Sharh Tashrih al-Qanun li Ibn Sina
- Author died
- 687 AH
- Editions
- Sharh Tashrih al-Qanun li Ibn Sina
Sharh Tashrih al-Qanun (Commentary on the Anatomy of the Canon) is an anatomical treatise written by the physician Ibn al-Nafis (d. 687 AH / 1288 CE) as a specialized commentary on the anatomical sections of Ibn Sina’s medical encyclopedia, al-Qanun fi al-Tibb .
Structure and Method
In al-Qanun fi al-Tibb, anatomical topics were distributed across different divisions, notably the general anatomy in the first book and the anatomy of specific organs in the third book . Ibn al-Nafis gathered these scattered anatomical discussions into a single unified work rather than following the dispersed order of the original text . He structured his commentary systematically, employing a phrase-by-phrase commentary format (qala... al-sharh...) .
In his preface and exposition, Ibn al-Nafis outlined the clinical and theoretical value of anatomy, explaining that a physician requires anatomical knowledge for theoretical understanding of the human body, for surgical interventions—such as avoiding accidental lacerations of nerves, arteries, or muscle fibers during incisions—and for clinical deduction and prognosis . He also discussed practical observational considerations, noting how distinct anatomical structures, such as bones, muscles, arteries, and veins, present differently depending on whether the subject is living or deceased and according to the cause of death .
Scientific Contributions
The book is celebrated for containing the earliest known description of the pulmonary transit (the minor or lesser circulation of blood), in which Ibn al-Nafis challenged the longstanding physiological doctrines of Galen and Ibn Sina . Among the key anatomical and physiological conclusions formulated in the work:
- Impermeability of the Interventricular Septum: Ibn al-Nafis refuted the claim that blood passes directly between the right and left chambers of the heart through invisible or visible pores in the interventricular septum, demonstrating that the septum is thick and solid .
- Pulmonary Circulation: He established that blood from the right ventricle travels via the pulmonary artery to the lungs, where it disperses through its vessels, mixes with air, is purified, and then travels through the pulmonary veins to the left chamber of the heart .
- Vessel Content and Structure: He showed that the pulmonary veins contain blood rather than air or sooty vapors as Galen had held, noted the two-layered wall thickness of the pulmonary artery relative to the veins, and posited connections between pulmonary arteries and veins .
- Coronary Circulation: He noted that the heart derives its nutrition from blood circulating through vessels distributed within its own tissue, rather than directly from the blood contained inside its right cavity .
Reception and Modern Rediscovery
While Ibn al-Nafis's practical abridgment of the Canon, Mujaz al-Qanun, circulated widely in manuscript and printed editions across the Middle East and South Asia , Sharh Tashrih al-Qanun was not translated into Latin during the medieval period and remained preserved primarily in manuscript form .
The text's historical significance was brought to modern scholarly attention in the twentieth century when the Egyptian physician Muhyi al-Din al-Tatawi identified Ibn al-Nafis's description of the pulmonary transit in a manuscript preserved in the Berlin State Library . This demonstrated that his discovery predated the descriptions of European anatomists such as Michael Servetus, Realdo Colombo, and William Harvey by several centuries . Multiple manuscripts survive in libraries across Damascus, Berlin, and elsewhere, and the work was later printed in Lucknow (1307 AH / 1889 CE) and in Cairo (1988) .
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