A^ '^ ** *• V 



UvlH (_J,5 S, 



^3 ttj_3 -«? h4> m^ 



i LJL*j ^ ^jl I^AjsU^ '^" ijLc iiijiU j^l 3^' "^^ -^ s?^? 



j^jAxil ^ itf^ jX^ll 



ij^^} ^^} •>J^ (^jlAi j 



■^' ej^ 



Figure 2. — The myrtle-leaf shape recommended for paper on which medicine is to be 

 placed for cauterizing eyelid. Top, from original Arabic manuscript (Tiib. MS. 91), 

 courtesy Universitatsbibliothek Tubingen. Bottom, from Channing, Albucasis. 



Malakl; ^ and Ibn SIna (Avicenna, 980-1037), the 

 author of the famous al-Qanun JJ al-Tibb, a codification 

 of the whole of medical knowledge. Because of the 

 widespread dissemination of this Latin version in 

 medieval Europe beginning with the latter part of 

 the 12th century, al-Zahrawi attained more prestige 

 in the West than he did in Arabic Spain, his native 

 country, or in any other part of the Islamic world. ^ 

 The fame attached to this surgical treatise, the 30th 

 and last in al-Zahrawi's encyclopedic work al-Tasr'iJ 

 Liman 'Ajiza 'an al-Talif, is founded on certain merits. 

 The text is characterized by lucidity, careful descrip- 

 tion, and a touch of original observation of the 

 surgical operations to which the treatise as a whole is 

 devoted.* Al-Zahrawi furnishes his own drawings of 

 the surgical and dental instruments he used, devised, 

 or recommended for a more efficient performance. 

 The illustrations were intended to provide instructional 



^ Mohammad S. Abu Ganima, in Abul-Kasim ein Forscher der 

 Arabischen Medizin, Berlin, 1929, suggested that description of 

 operations in al-MajusI's surgery is clearer than that in al- 

 Zahrawi's — a statement which does not seem acceptable. 



^ Max Neuburger, Geschichte der Medizin, Stuttgart, 1911, vol. 

 2, pt. 1, pp. 178-179. 



^ Heinrich Haeser, Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medizin und der 

 epidemischen Krankheiten, Jena, 1875, vol. 1, pp. 578-584; and 

 Donald Campbell, Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the 

 Middle' Ages, London, 1926, vol. 1, p. 88. 



material for apprentices — whom al-Zahrawi calls his 

 children — as well as for the benefit of those who 

 would read the work later on.° The treatise is 







jT' 



^^« 



Figure 3. — Small funnel for pouring heated 

 lead into fistula of the eye for cauterization. 

 Top, from original Arabic manuscript (Vel. 

 2491), courtesy Siileymaniye Umumi Kiitii- 

 phanesi Miidurliigu. Bottom, from SudhofT, 

 Chirurgie, courtesy National Library of 

 Medicine. 



* See the prelude to the treatise. 



84 



BULLETIN 228: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



