Ibn al-Nafis

The Medical Renaissance: The Cardiovascular System Medical care today is something whose history and presence we take for granted. It is sterile, highly regulated, and only exercised by trained, experienced professionals. However, before and during the Middle Ages, medical care was almost nonexistent—due in large part to our lack of knowledge, or lack of correct knowledge, of how the human body functioned. Almost all of our understandings of the human body had been from Galen in Ancient Greece’s theories, but they were not very accurate or detailed (Rogers 14-15). It wasn’t until during the Renaissance period (1400s to 1700s) that many European scholars (Leonardo da Vinci, William Harvey, etc.) realized that medical care needed to change, but when they began “to seek out the original texts by Galen, to check translations and to see whether there was even more they could learn from the greatest of all doctors” (Dawson 9), they realized that Galen was wrong. They started to study the human body and soon began to understand the complicated physiology that they previously had incorrect information on, and because of this, they also discovered countless new attributes of anatomy that they hadn’t known before. One of the biggest discoveries these scholars made was of the cardiovascular system, and when they began understanding it more thoroughly, they were able to radically alter and rectify medical care and its effectiveness. Before the 1400s, people knew very little…

On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals is a book written by William Harvey in 1628. The work was written in England. William Harvey studying the movement of the blood and the heart through observation on an animals. He compares the heart of an animal to the sun of their microcosm. Harvey outlines that the arteries and the veins contain the same blood in animals, and not blood from two separate sources as assumed by Galen. The document was written in 1628. It was written to Prince…

Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese is a novel of tremendous pain and healing. The title in itself gives readers the opportunity to ponder the true meaning of the “Medicine”, and to come to the realization that the author is not talking about medicine in solely the physical sense of the word. Wagamese also brings the perspective of a journey into the title through the use of the verb “Walk”. After analysing the true meaning of the title, readers can begin to look at how the medicine is working to…

Mansa’s pilgrimage to Mecca caught the attention of Europe. They had noticed his flamboyant lifestyle while he was taking his journey and it made them realize how extravagant Mansa and his empire in Africa was. Mansa’s journey was so widely noticed that people have created visual representations, or maps, of his journey to Mecca. For the next two centuries Italian, German, and Spanish cartographers produced maps of the world which showed Mali and which often referenced Mansa Musa. The first of…

In this essay I am going to discuss a significant individual who had made is mark in African American history. This person goes by the name Mansa Musa. During the fourteenth century the emperor of Mali, Mansa Musa achieved greatness through so many of his actions. His contributions to Africa and to Mali are so widespread that he is known throughout the word.. Writers recorded Musa’s actions more than any other ruler meaning that Mansa Musa must have been an important king. Musa was even…

scientific experimentations was first introduced by the Greeks in the 2nd century. In the article Scutti says, “Early Greek physician-scientists performed experiments on living animals. They conducted experiments in the areas of anatomy, physiology, pathology, and pharmacology” (Scutti). The Greeks examined sensory nerves, motor nerves, and tendons in order to better understand their functional differences. With animal testing they were able to identify the best instruments to use during…

Which shows that the Islamic faith did indeed spread into various regions, along with the trade of merchandise. Ibn Battuta travels mid-thirteenth century as a religious seeker with the company of merchants’ journeying to Mali, an Islamic powered country governed by Mansa Sulayman. Being in Walata, Battuta is shocked to see that men and women can have affairs without anyone getting jealous, and are shameless of this practice. The women are more respectable than men, and do not veil themselves.…

that can replace animal testing. Including QSARs, which are a computer-based technique that estimates a substances likelihood of being hazardous. They do this based on its similarity to existing substances along with our knowledge of human biology. Lastly human volunteers have also been used in the place of animal tests. They use a method called “microdosing”. They give volunteers an extremely small one-time drug dose, the drug is then monitored by imaging techniques. Alternative…

Ibn Battuta was a Muslim scholar who travelled the known world in the fourteenth century. The son of a qadi, or Muslim judge, he was born in Tangier, Morocco, to a wealthy family of scholars. At the age of 22, having finished his education, Ibn Battuta went on a pilgrimage to Mecca in the year 1325. After reaching Mecca, he decided to continue travelling, which he did for the next 29 years of his life. During these years, Ibn Battuta met many rulers and held important positions in foreign lands.…

Muhammad Ibn Battuta departed from his home in Tangier to embark on what would be notably recognized as one of the greatest adventures in the 14th century. His accomplishments of excursing the extensive world in the massive regions of Africa, Asia, China, and the Middle East resulted in a vast collection of writings that consisted of descriptive thoughts documenting every step of his journey. The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century is a non-fictional novel that…