Disease in tenth-century Iran and Irak according to al-Razi’s Casebook

This article addresses the sum of diseases found in al-Razi’s Casebook, the oldest and largest extant collection of medieval Islamic medical case records. This study is framed in M. Grmek’s concept of pathocenosis that can be explained by the interaction of diseases at a given time and place as a consequence of external and internal factors, a premise with relevant implications for medicine today. Our primary aim is to provide a glimpse of health concerns and the prevalence of pathological conditions in tenth-century Iran and Irak. In the context of the historiographical debate about retrospective diagnosis, it also encompasses an analysis of specific difficulties raised by this particular collection of nearly nine hundred clinical accounts. A further purpose is to inquire whether the nature of the source under discussion makes any difference when trying to identify the condition from a modern medical perspective.