A Preliminary Study on the Anatomical Terms in Mir'at Al-abdan fi Tashrih-i A'zai'l-insan: "The First Part: On Osteology"

Abstract

It was aimed to find out and to evaluate the anatomicaI terms in os­teology section of Şanizade Mehmed Ata-aIlah's work Mirat al-abdan in this study and a printed copy of the book which is in Library of History of Medicine and Ethics Department of Ankara University Faculty of Medi­cine was examined. Topics and figure explanations in osteology section were transliterated from Arabic to the contemporary Turkish alphabet and evaluated; and then determined anatomical terms were compared to those ones before and after Şanizade's work. Şanizade used anatomical terms in Arabic and Turkish and sometimes in Greek and Latin. He ex­plained Arabic terms, when he does not give their corresponding in Turkish. Arabic, Turkish, Greek and Latin terms were used in the names of bones, but Arabic anatomical terms only were used naming the parts of bones, without using almost any Turksh terms. Naming, rarely, were made by using Arabic noun phrases and Greek/Latin-Arabic noun phrases or terms. Anatomical terms bearing some European writers' names were encountered. It might be possible to determine how Şanizade influenced the constitution of Turkish anatomical terminology, compar­ing his terms to those ones before and after his work.