Traces of Medical Concepts in Medieval Islamic Thought: Ibn Sīnā on Melancholy

Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry & Psychology, Early View

Published Online: 29 July 2026, Doi:10.35365/ctjpp.26.3.15

RESEARCH ARTICLE / ARAŞTIRMA YAZISI

Traces of Medical Concepts in Medieval Islamic Thought: Ibn Sīnā on Melancholy

Ortaçağ İslam Düşüncesinde Tıbbi Kavramların İzleri: İbn Sînâ’nın Melankoli Üzerine Düşünceleri

Bahar Koca¹ , Manolya Çalışır²

Abstract:

Melancholia, historically rooted in ancient Greek humoral theory, was conceptualized as a disorder arising from an excess of black bile and affecting both bodily and mental functions. Through the translation movements, this medical heritage entered the Islamic world, where Ibn Sīnā reformulated it within a systematic philosophical and clinical framework. Despite extensive scholarship on humoral medicine and medieval Islamic thought, there remains a gap in the literature concerning the systematic comparison of Ibn Sīnā’s account of melancholia with contemporary psychiatric and biopsychosocial models of mood disorders. This study addresses this gap by analyzing Ibn Sīnā’s conceptualization of melancholia across its medical, psychological, and philosophical dimensions and by examining its relevance to modern psychiatric frameworks. A descriptive qualitative literature review was conducted, using al-Qānūn fī al-Tibb as the primary source and drawing on secondary academic studies from the medical, philosophical, and psychiatric literature. The analysis employed thematic coding to identify historical, conceptual, and clinical correspondences. The findings indicate that Ibn Sīnā attributes melancholia to disturbances in black bile and to dysfunctional processes involving organs such as the spleen, liver, and intestines. He describes symptom patterns that resemble modern classifications of major depression, bipolar disorder, and mixed affective states, including fear, obsessive ideation, delusional beliefs, and psychomotor agitation. His therapeutic recommendations combine humoral regulation, dietary and bodily interventions, and psychological support through conversation, music, and social engagement. The study’s original contribution lies in demonstrating that Ibn Sīnā’s account of melancholia constitutes an early integrative, psychosomatic perspective that anticipates elements of contemporary mood-disorder theories. By foregrounding the interplay among physiological imbalance, cognitive processes, and emotion regulation, this study highlights the relevance of Ibn Sīnā’s framework to current biopsychosocial approaches in psychiatry.

Keywords: Ibn Sīnā, melancholy, Black bile, Mālhulyā, Mood disorders, Humoral theory.

¹Ankara University, Faculty of Divinity, Ankara, Türkiye.

²Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology, Güzelyurt, TRN Cyprus.

Address of Correspondence/Yazışma Adresi: Bahar Koca, Faculty of Divinity, Ankara University, Beşevler-Yenimahalle/Ankara, 06500, Türkiye. E-mail: [email protected].

Date of Received/Geliş Tarihi: 07.10.2025, Date of Revision/Düzeltme Tarihi: 15.12.2025, Date of Acceptance/Kabul Tarihi: 26.12.2025, Date of Online Publication/Çevirimiçi Yayın Tarihi: 03.08.2026

Citing/Referans Gösterimi: Koca, B. & Çalışır, M. (2026). Traces of medical concepts in medieval Islamic thought: Ibn Sīnā on melancholy. Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry & Psychology, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.35365/ctjpp.26.3.15

© 2026 The Author(s). Published by Cyprus Mental Health Institute / Cyprus Turkish Journal of Psychiatry and Psychology (www.ktppdergisi.com). This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/