Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the concept of pneuma (ruh) in On Cardiac Drugs, a medical work of Ibn Sina (980-1037). The idea of pneuma, the concept used to explain the physiology of the human body, originated in ancient Greece. Ibn Sina inherited this idea and gave it an important role in his medical theory. In his Canon of Medicine, the Galenic pneuma theory is expounded. In On Cardiac Drugs, by contrast, a property that cannot be explained by Galenic medicine is attributed to pneuma. It is a property of luminosity (nuraniyah), and moreover, luminous pneuma is said to resemble the substance of heaven (jawhar al-sama). This thought is neither found in works of ancient Greek medicine nor in the works of Arabic writers who played a role in introducing Greek medicine to the Arabic world.
