died 1288
Arab physician who first described the pulmonary circulation of the blood. In finding that the wall between the right and left ventricles of the heart is solid and without pores, he disputed Galen’s view that the blood passes directly from the right to the left side of the heart. Ibn an-Nafīs correctly stated that the blood must pass from the right ventricle to the left ventricle by way of the lungs. But the significance of his statement remained unheeded, and, in fact, was probably unknown by physicians in western countries. It was only in the 20th century that his work was brought to light. Ibn an-Nafīs studied in Damascus under the physician ad-Dakhwār and went to Egypt to take charge of the Nāṣirī Hospital in Cairo. He wrote treatises on eye diseases and diet and commentaries on medical writings of Hippocrates, Avicenna, and Ḥunayn ibn Isḥāq.
Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.
If you think a reference to this article on "Ibn an-Nafis" will enhance your Web site,
blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article,
and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.
You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.
We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.
Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.