An illustrated Arabic anatomy manuscript

Kazaruni, Sadid al-Din al-. Al-Mughni fi sharh al-Mujiz.

€ 48.000,00

With ten hand-painted human medical diagrams: al-Kazaruni's Anatomy, a popular commentary on the epitome of the Canon of Medicine by Ibn Sina (Avicenna). Titled "al-Mughni fi sharh al-Mujiz", al-Kazaruni's work is split into four sections on the four medical arts, and discusses Ibn Sina's monumental medical work through the lens of another famous physician's commentary: that of Ibn al-Nafis (d. 1288). This manuscript covers the first two of the four sections of "Al-Mughni fi sharh al-Mujiz", including explanations and ten detailed, hand-painted diagrams of reproductive anatomy, childbirth, and the skeletal and circulatory systems. These are designed to be instructive, with groups of bones colour-coded by area and function, while internal organs are given more realistic colour to aid in identification. Between many of the leaves are tucked short notes in Persian, all on medical matters, presumably left by a previous owner, and perhaps even a physician or teacher's reference notes.

Al-Kazaruni (d. 1357 CE) was born in Kazerun and flourished in 14th-century Iran. He studied medicine extensively, and his work reflects not only that of Ibn Sina, but also Ibn al-Nafis (d. 1288 CE), father of pulmonary medicine, and Qutb al-Din al-Shirazi (1236-1311 CE), a polymath fellow native of Kazerun.