Islamic Anatomical Drawings, 17th Century

Two anatomical drawings occur on one side of a loose sheet of paper discovered inside a copy made in 1681/1092 of the Persian-language medical enyclopedia Zakhirah-i Khvarazm'Shahi written by Jurjani. The anatomical figures are on very different paper from that of the main volume and appear to have been drawn sometime in the 18th century. The two figures are drawn on the same side of the piece of paper with a midpoint fold separating them. The righthand figure shows the venous system, with the internal organs colored with opaque watercolors and some of the veins labeled. It is clearly derivative from the venous figures usually associated with the Tashrih-i Mansuri of Ibn Ilyas. The lefthand figure has the bloodletting points labeled in a mixture of Persian and Arabic. This figure is clearly derivative from similar illustrations in late-medieval European manuscripts. Late-medieval European manuscripts also often had a related figure on which the points useful for treatment by cauterization were indicated, and such cautery figures are occasionally found with Persian/Arabic labels in Islamic manuscripts of about the 17th century or later

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Anatomical Arabic Bloodletting Circulatory Physiological Physiology Points Veins Venous

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