Medicine

Surgery

	Ibn Zuhr and the Progress of Surgery
	By: Rabie El-Said Abdel-Halim, Mon 17 September, 2012
	Rabie El-Said Abdel-Halim This study of the original Arabic edition of the book Al-Taysir fi ‘l-Mudawat wa'l-Tadbir (Book of Simplification Concerning Therapeutics and Diet) written by the Muslim physician Ibn Zuhr (Avenzoar, 1093-1162 CE) aims at evaluating his contributions to the progress of surgery and providing English translations of relevant excerpts. Ibn Zuhr's unique experiment performing a tracheotomy on a goat, proved the safety of this operation in humans and represented a further step in the development of the experimental school started by Al-Razi (Rhazes) of Baghdad in the 9th century. Ibn Zuhr also performed post mortems on sheep in the course of his clinical research on treatment of ulcerating diseases of the lungs. Same as all his predecessors in the Islamic Era, he stressed the importance of a practical and sound knowledge of anatomy for surgical trainees. Furthermore, Ibn Zuhr insisted on a well supervised and structured training program for the surgeon-to-be, before allowing him to operate independently. He also drew the red lines at which a physician should stop, during his general management of a surgical condition; a step forward in the evolution of general surgery as a specialty of its own. Furthermore, Ibn Zuhr enriched surgical and medical knowledge by describing many diseases and treatment innovations not ever described before him.
	Caesarean Section in Early Islamic Literature
	By: Dr. Nasim Hasan Naqvi, Tue 20 December, 2011
	Dr. 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: FSTC Limited, Thu 30 December, 2010
	Dr. Osman Sabuncuoglu and Dr. Salim Ayduz 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 Earliest Paediatric Surgical Atlas: Cerrahiye-i Ilhaniye
	By: S. N. Cenk Buyukunal and Nil Sari, Wed 07 September, 2005
	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.
	Abu al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi the Great Surgeon
	By: Dr. Ibrahim Shaikh, Sat 22 December, 2001
	Dr. Ibrahim Shaikh Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Abbas Al-Zahrawi (936-1013 CE), also known in the West as Albucasis, was an Andalusian physician. He is considered as the greatest surgeon in the Islamic medical tradition. His comprehensive medical texts, combining Middle Eastern and Greco-Roman classical teachings, shaped European surgical procedures up until the Renaissance. His greatest contribution to history is Kitab al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume collection of medical practice, of which large portions were translated into Latin and in other European languages.