In this second article on medieval Arabic medical discussions on sleep, I show that Ibn Sīnā's pneumatic paradigm of sleep opened up new research pathways for subsequent physicians in Islamic societies. Opposing those who posit a decline in scientific activity post-1200 in these societies, I show that Ibn al-Nafīs (d. 1288), Ibn al-Quff (d. 1286), and Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 1311), among others, raised and answered new questions to highlight the (possible) active role played by the brain in sleep onset and the strengthening of certain brain activities during sleep. They also continued to investigate the (three) stages of sleep and paid attention to different breathing patterns, in addition to pulse, during each stage. Finally, they also applied the pneumatic paradigm in new ways to understand the broader impact of certain medical conditions on sleep.
Keywords: Avicenna; Ibn al-Nafīs; Islamic medicine; canon of medicine; epitome of medicine; history of medicine; medical commentaries; sleep theory.
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