Surgery
Surgery
Ophthalmologists of the Medieval Islamic World,
by M. Zafer Wafai
The main purpose of this monograph is to review some of the contributions made by ophthalmologists from Muslim civilisation between the 9th century CE (early 3rd century AH) and the late 14th century CE (middle 7th century AH). The work is based upon my personal effort to collect microfilms and photocopies of Arabic manuscripts from public libraries in Syria, Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Rome, Paris, London, and El Escorial in Spain. The late Professor M. Rawwas Qal'aji and I had the opportunity to edit most of these manuscripts and publish them through different organisations.
Eye Specialists in Islamic Cultures,
by Ibrahim Shaikh
"I invite you... to go back with me 1000 years to consider the fascinating history of the old Arabian ophthalmology which I have studied in the past five years." With these words Julius Hirschberg, addressing the American Medical Association in July 1905, presented the work of Muslim ophtalmologists. Inspired by the pionnering work of the eminent German expert, Dr Ibrahim Shaikh describes in brief in this well informed article the contributions of Al-Ghafiqi, Ibn al-Haytham, Salahuddin Ibn Yusuf, Kalifah of Aleppo, Zarrindast, and Ammar Al-Mosuli. He devotes a special interest to the first description of cataract operation by Al-Mosuli and its subsequent impact on the works of his followers.
Albucasis: A Landmark for Arabic and European Surgery,
by Maria Do Sameiro Barroso
This article presents Abu'l-Qasim Khalaf ibn 'Abbas al-Zaharawi, Arabic أبو القاسم خلف بن عباس الزهراوي, Latin Albucasis (936-1013 A.D.), one on the most outstanding Arabic physicians and the most remarkable Arabic surgeon. His work had a strong impact in middle ages. Greek-Roman surgery had almost ceased to be practiced, in the Western world, after Paul of Aegina (625-690 A.D.), the last Byzantine compiler. Albucasis took for himself the task of making of surgery an honorable art. He recovered ancient surgical texts from damaged scrolls, developed, expanded and refined Greek-Roman operations, adding his own pioneer techniques, procedures, and devising his own instruments. His clear and insightful teachings laid the foundations of accurate and safer surgical procedures that were adopted in the following centuries.
The Earliest Paediatric Surgical Atlas: Cerrahiye-i Ilhaniye,
by S. N. Cenk Büyükünal and Nil Sari
The author of one of the earliest surgical books was Serafeddin Sabuncuoglu. In 1465, he wrote a surgical book in Turkish which contained not only pictures or miniatures of paediatric surgical procedures, but there were also many important and major new contributions to the surgical literature.
Caesarean Section in Early Islamic Literature, by Nasim Hasan Naqvi
Some medical historians of the last century mistakenly recorded that Caesarean section was strictly forbidden amongst Muslims. This opinion has been repeatedly quoted without examining its authenticity or validity. Research into available ancient Arabic sources can lead to evidence contrary to such a view. The Islamic scholars of the Middle ages were, in fact, the first to not only write about this operation but to illustrate it in pictures and describe it in poetry. Considering the antiquity of their time, it is unfair to compare them with scholars of a later date; but their achievements must be valued.
The 15th Century Turkish Physician Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu Author of Cerrahiyetu ‘l-Haniyye,
by Salim Ayduz and Osman Sabuncuoglu
The Turkish physician Serafeddin Sabuncuoglu (1385–1470) is the author of a famous treatise of surgery, Cerrahiyetü'l Haniyye (Imperial Surgery), composed in Turkish in 1465. It was the first illustrated surgical atlas and the last major medical encyclopedia from the Islamic world. Though the treatise was largely based on Al-Zahrawi's Al-Tasrif, Sabuncuoglu introduced many innovations of his own, among which the introduction of views in which we see female surgeons illustrated for the first time. In this article, Dr Osman Sabuncuoglu and Dr. Salim Ayduz present the life and works of this original scholar and characterise the contents of his works.
The Missing Link in the History of Urology,
by Rabie El-Said Abdel-Halim
With few exceptions, most of the current publications on history of urology still ignore the scientific and technological events of the more than a thousand years between the Greco-Roman times and the modern era. This has broken an important link in the globally continuous line of progress and evolution of world civilizations. In this article, Professor Rabie E. Abdel-Halim restores this missing-link. He attracts the attention on the medical works of the scholars of the Islamic civilisation who lived and practiced between the 9th and the 13th centuries and whose Latinized books were available in Europe as early as the 12th century with their influence lasting until the 18th century: Ibn al-Nafis, Ibn Zuhr, Al-Razi, Ibn Al-Jazzar, Al-Zahrawi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Zuhr, Ibn Rushd, Muhadhdhab Al-Din Al-Baghdadi, Ibn Al-Baytar and Ibn El-Quff.
Paediatric Urology 1000 Years Ago,
by Rabie El-Said Abdel-Halim
In this study, we present a brief commentary on four books written by Muslim physicians and medical authors who lived between the ninth and the eleventh centuries, having to do with urology, with a special view toward aspects of paediatric urology. The books are: Al-Hawi fi al-tibb by Muhammad al-Razi, Risala fi siyasat as-sibian wa-tadbirihim by the scholar of Qirawan Ibn al-Jazzar, Kitab at-tasrif li-man 'ajiza 'an at-ta'lif by the Andalusian physician al-Zahrawi and Al-Qanun fi al-tibb, the famous Canon of Medicine by Al-Shaykh al-Ra'is Abu 'Ali Ibn Sina.