The Physician

The Physician

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But Barber slowly has been going blind. A prostitute tells Barber that a certain Jewish doctor could help him. With great care, this Doctor uses skills and tools left over from the Roman Empire and Middle Eastern knowledge to help. Cole sadly leaves Barber, traveling across an unforgiving desert, where he meets a lovely bride being brought to her wealthy, older husband. Against all odds, Cole succeeds in being accepted into Ibn Sina's school, and taught philosophy, science, and medicine that are far more advanced than European knowledge.

He and Ibn Sina save the city from the Black Death, but Cole breaks taboo by secretly performing an autopsy on a Zoroastrian who died of appendicitis. He discovers enough about anatomy to perform an appendectomy on the Shah Olivier Martinez. An entertaining adventure, overall. It is a fictional work that borrows from a rich history and fame surrounding the physician, philosopher, and scientist Ibn Sina, though he is not the main protagonist.

Instead, the focus is on a young man who travels to Isfahan, Persia modern day Iran , to study with this preeminent thinker at a university patroned by the Shaw himself, as well as other wealthy residents. It is not a perfect film, but the settings are beautiful and the story inspiring. There are substantial changes from the book and plenty of negative commentary around the net regarding the adaptation. I went in viewing it as a work independent from the book and really enjoyed it. The story begins in England with the death of Robert Cole's mother while he is still just a boy.

He is now orphaned, but obsessed by his inability to save his mother and fascinated by medicine in general. He latches on to an itinerant barber also a physician of sorts back then who travels around practicing medieval European medicine, selling fake potions, pulling teeth and setting broken bones. We move quickly forward to Robert Tom Payne as a young man. During their limited travels, they encounter a community of Jews with a healer possessing greater skill than they have seen before.

Robert presses them for the source of their knowledge and learns that he must travel to Isfahan in Persia to study under the great Ibn Sina Ben Kingsley. Unfortunately he is also told he cannot because he is Christian and would be killed. Undeterred, Robert embarks on his journey while posing as a Jew for at least some hope of safety. He will encounter a journey of adventure, learning, service, love, and enlightenment he never could have imagined.

I don't want to get into a bunch of details, but there are significant changes that could cause fans of the novel problems. Some characters are omitted while other relationships are altered, such as Rebecca Emma Rigby who travels with his caravan on her way to be married. I really liked Rachel's character independent from the book so I accepted it. I also felt it was a terrific role of substance for the beautiful Emma Rigby. If you are a fervent fan of the book, you may wish to check commentary around the net about the adaptation unless you accept up front it will be different.

This story is set in what is now called the Golden Age of Islam. Despite some images projected today, many will be surprised to know that substantial tolerance was observed in that region for some time that did not exist in many other parts of the known world. Ancient science and medicine lost to the Dark Ages of Europe survived and flourished in Persia. Even religious and philosophical scholarship was nurtured.

The protagonist Robert Cole is completely fictional, but Ibin Sina Latinized Avicenna is considered perhaps the greatest Islamic thinker, and one of the greatest thinkers of all human cultures throughout history. His history is also altered substantially to fit this story, not to mention some medical advances. However, the spirit and homage to his memory is worth while.

Doing a little research was interesting for me since I have been to Afghanistan and was surprised to learn Ibn Sina's family actually hailed from Balk, now part of Afghanistan, and he was born in Bukhara, now part of Uzbekistan.

The Physician ( film) - Wikipedia

I really enjoyed this movie and it even maintains a feel of a small epic. The CGI architecture isn't always perfectly realistic, but it is beautiful. The plot connections are also rushed in a few areas in an attempt to fit the story into a movie's run time. That is not uncommon for book adaptations, though I would like to have seen a little more. I am mentioning a little critique only to inform and be fair.

I am a definite fan of this movie. I recommend a rental first, and book fans should prepare themselves. That done, I hope you find an upside surprise. A very colorful story with some fine veteran actors and even relative newcomer Tom Payne delivers enough to make it compelling.

