Venesection Sites on the Horse in the Veterinary Handbook of al-Nasiri

Kutasi, Zsuzsanna (2021) Venesection Sites on the Horse in the Veterinary Handbook of al-Nasiri. KALEIDOSCOPE: MŰVELŐDÉS- TUDOMÁNY- ÉS ORVOSTÖRTÉNETI FOLYÓIRAT, 11 (22). pp. 567-576. ISSN 2062-2597

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Abstract

The author usually referred to a sal-NāṣirīorIbnal-Mundir (AbūBakrb.Badral-Dīnal-Mundir al-Bayṭārca.A.H.709-741/A.D.1309-1340) composed his handbook on the diseases of horses and the treatments thereof at the request of Nāṣir al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Qalāwūn in the middle of the 14thcentury. Under this Mamluk sultan, he served as a chief veterinarian. A 9th-century work by Ibn AhīḤizām titled Kāmilal-sinā‘tayn served as the basis of l-Nāṣirī’shandbook. As evident from the title of the book, the author offered a summary of a wide range of themes concerning horses, beginning with the important role in the jihad, and proceeding to discuss soft he inbreeds and military training. He compares the equid diseases with human ones, as a structure that allows him to describe their medical treatments as well. The description of venesection sites, of obvious use for practising veterinarians, is featured among the chapters on anatomical structures.Theseventhchapteroftheworkmentionsasmanyas21optional site of bloodletting. Here the text indicates only the silent/non-palpitating blood-vessels” (ġayral-ḍawārib),aconceptthatIsoughttoidentifybyrecoursetomodernveterinary anatomical source sand by consulting the expert opinion of distinguishing the professor of veterinary medicine, Dr Ferenc Szalay(whosehelpIgratefullyacknowledgehere).In the medievalArabiccontext, veins and arteries were not yet defined in a way analogous to modern definitions;inaccordancewithGalen’sandhispredecessors’philosophy, the veins were traced to the liver, and the arteries, to the heart. Veins were thought to carry blood and nutrients to the organs to nourish them, while arteries distribute the innate heat to every part of the body. Al-Nāṣirīclassifiedthebloodsystemasakindoffunctionalanatomy,incontrasttoGalen’s work on bloodletting, which described blood vessels according to the anatomy of the discrete body regions.

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