SYRIA: Healer uses herbs to treat a range of ailments from his shop in an old Damascus market

Record ID: 279330

  • Title: SYRIA: Healer uses herbs to treat a range of ailments from his shop in an old Damascus market
  • Date: 7th February 2011
  • Summary: SHOPPERS
  • Embargoed: 22nd February 2011 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Syrian Arab Republic
  • Country: Syria
  • Topics: Health,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA524N4CGARJP4RCHGBXAUL68U5
  • Story Text: Ahmad Abu al-Tut is a traditional healer who uses herbs and centuries-old remedies to cure common ailments.
    His 200-year old shop stands in the Sheikh Mouhi Al-Din market in Old Syria. It has been in the family for four generations, and is well known for selling herbal remedies and treatments.
    Abu al-Tut treats diabetes, stomach ailments and skin conditions according to recipes passed down from his father and grandfather.
    According to him, these herbal recipes treat the root cause of medical conditions - unlike modern medicine - which he claims merely treats the symptoms.
    "The main point that made people go to this is that if you search in any medication that is available in pharmacies, it is not a treatment. It is just an analgesic. The patient needs to be cured not just to kill or forget their pain for a certain period. Secondly the problem that we face is this gap between giving the patient their right in diagnosis and their right in good medication. We do not give them just pain killers, that just cures the surface for a while,"
    Abu al-Tut explained.
    Although Abu al-Tut's medication is mostly derived from natural ingredients, he also trained as a nurse, and has been known to combine modern and traditional medical techniques.
    Plenty of stalls sell herbal remedies at the al-Bzouryeh market, which was built by the Ottoman ruler Midhat Pasha in 1878.
    They are popular with patients like Falak Kabbani. She regularly buys herbal medication, explaining that even if they might not work, they are natural and free from chemicals.
    "Surely natural medication is not hurtful, because they are in our food and drink. But the chemical medications, the word chemical is enough to tell you everything about it,'' said Falak.
    Medicine in the Islamic world flourished during medieval times. In the ninth and tenth centuries cities like Baghdad were known for being centres of Islamic science. It was also known for its sophisticated medical system.
    The West had its first taste of Islamic medicine in the twelfth century when the Crusaders were exposed to the Islamic medicine.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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