ern scientists have begun investigating the power of prayer
and religious faith in the healing process, believing that they
can boost the patient’s morale and promote healing. Th e an-
cient Mesopotamians, too, were interested in the psychoso-
matic properties of the healing arts—that is, the relationship
between psychology and medicine.
From a modern standpoint, the fundamental fl aw in
Mesopotamian medicine was that practitioners were unable
to formulate laws based on some overall theory of how the
human body worked, in contrast to, for example, the ancient
Greeks. Most of the medical literature that survives consists
of what modern researchers would call case studies. Th at is,
the texts record the particular cases of individual doctors,
without any attempt made to impose some systematic orga-
nization on them. Other medical texts consist of letters, those
written by both doctors and patients, along with questions
that patients put to the doctors. From these texts, historians
have even learned the names of some ancient doctors, such as
Urad-Nanâ, the court physician at the city of Nineveh some-
time around 680 b.c.e.
Most of these early texts contain only minimal eff orts at
diagnosis, with only cursory descriptions of patients’ symp-
toms. Much of the emphasis is on diagnostic omens, along
with indications of whether a particular illness can be healed
or whether it is likely to result in death. If a disease was diag-
nosed as fatal, the texts oft en note that “the hand of” a par-
ticular demon was on the patient. Because some demons were
more powerful than others, the demon specifi ed represented
a kind of prognosis for how long the patient might hope to
survive. Similarly, when the prognosis was good, “the hand
of ” a particular god was on the patient. Th ese kinds of state-
ments, then, indicate the nature of the rituals that were to be
carried out in connection with a patient’s treatment. Some-
what later texts contain more exhaustive lists of symptoms
and possible treatments, including lengthy courses of medici-
nal treatments with plants or minerals. Some of these later
medical texts also include eff orts by practitioners to summa-
rize fi ndings contained in earlier texts, allowing them to fol-
low treatment plans from previous generations.
Again, this process of preserving records represents a
form of scientifi c thinking. Scientists are members of a com-
munity of other scientists. Th ey publish and share their fi nd-
ings, and other scientists can replicate their work and either
confi rm or deny the conclusions. Th at the Babylonians pre-
served medical records suggests an eff ort to forge a commu-
nity of physicians who could draw on one another’s work.science
Science in ancient Persia owed a great deal to Mesopo-
tamia, and during the fi rst millennium b.c.e., following
the Persian conquest of Mesopotamia, much Babylonian
mathematical, astronomical, astrological, and calendric
lore certainly passed into Persian awareness and diff used,
via the Persian Empire, as far east as India. Much scientifi c
activity took place during the Sasanian Period beginningin 224 c.e. In 271 the Sasanian king Shāpūr I (r. 241–272
c.e.) founded a learned academy at Gundeshapur, in what
is today Khūzestān, the southwestern province of Iran.
Gundeshapur became the empire’s intellectual center. Th e
academy was home to the world’s fi rst teaching hospital and
included a library and a university. Two important contri-
butions of Persian science include the discovery of alcohol
and the development of a more sophisticated windmill than
the Babylonians had developed.
One intriguing aspect of Persian science was the discov-
ery of the principles of electromagnetism and possibly the
world’s fi rst electric battery. Housed in a museum in Iraq is
a 5-inch-tall clay jar that was discovered outside Baghdad,
Iraq’s capital city, in 1938. Th e jar contains a copper cylinder
encased in an iron rod. Further, the jar itself shows evidence
of corrosion, possibly by an acidic agent such as vinegar
or wine. Since then, about a dozen similar jars have been
found. While it is unlikely that the Persians understood the
principles of electromagnetism, it is a common occurrence
in science for something to be invented before scientists un-
derstand the underlying principles. What is known is that
modern attempts to reproduce these ancient batteries have
been successful in creating a current of 0.8 to 2 volts; bat-
teries like these arranged in a series could have produced
more voltage.
Th e basic principle that the Persians seem to have stum-
bled on is that an electric current is produced from two
metals with diff erent electric potentials, with some sort of
an agent—an electrolyte—that carries electrons from one to
the other, producing current. Wine and even grape juice can
function as an electrolyte. It is quite possible that the dis-
covery was made as a result of experiments by ancient alche-
mists, in both Mesopotamia and Persia. Th ese alchemists,
the forerunners of modern chemists, oft en worked with base
metals such as lead, trying to turn them into gold. Alche-
mists, in their eff orts to discover the chemical principles of
the natural world, can be thought of as the world’s fi rst ex-
perimental scientists.
Historians have off ered a number of explanations about
the purpose of these batteries. One purpose may have been
medicinal. Low-voltage electric currents can sometimes ease
pain, a principle the Chinese use in the ancient art of acu-
puncture for healing. Another purpose might have been elec-
troplating. To cover a base metal, such as lead, with a precious
metal, such as gold or silver, ancient craft smen typically had
to pound the precious metal into a thin layer and then mix it
with mercury to paste it onto the base metal. Electroplating is
a much more effi cient method for depositing a thin and even
layer of one metal onto another.
Other historians have suggested that the batteries may
have been used for religious purposes. Th e battery could have
been held inside a metal idol so that a person who touched the
idol received a slight electric shock and could see a blue spark.
It has been speculated that ancient priests could have asked
followers questions; if the follower gave the “wrong” answer,science: The Middle East 9310895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i931 931 10/10/07 2:30:28 PM