ala - al - din abu al - hassan ali ibn abi - hazm al - qarshi al - dimashqi , known as ibn al - nafis ( 1210 - 1288 ad ) , was a muslim syrian physician primarily famous for being the first to describe the pulmonary circulation of the blood . the most voluminous of his books is alshamel fi sanaat tebbiat , which is a comprehensive medical encyclopedia . the aim of this review article , as a tribute to ibn al - nafis , was to introduce his valuable but neglected encyclopedia of materia medica . ibn al - nafis traditional approach in his  alshamel fi sanaat tebbiat  book is studied in the present article . alshamel fi sanaat tebbiat covers three branches of knowledge . the first category is devoted to theoretical traditional medicine . the third category is on materia medica covering the aspect of unani medicine , from which only 28 volumes of the comprehensive book on the traditional medicine have been found so far . the latter , introduces mono - ingredient medications in alphabetical order . each chapter , in several parts , is dedicated to the botanical characteristics and nature of each mono - ingredient medication . in addition , this book explains traditional pharmacokinetic of every single medication for each human body organs . based on pharmaco - mechanistic perspective on alshamel fi sanaat tebbiat , it could be considered as the main reference book on traditional medicine and pharmacy , worthy of revival .