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The classical Unani doctrine of akhlat recognises four humours: dam (blood), balgham (phlegm), safra (yellow bile) and sawda (black bile). Health is believed to depend on their balanced proportion and quality, while disease arises from imbalance. Rutubat, hararat and quwwat are qualities or faculties, not humours.
Sawda (black bile) is classically assigned the temperament cold and dry, corresponding to the earth element. Dam is hot and moist, balgham cold and moist, and safra hot and dry. This temperament governs the effects attributed to sawda in health and disease.
Mizaj-e-mutadil denotes a balanced temperament appropriate to the individual, judged within the normal range for the species rather than by mathematical equality of humours. Unani physicians hold that perfect equality of humours is theoretical and that health lies in a balanced proportion. Deviation beyond the individual's normal range is termed su-e-mizaj.
Arkan are the four basic elements - fire, air, water and earth - from which, in Unani theory, all physical bodies including the human body are composed. Each element carries a pair of qualities: fire hot-dry, air hot-moist, water cold-moist, earth cold-dry. Humours, spirits and the six essentials are separate concepts.
Safra is hot and dry, so its excess produces heat-related features such as marked thirst, desire for cold things, restlessness and aggravation in hot weather. Dam excess also causes heat but is typically accompanied by plethora and a full pulse rather than dryness. Sawda and balgham are cold and do not fit this picture.
Quwwat-e-tabaiya is the natural faculty, seated in the liver, and includes the digestive and nutritive powers that convert food into humours. The psychic faculty (nafsaniya) governs sensation and movement, while the vital faculty (haywaniya) governs the heart and respiration. Mudrika is the perceptive power, a subdivision of the psychic faculty.
Hararat-e-ghariziya is the innate or natural heat believed to reside primarily in the heart and to be sustained by the vital spirit (ruh). It drives digestion and metabolic processes and declines with age. It is distinct from acquired heat from external sources or from fever.
The six essential factors are air, food and drink, bodily movement and rest, psychic movement and rest, sleep and wakefulness, and retention and evacuation. They are the external and lifestyle factors that maintain health or cause disease by altering the humoral balance. The other options are theoretical components of the body, not lifestyle essentials.
Ilaj bil-tadbir means management through regimen, that is, regulating the six essential factors such as diet, sleep, exercise and evacuation before resorting to drugs. It reflects the Unani emphasis on restoring balance by modifying lifestyle. Drug therapy is termed ilaj bid-dawa and surgery ilaj bil-yad.
In Unani therapeutics, each humour has a preferred route of evacuation: balgham is evacuated by qai (emesis), safra by ishal (purgation), sawda by ishal as well with specific drugs, and dam by fasd or hijamat. Emesis is therefore the classical choice for removing excess phlegm. Fasd and cupping are used mainly for dam.
Joshanda is a decoction made by boiling crude drugs in water until the volume reduces, after which it is strained and used. Sharbat is a sweetened liquid syrup, majoon a semisolid confection, and safoof a powder. The preparation method described is characteristic of decoction.
Murabba is a confection in which fruits, herbs or other drugs are preserved in sugar or honey to produce a sweet semisolid preparation. It is used both as a vehicle and as a tonic. Medicated oils are roghan, powders are safoof, and suppositories are farzaja.
Amber (ambergris) is classically regarded as a cardiac tonic (muqawwi-e-qalb) and is used in palpitations and weakness of the heart. Sana Makki is a purgative, Asgandh a sedative and tonic for nerves, and Karela is used for diabetes and as a bitter. The action muqawwi-e-qalb specifically fits amber.
Badiyan (fennel) is among the drugs described as mild laxative and carminative, suitable where gentle bowel softening is required. Sana Makki is a stronger purgative, Tukhm-e-Kasoos is used for worms, and Afyun is an opiate narcotic. The mild laxative action fits badiyan.
Nazla denotes catarrh, the flow of excessive moisture or humour from the head to the nose and throat, often described as a cold. It is linked to balgham excess descending from the brain. Skin ulcers, joint swelling and urinary stones have separate Unani terms.
