Scholarlink

<p>A 14th-century Persian medical manual known as the <i>Tānksūqnāmah</i> and commissioned by the vizier and physician Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī (1247–1318) explicitly states that blood “makes rounds” within the body, flowing from the liver to the heart, then to the lungs, and returning again to the liver. This account, grounded in a cosmological model that links bodily processes to celestial movements, does not correspond to Ibn al-Nafīs’s philosophical description of pulmonary transit, nor does it anticipate William Harvey’s (1578–1657) quantitative theory of systemic circulation, for it is rooted in an astrological understanding of motion and causality. Even though it draws on Chinese cosmology and medicine and the Graeco-Arabic medical heritage, the <i>Tānksūqnāmah</i> ultimately advances its own conception of blood movement—one that diverges from both—indicating a deliberate reinterpretation rather than simple continuity. The <i>Tānksūqnāmah</i> is therefore best understood as a product of Mongol-era Iran’s unique cross-cultural milieu, where heterogeneous concepts were consciously recombined within a shared intellectual setting. Seen in this light, the text exemplifies how scientific ideas could emerge through reinterpretation in cultural and scientific contact zones rather than through the transmission and adaptation of knowledge within a single lineage.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

The Rotational Flow of Blood as Described in a 14th Century Persian Manuscript

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年12月1日

查看全文
  • Ben Kavoussi,
  • Mahsa Kayyal,
  • Patricia L. Samuelson

摘要

A 14th-century Persian medical manual known as the Tānksūqnāmah and commissioned by the vizier and physician Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī (1247–1318) explicitly states that blood “makes rounds” within the body, flowing from the liver to the heart, then to the lungs, and returning again to the liver. This account, grounded in a cosmological model that links bodily processes to celestial movements, does not correspond to Ibn al-Nafīs’s philosophical description of pulmonary transit, nor does it anticipate William Harvey’s (1578–1657) quantitative theory of systemic circulation, for it is rooted in an astrological understanding of motion and causality. Even though it draws on Chinese cosmology and medicine and the Graeco-Arabic medical heritage, the Tānksūqnāmah ultimately advances its own conception of blood movement—one that diverges from both—indicating a deliberate reinterpretation rather than simple continuity. The Tānksūqnāmah is therefore best understood as a product of Mongol-era Iran’s unique cross-cultural milieu, where heterogeneous concepts were consciously recombined within a shared intellectual setting. Seen in this light, the text exemplifies how scientific ideas could emerge through reinterpretation in cultural and scientific contact zones rather than through the transmission and adaptation of knowledge within a single lineage.