Ali Bin Rabban Al-Tabari
838-870 AD
Ali Bin Rabbin Al-Tabaari (known as Ali) was a Persian physician and author of the first Arabic Medical Encyclopedia (The Paradise of Wisdom). He was born a Jew and later became a Nestorian Christian. Then, when he was 70, he converted to Islam. He was fluent in Syriac and Greek, two languages that positioned him well to study and interpret texts of medical antiquity.
His book was valued for its reliance on his clinical experience. One of the last chapters is devoted to psychotherapy where he cites several examples of the effectiveness of this treatment in psychosis.
Ali is perhaps most famous for being the teacher of Al Rhazes.