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Anatomy

علم التشريح

In his commentary on the Canon's anatomy, Ibn al-Nafis says that religious restraint and compassion kept him from dissecting himself. He therefore relied on earlier practitioners, chiefly Galen, for the shapes of the inner organs, and on reasoned inquiry for their functions 1.

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Summary

Anatomy is knowledge of the structure, forms and functions of the body's organs. In Ibn Sina's scheme it is one of the topics of medicine. Ibn al-Nafis presented its topics in his commentary on the "Canon" 1.

Reliance on earlier authorities

Ibn al-Nafis says that he did not perform dissection himself, for religious reasons and because compassion prevented him. For the forms of the inner organs he relied on what earlier writers described, especially Galen, and for their functions he relied on observation 1.

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Part of
Medicine

People and things also explored

Disease (al-marad)· The four elements (al-arkan)· Health (al-sihha)· Humours (al-akhlat)· Medical treatment (al-mu'alaja)· Powers and actions (al-quwa wal-af'al)· Regimen of health (al-tadbir)· Symptoms and signs (al-a'rad wal-dala'il)

Sources

  1. Commentary on the Anatomy of Ibn Sina's Canon, printed text (digital copy, edition not verified) , p.1
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Anatomy”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/concept/anatomy/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-18.

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Related

Disease (al-marad)

Ibn Sina defines disease as an unnatural state of the body from which an injury to function follows directly, either an unnatural temperament or an unnatural composition. He separates it from the cause, which comes first and brings about a state of the body, and from the symptom, which follows the state. His example: putrefaction is a cause, fever is a disease, and thirst and headache are symptoms. The causes of diseases are treated in the second section of Fann 2.