Abu al-Qasim was known as a father of modern surgery. He was born at Medinat al-Zahra near Cordoba on 936 A.D and died in 1013 AD. He descended from Ansar tribe of Arabia who had settled earlier in Spain. He studied medicine there and became court physician to the Caliph of Cordoba, Hakam II (died 976)
Kitab Al-Tasrif was his outstanding contribution in medicine. The full title of the work reads Kitab al-Tasrif Lima ‘Ajiza ‘an al-Talif, a title that caused certain difficulties for historians and translators.
Kitab al-Tasrif known also known as ‘Concessio ei data qui componere haud valet’ in Europe and it’s in 30 volume work covering anatomy, diseases, nutrition, surgery, medicine, orthopedic, ophthalmology and pharmacology. Abu al-Qasim also wrote the importance of doctor-patient relationship.
Al-Tasrif is characterized by an encyclopedic nature and outlook. It embraces a wide range of topics touching the various branches of the health field known and developed at the time.
In his last and the largest volume of Al-Tasrif was nothing less than the greatest achievement of medieval surgery. It was the first independent surgical treatise ever written in detail. It included many pictures of surgical instruments, most invented by Abu Al-Qasim himself, and explanations of their use.
This work is divided in into three sections the first, and the longest, discusses the use of cautery, the second, surgical operation; and the third , the treatment of fractures and dislocations.
He was the first medical author to provide illustrations of instruments used in surgery. His treatise of surgery contains approximately 200 such drawings ranging from a tongue depressor and a tooth extractor to a catheter and elaborate obstetric device.
He is a great surgeon in medieval Islam and also a great educationist based on his substantial section in the Al-Tasrif to child education and behavior table etiquette school curriculum and academic specialization.
It was translated to Latin by Gerald of Cremona in 12th century. The twenty eight treatise was translated into Latin toward the end of the thirteenth century by Simon of Genoa and Abraham Judeus of Tortosa and it was printed in Venice in 1471.
The last edition was that of John Channing in Oxford (1778) this contains both the original Arabic text and its Latin translation on alternative pages.
Kitab al-Tasrif by Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Albulcasis)
