Humoral Pathology
by Pauline Koetschet
In Islamic medicine, the most pervasive explanatory theory was that of humoral pathology. In this theory, the transformation of food into bodily substance results in four humours (ḫilṭ,ʾaḫlāṭ) : blood (dam), phlegm (balġam), yellow bile (mirra ṣafrāʾ), and black bile (mirra sawdāʾ).