The Real Roots of Medicine | Peter Pormann on Cross-Cultural Healing

00:00 – Intro

01:56 – Pre-Greek medicine

04:48 – What made Greek medicine distinct?

07:35 – Hippocrates, Galen, Rufus

11:20 – Great men vs slow progress

15:12 – Placebo effect

20:54 – The Hippocratic Oath

24:22 – Empiricists vs rationalists

28:05 – Doctors' bad reputation

29:45 – Palimpsests & translation

36:52 – Naming the tradition

40:03 – Innovation vs common knowledge

43:40 – 4 key medieval doctors

48:26 – Medical breakthroughs

51:56 – Religion vs medicine

56:18 – Shift to Europe

01:01:00 – Teaching it to students

What if everything you thought you knew about the origins of medicine only told half the story?

In this episode of Echo & Ink, we’re joined by Professor Peter Pormann — a leading expert on Graeco-Arabic medicine — to uncover the real roots of medical knowledge. We explore how ideas from ancient Greece, Syriac Christianity, Persian scholars, and the medieval Middle East came together to shape the way medicine was practised, taught, and preserved for centuries.

We cover:

• Hippocrates, Galen, Rufus of Ephesus

• Avicenna (Ibn Sina), al-Razi, and other non-Western thinkers

• Syriac and Arabic translations of Greek texts

• Ancient diagnosis, placebo effect, and ethics

• Palimpsests, lost manuscripts, and digital recovery

• Religion, philosophy, and healing across cultures

Professor Pormann has authored over 190 works and is one of the most influential voices in the history of medicine, translation, and cross-cultural intellectual exchange.

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