Anatomy
Hunayn
Ibn Ishaq systemized and defined the life sciences and
devised practical concepts and procedures for study, experimentation
and practice.
He
wrote al-Masa’il fi at-tibb, Introduction to Healing
Art.
As
a result of this book the medicopharmacetical branches
of science were further developed.
Introduction
to Healing Art was the manual used by examiners to approve
physicians licensing for practice from the eighth to the
fourteen century.
The
book was translated into Latin and was widely spread in
Europe.
Hunayn
then wrote Kitab al-Manazir (Book of Optics)
and ten treaties on anatomy, physiology, and treatment
of the eye. These
treaties became the first systematic and organized Arabic
text on the earliest known anatomomical charts.
Hunayn
Manuscript (800-873)
Diagram
of the Eyes
and Related Nerves
from Kitab al-Manazir
(Book of Optics)
Ibn al-Haytham
Istanbul, 11th Century
Muslim
surgeons were among the first to use narcotic and seductive
drugs in operations: Islam teaches that God has provided
human beings with a great variety of natural remedies
to cure the ills It is man's obligation to identify them
and to use them with skill and compassion.
Al
Majusi (died 994) is considered the first theorist on
anatomy and physiology in Arabic medicine. His Liber Regius
was the first Islamic work to deal with surgery in detail,
and he was the first to use the tourniquet to prevent
arterial bleeding.
Al-
Zahrawi of Moorish Spain (940-1013) wrote an encyclopedia,
at-Tasrif witch deals with obstetrics, pediatrics, and
midwifery, as well as with general human anatomy. His
latest treaties were devoted to surgery-including cautery.
Ibn
an-Nafis (1210-1288) gave the most comprehensive description
of surgical operations and treatment of bodily injuries
ever contained in any Arabic test of its kind. He explained
the function of the capillaries, the minute blood passages
that connect arteries and veins and the action of cordial
valves in the veins and the heart chambers. We are also
indebted to him for making the first appeal for uniformity
of standards of weights and measures used in medicine,
pharmacy and surgery.
Ibn
an-Nafis also worked out the correct anatomy of the lungs
and was the first person known to record the coronary
circulation - the vessels supplying blood to the heart
itself :... the nourishment of the heart is from the
blood that goes through the vessels that permeate the
body of the heart ...Ibn an-Nafis's work was based
on extensive work and study of anatomy. But the significance
of his ideas was not really understood even in his own
country, and was probably unknown by physicians in western
countries. Around 300 years after his original writings,
some of Ibn an-Nafis's work was translated into Latin
by Andrea Alpago of Belluno in 1547. His important observations
then became available in Europe - shortly before some
European scientists and doctors began to make the same
discoveries! A coincidence or not? It was only in the
20th century that his work was brought to light again
and people became aware of how early he had reached his
conclusions on the workings of the heart and that some
'borrowing' of ideas may have occurred!
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The
minor circulation of the blood