Movies: The Physician (Total fail)

The Physician, is a 2013 German historical drama film based on the novel of the same name by Noah Gordon. The film, co-written and directed by Philipp Stölzl, focuses on an orphan from an 11th-century English town whose mother died of side sickness. The boy vows to study medicine and decides to travel to Persia.

The young orphan, Robert Cole, joins an itinerant barber-surgeon who calls himself Barber. Barber teaches him the basics of medieval medicine, with services such as cupping therapy, bloodletting, and dental extraction.  Even as an apprentice recognizes the limitations of these simple practices. Meetin a Jewish doctor he learns a little bit of Jewish culture and sees for the first time a world map, and learns of the famous Ibn Sina, who teaches medicine in distant Kakuyid Persia. So he decides to train there to become a physician. During the Islamic Golden Age, the medicine in the medieval Islamic world is far more advanced than in Europe. The doctor, scientist and philosopher Ibn Sina teaches in Isfahan, the most important school for aspiring practitioners in the world at that time.

Rob is told Christians are forbidden to enter Muslim lands while Jews are tolerated. Upon arriving in Egypt, Rob therefore circumcises himself and calls himself Jesse ben Benjamin, pretending to be a Jew. And his journey to Isfahan to meet Ibn Sina begins.

This  movies, even as total fiction couldn't be more wrong!!!

Review & Critique

 

Opening scenes – Medieval England vs. the Islamic world

Rob Cole, a poor orphan in dark, disease-ridden England, hears that true medical knowledge exists only in “Persia” under a legendary physician, Ibn Sina. And he was told the Islam lands were forbidden to Christians. And I am “what” since Christian merchants, envoys, and scholars often visited Muslim lands with permission. The people from different religions lived in peace in Islam lands except maybe war times. Persia was not some secret, closed land — knowledge travelled freely via trade routes and translations.

 

The caravan and the Seljuk attack

Rob’s caravan to Isfahan is ambushed by brutal Seljuk horsemen who slaughter civilians indiscriminately. Another “what” especially reading two books about Seljuks.

- By the time of Ibn Sina (d. 1037), the Seljuks hadn’t yet conquered Persia. They entered the region about a decade later.

- Even after conquest, the Seljuks were not barbaric marauders; they built schools (the *Nizamiyya madrasas*), hospitals, and maintained trade safety. They asked for lands to settle and paied their tax and aid the country their army services when they were called. They even protected the local people where they lived.

Here the film borrows the “wild Turkic invader” stereotype common in Western fiction.

 

Arrival in Isfahan – “A forbidden city for Christians”

Rob disguises himself as a Jew because Christians supposedly would be executed if discovered in an Islamic city.

- 11th-century Isfahan had Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian communities living there under the “dhimmi” system (non-Muslims paying a poll tax but protected by law).

- Nestorian Christian physicians and translators actually worked in Muslim hospitals and courts.

- So Rob could have entered legally with a safe-conduct permit.

 

Meeting Ibn Sina

Ibn Sina appears as an old, mystical sage who reluctantly trains Rob in secret Western-style science.

This is partly romanticized.

- Ibn Sina was a rationalist scholar, not a mystical hermit.

- He had students openly, wrote over 200 scientific and philosophical works, and taught under patronage of local rulers.

- His teaching wasn’t “forbidden”; it was state-supported intellectual activity.

 

The dissection scene

Rob secretly performs a human autopsy, violating Islamic law; Ibn Sina helps him but hides it from authorities.

- Islam did not formally prohibit the study of anatomy; it discouraged mutilation of corpses but allowed medical study indirectly.

- Muslim physicians (e.g., Al-Zahrawi, Ibn al-Nafis) wrote detailed anatomical treatises based on observation, often from animals.

- The idea of “religion versus science” is a modern Western trope, not an 11th-century Muslim reality.

 

The plague outbreak and the mob scene

The plague hits Isfahan; religious fanatics accuse Ibn Sina and Rob of heresy, and mobs burn the hospital.

There is no record of such an event in reality.

- Persian hospitals (bimaristans) were among the safest, most respected institutions.

- Scholars debated theology and medicine, but public witch-hunts were not common in Islamic cities the way they were in medieval Europe.

- This scene projects European religious hysteria onto the Muslim world.

 

Seljuk invasion of Isfahan

Seljuk armies destroy the city; Ibn Sina’s world collapses in fire and chaos.

Reality:

- Again, timeline error: Ibn Sina died before the Seljuk conquest (1037 vs. 1050s).

- When the Seljuks took Isfahan, they chose it as their capital, rebuilt it, and promoted learning — the opposite of destruction.

Ending – Rob returns to England

Rob brings back “forbidden Eastern knowledge” to enlighten Europe.

What really happened is knowledge transmission from the Islamic world to Europe did happen, but mostly via Spain (Al-Andalus) and Sicily, not a lone secret traveler.  Translation movements were institutional, involving many scholars, not isolated heroes.

 

Summary

Scene / Element	Film depiction	Historical reality
Seljuks	Savage invaders	Organized empire, patrons of learning
Christian visitors	Executed if found	Allowed with protection, many lived there
Ibn Sina	Mystical old man	Rational scientist, respected philosopher
Dissection	Forbidden by religion	Not explicitly banned; limited for practical reasons
Isfahan	Dark, oppressive city	Prosperous, intellectual capital
Religion vs. science	Constant conflict	Coexistence; state-sponsored education
Knowledge transfer	One hero smuggling secrets	Large translation networks (Baghdad, Toledo)