Illustration of the heart and blood vessels in medieval times.
Throughout history, illustrations had played a key role in the promotion and evolution of medicine by providing a medium for transmission of scientific observations. Due to religious prohibitions, color drawings of the human body did not appear in medieval Persia and during the Islamic Golden Age. This tradition, however, has been overlooked with the publication of the first color atlas and text of human anatomy, Tashrihi Mansuri (Mansur's Anatomy), by Mansur ibn Ilyas in the fourteenth century AD. Written in Persian and containing several vivid illustrations of the human body, this book gained widespread attention by both scholars and lay persons. In this article, a brief history of Mansur's Anatomy and an English translation of selected sections from this book regarding the heart and blood vessels are presented.
Khalili
Majid
M
Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Research Center, Tabriz Medial University, Tabriz, Iran.
Shoja
Mohammadali M
MM
Tubbs
R Shane
RS
Loukas
Marios
M
Alakbarli
Farid
F
Newman
Andrew J
AJ
D000715:Anatomy / Q000266:history*; D001808:Blood Vessels; D006321:Heart; D049691:History, Medieval; D006801:Humans; D008488:Medical Illustration / Q000266:history*; D019071:Persia; D013782:Textbooks as Topic / Q000266:history*