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Medicine & Pharmacy
Ibn al-Nafis
Father of the Lesser Circulation — 1213–1288 CE
Described the pulmonary (lesser) blood circulation — blood passing from the heart to the lungs and back — refuting Galen's claim that the wall between the heart's ventricles is porous, some three centuries before William Harvey founded circulation science in Europe. His Al-Mujaz fi al-Tibb was translated into Latin in 1547 and remained an approved reference.