This manuscript page from a 14th-century copy of Avicenna’s five-volume Canon of Medicine presents a schematic anatomical diagram of the eye and its internal structures. The Arabic text is written in fine naskh script, with key anatomical parts highlighted in black, red, and yellow pigments.

Several clear labels are inscribed directly on the diagram, including:

• «al-ʿaṣab al-bāṣir» (optic nerve) – noted as “connected to the brain.”

• «al-qarnīya» (cornea).

• «al-ṭabaqa al-bayḍāʾ» (sclera).

• «al-mashyimiyya» (choroid).

• «al-ʿadasa» (lens) – described as “a clear, solid body in which vision is gathered.”

• «al-jalidiyya» (vitreous body).

• «al-shabkiyya» (retina).

• «al-ḥadaqa» (pupil).

These annotations reveal a systematic approach to describing the eye within the didactic framework of medieval Islamic medicine. The drawings are not anatomically realistic in the modern sense, but they functioned as mnemonic and explanatory tools for medical students and practitioners, reinforcing the text through visual representation.

The significance of this page lies in its testimony to the intellectual and educational role of Islamic medicine. Avicenna’s Canon, which synthesized Greek medical heritage (especially Galen and Hippocrates) with Islamic clinical observation, became the central medical reference across the Islamic world. Translated into Latin in the 12th century, it remained a standard textbook in European universities until the 17th century.