Akshamsaddin

Akshamsaddin (Muhammad Shams al-Din bin Hamzah, Turkish: Ak Şemsettin) (b. 1389, Damascus - d. 16 February 1459, Göynük, Bolu), was an influential Ottoman religious scholar, poet, mystic saint, and guide of Mehmed the Conqueror.[1][2] After completing his work with his master Shaykh Haji Bayram Wali, he found the Shamsiyya-Bayramiyya Sufi order. He is the founder of the lost grave of the companion, host, and esteemed standard-bearer of Prophet Muhammad, Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, in Constantinople.[3][4][5]

Akshamsaddin and medicine

In addition to his fame in religious sciences and Tasawwuf, Akshemsaddin was popular in the fields of medicine and pharmacology. There is not much reference to how he acquired this knowledge, but the Orientalist Elias John Wilkinson Gibb notes in his work History of Ottoman Poetry that Akshamsaddin learned from Haji Bayram Wali during his years with him.[6] Akshamsaddin was also knowledgeable in the treatment of psychological and spiritual disorders.[7][8][9][10][11]

Discovery of the microbe

Akshamsaddin mentioned the microbe in his work Maddat ul-Hayat (The Material of Life) about two centuries prior to Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek's discovery through experimentation:

“ It is incorrect to assume that diseases appear one by one in humans. Disease infects by spreading from one person to another. This infection occurs through seeds that are so small they cannot be seen but are alive.[12][13] ”

Works

References

  1. ↑ A Part of the Eyoub (i.e., Uyüp) Cemetery, I, Constantinople, Turkey
  2. ↑ Sûfîlere Yöneltilen Tenkitlere Bir Cevap: Akşemseddin ve Def‘U Metâini’s-Sûfiyye İsimli Eseri
  3. ↑ Murtaza Gürsoy: Meşhur Eyüp Sultan (The famous Ayyub Sultan), pp. 179-180
  4. ↑ Ibn Athir: Usudul Ghaba (Lions of the Jungle), v. 2, p. 90
  5. ↑ Al-Istiab, v. 1, p. 151
  6. ↑ Elias John Wilkinson Gibb: History of Ottoman Poetry. London, 1900-1909, v. 3, p. 138
  7. ↑ Taşköprülüzâde: Şakayık-ı Nûmâniye, v. 1, p. 147.
  8. ↑ Nezihe Araz: Anadolu Evliyaları
  9. ↑ Nişancızâde Muhammed bin Ahmed: Mirat-ı Kâinat, p. 556
  10. ↑ Emir Hüseyin Enîsî: Menâkıb-ı Akşemseddin, p. 12
  11. ↑ İslam Ansiklopedisi, v. 1, p. 320
  12. ↑ Taşköprülüzâde: Shaqaiq-e Numaniya, v. 1, p. 48
  13. ↑ Osman Şevki Uludağ: Beş Buçuk Asırlık Türk Tabâbet Tarihi (Five and a Half Centuries of Turkish Medical History). Istanbul, 1969, pp. 35-36
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.