TEHRAN -- Iran marked Razi Day on Thursday, honoring Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, the renowned Iranian physician, philosopher and alchemist, as researchers called for a more rigorous reassessment of his contribution to the history of science.
A symposium commemorating al-Razi was held online on Wednesday by the Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries, bringing together researchers in the philosophy and history of science to examine lesser-known aspects of his intellectual legacy.
Muhammad-Ebrahim Zaker, a researcher in the history of medicine, identified the recording of patients’ medical histories as one of al-Razi’s most important innovations. He said the physician recorded patients’ personal details, age, occupation, daily condition and the course of their illness and treatment — an approach that is used today as medical history-taking in hospitals and medical practices.
Zaker described al-Razi as an accomplished physician, perceptive and analytical clinician, innovative pharmacist, experimentalist and learned philosopher who was also familiar with mathematics, logic and other sciences.
He highlighted al-Razi’s intellectual qualities, including his genius, outspoken criticism, openness to criticism, simple lifestyle and particular attention to ordinary people, especially the poor and the sick. 
According to Zaker, al-Razi spent his time treating patients rather than frequently visiting the courts of kings and commanders and treated patients, particularly those in need, with generosity.
Zaker also discussed al-Razi’s position in the history of alchemy, saying that some Orientalists have regarded him as a father of modern chemistry. 
He said al-Razi moved alchemy away from its association with divination, astrology and unexplained metaphysical beliefs and placed it within what he described as a more scientific and systematic framework.
Other speakers, however, stressed the need for caution in assessing claims about al-Razi’s discoveries and innovations.
Muhammad Jowharchi, scientific adviser to the Encyclopaedia Islamica, described al-Razi as one of the two major figures of the alchemical tradition associated with the premodern Islamic world, alongside Jabir ibn Hayyan. He warned that some claims about al-Razi’s discoveries in alchemy are based on limited evidence.
Determining whether a particular innovation or discovery belongs to a historical scientist requires examining earlier traditions, sources, intellectual influences and comparable works by predecessors, Jowharchi said. 
The traditions of knowledge and alchemical works that preceded al-Razi remain insufficiently studied, while not all of his own alchemical writings have been examined in detail.
Jowharchi also cautioned against interpreting al-Razi through the assumptions of modern experimental science and positivism. Understanding a historical scientist, he said, requires examining the intellectual system, language and concepts of his own period, including the relationships among natural philosophy, medicine and alchemy.
Amin Motavallian, a faculty member at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, similarly described al-Razi’s alchemy as a relatively neglected area of research. He highlighted the work of historian of science and alchemy Paul Kraus, who examined al-Razi’s philosophical, theological and ethical writings in seeking to understand his approach to alchemy.
According to Motavallian, Kraus distinguished al-Razi’s approach from that of Jabir ibn Hayyan, particularly in their understanding of the properties of materials. 
Motavallian nevertheless said comparisons between works attributed to al-Razi and Jabir reveal significant textual, conceptual and 

methodological similarities, potentially challenging some of Kraus’s conclusions about the independence of al-Razi’s alchemical tradition.
The symposium also examined al-Razi’s philosophy. Kaveh Khurabe, scientific and research deputy of the Society for the Appreciation of Cultural Works and Dignitaries, said al-Razi should not be viewed simply as a great physician or as a philosopher alongside other philosophers.
He described him instead as a physician who engaged in philosophy, a philosopher who trusted scientific experience and a thinker who challenged some fundamental assumptions of the philosophy of his time.
Khurabe said information about al-Razi remains incomplete, particularly concerning his philosophical and cosmological writings, much of which has been lost. He therefore stressed the need to distinguish between the historical al-Razi and the image reconstructed from accounts by his opponents.
He also discussed the doctrine of the “Five Eternals” attributed to al-Razi: God, the universal soul, prime matter, absolute time and absolute place. In this view, time and place were not simply dependent on motion and bodies, setting al-Razi apart from Aristotelian physics. Khurabe nevertheless cautioned against portraying him as an opponent of Greek thought, describing him instead as a critic and reconstructer of the Greek intellectual heritage.
He called for the identification of manuscripts in libraries in Iran and abroad, the creation of a comprehensive corpus of al-Razi’s works and quotations, critical editions of his writings, reconstruction of his lost philosophy and wider translation of his intellectual legacy.
The researchers also stressed the importance of separating historical scholarship from celebratory narratives. As Jowharchi put it, al-Razi’s status as a major figure of Iranian, Islamic and world science should be established through detailed historical research rather than imitation, nationalist self-congratulation or hasty conclusions.