The story itself is fascinating, no less so for still being timely in its themes: There are many adventures, many close escapes, and sweepingly lush backdrops. Yes, there appear to be some anachronisms, but on the whole it's an intelligent and worthwhile film. I wept at the end not because of what happens to Rob Cole spoiler alert: It's worth watching because it's highly entertaining and, whether intentionally or not,, a lesson in how history repeats itself. Story of a young man in middle ages who wants to become a real healer.

He learns best place to learn is a man in the middle east but he cannot go there unless he is Muslim or Jewish so he pretends to be Jewish. This causes him some complications. He meets a girl promised to another on his journey and they fall in love but she has to marry the other man. In the meantime he gets in the school of medicine under the great mentor Ben Kingsley and begins to learn a lot about healing. Problems arise from being in a Muslim country with a tolerant ruler who is about to lose his throne due to his tolerant attitude. Then the plague hits. In the end the young man will come full circle and back to his home country which is England to teach what he has learned and with the women he loves.

Story had real possibilities. Interesting to see how primitive medicine was in middle ages. But it is long and the story wanders and the acting is mediocre except for Ben Kingsley. And sound quality poor. I had to resort to subtitles. Still mildly interesting with a better last half than the first half. Starts out very slow. See all reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 1 month ago. Published 2 months ago. Published 4 months ago.

Published 6 months ago. Published 7 months ago. Published 8 months ago. I believe the book was written to inform readers in an engaging manner about the time period and how it really would have felt to live then and in these specific places. The book does this well.

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You do learn what all aspects of life were like. You get the details concerning food, clothing, hardships and joys, both pagan and religious Christian, Jewish and Muslim beliefs and how medical problems were viewed, treated and looked upon by various groups. How was the book written:: OK, here is the problem! There were so many details that you were swamped. A chapter was spent on how one can learn to juggle Yes, it was actually quite revealing, but only to a point.

It went on too long. This can be said in relation to many, many points. You learn how to correctly place phylacteries according to the Jewish faith, how to prepare kosher food, how to make the the medicines then available Parts, for example how the school in Isfahan, Persia was organized, were very interesting. Probably different parts will appeal to different readers, but to no one will ALL of it be interesting. Let me repeat, it was very didactic, to a fault! The language was clear and informative, but that was it - no sparkle what so ever!!!!

I guess that is my biggest complaint. It felt like you were reading YA literature, even though some of the episodes were quite rough. Always you felt like it was trying to teach the readers. The writing was simplistic. Only very, very rarely did it encourage the reader to pose philosophical questions. It just presented the facts. By the end of the book I was finally engaged in the characters and had to find out how things would end. However for the majority I was slugging through the pages. Rarely did I laugh. I cannot remember in fact if I ever laughed I will not be reading another book by this author.

There are better books out there that BOTH inform and capture my imagination. My head tells me the book deserves more stars, but I am sticking with my gut feelings.

Most of the time was thinking this book is OK. That is how I felt, not how I was thinking. The point of this review is to try and figure out for myself and perhaps others why I felt the way I did. View all comments. Apr 02, Lauren rated it it was amazing. Noah Gordon is my new favorite author. The Physician is long, but I read through it quickly. I could hardly put it down! The novel is set in the middle of the eleventh century. Gordon transports readers to another time, setting an ambience that feels authentic to the time period.

The novel covers a wide span of geography, beginning in London, taking the reader throughout England and ultimately across Europe through Constantino Noah Gordon is my new favorite author. The novel covers a wide span of geography, beginning in London, taking the reader throughout England and ultimately across Europe through Constantinople to Persia, then India, and back to London and ultimately to Scotland. The main character, Rob J. Cole, is orphaned in London and taken in by "Barber", a Barber surgeon, which is a doctor of sorts for the lowest classes. He struggles in his new role as a Barber surgeon he has a hard time mastering juggling, which is vital to draw crowds but eventually he becomes obsessed with the idea of healing people after he meets a Jewish Physician who can perform cataract surgery.

