title: Akhawayni (?-983 AD): A Persian neuropsychiatrist in the early medieval era (9th-12th Century AD).
abstract: The early medieval era is also called the Islamic Golden Age because of the significant rise in sciences, including medicine. Abū Bakr Rabi' ibn Ahmad Akhawayni Bukhāri (better known as Akhawayni) was one of the notable medical practitioners in his lifetime. His fame was in neuroscience and he became known as Pezeshk-e-Divanegan (Physician to the Insane). His only surviving book, Hidāyat al-Muta'allimin fi al-Tibb (The Students' Handbook of Medicine), is the first medical textbook in Persian, after Islam. Akhawayni gathered and categorized available knowledge on neuropsychiatry and added his own. He was the first to describe sleep paralysis and to suggest pragmatic rather than supernatural treatment. He was also the first to present fever cure and his descriptions of meningitis (Lisarghos in Hidāyat), mania, psychosis (Malikhulia), dementia (Ghotrab), etc., are close to current concepts.
authors.affiliation: Research Office for the History of Persian Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran Student Research Committee, Department of History of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center and Department of Traditional Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran zargarana@sums.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Arman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zargaran
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Traditional Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kordafshari
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Department of History of Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyyed Rouhollah
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Hosseini
authors.affiliation: Research Office for the History of Persian Medicine, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mehdizadeh
mesh_terms: D049691:History, Medieval; D058027:Neuropsychiatry / Q000266:history*; D019071:Persia
keywords: Akhawayni; Iran; Persia; history of Medicine