Imperial Court, he became a professor of Arabic and Persian at the city of Baghdad during which time he wrote many books and worked tirelessly in writing them. On 29 August 1825, he married Talat, daughter of Suleman Khosrow, who was a British merchant. At this time, Ibn Zakariya had seven sons and five daughters. After two of them died, he married three more daughters, in addition to Talat, who died in 1827. In 1839, Ibn Zakariya died from pneumonia, having suffered serious lung failure, though it is said that all the pneumonia in his body was due to excessive drinking, smoking cigars to excess.

A Popular Political Commentator, Writer and Educator (1832–1894)

Muhammad ibn Zakariya Al Razi had become something as a popular political commentator and writer because of his frequent appearances in public meetings. He is regarded among the leading Arab authors in terms of intellectual output; not only do those books bear his name, these books have an enormous impact on scholarly thought and culture. Some of his best known works include Fathi’s Kamais from Ghafoor Al Jizha, Esham’i and Zalwaleh. The collection of essays titled “Dukra” was written between 1834 and 1836 at a time when, following Islamic Law and traditions (which were very closely followed by non-Muslims during that era), women could no longer inherit property without first marrying one of their brothers. It was an attempt to prevent women from inheriting land that would be used for inheritance, even though they themselves were not allowed to own property of their husbands’ fathers. During this period women were also under the constant threat that if they did not marry one amongst their male relatives, if they were widowed or divorced, they would still be widowers. As such, women’ rights were limited, except insofar as marriage meant giving up property to their families, and hence women who desired to be independent had to find a husband who would provide financial security for her and which would enable her to take care of her children. Her marriage was not compulsory, but rather her children’s welfare was her sole concern. This was a particularly radical social change, where women’ rights were severely limited, and, unfortunately, very little has changed since then. In fact, women’s rights still remain limited in almost every aspect of life, including inheritance. Furthermore, it wasn’t only women who suffered in this regard but people of other backgrounds such as slaves, peasants and the destitute in general. People of other religions who were not Muslim or Christians were also subjected to the same fate. Islam was, therefore, seen as a religion of oppression for people of other faiths. Moreover, this had led to many religious and ethnic conflicts between Muslims and Christians across the world, leaving thousands dead and billions living in poverty. Unfortunately, both Muslims and Christians believed that the world would be safer with Muslim rule, believing that they would make the world a better place. However, in order to achieve so, the rules which prohibited women to inherit land or inherit anything from their husbands were completely abolished. Not even the wealthiest men owned land. This was a huge achievement, and it made way for some of the poorest classes of the society to move into high class status. They were given titles, lands and privileges by their wealthy ancestors, and not the poor class where the situation had been worse than before. All of this was against the will of law which stated that they could not inherit anything unless they got out of wedlock. Therefore, this brought great pain, suffering, injustice and inequality.

In conclusion, these are just a few of his writings but there are so many others which we don’t know that much about. He became very well known because of the contributions he made to a variety of disciplines. Many of these disciplines covered topics which he himself didn’t know too much about. But what’s interesting to me about him was that he never let any of his theories or ideas get lost in translation and translation isn’t always the best thing… especially when you don’t really know what you’re supposed to translate. As a matter of fact, I think the best thing to say about him is this: He lived in the age which had to fight for its survival, and nobody knew what was going on in Europe, and neither did anyone know that Muslimism and the Jews were actually one and the same thing. Even when he wrote his work, it still contained elements of the Jewishness of the text, although he was no longer Jewish. Nevertheless, he was an incredible thinker who has had a big influence on everything from education and philosophy, to jurisprudence, the judiciary and philosophy of law. Not too different from many other people in these disciplines, Ibn Zakariya himself was often ridiculed and mocked for the views he held. Yet his work remains hugely important to the field.