Casa Árabe is hosting yet another edition of these days of events organized by the Ecclesiastical University of San Dámaso (UESD), with the support of the Hungarian government and the Orientalia Foundation. They will be devoted to the practice of medicine in the Middle East throughout the medieval period.

Medical practice in the East was related with intellectual activities and the Christian practice of giving charity. In the Byzantine world, the fourth century brought the advent of the first ancestors to modern hospitals, known as “xenons,” sophisticated medical facilities to take care of the sick. In the Arab world, as a result of the work by various humanists and Nestorian physicians in the court of the Abbasid caliphate, Greek works of Galen and Hippocrates were translated from Syriac into Arabic during the eighth and ninth centuries. Today this connection is maintained through projects such as the Syrian Open Hospital Projects, implemented under the auspices of the Hungarian government, which sponsors the Damascus Hospital, originally founded by the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in 1913.

The day of events, which on this occasion will be organized online and can be followed through Casa Árabe’s YouTube channel, will be introduced by Pedro Martínez-Avial, Casa Árabe’s director general, and Javier María Prades López, Rector of the UESD, and will be brought to a close by  Tristan Azbej, State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians and the Hungary Helps Program, who will speak about “Hungary Helps” as part of the “Open Hospitals - Hungarian support for Catholic hospitals in Syria” project.

Also taking part will be Pilar González Casado, Dean of the School of Christian and Classical Literature and a professor of Christian Arabic Literature at the UESD, with a presentation on “The birth of the hospital as an institution in the Christian East;” and Luis Flamenco García, a doctoral candidate at the same institution, with a talk on “Doctors and Christian humanists in the Abbasid court.”

Further information in the program for this day of events

Pilar González Casado has a degree in Arabic Philology and Islam from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and a PhD in Philology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She is currently the chair of Christian Arabic Literature at the University of San Dámaso’s School of Christian and Classical Literature, where she teaches this subject along with the Arabic and Syriac languages. She has authored publications on Christian Arabic literature, the Arabic and Syriac languages, and apocryphal literature.

Luis Flamenco García holds a degree in Hispanic Philology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and is a doctoral candidate at the San Justino School of Christian and Classical Literature. He has authored several publications on linguistics and syntax. He has also studied Arabic, Syriac and Paleo-Slavic and taken part in several conferences organized by the school on these subjects.