Pharmacy (apothecary shop)
Farmacia como establecimiento y profesión
- Date
- 754 · confidence medium
- Place
- Baghdad, Iraq
- Credited to
- Abbasid Caliphate (al-Mansur)
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
State-regulated apothecary shops (under the hisba) that prepared and sold medicines according to formularies (aqrabadhin), kept separate from medical practice. The professional pharmacist is born.
The date 754 is traditional; the first securely attested apothecary shops are documented in the 9th century.
What it led to
- formularies and pharmacopoeias (Sabur ibn Sahl, al-Biruni, Ibn al-Baytar)
- the regulations of Frederick II (1240) separating physicians and apothecaries in Europe
- the international trade in drugs and medicinal spices
Built on
- Systematic pharmacopoeia (Dioscorides' De materia medica)c. 65 CE
- Public hospital (bimaristan)805
- Dioscorides's Materia Medica
- Public hospital (bimaristan)