Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi
Muslim scientistAlbucasis, the great Islamic
physician,
surgeon,
chemist,
cosmetologist, and
scientist.
Name:
Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi
Title:
Alzahrawi, Albucasis
Birth:
936 CE
Death:
1013 CE
Ethnicity:
Arab,
SpanishRegion:
Iberia
Influences:
MuhammadInfluenced:
Abu Muhammad bin Hazm,
Pietro Argallata,
Guy de Chauliac,
Jaques DelechampsAbu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi(936 – 1013), (
Arabic: أبو القاسم بن خلف بن العباس الزهراوي) also known in the
West as Abulcasis, was an
Andalusian physician,
surgeon,
chemist,
cosmetologist, and
scientist. He is considered the father of modern
surgery,
[1] and as
Islam's greatest medieval surgeon, whose comprehensive medical texts shaped both
Islamic and
European surgical procedures up until the
Renaissance. His greatest contribution to history is the
Kitab al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume encyclopedia of medical practices.
Biography
Abū al-Qāsim was born in the city of
El Zahra, six miles northwest of
Córdoba,
Spain. He was descended from the
Ansar Arab tribe who settled earlier in Spain. Few details remain regarding his life, aside from his published work, due to the destruction of El-Zahra during later
Spanish-
Moorish conflicts. His name first appears in the writings of
Abu Muhammad bin Hazm (993 – 1064), who listed him among the greatest physicians of
Moorish Spain. But we have the first detailed biography of al-Zahrawī from al-Ḥumaydī's Jadhwat al-Muqtabis (On Andalusian Savants), completed six decades after al-Zahrawī's death.
He lived most of his life in Córdoba. It is also where he studied, taught and practiced medicine and surgery until shortly before his death in about 1013, two years after the sacking of El-Zahra.
The street in Córdoba where he lived is named in his honor as "Calle Albucasis". On this street he lived in house no. 6, which is preserved today by the Spanish Tourist Board with a bronze plaque (awarded in January 1977) which reads: "This was the house where lived Abul-Qasim."
[2]Works
Abū al-Qāsim was a court physician to the
Andalusian caliph
Al-Hakam II. He devoted his entire life and genius to the advancement of medicine as a whole and surgery in particular. His best work was the Kitab
al-Tasrif. It is a medical encyclopaedia spanning 30 volumes which included sections on surgery, medicine, orthopedics, ophthalmology, pharmacology, nutrition etc.
In the 14th century, the
French surgeon
Guy de Chauliac quoted
al-Tasrif over 200 times. Pietro Argallata (d. 1453) described Abū al-Qāsim as "without doubt the chief of all surgeons". In an earlier work, he is credited to be the first to describe
ectopic pregnancy in 963, in those days a fatal affliction. Abū al-Qāsim's influence continued for at least five centuries, extending into the
Renaissance, evidenced by
al-Tasrif's frequent reference by
French surgeon Jaques Delechamps (1513-1588).
Page from a 1531 Latin translation by Peter Argellata of El Zahrawi's treatise on surgical and medical instruments.
Kitab al-Tasrif
Main article:
Al-TasrifAbū al-Qāsim's thirty-chapter medical treatise, Kitab
al-Tasrif, completed in the year 1000, covered a broad range of medical topics, including
dentistry and
childbirth, which contained data that had accumulated during a career that spanned almost 50 years of training, teaching and practice. In it he also wrote of the importance of a positive
doctor-patient relationship and wrote affectionately of his students, whom he referred to as "my children". He also emphasized the importance of treating patients irrespective of their social status. He encouraged the close observation of individual cases in order to make the most accurate diagnosis and the best possible treatment.
Al-Tasrif was later translated into
Latin by
Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century, and illustrated. For perhaps five centuries during the
European Middle Ages, it was the primary source for
European medical knowledge, and served as a reference for doctors and surgeons.
Not always properly credited, Abū Al-Qāsim's
al-Tasrif described both what would later became known as "Kocher's method" for treating a dislocated shoulder and "Walcher position" in
obstetrics. Al-Tasrif described how to ligature blood vessels almost 600 years before
Ambroise Paré, and was the first recorded book to document several dental devices and explain the hereditary nature of
haemophilia.
Liber Servitoris
In
pharmacy and
pharmacology, Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrawī pioneered the preparation of medicines by
sublimation and
distillation. His Liber Servitoris is of particular interest, as it provides the reader with recipes and explains how to prepare the 'simples' from which were compounded the complex drugs then generally used.
[3]Advances in surgery
Main article:
Al-TasrifAbū al-Qāsim was a
surgeon and specialized in curing disease by
cauterization. He also invented several
devices used during surgery, for the purpose of:
inspection of the interior of the
urethraapplying and removing foreign bodies from the
throatinspection of the
earAbū al-Qāsim also described the use of
forceps in vaginal deliveries.
[4]Surgical instruments
In his
Al-Tasrif (The Method of Medicine), he introduced his famous collection of over 200
surgical instruments. Many of these instruments were never used before by any previous surgeons. Hamidan, for example, listed at least twenty six innovative surgical instruments that Abulcasis introduced.
Abu al-Qasim's use of
catgut for internal stitching is still practised in modern surgery. The
catgut appears to be the only natural substance capable of dissolving and is acceptable by the body. Abū al-Qāsim also invented the
forceps for extracting a dead
fetus, as illustrated in the
Al-Tasrif.
[5]In the
Al-Tasrif (1000), Abū al-Qāsim introduced the use of
ligature for the
blood control of
arteries in lieu of
cauterization.
[6] The
surgical needle was invented and described by Abū al-Qāsim in his Al-Tasrif.
[7]Abū al-Qāsim devised about 200 new surgical instruments such as
scalpels,
curettes,
retractors, spoons,
sounds, hooks, rods and
specula
