Sustenance for Body and Soul

c. 900 CE

Abu Zayd Ahmad ibn Sahl al-Balkhi (c.850–934 CE)

In the golden era of Islamic philosophy and science, which extended from the mid-eighth century to the conquest of Bagdad in 1258 by the Mongols, the scholar Abu Zayd al-Balkhi authored a treatise on how to understand and treat problems of mental illness, especially depression. Outlining a rational therapeutic approach to treating neuroses that foreshadowed some aspects of modern cognitive therapies, al-Balkhi incorporated the three components of mental health addressed in the Qur’an—nafs (psyche), qalb (heart), and ‘aql (mind)—to formulate an approach to mental soundness. In order to be mentally healthy, it is necessary to maintain a balance among these elements.

Al-Balkhi’s Sustenance for Body and Soul (Masalih al-abdan wa al-anfus) addresses the following topics: the importance of sustaining the health of the nafs; preventing mental illness by cultivating positive mental hygiene; how to regain mental health once mental problems arise; psychological symptoms and their classification; anger management; managing fear and panic; treatment of sadness and major depression; dealing with obsessive thoughts and negative inner speech. In his book, al-Balkhi classifies neuroses into four categories: fear and anxiety, anger and aggression, sadness and depression, and obsessions. Of these four, he wrote in greatest detail about depression (al-huzn). Al-Balkhi pointed out that depression can result from the loss of loved ones, loss of personal belongings, and failure to reach goals or achieve success. Therapy for al-huzn is based on the cultivation of cognitions to counter the depressive thoughts. Because this treatment is within a religious tradition, al-Balkhi also recommended the recitation of the Qur’an as a necessary part of recovery.

Al-Balkhi also wrote about the relation of physical health to psychological states. He described how the physical and the mental interact to cause psychosomatic disorders, which can be prevented by maintaining a balance between mind and body and using positive thoughts or memories to counter negative emotions.

Cognitive therapies and the understanding of psychosomatic disorders in the Western medical-psychological tradition were twentieth-century developments. It is remarkable that al-Balkhi offered similar approaches more than one thousand years earlier.

SEE ALSO Canon of Medicine (1025), Psychosomatic Medicine (1939), Cognitive Therapy (1955)

Right side of a fourteenth-century double-page illustration depicting the fall of Baghdad in 1258, from Rashid-al-Din Hamadani’s Compendium of Chronicles on Islamic history.