The history
From Hippocrates to Baghdad to Delhi: 2,400 years of the “Greek medicine”.
Unani began as the Greek medicine of Hippocrates and Galen. Scholars in Baghdad translated it, doctors like al-Razi and Ibn Sina added their own observations and rules, and hakims carried it to India, where it is now most widely practised. Along the way Europe learned from it and then left the humours behind, while Indian scientists tested its plants in the laboratory.
c. 400 BCE
Four humours described
Hippocratic writings, Greece
c. 910
Smallpox told apart from measles
al-Razi, Baghdad
1025
The Canon of Medicine finished
Ibn Sina, Hamadan
1921
Unani and Ayurveda taught under one roof
Tibbiya College, Delhi
1931
Ajmaline isolated and named after a hakim
Salimuzzaman Siddiqui, Delhi
460 BCE – 216
Hippocrates and Galen describe four humours and four temperaments.
400 BCE
c. 400 BCE
The Hippocratic book On the Nature of Man says the body holds blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile, and that health is their right balance. Hippocratic doctors also stressed careful observation of the patient.
Why it mattered. It is the root idea of Unani, whose name means “Greek”.
170
c. 170 CE
Galen, a Greek doctor working in Rome, joined the four humours to the qualities hot, cold, moist and dry and wrote hundreds of works. His ideas ruled medicine in Europe and the Islamic world for over a thousand years.
Why it mattered. Galen’s temperaments became Unani’s mizaj.
750 – 1260
Baghdad translates the Greeks; al-Razi and Ibn Sina observe, test and organise.
830
9th century
Baghdad became a centre of translation where Greek, Persian and Indian books were put into Arabic. The House of Wisdom is the name linked to this effort, though historians debate how big an institution it was.
Why it mattered. It carried Greek medicine into Arabic, where it grew.
850
c. 850
Al-Tabari’s Firdaws al-Hikma (Paradise of Wisdom) summed up Greek medicine and added a section on Indian medicine, drawn from Sanskrit sources.
Why it mattered. An early meeting of Greek and Indian medical traditions.
900
c. 900
Al-Razi ran hospitals and kept detailed case notes, collected after his death as al-Hawi, a huge medical encyclopedia. He also questioned some of Galen’s claims when they did not match what he saw.
Why it mattered. He showed that experience can correct the old books.
925
c. 900–925
Al-Razi describes treating one group of patients with brain inflammation by bloodletting and deliberately leaving another group untreated, then comparing them.
Why it mattered. An early seed of the controlled trial (see the evidence chapter).
1025
Ibn Sina finished al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, five books covering the humours and temperaments, diseases, and hundreds of medicines. It also set out rules for testing whether a medicine works, and described some diseases as passing between people.
Why it mattered. It became the core text of Unani, still studied by hakims today.
1242
c. 1242 (usual dating)
Writing a commentary on the Canon, Ibn al-Nafis said blood must pass through the lungs to get from the right side of the heart to the left, correcting Galen.
Why it mattered. Doctors in this tradition could and did correct their masters.
1150 – 1880
The Canon is taught in Europe for centuries, until cells and germs replace the humours.
1650
until about 1650 (hedged)
The Canon was read in European universities for centuries. It was used as a textbook at Montpellier and Louvain until about the mid-1600s, though its influence was fading by then.
Why it mattered. Few medical books have been taught for so long.
1858
Virchow’s Cellular Pathology (1858) explained disease as trouble in cells, and in the following decades germ theory showed that microbes cause many illnesses. European medicine left the four humours behind.
Why it mattered. It is the split between modern medicine and humoral systems like Unani.
1206 – 1857
Hakims arrive with the Delhi Sultanate and flourish at Mughal courts.
1206
from 1206
With the Delhi Sultanate from the 13th century, Persian- and Arabic-speaking hakims settled in India. Their medicine became known as Unani Tibb, “Greek medicine”.
Why it mattered. It began Unani’s long home in South Asia.
1880 – 1950
Hakim Ajmal Khan’s college, Hamdard, and plant drugs tested by Indian scientists.
1906
A hakim opened the Hamdard Dawakhana, a small Unani medicine shop in old Delhi. It grew into one of India’s largest makers of Unani products.
Why it mattered. It turned Unani medicines into a modern industry.
