The Collection (Al-Tasrif) by Albucasis

The most famous professor in Cordoba was Albucasis (936-1013), who wrote the only textbook in Arabic that treated surgery as a separate subject. This is the last of his thirty-chapter medical treatise, termed The Collection. It is the Al-Tasrif.

Albucasis is the Latinized name of the Hispano-Arabic physician-surgeon Abu Al-Qasim al-Zahrawi. He was born in Muslim Spain in El-Zahra, a little village near Cordoba, in the year 936. He became an important member of the Cordovan center of Islam and was highly esteemed as a physician and as a very able surgeon.

He was an active practitioner who was said to have left his doors open day and night and whose courtyard was reputed to have been perennially overflowing with the poor patients for whom he cared as a charitable obligation.

In his introduction, Albucasis complained that surgery had almost completely disappeared as a specialty in Spain. Proficient surgeons could no longer be found as a result of the absence of anatomical knowledge; dissection indeed was prohibited.

Al-Tasrif was completed in AD 1000 and reflected Albucasis’s nearly 50 years of study and practice.

One feature of this book is the large number of illustrations of surgical instruments which, together with the descriptive text, serve to clarify the operative techniques he described.

The volume of the Al-Tasrif was dedicated to surgery and was divided into three parts: first part, the use of cautery: second part; lithotomy, wound care and amputation for gangrene and the third with fractures and dislocation, including an excellent description of paralysis from spinal trauma.

The book was translated into Latin in the 12th century by Gerard of Cremona, and became a work of central value to surgery in Western Europe during the Middle Ages.
The Collection (Al-Tasrif) by Albucasis

Albucasis

Albucasis
Albucasis was very famous physician of the Arabs. Also known in western world as Bucasis or Alzahravius. His full name is Abu-Al-Al-Qasim Khalaf Ibn Abbas Al-Zahrawi.

Albucasis born in the Andalusian a town of Medinat Al-Zahra near Cordova in AD 936 was the author of the great Medio-Chirrgical treatise called Al-Tasrif. Andalusia, was the Arabic name for regions of the Iberian Peninsula under Muslim rule. Andalusia was the region that would eventually become the dynamo behind Europe expansion and conquest of the Americas.

It contain illustrations of surgical and dental instrumentals and was the leading text book of surgery. It consisted of three volumes:

The first one deals with the use of actual cautery, a special feature of the Arabian Surgery and gave description and figure of peculiar instruments, the second one contained full descriptions of “Lithotomy”, “Lithotrily”, “Amputation for gangrene” and different treatment of wounds, the third volumes deals with “Fractures and Dislocations” including fracture of pelvis and mention of paralysis in fracture of the spine.

He first wrote on the treatment of deformities of the mouth and dental arches and mentioned the obstetric posture which is now known as “walcher posture”.

In the introduction to his book, Albucasis point out that good practice in surgery requires a sound of knowledge of anatomy. He also emphasized his religious convictions as a Muslim believer.

Albucasis and many of his colleagues would have considered the study of anatomy not only as indispensible to their professional advancement, but also as a minas to understand the wisdom of God’s design and in particular the perfection of the human being, God’s supreme creation.

Albucasis became an eminent surgeon. He was appointed as the Court Physician of King Abdel Rahman III. He spent a productive life in practicing medicine, especially in surgery and medical writings. He died at the age of 83.
Albucasis