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Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi
Born 936 CE
Medina Azahara, Al-Andalus (near present-day Córdoba, Spain)
Died 1013 (aged 76–77)
Ethnicity Arab
Era Islamic Golden Age
Region Al-Andalus, Caliphate of Córdoba
Religion Islam
Notable idea(s) Founder of modern surgical and medical instruments; Father of Surgery
Notable work(s) Kitab al-Tasrif

Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn al-‘Abbās al-Zahrāwī (936–1013), (Arabic: أبو القاسم خلف بن العباس الزهراوي‎‎), popularly known as Al-Zahrawi (الزهراوي), Latinised as Abulcasis (from Arabic Abū al-Qāsim), was an Arab Muslim physician and surgeon who lived in Al-Andalus. He is considered the greatest medieval surgeon to have appeared from the Islamic World, and has been described as the father of surgery.[1] His greatest contribution to medicine is the Kitab al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume encyclopedia of medical practices.[2] His pioneering contributions to the field of surgical procedures and instruments had an enormous impact in the East and West well into the modern period, where some of his discoveries are still applied in medicine to this day.[3]

He was the first physician to describe an Abdominal pregnancy a sub type of ectopic pregnancy, and the first physician to identify the hereditary nature of haemophilia.[3]


Al-Zahrawi was born in the city El-Zahra, 8 kilometers northwest of Córdoba, Andalusia. The nisba (attributive title), Al-Ansari, suggests origin from the Medinian tribe of Al-Ansar.[4]



He was a contemporary of Andalusian chemists such as Ibn al-Wafid, Maslamah Ibn Ahmad al-Majriti and Artephius.



Al-Zahrawi specialized in curing disease by cauterization. He invented several devices used during surgery, for purposes such as inspection of the interior of the urethra, applying and removing foreign bodies from the throat, inspection of the ear, etc. He is also credited to be the first to describe ectopic pregnancy in 963, in those days a fatal affliction.[3]

Al-Zahrawi was the first to illustrate the various cannulae and the first to treat a wart with an iron tube and caustic metal as a boring instrument. He was also the first to draw hooks with a double tip for use in surgery.[5]

Kitab al-Tasrif[edit]

Main article: Al-Tasrif



Not always properly credited, Al-Zahrawi's al-Tasrif described both what would later become 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.[3] He was also the first to describe a surgical procedure for ligating the temporal artery for migraine, also almost 600 years before Pare recorded that he had ligated his own temporal artery for headache that conforms to current descriptions of migraine.[6] Al-Zahrawi was therefore the first to describe the migraine surgery procedure that is enjoying a revival in the 21st century, spearheaded by Elliot Shevel a South African surgeon.

Al-Zahrawi also described the use of forceps in vaginal deliveries.[7] He introduced over 200 surgical instruments.[8] Many of these instruments were never used before by any previous surgeons.[8]

His 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. Al-Zahrawi also invented the forceps for extracting a dead fetus, as illustrated in the Al-Tasrif.[9]

Liber Servitoris[edit]

In pharmacy and pharmacology, Al-Zahrawi 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.[10][11][12]


Al-Zahrawi was the "most frequently cited surgical authority of the Middle Ages".[13]

Donald Campbell, a historian of Arabic medicine, described Al-Zahrawi's influence on Europe as follows:[14]

The chief influence of Albucasis on the medical system of Europe was that his lucidity and method of presentation awakened a prepossession in favour of Arabic literature among the scholars of the West: the methods of Albucasis eclipsed those of Galen and maintained a dominant position in medical Europe for five hundred years, i.e long after it had passed its usefulness. He, however, helped to raise the status of surgery in Christian Europe; in his book on fractures and luxations, he states that ‘this part of surgery has passed into the hands of vulgar and uncultivated minds, for which reason it has fallen into contempt.’ The surgery of Albucasis became firmly grafted on Europe after the time of Guy de Chauliac (d.1368).



