“Resale Shammieh” First Source of Allergic Rhinitis Description by Rhazes

BACKGROUND: Abū Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Rāzī, known as Rhazes in the Western world (854-925 CE), was an Iranian polymath, physician and one of the most prominent sages in the medieval period. He wrote several medical books and treaties such as “Continents”, a comprehensive medical encyclopedia, treaties in smallpox and measles, “Al-Mansuri” and many other important manuscripts in the medical field. “Resale Shammieh” is one of his pioneering well-known works in medicine; replying to Shahid-Ibn-Hussein Balkhi, dedicated to his master Abuzeid Ahmad-Ibn-sahl Balkhi, who was getting cold in spring at the time of rose blossoming. We are about to review “Resale Shammieh” because of the importance of this treaty as a pioneering work in allergy and its clinical manifestation. METHODS: This study is a traditionary review of “Resale Shammieh” and similar copies as well as works cited by Abureihan Birooni, Ibn Abi-Ossaiba’ei, Ibn-e-nadim. RESULTS: It seems that this treatise has been prepared before treatise of Qest-ibn-Looqa, written for Abbasid Caliph Mutawakkil, about hay fever. Rhazes, in “Resale Shammieh” elucidated almost all clinical manifestations of allergic rhinitis and hay fever is mentioned in the conventional medical resources, including nasal stuffiness, itchy nose, sneezing repeatedly, runny nose, red face, and light elevated temperature of the body. He also cited complications of hay fever such as hoarseness, dyspnea and fever; and mentioned primary preventive measures including covering the head in cold weather, abstaining from drinking cold water as well as smelling musk, Costus and myrrh Maki. His proposed remedies for hay fever comprising of dipping a fabric in the nose, fumigation, shaving the head and rubbing mustard and allium on it, as well as ear or forehead bloodletting. CONCLUSION: “Resale Shammieh”, a valuable work of Rhazes, the Muslim Persian physician, in hay fever is most probably the first known treaty about allergy in the season of rose blossoming, the spring.