Al-Zahrawi
(940 - 1013 CE)
Abu
al-Qasim Ibn Abbas al-Zahrawi was born in the city of Zahra,
six miles outside the city of Cordoba in Islamic Spain. He
devoted his entire life and genius to the advancement of medicine
as a whole and surgery in particular. He wrote a medical encyclopedia
consisting of 30 volumes covering surgery, medicine, orthopedics,
ophthalmology, pharmacology and nutrition amongst other fields
of medicine.
His
most famous work was called Kitab al-Tasrif (The Book of Explanation).
He excelled in the invention and use of sophisticated surgical
instruments and developed pioneering operative techniques.
Derivatives of many of his instruments are still in use in
the most modern of operating theatres. He also perfected the
caesarean section operation, which is so called because he
named the first child he successfully delivered using this
operation, Kaiser (the Arabic version of Caesar).
Not
only was al-Zahrawi the greatest surgeon of his time, but
he is also considered one of the greatest surgeons of all
time, and thus is referred to as 'the father of surgery'.
Gerard
of Cremona translated al-Tasrif into Latin in the 12th century
and alongside Ibn Sina's book al-Qanun Fi
al-Tibb |