On Surgery and Instruments[edit]

On Surgery and Instruments is an illustrated surgical guide written by Al-Zahrawi. On Surgery and Instruments contributed many technological innovations, notably which tools to use in specific surgeries. In On Surgery and Instruments, he draws diagrams of each tool used in different procedures to clarify how to carry out the steps of each treatment. The full text consists of three books, intended for medical students looking forward to gaining more knowledge within the field of surgery regarding procedures and the necessary tools.

Al-Zahrawi claims that his knowledge comes from careful reading of previous medical texts as well as his own experience: “…whatever skill I have, I have derived for myself by my long reading of the books of the Ancients and my thirst to understand them until I extracted the knowledge of it from them. Then through the whole of my life I have adhered to experience and practice…I have made it accessible for you and rescued it from the abyss of prolixity”.[16]


Throughout the text, Al-Zahrawi uses an authoritative tone to declare his expertise on the topic. For example, when introducing topics or describing procedures, Al-Zahrawi often warns the reader of the skills necessary to complete the task. In chapter forty-eight, "On cauterization for numbness", he defines the required knowledge for the procedure in a commanding tone: “This should not be attempted except by one who has a good knowledge of the anatomy of the limbs and of the exits of the nerves that move the body”.[17] He invents a criterion to generate a standard of skill level, indicating that he himself has surpassed it due to training and experience. As such, he reiterates his preeminence by implying that he is part of an exclusive group of learned surgeons capable of correctly completing this cautery. In another instance, he states that the procedure should be avoided completely by incompetent surgeons: “However, no one should attempt this operation unless he has had long training and practice in the use of cautery”.[18]

Al-Zahrawi was not afraid to depart from old practice, for example, he openly disparages the opinion that cauterization should only be used in the spring season: “…the Ancients…[affirmed] that spring was the best. Myself, I say that cautery is suitable at all times”.[19] Four pages later, he again opposes the opinion that gold is the best material for cauterization, stating that iron is actually his preferred metal: “therefore in our own opinion cauterization is swifter and more successful with iron”.[20] In chapter twenty-nine, "On cauterization for pleurisy", he states: “Now one of the Ancients mentioned that there were some people who used an iron cautery shaped like a probe, and introduced it red hot into the intercostal space until it reached the abscess itself and evacuated the pus…but in this perforation with the cautery there is a danger either that the patient may die on the spot or that an incurable fistula may raise at the place”.[21]

See also[edit]


  3. ^ a b c d Cosman, Madeleine Pelner; Jones, Linda Gale (2008). Handbook to Life in the Medieval World. Handbook to Life Series. 2. Infobase Publishing. pp. 528–530. ISBN 0-8160-4887-8. 
  6. ^ Shevel, E; Spierings, EH (April 2004). "Role of the extracranial arteries in migraine headache: a review.". Cranio : the journal of craniomandibular practice. 22 (2): 132–6. doi:10.1179/crn.2004.017. PMID 15134413. 
  8. ^ a b Holmes-Walker, Anthony (2004). Life-enhancing plastics : plastics and other materials in medical applications. London: Imperial College Press. p. 176. ISBN 1-86094-462-0. 
  11. ^ A Pharmaceutical View of Abulcasis Al-zahrawi in Moorish Spain. Brill Archive. pp. 19–. 
  12. ^ See:Luisa Arvide
  14. ^ Campbell, Donald (2001). Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the Middle Ages: Trubner's Oriental Series. London: Routledge. p. 88. ISBN 0415244625. 
  15. ^ Badeau, John Stothoff; Hayes, John Richard (1983). Hayes, John Richard, ed. The Genius of Arab civilization: source of Renaissance (2nd ed.). MIT Press. p. 200. ISBN 0262580632. 
  17. ^ Abū Al-Qāsim Khalaf Ibn ʾabbās Al-Zahrāwī. Albucasis on Surgery and Instruments. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973. (146)


External links[edit]