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Which four humours were described in Avicenna’s The Canon of Medicine?
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Avicenna
The title page of the 1556 edition of Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine (Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb). This edition (sometimes called the 1556 Basel edition) was translated by medieval scholar Gerard of Cremona.
In his influential work The Canon of Medicine, the Persian philosopher and scientist Avicenna described the four humours—a doctrine originally propounded by Hippocrates and later refined by Galen—as follows:21
- Dam (blood)
- Balgham (phlegm)
- Safra (yellow bile)
- Sauda (black bile)
These humours, known in Unani practice as akhlat, were believed to suffuse the body and influence both physical and behavioral well-being. According to this medical framework, health was maintained through a unique, proper, and proportionate balance of these fluids, while an imbalance was considered the root cause of ailment or disease.2