After Barber dies, Rob J. The complication is that the Catholic Church prohibits Christians from studying in "heathen" institutions, so Rob J. This novel is not only entertaining, but also makes the reader think. It raises many issues of religion and science and the relationship between the two. The reader also develops a strong sense of the fragility of life in this time period, of the difficulty of travel, of how much our world has progressed in years.

Also, unlike most novels of this period, it gives a sense of the role of Jews in the Middle Ages. The Jewish system of travel is fascinating. View all 5 comments. Dec 28, Salma rated it liked it. It is the story of the British orphan Rob. J from the 11th century who became a barber-surgeon, who dreamt to study medicine under Avicenna supervision.

This was a condemned matter and a crime punished by death, at times when heretics were burnt. He disguised as a Jew to manage the matter. He made you live everything in the novel with him for the first time… Everything seemed bizarre and different, frightening and severe, rough and disgusting, charming and astonishing… The novel presents variety: It seemed nobody like that but the Jew; the Jew was the only one who seemed loving to his family, enlightened, peaceful, high-minded, while the Muslim was the lewd and wild.

You wonder how such people made a civilization, medicine and maristan? Well, it seemed to Rob that it was not more than imitating the Greeks. Eventually, of course as usual, the European Rob J. I know it is almost impossible to read a book or novel about Orient or Muslims without this arrogant tone. However, in this novel it seemed extra dissonance, because it was the tone of a 20th century man, i.

Regardless what mentioned before, it is an exotic breathtaking novel, soaked with adventures. The writer is a real storyteller. I want to add a piece of information I've discovered recently, that it is not true what the novel said about that there was no anatomy of the human body in medieval Islamic society, and it was considered as a crime, because for examples there were the contribution of Ibn al-Nafis who described the movement of blood through the pulmonary transit, and made illustrations, Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi who described the bones of the lower jaw and sacrum, and others.

Well I know that novels are not authentic sources of information, because they are imagined, however they make you want to know more about the subject. View all 10 comments. Sep 22, Dov Glazer added it. Well, Noah Gordon opened my eyes. I travelled through medieval Europe with Rob J. Cole as I would later do with his descendant Shaman in America all the way to Persia. How people dressed, ate, how they lived, the relationship with the Jewish community. The remarkable writing style ensured that the length of the book merely made it more appealing.

The longer I spent reading it, the more I enjoyed it. So much so that I was saddened when the book was drew to its end. It definitely ranks among my favorite books of all time View all 8 comments. May 16, Natalie rated it it was amazing Shelves: I love historical fiction. I love to learn about religion in historical fiction. I loved this book! This book takes place during the 11th century in Europe. It is about a Christian man who disguises himself as a Jew in order to go to a Muslim school of Medicine in the Middle East. It was so interesting to learn how these three major religions interacted with each other during that time in history.

There is one problem with the book though: Since this bo I love historical fiction. Since this book talks about most of the details if Robert Cole's life,it throws that in there as well. Aclaro esto porque debo decir que si no fuera por mi madre, por la fuerza de la promesa que le hice y el aliento que me daba poder compartir con ella y contarle lo que iba pasando a cada paso que daba en la historia, no lo hubiera terminado.

Film Review: ‘The Physician’

Peo Rob no quiere quedarse con eso, el quiere aprender la medicina real, quiere ser capaz de ayudar a la gente, y para eso, debe dirigirse a Persia. Los personajes estuvieron muy muy bien y sobre todo muy reales. Fue un fuerte eje de la historia, ya que todo el libro se revuelve a su alrededor, naturalmente. If we can explain the disease, someone yet unborn may devise a cure.

El final fue simple pero absolutamente satisfactorio y en paz. When I read it, over ten years ago, I was quite taken with it. Though not taken enough to persue the series further.

