Al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis)

Al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis)

Al-Zahrawi, or by his name known in the West Albucasis (936–1013), was an Arab-Muslim physician, surgeon and chemist who lived in al-Andalus. One of the leading physicians of the medieval Islamic world, al-Zahrawi is regarded as the Father of Surgery.

Al-Zahrawi's greatest contribution to medicine is undoubtedly his work titled Kitāb al-Taṣrīf (al-Tasrif), completed in the year 1000, which consists of 30 volumes and is the most comprehensive medical book in the Western Islamic world. The work consists of thirty treatises covering the subjects of surgery, medicine, orthopedics, ophthalmology, pharmacology, nutrition, dentistry, childbirth and pathology.

The first treatise deals with general medical knowledge and principles; the second with 325 diseases from the head of the body down to the feet, their symptoms and treatments; from the third treatise to the twenty-fifth with simple and compound drugs and their preparation; the twenty-sixth with the foods to be taken for each disease; the twenty-seventh with the properties of vegetable and animal foods and simple drugs; the twenty-eighth with the making of drug tablets from mineral, vegetable and animal sources; the twenty-ninth with drug names and those with the same properties, their durations of use, and measures of weight and volume; and the thirtieth treatise deals with the subjects of surgery.

Although the work is based on the Greek and Islamic medical sources that preceded it, it is important in that it presents the results of the author's roughly fifty years of experience, and it stands out especially for its explanations of surgical operations and for the illustrations of instruments it contains.

The work al-Tasrif was translated into Latin in the 12th century by Gerard of Cremona. Then, using this Latin translation, it was rendered into Greek and Hebrew; it was copied many times in the 15th, 16th and 18th centuries and achieved a remarkable diffusion. The surgical instruments and practices used by al-Zahrawi were pioneers of modern medicine. Some of the surgical instruments he invented are still in use today.

Besides being the first doctor to describe ectopic pregnancy, he was also the first to determine the hereditary nature of hemophilia.

Related publications

Al-Benna, Sammy (29 September 2011). "Albucasis, a tenth-century scholar, physician and surgeon: His role in the history of plastic and reconstructive surgery." European Journal of Plastic Surgery. 35 (5). pp. 379–387. doi:10.1007/s00238-011-0637-3.

al-Zahrāwī, Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn ʻAbbās (1973). مقالة في العمل باليد: A Definitive Edition of the Arabic Text. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520015326. Retrieved 7 December 2012.

Arvide Cambra, Luisa Maria (1994). Un tratado de polvos medicinales en Al-Zahrawi. University of Almeria. ISBN 8482400029.

Arvide Cambra, Luisa Maria (1996). Tratado de pastillas medicinales según Abulcasis. Junta de Andalucia. ISBN 8460554856.

Arvide Cambra, Luisa Maria (2000). Un tratado de oftalmología en Abulcasis. University of Almeria. ISBN 8482402412.

Arvide Cambra, Luisa Maria (2003). Un tratado de odontoestomatología en Abulcasis. University of Almeria. ISBN 8482406361.

Arvide Cambra, Luisa Maria (2010). Un tratado de estética y cosmética en Abulcasis. Grupo Editorial Universitario (GEU). ISBN 9788499153421.

Pormann, Peter E. (2004). The Oriental Tradition of Paul of Aegina's Pragmateia. BRILL. ISBN 9789004137578. Retrieved 7 December 2012.

Hamarneh, Sami Khalaf; Sonnedecker, Glenn Allen (1963). A Pharmaceutical View of Abulcasis Al-Zahrāwī in Moorish Spain: With Special Reference to the "Adhān." Brill Archive. Retrieved 8 October 2014.

Sources

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