Museums of the Academy

Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Sciences is a Centre of Indian Medical Culture and Heritage, one of its own kinds in the world. It is a unique academy not found anywhere in the country. The Academy is trying hard to keep our ancient medical culture of community alive. Two museums are devoted on these two themes of depicting culture, literature and heritage. It shows the accomplishments and contributions made by Indian Unani Physicians and Scientists in the last 1200 years in chemistry, physics, astronomy, botany, zoology, geology, mathematics, etc. The Academy has earned a name for itself not only in this country but also abroad, in a very short period of about 20 years.

1. The Academy is accredited as Centre of Excellence by Ministry of AYUSH, Govt. of India in 2008. Besides two halls of museum with some rare artefacts; the academy has an extensive and exclusive collection of more than 30 thousand books, 20 thousand journals, 1 thousand hand-written manuscripts, original hand-written medical folios, paintings, etc. Some distinctions of the academy are as follows:
2. National Institute of Health (NIH) of the United States of America has prepared a Directory of Libraries of History Medicine of the world and Ibn Sina Academy is the only name appeared from India in its Directory. Thus the name of India is being representing by Ibn Sina Academy.
3. In 2015, the famous American channel CNN Travel presented a survey report on top ten important weirdest Museums of the world, including the museums of seventeenth century of Europe. It is a matter of great pride for India that the Academy and its Museum was included in this world report. It is the only inclusion from Asia

4. Large number of research students and teachers from India and abroad visit and make use of the library to surveys and literature reviews in the fields of History, Unani medicine and languages like Persian and Arabic etc. Two American scholars on Full Bright Scholarship came to the Academy for survey of the literature pertaining to classical periodicals/magazines that is otherwise unavailable at any of the existing libraries in the world.
5. The research material on Unani medicine is so extensive that scholars from abroad viz., Germany, England, Canada, USA and other Gulf countries come to refer the extensive literature on the subjects.
6. Ibn Sina Academy is also an Academic Institution and Research Center. Researchers make use of the literature and facilities for their thesis and primary source material.
7. An exhaustive collection of books on the famous Urdu Poet Ghalib resulted in the creation of a Ghalib Study Centre, which has the world’s largest collection on Ghalib.
8. Academy also publishes books on subjects relating to the different subjects especially Unani Medicine and so far more than 50 books have been published by the Academy in the last 20 years. Editing and writing of books is time consuming and hard work, but the Academy is carrying on its mission and doing the academic work on a continuous basis.
9. There is a regular academic activity in the Academy. Seminars, Conferences and special lectures are arranged on a regular basis, throughout the year. To name a few, two international seminars on Ibn Haytham on the occasion of International Year of Light (IYL 2016) of UNESCO and on Ibn Sina on the occasion of 1000th year of “Canon of Medicine” declared by UNESCO. In addition, Annual Ibn Sina Memorial Lecture and Annual Nasim Ansari Oration are part of regular activities of the Ibn Sina Academy.
10. Academic works available in the Academy are made use of by people from all over the country. Students preparing for various competitive examinations utilize the reading rooms of the library located in the academy to study in a peaceful, academic atmosphere.

Except the grant towards Centre of Excellence by Ministry of AYUSH; no further financial support has been received by this state of art academy. It is being managed by an individual family and interested and like-minded friends. The manuscripts need to be digitized and artefacts need to be organized and preserved systematically.

Unfortunately, tremendous pool of traditional knowledge is under threat and a number of manuscripts are disappearing at an alarming rate. Further, thousands of manuscripts lying in urgent need of conservation in a number of institutions around the country. Ibn Sina Academy is one such ones.

The Academy has two museums on separate themes: One is on medicine and science and another on arts, culture and orientalism.

Karam Hussain Museum on History of Medicine & Sciences

Karam Husain Museum on History of Medicine and Sciences is an academic unit with collections and exhibitions. The main theme is the history of health and disease in a cultural perspective, with focus on the material and iconographic culture of medieval medicine and sciences. The museum has categorically the pictures and busts of physicians belonging to Mesopotamia, Babylonian, Egyptians, Greeks, Arab and Indian civilizations. In addition, medical manuscripts, catalogues, medical philately, medical souvenirs, memoirs of physicians including Nobel laureates, etc., are preserved and exhibited.

Hakim Fazlur Rahman Museum on Arts, Culture and Orientalism

The museum has a large collection of coins, postage stamps, gemstones, paintings, engravings, watercolours, drawings, photographic print, utensils, garments including calico, busts, pens, memoirs and relics of some prominent personalities. In the museum, there are family collections like Prof. Syed Mahmood Husain Family Collection, Roohi Mabud Hasan Family Collection, etc.

Expert Committee on Museums

Ms. Ahmadi Begum
Curator, Hakim Fazlur Rahman Museum on Arts, Culture and Orientalism

Ms. Zahra Hashemi
Curator, Hakim Karam Hussain Museum on History of Medicine and Sciences

Members

• 1. Dr Tasawwer Hussain
• 2. Ms. Safia Akhtar
• 3. Dr. S. Shoeb Ahmad
• 4. Ms. Soofia Akhtar
• 5. Mr. Salah Siddiqui
• 6. Ms. Asifa Haneefa