We conclude our series of articles on the “Anatomy Charts”1–4 with the following note from Dr. Haddad. The images and accompanying description may now be found on Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_Charts_of_the_Arabs)
To the Editor: The table and references below summarize available information on 17 sets of very similar anatomy figures that I have been able to glean from the current published literature and put at the disposal of the readers. It is fair to assume that there are a few more similar figures, the locations of which are not yet known. I urge the reader and expressly enlist his kind cooperation in the task of completing this collection, which, at present, stands at exactly 100 colored hand-painted anatomy figures.
There are several disputed points and questions about these figures. Here are some of them:
Why did a few historians assume that these figures might be of Scythian or Tibetan origin?
Which set is the original and which are copies?
Who is the author of these figures?
Why is the head always represented in a Mongolian perspective and why was the squatting position chosen?
Why do these figures usually (with the exception of three sets) appear in mas ‘wd's text on anatomy?
Why aren't these figures always mentioned or referred to in the text in which they are found?
Why do they, sometimes, seem to have been just bound within the volume containing them and do not seem to form an integral part of it?
Are they all from the same hand or drawn by different scribes?
What is their relation to the similar Latin figures?
Table 1.
Seventeen sets of anatomy figures
| No | Date | Author | Place | Number | References |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | <1400 AD | manSwr | Paris | 1555 | 5, 13, 14 |
| 02 | <1400 AD | manSwr | London | 23556 | 5 |
| 03 | 1400 AD | manSwr | Oxford | 1576 | 5, 6 |
| 04 | C 1400 AD | India Office | 2296 | 5, 6 | |
| 05 | C 1450 AD | manSwr | Bethesda | 9, 10 | |
| 06 | C 1450 AD | manSwr | Bethesda | 9, 10 | |
| 07 | manSwr | New Haven | 10 | ||
| 08 | manSwr | New Haven | 10 | ||
| 09 | New Haven | 10 | |||
| 10 | Ibn sÿnA | London | 17 | ||
| 11 | Ibn sÿnA | London | |||
| 12 | 1537 AD | mahAbAdÿ | California | 90 | 8, 11, 15, 16 |
| 13 | C 1650 AD | manSwr | Durham | 12, 18 | |
| 14 | C 1650 AD | manSwr | Kansas | 10 | |
| 15 | C 1650 AD | manSwr | Montreal | 7785, 75 | 7, 10 |
| 16 | C 1750 AD | manSwr | Kansas | 10 | |
| 17 | C 1850 AD | manSwr | Montreal | 7785, 76 | 7, 10 |
All manuscripts have six figures except number 12, which has only four.
Once we have the answers to these questions, one can hope to study the available data with a comparative and critical analysis so that some of the existing mysteries can be resolved.
REFERENCES
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