Warm-e-kabid literally means inflammation (warm) of the liver (kabid). Warm-e-meda is gastritis, warm-e-rahim is metritis, and warm-e-riyah refers to inflammation involving the lungs or wind-related chest conditions depending on usage. The anatomical suffix determines the organ.
Yellowish discolouration with heat and thirst points to safra dominance, since safra is hot and dry and its excess is associated with yellowness and heat. This picture corresponds to yarqan (jaundice) of safravi type. Balgham and sawda would give cold features, and dam would show plethora.
Nabz examination in Unani assesses qualities such as size (kabir/saghir), strength (qawi/zaeef), speed (sari/dabi), rhythm (muntazam/ghair muntazam) and fullness. These features help infer the dominant humour and the state of the vital faculty. Colour, odour and taste belong to other examinations such as urine and stool.
Tafseela-e-baul denotes detailed urine examination, in which colour, consistency, sediment and odour are interpreted to judge humoural states and organ function. Nabz is pulse examination, tanaffus is respiration, and istifragh means evacuation. Urine analysis is a key diagnostic tool in Unani.
Unani therapeutics applies the principle of treating with the opposite (ilaj bil-zid): a hot and dry drug corrects a cold and moist disorder. Giving a hot-dry drug in a hot-dry or hot-moist disorder would aggravate the imbalance. Balanced temperament requires no such correction.
In Unani physiology the liver is the seat of the natural faculty (quwwat-e-tabaiya) and the organ where chyle is converted into humours. The heart is the source of the vital spirit, the brain the seat of the psychic faculty, and voluntary movement and sensation belong to the psychic faculty. The liver is therefore central to humour production.
Sawda is cold and dry, so its treatment combines evacuation, usually by purgation with appropriate mushil drugs, with a regimen of opposite qualities such as heat and moisture. Emesis and cold regimen suit balgham, while venesection is mainly for dam. Cautery is a specific local measure, not humoural evacuation.
The vital spirit (ruh-e-haywani) is held to be generated in the heart from the subtle vapours of blood and distributed through the arteries to all parts of the body. The natural spirit is associated with the liver and veins, and the psychic spirit with the brain and nerves. This tripartite scheme underlies Unani physiology.
Mufattih-e-sudad literally means an opener of obstructions; such drugs are used where humoral blockages impair the flow of blood or spirits in an organ. Anthelmintic drugs are termed qatil-e-kirm, sedatives munawwim, and suppurative drugs munnit. The term therefore indicates deobstruent action.
Tadbeer bil-zid is the principle of treating with the opposite, so a cold and moist imbalance is corrected with hot and dry drugs and regimen. This contrasts with indiscriminate therapy that ignores temperament. The approach illustrates the logic of humoural correction rather than routine purgation or surgery.
Arkān-e-arba are the four material elements - earth (arz), water (mā), air (hawā) and fire (nār) - which combine in different proportions to form all created matter, including the humours. They are the primary physical constituents, whereas humours are products formed from them.
Mizāj-e-mu'tadil denotes an equable, balanced temperament in which the elemental qualities are so proportioned that the body's functions proceed normally. It is the ideal state toward which treatment aims, not the absence of humours or a disease state.
The four-degree scale expresses how strongly a drug's quality acts relative to the normal human temperament, from barely perceptible in the first degree to potentially destructive in the fourth. It is a measure of intensity of action, not of preparation, evacuation or storage.
Balgham is cold and moist in temperament, so its excess classically produces coldness, heaviness, lethargy and increased sleep. Recognizing the quality pattern allows the physician to select drugs of the opposite temperament.
The liver is held to be the seat of the vegetative faculties, including the attractive, retentive, digestive and expulsive powers by which nourishment is drawn in and assimilated. The heart is the source of innate heat and pneuma, while the brain governs sensation and movement.
