Hospital Zone

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The Prince of Wales Supports 1001 Inventions

HRH Prince Charles writes to support 1001 Inventions

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Stunning and Iconic Images from the Muslim World

Half a million visit 1001 Inventions in Los Angeles

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1001 Inventions to Launch in Washington DC

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National Geographic Releases New 1001 Inventions Book

Uncovering The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization

1001 Inventions in LA extended for ten weeks

Until March 2012 due to popular demand

How medical knowledge and treatment from Muslim civilisation has influenced medicine today

Hospitals, medicines and surgery: the modern world of health and medical treatment has countless links with the past. In this zone of the exhibition, find out about the healthcare system that developed in early Muslim societies, which offered pioneering surgery, hospital care and an increasing variety of drugs and medicines developed from ancient knowledge and new research.

Did you know

...that patients in early Muslim societies might take pills, pastilles, syrups and powders, undergo cataract surgery or have a cast put on a broken leg?

...that in 1924, a manuscript revealed that a forgotten 13th-century Arab scholar had correctly explained a crucial aspect of how our blood moves around the body?

...that key medical works from the 9th century onwards reached a worldwide audience because Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars were keen to learn from each other?

In this zone:

Find out about medic Ibn Sina, who advised against splinting a fractured limb straight away, but recommended waiting until five days later – a procedure now universally adopted

Hear how translations of medical books by Ibn Sina and many others influenced European doctors for centuries after they were written

See examples of the surgical tools used a thousand years ago, which look remarkably similar to those we still use today

Explore how inoculation, known to ancient civilisations in the Middle East and Africa, became a life-saving treatment all around the world

Find out how an 11th-century scholar from Iraq invented and made a hollow needle for removing cataracts

Meet Al-Zahrawi, a 10th-century surgeon, in our film, and hear about how he was the first person to use catgut systematically to stitch internal incisions

Discover The Book of Water, a nine-hundred-page book thought to be the first alphabetical classification of medical terms

Hear the story of 13th-century doctor Ibn al-Nafis, who was the first to explicitly state that the blood moves from the heart, transits through the lungs to mix with air and returns to the heart