Global Journal of Medical Research, K: Interdisciplinary, Volume 22 Issue 1

Zsuzsanna Kutasi Abstract- D rawing on the knowledge accumulated by the ancient Greek philosophers, medieval Arabic theoretical anatomy seeks to describe the organs, their roles and functions as well as their mutual relationships, embedding this description within a philosophical framework wherever higher or subordinate roles can be ascribed to the particular organs being discussed. According to Ibn S ī n ā (Ab ū ‘Al ī al- Ḥ usayn b. ‘Al ī )(Avicenna) (370-428 AH/980-1037 AD), everything in nature is connected with everything else, and the main operator of the body is the immortal divine soul ( r ūḥ ). In the process of breathing, a part of the divine soul enters the lungs and then, being mixed with blood, the heart as well, in which the 'pneuma' is formed, which is channeled by the arteries throughout the body. The soul part of the inhaled air ( al-haw āʼ ) regulates the heart’s heat and nourishes it. According to Ibn S ī n ā , the heart has three cavities: one on the right side, one on the left side, and the third in the middle, which serves as a kind of blood store. The liver governs the right side, the spleen governs the left one. The heart is located in the middle of the chest and maintains a kind of balance between the two vascular systems. The left side has been exalted because the divine soul comes from the air to the left side of the heart, and from here, it floods the whole body through the arteries. The right side of the body is dedicated to bodily functions like turning food into blood, nourishing the organs, and removing the excess. The right half of the body is operated by the left half through nerves originating from the brain. In the brain, the two sides merge. The source of the veins is the liver, while the arteries arise from the heart. As part of a close reading of the text, I created a diagram of branches of the blood vessels to facilitate their identification. In many passages of the anatomical description, we only learn that the blood vessel in question branches in three, four, or five directions and travels in a particular order or towards certain body parts. There is always a branch between them, indeed the largest one, and by connecting these largest branches, we get the full path of a given blood vessel from the Author: PhD, Eötvös Loránd University/ Department of Arabic Studies. e-mail: kutasi.zsuzsanna.orient@btk.elte.hu beginning to the end. Such as the route v. cava superior from the right ventricle (branches in two directions) - v. brachiocephalica (units to five) - v. subclavia (branches towards 4) - v. axillaris (branches towards 3) - v. basilica (2 components branch to 4 at the forearm) - v. mediana cubiti (branches towards 2) - v. salvatella from the heart to fingers. In some cases, erroneous conclusions can be found in description of Ibn S ī n ā wherever he connects blood vessels with different origins. Sometimes Ibn S ī n ā begins to describe a route of a blood vessel and then continues to describe another blood vessel as if it were a continuation of the previous one. Alternatively, he also assigns branches belonging to one blood vessel to branches belonging to another blood vessel, such as the v. jugularis interna, in describing the units of the v. jugularis externa . Keywords: anatomy, blood-system, Islamic medicine, Avicenna, Ibn S ī n ā. F oreword f a medieval person wished to learn the routes and branches of the blood vessels, the autopsy of a corpse would be indispensable for the collection of such data 2 2 „The question of whether human anatomical dissection was everpracticed in medieval Islamic society is not easily or un equivocally answered.” Emilie Savage-Smith, Attitudes Toward Dissection in Medieval Islam (1995) . The Arabic term at-tašr īḥ for dissection has a double meaning. Medieval Arabic authors used the word in the sense of "anatomy" in reference to an intact body, and also in the sense of "dissection" in reference to the exploration of a corpse. The noun at-tašr īḥ comes from the root š-r- ḥ (to cut up (flesh)). The ambiguity of the noun itself can be resolved by using the construction ʻ ilm at-tašr īḥ (the science of anatomy) to refer to the theoretical science, while the simple noun tašr īḥ can be reserved for referring to the practical process of dissection. The solution to this problem of interpretation, which has been a constant theme of Islamic medical literature since the Middle Ages, was provided by Ḥāǧǧī Hal ī fa and Mu ḥ ammad ʻ Al ī at-Tah ā naw ī in the 17th and 18th centuries, distinguishing between anatomical knowledge without dissection and understanding requiring dissection. (E. Savage-Smith 1995: 68-69). I 7 Year 2022 Global Journal of Medical Research Volume XXII Issue I Version I ( D ) K © 2022 Global Journals Basics of the Medieval Arabic Medicine: The Vascular Systems in the Canon of Medicine of Avicenna Incorporating a Translation of a Part of the First Book 1 By medieval Arabic medicine we mean the medicine of ancient origin practiced in the Arab Caliphate and itssuccessorstates and throughout the medieval Islamic world. In fact, most of the doctors were not Arabs (not even Muslim at first, but Jewish or Christian), but of Syriac (Aramaic), Iranian, Jewish, Turkish, or other descent, who wrote in Arabic, the language of science and culture at the time. Ibn S ī n ā was not an Arab either, he was a Persian from today's Uzbekistan.