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Introduction
Hippocrates (around 460-370 BCE) was a Greek physician and philosopher who is considered the father of modern medicine (Figure 1). The history of epidemiology typically starts with Hippocrates in about 400 BCE but then more than 2000 years are skipped until the birth of modern epidemiology in the 17 th century CE with the work of John Graunt, followed by William Farr and John Snow in the 19th century (1). However, between the time of Hippocrates and the 17 th century, the Islamic golden age of science occurred (8th-16th century CE) (2).
This work attempts to fill this gap of 2000 years by tracing the contributions of Muslim scientists to the field of epidemiology. The epidemiological concepts described by Hippocrates are highlighted followed by a discussion of how his work influenced the work of Muslim scientists, in particular Ibn AnNafis, who preserved and advanced the field until the European Renaissance.
Hippocrates
In his book, Of the Epidemics (3), Hippocrates introduced several concepts of epidemiology that are considered the fundamentals of modern epidemiology. His main thesis was that disease causality can be attributed to climate, seasonal variations and location. He noted that habits, regimens and personal pursuits are all factors associated with disease occurrence. His book included a description of the disease prognosis of several patients. Hence, this was the first epidemiology work to present case series, a modern design for observational studies. For most of the cases, he provided information about age, gender, place of residence and the seasonal conditions at the time of onset of the illness. After describing the symptoms, Hippocrates described the outcome in terms of morbidity and mortality. He also discussed disease modes of transmission and recognized that certain "genetic" predispositions could lead to disease. This was evident when he discussed the case of a feverish woman whose symptoms were brought on by eating grapes and who had a "congenital tendency to phthisis". Illness of another two cases was attributed to drinking and sexual indulgence. The case of Apollonius was clearly a foodborne episode as Hippocrates states that, "Having eaten beef, and drunk unseasonably, he became a little heated at first, and betook himself to bed, and having used large quantities ofmilk, that ofgoats and sheep, and both boiled and...