I was today years old when I learned 'quarantine' was invented by Muslim scientist Ibn Sina in the 11th century.

A thread.

"The first arguments for the use of quarantine to control the spread of diseases appeared in “The Canon of Medicine,” a five-volume medical encyclopedia compiled by Persian Muslim polymath Ibn Sina (980-1037), known as Avicenna.

Ibn Sina was the first to designate a method to avoid contagion through 40-day sanitary isolation. He called the method “al-Arba’iniya” (the fortieth), translated literally to “quarantena” (forty) in early Venetian language.

Quarantine was a mandatory practice in hospitals across the Islamic world to prevent the spread of leprosy, an infectious disease that causes disfiguring skin sores.

Quarantine became more common in Europe, especially in the meeting points of transcontinental merchants...

... such as Venice, during and after the Black Death plague in the 14th and 15th centuries. The term “quarantena” designated the forty-day period that all ships were required to be isolated before passengers and crew could go ashore.

The success of the method in controlling the spread of epidemics led to the survival of the term “quarantine” until today." https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/04/298605/three-islamic-inventions-leading-the-global-fight-against-covid-19/?fbclid=IwAR2sM-r0XhVaESE99iR93curtf0_7wdbg9a6zo8N05gY7tnv_4MmWksiJzE