Syed Tasnim Raza

Syed Tasnim Raza

Born in India on December 21, 1946, Syed Tasnim Raza immigrated to Pakistan, the day it was created as an independent state, on August 14, 1947. He attended King Edward Medical College in Lahore, Pakistan, graduating in December 1970. He came to America six months after graduating from medical school and trained in surgery and then cardiothoracic surgery from July 1971 to June 1979 at the State University New York at Buffalo and the Buffalo General Hospital. In April 2011, he joined the faculty in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center, where I am an Associate Professor of Surgery and director of the CT Surgery Stepdown Unit.

In the last few years, he developed an interest in the history of medicine. He realized that from Hippocrates and Galen (130-216 CE), most historical accounts jump to the Renaissance, brushing off the centuries in-between as the medieval dark ages. But those centuries included the Islamic Golden Age where Greek medicine was not only practiced but also progressed. To learn more about that period and to learn what were the contributions of the Arab/Islamic physicians during the medieval period, Syed Tasnim Raza decided to join the Middle East Institute to pursue a Master’s degree in Islamic studies.