General Notion of Temperament

Abstract

The term ‘Temperament’ is imitative from Latin word “Tempero” which means “to mix”. Mizaj is known as establishment of a new moderate quality, as a result of different characteristic of elements turn out and retort by their energy, then previous potentials become reduced. The concept of temperament is the column of Unani Medicine. This concept was firstly introduced by Hippocrates when he specified that “It is more important to know what category of person a disease has than to know that sort of disease a person has”. Galen reflected that one pair of qualities out of four possibilities was main, leading to the temperamental categories that he named Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric and Melancholic temperament. Temperament (Mizaj) is signified as an unbroken quality created in the compound by interface of opposite qualities of elements. The elements distribute into minute particles to safe intimate contact with one other, since the primary qualities of the elements are four i.e., heat, cold, dryness and moister. Temperament of a newly ordered body is a product of these qualities. In human body each and every atom, molecule, cell, organs, and humour, as all are prepared with a mizaj upon which their life functions depend.