Woodcut of Razi sitting at a low stand with an open book on it with other books scattered about the room. Muhammad ibn Zakariya Razi (865-925 AD) was a Persian polymath. A prominent figure in Islamic Golden Age, physician, alchemist and chemist, philosopher, and scholar. Razi made fundamental and enduring contributions to the fields of medicine, alchemy, music, and philosophy, recorded in over 200 books and articles in various fields of science. He was well-versed in Persian, Greek and Indian medical knowledge and made numerous advances in medicine through own observations and discoveries. he was an early proponent of experimental medicine and has been described as the father of pediatrics for writing The Diseases of Children, the first book to deal with pediatrics as an independent field of medicine. He was also a pioneer of ophthalmology. He was the first physician to distinguish smallpox and measles. He became chief physician of Rey and Baghdad hospitals. He is known for having discovered "allergic asthma," and was the first physician ever to write articles on allergy and immunology. His development of apparatus such as mortars, flasks, spatulas and phials, which were used in pharmacies until the early twentieth century. As an alchemist, Razi is known for his study of sulfuric acid though his contemporaries believed that he had obtained the secret of turning iron and copper into gold. He is known to have perfected methods of distillation and extraction. An eye affliction started with cataracts and ended in total blindness. He refused to be treated and told a student he would die soon. He died several days later at the age of 60.
