Islamic Medicine

How far do you agree that 'the Islamic religion had a positive influence on medicine in the Middle ages'.(8)

On one hand I agree with the statement because Muslims encouraged people to learn and read books. This had a positive influence on medicine because it meant that teachings and findings were able to be passed down. Doctors in the middle ages would get taught from the books that were written by Galen and Hippocrates; although these were wrong (but they didn't know that then) it still allowed them to treat the patients and in some cases cured them. Without the books the ideas and teachings of Galen would have been forgotten therefore they would have had no idea of the opposites theory which was based on the theory of the four humours. As the books were taken East by the Muslims it preserved the books from getting destroyed. This was useful when the Renaissance translated the books to Latin and read that Galen thinks it is necessary to dissect and study bodies.
On the other hand I disagree with the statement because they didn't allow dissection. This has a negative effect on medicine as it meant that people couldn't proceed in the anatomy side of medicine meaning more mistakes were made when writing more books. This affected medicine as people still believed the incorrect ideas that were written by Galen. If they were allowed to do dissections, they would have realised the mistakes in Galen's work.
In conclusion i think that Islamic medicine had a positive influence on medicine. This is because they helped preserve the books and teachings which stopped people having to return back to the basic and first/ early findings of medicine.