Al-Zahrawi

‘Without doubt, the chief of all surgeons’.

Pietro Argellata (d. 1423), quoted in Mohamed Amin Elgohary, ‘Al Zahrawi: The Father of Modern Surgery’, 82.

Abu al-Qasim Khalaf bin Abbas Al-Zahrawi (936-1013) has been called the ‘father of modern surgery’.[1] Born in Cordoba in 936, during its golden age, Al Zahrawi (known also by his Latin name ‘Albucasis’), was famous for his Al-Tasreef Liman Ajaz An Al-Talif. It was an encyclopaedic 30-volume work which covered many areas of medicine. The thirtieth volume was devoted to surgery and has rightly been called ‘the first, rational, complete, and illustrated treatment of its subject’.[2] It owed much to the work of a seventh-century Byzantine physician, Paulus Aegineta (c. 625-90), but it also presented many innovations. In particular, the inclusion of images of surgical instruments, many of which were designed by Al-Zahrawi, ensured its popularity in subsequent centuries.

Chirurgia Argelate cum Albucasi. Eximij artium & medicine Petri de Largelata … libri sex … Adiuncta etiam Chirugia … Albucasis cum cauteriis & intrumentis suis figuraliter appositis … (Venice, 1531), fol. 146 verso.

Many of the surgical operations discussed in this online exhibition were analysed by Al-Zahrawi in his three chapters: ‘On Cauterization’, ‘Incision, Perforation and Venesection’, and on ‘Bone-setting’, Unsurprisingly, he discussed dislocations and fractures but his interests were broad: he seems to have been particularly interested in eyelid surgery and also made contributions to otorhinolaryngology and plastic surgery.[3] He was responsible for various new instruments: Elgohary recounts that he was the first to use a forceps to extract a bladder stone (to see later operations of this kind, see our lithotomy webpage).[4] Amr and Tbakhi draw attention to Al-Zahrawi’s introduction of over 200 surgical tools and his detailed description of their use. He is credited with the invention of (among other instruments) the surgical scissors, grasping forceps and obstetrical forceps.[5]

The first Latin translation of the work was by Gerard of Cremona in the twelfth century. This translation ensured his reception in the West and it proved popular, being translated no less than five times. The famous French surgeon, Guy de Chauliac considered it ‘nothing less than the greatest achievement of medieval surgery’ and quoted it over 200 times.[6] Worth’s copy was a 1531 Venetian edition, edited by an Italian surgeon, Pietro Argellata (d. 1423) and is bound with his copy of Guy de Chauliac’s Ars chirurgica (Venice, 1546). Argellata was a surgeon and physician based at the University of Bologna in the late fourteenth century and early decades of the fifteenth century who had produced commentaries not only on Al-Zahrawi but also Avicenna’s Canon.[7]

Sources

Al-Benna, Sammy, ‘Albucasis, a tenth-century scholar, physician and surgeon: This role in the history of plastic and reconstructive surgery’, European Journal of Plastic Surgery, vol. 35 (2012), 379-87.

Al-Ghazal, Sharif Kaf, ‘Al-Zahrāwī (Albucasis) the Great Andalusian Surgeon’, Foundation for Science Technology and Civilization (2007).

Amr, Samir S. and Abdelghani Tbakhi, ‘Abu Al Qasim Al Zahrawi (Albucasis): Pioneer of Modern Surgery’, Annals of Saudi Medicine, vol. 27, no. 3 (2007), 220-1.

Dibsi, Faisal, ‘The Role of Albucasis in Evolution of the History of Otorhinolaryngology’, Global Journal of Otalaryngology, vol. 2, no. 4 (2016), 001-7.

Donaldson, I.M.L., ‘The Cyrurgia of Albucais and other words, 1500’, Journal of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh, vol. 41 (2010), 85-8.

De Moulin, Daniel, A History of Surgery (Dordrecht, 1988).

Elgohary, Mohamed Amin, ‘Al Zahrawi: The Father of Modern Surgery’, Annals of Pediatric Surgery, vol. 2, no. 2 (2006), 82-7.

Mc Vaugh, Michael, ‘Surgical Education in the Middle Ages’, Dynamis. Acta. Hisp. Med. Sci. Hist. Illus., vol. 20 (2000), 283-304.

Spink, M.S. and G.L. Lewis, Albucasis. On Surgery and Instruments. A Definitive edition of the Arabic text with English translation and commentary by M.S. Spink and G.L. Lewis (Berkeley, 1973).

Text: Dr Elizabethanne Boran, Librarian of the Edward Worth Library, Dublin.

[1] Elgohary, Mohamed Amin, ‘Al Zahrawi: The Father of Modern Surgery’, Annals of Pediatric Surgery, vol. 2, no. 2 (2006), 82.

[2] Spink, M.S. and G.L. Lewis, Albucasis. On Surgery and Instruments. A Definitive edition of the Arabic text with English translation and commentary by M.S. Spink and G.L. Lewis (Berkeley, 1973), ix.

[3] Elgohary, ‘Al-Zahrawi’, 86. See also Dibsi, Faisal, ‘The Role of Albucasis in Evolution of the History of Otorhinolaryngology’, Global Journal of Otalaryngology, vol. 2, no. 4 (2016), 001-7 and Al-Benna, Sammy, ‘Albucasis, a tenth-century scholar, physician and surgeon: This role in the history of plastic and reconstructive surgery’, European Journal of Plastic Surgery, vol. 35 (2012), 379-87.

[4] Elgohary, ‘Al-Zahrawi’, 85.

[5] Amr, Samir S. and Abdelghani Tbakhi, ‘Abu Al Qasim Al Zahrawi (Albucasis): Pioneer of Modern Surgery’, Annals of Saudi Medicine, vol. 27, no. 3 (2007), 221.

[6] Elgohary, ‘Al-Zahrawi’, 84.

[7] Mc Vaugh, Michael, ‘Surgical Education in the Middle Ages’, Dynamis. Acta. Hisp. Med. Sci. Hist. Illus., vol. 20 (2000), 295.