Pulse assessment in Unani records qualities such as size, distance from the finger, rhythm, strength, rate and consistency. A pulse felt close to the finger describes its position and size rather than its rhythm or the local skin temperature.
Urine examination (tafsīra-e-baul) interprets colour, consistency, sediment and volume as signs of the dominant humour. Pale, thin and abundant urine points to cold and moist balgham, whereas deep yellow suggests safrā and dark sediment suggests sawdā.
Majūn is a semi-solid confection in which drugs are incorporated into a base of honey, sugar or similar material cooked to a thick consistency, and it is used as a tonic and nutrient. Sharbat is a liquid syrup, jawārish is a medicated conserve for digestion, and itrīfal is a soft confection of a different composition.
Tashmīs is the process of soaking a drug in water and exposing it to the sun until it softens, after which it is dried and powdered. It is used to modify harsh drugs and reduce their intensity before use.
Sūnṭh (dried ginger) is hot and dry and is a classical gastric tonic used to strengthen digestion and dispel flatulence. Its warming action suits cold and moist gastric weakness.
Thirst, bitter taste and burning indicate heat and dryness, the qualities of safrā. The principle of treating with the opposite (tadbeer bil-zid) calls for cooling and moistening drugs, together with evacuation of the excess humour.
Munaffith-e-balgham drugs act on the chest to expel collected phlegm through expectoration. They are distinct from purgatives, diuretics and blood-letting, each of which removes matter through a different route.
Khamīra is a fresh paste made by triturating drugs with a suitable liquid such as water, honey or milk, and it is used for cooling and cardiac purposes. Being freshly prepared, it retains the drug's properties without long storage.
Safūf is a fine medicated powder that may be sugar-based, and specific cardiac safūfs are classically designated muqawwi-e-qalb. Its dry finely divided form allows precise dosing and easy administration with a vehicle.
Qarḥ means ulceration or inflammation and mi'dah means stomach, so qarḥ-e-mi'dah denotes gastric ulceration or inflammation of the stomach. Unani anatomical terms are built from the organ name preceded by the pathological term.
Symptoms aggravated by cold and relieved by warmth indicate a cold morbid quality, so the physician applies warming measures to counteract it. This is the principle of treating with the opposite quality, known as ilāj bil-zid.
Buhrān is the critical stage in which the morbid matter is expelled and a decisive change toward recovery or deterioration occurs. It is distinguished from the beginning, progression and ripening stages of illness.
A sallow complexion, poor appetite and heaviness in the right hypochondrium point to cold and moist balgham obstructing the liver, which is the seat of digestion and blood formation. Treatment would combine liver-strengthening and phlegm-evacuating measures.
Rūh is the vital pneuma produced from the subtle portion of the humours and distributed through the arteries to sustain life and function. It is distinct from the soul, the faculties and the temperament.
Muḥallil drugs are resolvents that help disperse swellings and accumulated matter by their warming and thinning action. They are used externally and internally to promote resolution rather than evacuation by vomiting or diuresis.
Aṣāb means nerves, so muqawwi-e-aṣāb denotes a nerve-strengthening tonic used in weakness and disorders of the nervous system. It is paired with sedatives when both strengthening and calming are required.
Faṣd is venesection, in which a vein is incised to release blood directly, whereas ḥijāmat is cupping, which may be dry or with scarification to draw blood to the surface. Both are evacuative measures but differ in technique and site.
Sawdā is cold and dry, so treatment combines evacuation of the humour with drugs and foods of hot and moist temperament to correct the morbid quality. Purgation is the classical route for evacuating sawdā from the body.
Lisaān means tongue, and its examination - colour, moisture, coating and movement - is a standard part of Unani physical diagnosis. Changes in the tongue are interpreted as signs of humoural and organ disturbance.
Mufattiḥ means opener and sudād means obstruction, so mufattiḥ-e-sudād denotes a deobstruent that opens blocked ducts and passages. Such drugs are used when viscid matter obstructs the liver, spleen or other organs.