[The historiography of Arabic medicine and the challenges of the XXI century].

This is a critical review of the work and methods of past and present Western historians of Arabic medicine. It points out traditional errors, prejudices and limitations, and proposes to modernize the way we approach this field of research. Up to now, many Western scholars have deemed that Arabic medicine could be understood by knowing the important theoretical treatises (even in unreliable translations) and by reading the frequently outdated secondary literature. Modern research must turn to the texts that reflect the actual medical practices, focus on social aspects of medicine or reflect the actual medical practices, focus on social aspects of medicine or the interaction of learned and folkloric medicine, and must even try to find out the truth about the questionable statements we read in our textbooks. The field urgently needs interdisciplinary and international cooperation and wider diffusion of the recent bibliography.