Ibn al-Nafis

Ibn al-Nafis
Personal
Bornc. 1210–1213
Damascus, Ayyubid Sultanate
Died17 December 1288
Cairo, Mamluk Sultanate
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic Golden Age
RegionSyria and Egypt
JurisprudenceShafi'i[2]
CreedAsh'ari[1]
Main interest(s)
Notable work(s)Al-Durra Sharh 'Aqa'id al-Nasafi (Arabic: الدرة شرح عقائد النسفي),[3][4] Commentary on Anatomy in Avicenna's Canon
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Abī Ḥazm al-Qarashī (Arabic: علاء الدين أبو الحسن عليّ بن أبي حزم القرشي ), known as Ibn al-Nafīs (Arabic: ابن النفيس), was an Arab polymath whose areas of work included medicine, surgery, physiology, anatomy, biology, Islamic studies, jurisprudence, and philosophy. He is known for being the first to describe the pulmonary circulation of the blood.[5] The work of Ibn al-Nafis regarding the right sided (pulmonary) circulation pre-dates the later work (1628) of William Harvey's De motu cordis. Both theories attempt to explain circulation. The 2nd century Greek physician Galen's theory about the physiology of the circulatory system remained unchallenged until the works of Ibn al-Nafis, for which he has been described as "the father of circulatory physiology".[6][7][8]

As an early anatomist, Ibn al-Nafis also performed several human dissections during the course of his work,[9] making several important discoveries in the fields of physiology and anatomy. Besides his famous discovery of the pulmonary circulation, he also gave an early insight of the coronary and capillary circulations.[10][11] He was also appointed as the chief physician at al-Naseri Hospital founded by Sultan Saladin. Due to his discoveries, he has been described by some as “the second Avicenna”.[12]

Apart from medicine, Ibn al-Nafis studied jurisprudence, literature and theology. He was an expert on the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence and an expert physician.[13] The number of medical textbooks written by Ibn al-Nafis is estimated at more than 110 volumes.[14]

  1. ^ Al-Hassan, Ahmad Y., M. Ahmad, and A. Z. Iskandar. "Factors behind the decline of Islamic science after the sixteenth century." History of science and technology in Islam. Available via: http://www.history-science-technology.com/articles/articles%208.html (2001).
  2. ^ Amr, S. S.; Tbakhi, A. (2007). "Ibn Al-Nafis: Discoverer of the Pulmonary Circulation". Annals of Saudi Medicine. 27 (5): 385–387. doi:10.5144/0256-4947.2007.385. PMC 6077055. PMID 17921693. In addition to his medical studies, Ibn al-Nafis learnt Islamic religious law, and became a renowned expert on Shafi'i school of jurisprudence (Fiqh). He lectured at al-Masruriyya School in Cairo. His name was included in a book on "Great Classes of Shafi'i Scholars (Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyyin al-Kubra) by Taj al-Din al-Subki indicating his fame in religious law.
  3. ^ Group of scholars (2013). Ahmad Farid al-Mazidi (ed.). شروح وحواشي العقائد النسفية لأهل السنة والجماعة (الأشاعرة والماتريدية) (in Arabic). Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Kotob al-'Ilmiyya. p. 16. ISBN 9782745147851.
  4. ^ Kamal al-Din ibn Abi Sharif (2017). Muhammad al-'Azazi (ed.). الفرائد في حل شرح العقائد وهو حاشية ابن أبي شريف على شرح العقائد للتفتازاني (in Arabic). Beirut, Lebanon: Dar al-Kotob al-'Ilmiyya. p. 4. ISBN 9782745189509.
  5. ^ Majeed, Azeem (2005). "How Islam changed medicine". BMJ. 331 (7531): 1486–1487. doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7531.1486. PMC 1322233. PMID 16373721.
  6. ^ Feucht, Cynthia; Greydanus, Donald E.; Merrick, Joav; Patel, Dilip R.; Omar, Hatim A. (2012). Pharmacotherapeutics in Medical Disorders. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-027636-7.
  7. ^ Moore, Lisa Jean; Casper, Monica J. (2014). The Body: Social and Cultural Dissections. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-77172-9.
  8. ^ deVries, Catherine R.; Price, Raymond R. (2012). Global Surgery and Public Health: A New Paradigm. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7637-8048-7.
  9. ^ Patrice Le Floch-Prigent and Dominique Delaval (April 2014). "The discovery of the pulmonary circulation by Ibn al Nafis during the 13th century: an anatomical approach". The FASEB Journal. 28.
  10. ^ Szasz, Theodora; Tostes, Rita C. A. (2016). Vascular Smooth Muscle Function in Hypertension. Biota Publishing. ISBN 978-1-61504-685-0.
  11. ^ Mantzavinos, C. (2016). Explanatory Pluralism. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-12851-4.
  12. ^ Masic, I.; Dilic, M.; Solakovic, E.; Rustempasic, N.; Ridjanovic, Z. (2008). "Why historians of medicine called Ibn al-Nafis second Avicenna?". Medicinski Arhiv. 62 (4): 244–249. PMID 19145813.
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Haddad was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Numan, Mohammed T. (6 August 2014). "Ibn Al Nafis: His Seminal Contributions to Cardiology". Pediatric Cardiology. 35 (7): 1088–90. doi:10.1007/s00246-014-0990-7. PMID 25096906. S2CID 683719.