Secondary sourcePaintingearly 20th century

Rhazes in His Laboratory at Baghdad

Ernest Board · early 20th century

An early-20th-century oil painting imagining al-Razi as an alchemist working in his Baghdad laboratory.

This painting imagines al-Razi as an experimental chemist, showing how Western medical history later portrayed him.

Ask Al-Razi about this source View the original

Black and white photograph of an oil painting in an ornate frame showing a robed bearded man in a turban standing in a dark laboratory, pointing toward a smoking furnace with a pot, while a young boy kneels at right; glass flasks and a mortar sit on a table, with shelves of bottles behind. A plaque below reads RHAZES, ARAB PHYSICIAN & ALCHEMIST. — Ernest Board, Rhazes, Arab Physician and Alchemist, in his Laboratory at Baghdad, early 20th century. Wellcome Collection.

About this source

What it is

This photograph shows an oil painting by the British artist Ernest Board, depicting a robed, turbaned man pointing toward a smoking furnace in a dark laboratory, with a boy kneeling nearby and glass flasks on a table.

Why it matters

Made long after al-Razi's death, this painting reflects how early-20th-century Western medical history imagined him: as a scientific experimenter working with chemical apparatus. It shows how later generations constructed an image of a figure from the distant past to fit their own ideas about science.

Look closer

What does the laboratory equipment suggest about how the artist imagined al-Razi's work?
Since no one alive in Board's time had seen al-Razi, what sources might the artist have used to imagine this scene?
What does this painting tell us about Western attitudes to Arab and Persian science in the early 20th century?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Al-Razi on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.