World History Archive May 2016 59-69

Two anatomical drawings occur on one side of a loose sheet of paper discovered inside a copy made in 1681/1092 of the Persian-language medical encyclopaedia Zakh?rah-i Khv?razm'Sh?h? written by Jurj?n? (MS P 5). The anatomical figures, however, are on very different paper from that of the main volume and appear to have been drawn sometime in the 18th century. The loose sheet has been designated 'MS P 5 fol. A' and is now placed in a separate folder. The two figures are drawn on the same side of the piece of paper. A fold at the midpoint separates the two figures.The right-hand figure shows the venous system, with the internal organs coloured with opaque watercolours and some of the veins labelled. It is clearly derivative from the venous figures usually associated with the Tashr??-i Man??ri of Ibn Ily?s, examples of which can be seen in NLM (MS P 18) fol. 25b and (MS P 19) fol. 16b.The left-hand figure has the bloodletting points labelled in a mixture of Persian and Arabic. This figure is clearly derivative from similar illustrations in late-medieval European manuscripts. Late-medieval European manuscripts also often had a related figure on which the points useful for treatment by cauterization were indicated, and such cautery figures are occasionally found with Persian/Arabic labels in Islamic manuscripts of about the 17th century or later. Only the bloodletting figure, however, is preserved in the NLM collections.[Two Anatomical Drawings: a bloodletting figure and a venous figure