Burhan-ud-Din Kermani or Burhān al-Din Nafīs ibn ‘Iwad al-Kirmanī was a 15th-century Persian physician from
Kerman. He was
court physician
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accorda ...
to
Ulugh Beg
Mīrzā Muhammad Tāraghay bin Shāhrukh ( chg, میرزا محمد طارق بن شاہ رخ, fa, میرزا محمد تراغای بن شاہ رخ), better known as Ulugh Beg () (22 March 1394 – 27 October 1449), was a Timurid sultan, as ...
, the grandson of
Tamerlane
Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
and the governor of
Samarqand
fa, سمرقند
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, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from the top: Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zin ...
from 1409 to 1449.
Life
Kirmani was born in Kerman. His father and other ancestors were renowned physicians. He finished his medical education in Kerman and worked as a physician there. His fame and fortune were so vast that Ulugh Beg, a Timurid king, requested his presence in
Samarqand
fa, سمرقند
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from the top: Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zin ...
, and made him his special physician. During his stay in Samarqand, he wrote a number of books about medicine, some of which took so long that he finished them after he returned to Kerman. There, he taught medicine to students and wrote many books. He is an ancestor to the Naficy/Nafisi/Nafissi family.
In 1424, Kirmani dedicated to Ulugh Beg his commentary on the medical compendium of
Najib al-Din al-Samarqandi, and in 1437 he again dedicated to Ulugh Beg his popular commentary on ''
The Canon of Medicine
''The Canon of Medicine'' ( ar, القانون في الطب, italic=yes ''al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb''; fa, قانون در طب, italic=yes, ''Qanun-e dâr Tâb'') is an encyclopedia of medicine in five books compiled by Persian physician-phi ...
'' of
Avicenna.
Kirmani's commentary on Najib al-Din al-Samarqandi's treatise was so popular that commentaries were written on the commentary, and it was translated into Persian and amplified by
Muqim Arzani in the 18th century.
He is the first to describe "Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation" (CPR), in ancient Persia, as a combination of "strong movements and massive chest expansion" (for induction and support of breathing), and "compression of left side of the chest" (equivalent of cardiac compression).
He died in 1449.
His works
1. Sharh Mujaz al-Qanun li Ibn Sina fi al-Tibb, which he completed in 841 H.E., written in
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
.
2. Sharh al-Asbab wa al-'Alamat, written in Arabic.
3. Sharh al-Amrad al-Juz'iyah of
Hippocrates
Hippocrates of Kos (; grc-gre, Ἱπποκράτης ὁ Κῷος, Hippokrátēs ho Kôios; ), also known as Hippocrates II, was a Greek physician of the classical period who is considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history o ...
' Kitab al-Fusul, written in Arabic.
See also
*
List of Iranian scientists
Sources
For life and works see:
*Albert Dietrich, Medicinalia Arabica: Studien über arabische medizinische Handschriften in türkischen und syrischen Bibliotheken, Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in G?ttingen, philologisch-historische Klasse, Dritte Folge, No. 66, (G?ttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1966), pp. 122–124 no. 52
*C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, 1st edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1889-1936). Second edition, 2 vols. (Leiden: Brill, 1943–49). Page references will be to those of the first edition, with the 2nd edition page numbers given in parentheses, vol. 2, p. 213 (276).
*Majid Dadmehr , Mohsen Bahrami: Chest compression for syncope in medieval Persia, European Heart Journal, Volume 39, Issue 29, 1 August 2018, Pages 2700–2701
References
1449 deaths
Iranian inventors
15th-century Iranian physicians
Year of birth unknown
People from Kerman Province
People from the Timurid Empire
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