1921
1916 and 1921
Hakim Ajmal Khan, a physician and freedom fighter, led the building of a new college. Its foundation stone was laid in 1916, and Mahatma Gandhi opened it on 13 February 1921. It taught Unani and Ayurveda under one roof.
Why it mattered. It became a model for teaching Indian systems of medicine.
1931
Working at the institute Ajmal Khan founded, the chemist Salimuzzaman Siddiqui isolated alkaloids from Rauvolfia serpentina and named one ajmaline after Ajmal Khan. It is still used to test for a heart rhythm disorder.
Why it mattered. A plant used in traditional medicine gave a modern, tested drug.
1949
Vakil published a trial of Rauvolfia serpentina for high blood pressure in the British Heart Journal. Its compound reserpine became a worldwide blood-pressure medicine in the 1950s.
Why it mattered. Plants from traditional medicine can prove themselves in fair tests.
1970 – 2025
Laws, a research council, a ministry, a regulator and global standards.
1970
The Indian Medicine Central Council Act set up the Central Council of Indian Medicine to regulate the education and practice of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani.
Why it mattered. It made Unani a regulated profession with recognised degrees such as BUMS.
1978
The Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) was set up to study Unani medicines and treatments, with institutes around India, including the Central Research Institute of Unani Medicine in Hyderabad.
Why it mattered. Unani research got its own national body.
1984
The National Institute of Unani Medicine was set up in Bengaluru for postgraduate teaching and research in Unani.
Why it mattered. It trains Unani specialists and researchers.
1989
Chemists measured lead in kushtas, traditional preparations made by strongly heating metals and minerals, used in Unani and Ayurvedic practice in the subcontinent. Several contained large amounts.
Why it mattered. It showed that some traditional preparations can carry toxic metals.
2009
Registering clinical trials in the Clinical Trials Registry–India (CTRI) became mandatory, so trials, including trials of AYUSH medicines, are announced before results are known.
Why it mattered. Registration stops failed trials from quietly disappearing.
2012
A review of 135 randomised trials of cupping found possible benefit for a few conditions, such as shingles pain, but most trials were small and of low quality.
Why it mattered. It shows how much better testing is still needed.
2014
9 November 2014
The Department of AYUSH, created as ISM&H in 1995 and renamed in 2003, became a full Ministry of AYUSH, covering Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homoeopathy.
Why it mattered. Unani got a place at the top of India’s health administration.
2020
The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act replaced the old council with the NCISM, which regulates Unani, Ayurveda, Siddha and Sowa-Rigpa education and practice.
Why it mattered. It sets the standards for today’s hakims.
2022
WHO published benchmarks for the training and the practice of Unani medicine, including safety, developed with India’s support.
Why it mattered. It describes how Unani should be taught and practised safely worldwide.
Did you know?
“Unani” comes from Yunan, the Arabic and Persian name for Greece.
English still carries the humours: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric and melancholy all come from them.
India has more Unani colleges, hospitals and registered practitioners than any other country: about 57 colleges and roughly 50,000 practitioners.
The heart drug ajmaline is named after Hakim Ajmal Khan.
The popular claim that Ibn Sina invented a 40-day quarantine has not been found in the Canon; the word comes from Venetian “quaranta giorni”.
The people
c. 460 – c. 375 BCE · Physician · Kos, Greece
The Hippocratic writings describe the four humours at the root of Unani.
129 – c. 216 · Physician · Pergamon, worked in Rome
Built the humours and temperaments into the system Unani inherited.
809 – 873 · Physician and translator · al-Hira, worked in Baghdad
Translated most of Galen into Syriac and Arabic.
c. 854 – c. 925/935 · Physician · Rey, Persia
Kept case notes, compared treated and untreated patients, and told smallpox from measles.
980 – 1037 · Physician and philosopher · Near Bukhara, worked in Persia
Wrote the Canon of Medicine, the core text of Unani.
1868 – 1927 · Physician, educator and freedom fighter · Delhi, India
Founded Tibbiya College and backed scientific research on Unani medicines; Unani Day marks his birthday.
1897 – 1994 · Chemist · Barabanki, India
Isolated ajmaline from Rauvolfia serpentina at Tibbiya College’s research institute.
Where it happened
Sources
Dates marked “c.” are approximate, and historians sometimes disagree about who was first. If you spot a mistake, tell us.
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