title: A modern conceptualization of phobia in al-Balkhi's 9th century treatise: Sustenance of the Body and Soul.
abstract: Morbid fears and phobias have been mentioned in religious, philosophical and medical manuscripts since ancient times. Despite early insights by the Greeks, phobias did not appear as a separate clinical phenomenon in Western medicine until the 17th century and has evolved substantially since. However, robust investigations attempting to decipher the clinical nature of phobias emerged in pre-modern times during the oft-overlooked Islamic Golden Era (9th-12th centuries); which overlapped with Europe's medieval period. An innovative attempt was made by the 9th century Muslim scholar, Abu Zayd al-Balkhi, in his medical manuscript "Sustenance of the Body and Soul," to define phobias as a separate diagnostic entity. Al-Balkhi was one of the earliest to cluster psychological and physical symptoms of phobias under one category, "al-Fazaá", and outline a specific management plan. We analyze al-Balkhi's description of phobias, according to the modern understanding of psychiatric classifications and symptomatology as described in the DSM-5.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. Electronic address: rawaad@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: Rania
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Awaad
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ali
mesh_terms: D005239:Fear; D018645:Greek World; D049690:History, Ancient; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D007514:Islam / Q000266:history*; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000266:history* / Q000628:therapy; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000266:history; D013782:Textbooks as Topic / Q000266:history
keywords: Anxiety; DSM; Islamic history; Islamic psychology; Muslims; Phobia