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I also remember ranting about the movie which I've seen a shorter while ago for being lacking in many departments, putting too much emphasis on a love story that didn't exist in the book in that way, and being a lot more "eurocentrist" in who is the hero than the book was. Jun 16, Audrey rated it it was amazing Shelves: I found this book when I looked for something similar to Follets "Pillars of the Earth" and I'm really glad I read it.

Both the medieval setting in Britain and the fact that you accompany the protagonist for a long period of his life are aspects this book has in common with "Pillars of the Erath". But as the story goes on it also teaches the reader a lot about the islamic and jewish religion at that time, as well as about the medical practices in the medieval era, which is really interresting. A very good read! Apr 24, Tom Gonzalez rated it really liked it Recommends it for: People who like historical fictions and adventures. Noah Gorgon's ability to transport you back into the dark ages is a result of talent and insightful research.

This is a story of a young man born in London during the reign of King Knute and his transformation throughout his life to become Hakim, the Persian word for Physician. For a Christian, to become a physician was deemed sacrilegious by the all powerful church, and the Islamic world would kill infidels on sight. The protagonist, Rob J Cole, had to become something altogether different than Noah Gorgon's ability to transport you back into the dark ages is a result of talent and insightful research.

The protagonist, Rob J Cole, had to become something altogether different than a Christian or a Muslim in order to accomplish the metamorphosis from a dark age European to an enlightened scientist. The adventures lived and the growth undergone was inspiring for me and almost led me to become a physician. I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of old England and Ancient Persia, their cultures, the harshness and impossibly of life, and historical allusions.

This book is a great escape, to a world far, far from here. Oct 05, Miquel Reina rated it it was amazing Shelves: A book that I highly recommended if you like such novels "The Pillars of the Earth" in which generations of different eras are mixed, the history of medicine and exciting travel through exotic places.

Un libro muy recomendable si te gustan las novelas tipo "Los Pilares de la Tierra" en el que se mezclan gener The Physician is the first book of the excellent trilogy Cole Family of Noah Gordon I read. View all 4 comments. I generously give 3.

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I had read it many years ago, around age 10 I think and it was this book that generated my lifelong interest in the history of medecine. To be fair to the author I believe the parts covering Judaism and Arabic medicine of the period are broadly accurate but probably no more than tha I generously give 3. To be fair to the author I believe the parts covering Judaism and Arabic medicine of the period are broadly accurate but probably no more than that, despite NG's apparent research.

Ibn Sina did exist but died in I do note the date of publication and historical fiction at that time was apt to have less expected of it, to my mind. So, a few of the errors I encountered: Rob J Cole - the main character has a name that would never have been used in England at that time. Even Robert was rare, middle names did not exist for the masses and even today I have never met anyone using their name as a shortened first name plus middle initial in Britian - that is an Americanism.

Finally, humble people also did not have surnames but were known by what they or their father did. Rob J's father was a carpenter so where did Cole come from? This absolutely basic set of errors sets the tone for the whole book!

Witch pricking and the whole set of beliefs about witches sounds straight out of the Salem witch trials! There is little record of witchcraft in historical record and most of them were wise women, not barber-surgeons, which was an actual profession, albeit ineffective.

I think the fear that he and Barber would be thought witches was overstated and the incident from Barber's past was unlikely. The whole issue belonged more in the 16th century or later. An accusation of heresy was a more likely threat if their practice stepped outside the accepted domain. The language Rob J studies so diligently is no Parsi but Farsi. A Parsi is actually from India and is a Zoroastrian. Travelling barber-surgeons did exist in England, being first recorded at exactly the time of the novel. However Barber carried out the job more like a travelling quack in the US in a much later era.

The basic premise of the story was impossible - there is no way Rob J could have impersonated a Jew at that time and for that long and without really knowing how to be a Jew! Rob J thought like a modern man not a man of the 11th century. To have even conceived of doing what he did was beyond unlikely.

NG also imputed an impossible freedom to women and Mary's father would never have considered a marriage between them as she was socially above Rob J. Finally but far from exhaustively! The merest hint that he had looked inside a body would have probably ended in him being killed as a heretic.

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