Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 13, 2026

Noninvasive Determination of Vortex Formation Time Using Transesophageal Echocardiography During Cardiac Surgery
04:48

Noninvasive Determination of Vortex Formation Time Using Transesophageal Echocardiography During Cardiac Surgery

Published on: November 28, 2018

8.3K

The Rotational Flow of Blood as Described in a 14th Century Persian Manuscript

Ben Kavoussi1,2, Mahsa Kayyal3, Patricia L Samuelson4

  • 1École Normale Supérieure - PSL, Paris, France. ben.kavoussi@ens.psl.eu.

Journal of the History of Biology
|January 8, 2026
PubMed

Insights

The 14th-century Tānksūqnāmah describes blood circulation from the liver, heart, and lungs, based on astrological principles. This unique Persian medical text shows scientific ideas emerging from cross-cultural reinterpretation, not just knowledge transfer.

Area of Science:

  • History of Medicine
  • Medieval Science
  • Cross-cultural Studies

Background:

  • The Tānksūqnāmah, a 14th-century Persian medical manual, presents a unique model of blood circulation.
  • This model is influenced by cosmological beliefs linking bodily functions to celestial movements.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To analyze the Tānksūqnāmah's description of blood circulation.
  • To understand its place within the history of medical thought and its divergence from other traditions.
  • To explore the role of cultural exchange in scientific idea formation.

Main Methods:

  • Textual analysis of the Tānksūqnāmah.
  • Comparative analysis with Ibn al-Nafīs's and William Harvey's theories of circulation.
  • Historical and cosmological context evaluation.

Main Results:

  • The Tānksūqnāmah describes blood moving from the liver to the heart, then lungs, and back to the liver.
  • This model is distinct from Ibn al-Nafīs's pulmonary transit and Harvey's systemic circulation.
  • The text integrates Chinese and Graeco-Arabic medical knowledge with astrological concepts.

Conclusions:

  • The Tānksūqnāmah represents a deliberate reinterpretation of existing medical knowledge, not simple continuity.
  • It exemplifies the emergence of scientific ideas through the recombination of heterogeneous concepts in Mongol-era Iran's cross-cultural milieu.
  • The text highlights how scientific innovation can arise in cultural contact zones through reinterpretation.

Keywords:
Blood circulationEpistemic hybridityMedieval persian medicineMongol iranRashīd al-Dīn hamadānīTanksūqnāmah

More Related Videos

The Assembly and Application of 'Shear Rings': A Novel Endothelial Model for Orbital, Unidirectional and Periodic Fluid Flow and Shear Stress09:20

The Assembly and Application of 'Shear Rings': A Novel Endothelial Model for Orbital, Unidirectional and Periodic Fluid Flow and Shear Stress

Published on: October 31, 2016

8.5K
In Vitro Model of Physiological and Pathological Blood Flow with Application to Investigations of Vascular Cell Remodeling07:30

In Vitro Model of Physiological and Pathological Blood Flow with Application to Investigations of Vascular Cell Remodeling

Published on: November 3, 2015

10.0K

Related Concept Videos

Irrotational Flow01:28

Irrotational Flow

Irrotational flow is characterized by fluid motion where particles do not rotate around their axes, resulting in zero vorticity. For a flow to be irrotational, the curl of the velocity field must be zero. This imposes specific conditions on velocity gradients. For instance, to maintain zero rotation about the z-axis, the gradient condition:
936
Applications of Integration to Find Blood Flow01:27

Applications of Integration to Find Blood Flow

Blood flow through a cylindrical blood vessel can be mathematically described using the principles of laminar flow, a regime in which fluid moves smoothly in parallel layers. In this model, the velocity of the blood is not uniform across the cross-section of the vessel; rather, it varies with the radial distance from the center. The maximum velocity occurs along the central axis, decreasing progressively toward the vessel walls, where it reaches zero due to viscous drag.Approximating Blood...
3
Laminar and Turbulent Flow01:07

Laminar and Turbulent Flow

Fluid dynamics is the study of fluids in motion. Velocity vectors are often used to illustrate fluid motion in applications like meteorology. For example, wind—the fluid motion of air in the atmosphere—can be represented by vectors indicating the speed and direction of the wind at any given point on a map. Another method for representing fluid motion is a streamline. A streamline represents the path of a small volume of fluid as it flows. When the flow pattern changes with time, the...
10.5K
Blood Flow01:29

Blood Flow

Blood is pumped by the heart into the aorta, the largest artery in the body, and then into increasingly smaller arteries, arterioles, and capillaries. The velocity of blood flow decreases with increased cross-sectional blood vessel area. As blood returns to the heart through venules and veins, its velocity increases. The movement of blood is encouraged by smooth muscle in the vessel walls, the movement of skeletal muscle surrounding the vessels, and one-way valves that prevent backflow.
75.5K
Steady, Laminar Flow in Circular Tubes01:23

Steady, Laminar Flow in Circular Tubes

Hagen-Poiseuille flow describes a viscous fluid's steady, incompressible flow through a cylindrical tube with a constant radius R. This flow profile is often applied to understand fluid transport in narrow channels, such as capillaries. It serves as a foundational example of laminar flow. In this model, cylindrical coordinates (r,θ,z) are used to describe the radial (r), angular (θ), and axial (z) dimensions within the tube. For Hagen-Poiseuille flow, the velocity profile is purely axial,...
1.0K
Steady Flow of a Fluid Stream01:27

Steady Flow of a Fluid Stream

Consider a control volume, such as a pipe with solid boundaries, through which fluid flows and changes direction due to the impulse exerted by the resulting force from the pipe walls. In steady flow, the mass of fluid entering the control volume at a given time, t, with velocity v1, is equal to the mass leaving after infinitesimal time dt, with velocity v2.
During this process, the momentum of the fluid within the control volume remains constant over the time interval dt. By applying the...
664