Arabized Medicine Moves One Step Forward

“We want to turn our hopes of a better education into reality,” said Dr. Abdul Rahman Al-Awadi, secretary general of the Arabization Center for Medical Science (ACMLS). “We were once the leaders in the field of medical sciences,” he said. “Now it's as if this nation has been pulled from its roots and a wall has been built between its past and its present.”

The Arabization Center for Medical Science was founded in Kuwait in 1986 based on a 1980 decision by the Council of Arab Health Ministers. Between 2000 and 2005, ACMLS has been busy publishing books for all years of study in the faculty of medicine in the Arabic language. It has also produced a list of recommendations on how to practically reinstate the teaching of medicine in Arabic in Arab universities. Only Syria and some universities in Yemen and Sudan teach medicine in Arabic.

Arab Consensus

Arab deans discussed a variety of measures that could be taken to reinstate teaching medicine in Arabic as it had once been when it was first taught in Egypt, for example, in 1827. Among these measures were suggestions of founding private medical schools that teach completely in Arabic, gradually introducing Arabic into medical curricula in already present medical schools, and promoting medical school staff members only if they translate or write one medical book in Arabic every two years and one research paper in Arabic every year.

Egyptian minister of higher education, Dr. Amr Salama, said in a statement read by his deputy minister that [the Arab world] is facing a “vicious attack that aims at undervaluing what we have offered in the past, and what we could offer in the future.” Salama said that some people believe that the Arabic language is incapable of incorporating complex medical terminologies into its vocabulary, but that history proves this belief very wrong. “The Arabic language embraced and developed all forms of science,” said Salama, referring to the zenith of Arab/Islamic civilization in the 12^th century C.E.

Salama said, however, that it is not sufficient to restrict discussions on Arabization to that of the medical sciences, and that they should be broadened to encompass teaching all levels of education, from kindergarten to university, in Arabic. Many schools and universities in the Arab world are increasingly teaching their basic curricula in the English language.

Several participants in the one-day seminar said that Arabizing medical curricula requires a political decision from Arab governments. Others were quick to point out, however, that this decision is already made in the constitutions of Arab governments that clearly state that Arabic is the official language of the country.

Solutions Needed

Although there seemed to be consensus among the deans participating in the seminar on the importance of Arabizing medical curricula, they agreed that there were several downsides that need to be addressed.

Dr. Fahd Al-Mehenna, former dean of the faculty of medicine at King Fahd University in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, explained how he supplied a group of his students some Arabic medical books taken from universities in Syria and Sudan that teach in Arabic. After having read the books, his students said it is easier to understand medicine from English texts that have unified medical terminologies rather than study medicine from Arabic texts that do not.

On the other hand, Al-Mehenna pointed out that because medicine is taught in English in most medical schools in the Arab world, it has resulted in a dissociative relationship between the service provider, the doctor, and the consumer, the patient. Several participants agreed that Arab doctors find it difficult to communicate their knowledge to their patients simply because they lack the necessary expressions and terminologies in Arabic to do so.

Another downside emphasized by participants was the possible inability of Arab doctors to keep in touch with the latest advances in Western research if they were unaware of English medical terminologies. A possible solution was provided by Dr. Zohair Sebai, professor of family and public health in Saudi Arabia. Sebai recommended that medical students learning medicine in Arabic not pass their first year of medical school until they've passed an English language exam.

Sebai emphasized the fact that statistics showed that Syrian doctors, who receive their education completely in Arabic, have the same success rate as other foreign graduate students when applying for entrance examinations abroad. This indicates, Sebai believes, that learning medicine in Arabic does not hinder doctors from completing their educations abroad or from staying recent with medical advancements worldwide.

Participants, together with ACMLS, concluded the seminar with a decision to form a special committee that will propose a set of measures needed to Arabize the medical sciences in Arab universities. ACMLS also offered to provide Arab universities willing to Arabize their curricula with the set of Arabic medical texts they have already published free of charge. ACMLS will also offer an annual award for the best five research papers in the field of medicine written in Arabic.

Nadia El-Awady is IslamOnline.net's Health & Science Page editor. She has a bachelor's degree in medicine from Cairo University and is currently studying for a masters degree in journalism and mass communications at the American University in Cairo. You can reach her at ScienceTech@islam-online.net.