1-94, from

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM
OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
BULLETIN 228

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION A. WASHINGTON, D.C., 1961

[Illustration: Figure 1.--Reproduction of a page from
original Arabic manuscript indexed as "Cod. N.F. 476A" at
Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. Courtesy
Oesterreichische Nationalbibliothek.]

Drawings and Pharmacy in al-Zahr[=a]w[=i]aEuro(TM)s
10th-Century Surgical Treatise

_by Sami Hamarneh_

_Probably the earliest independent work in Arabic Spain to embrace the
whole of medical knowledge of the time is the encyclopedic al-Tasr[=i]f,
written in the late 10th century by Ab[=u] al-Q[=a]sim al-Zahr[=a]w[=i],
also known as Abulcasis. Consisting of 30 treatises, it is the only
known work of al-Zahr[=a]w[=i] and it brought him high prestige in the
western world._

_Here we are concerned only with his last treatise, on surgery. With its
many drawings of surgical instruments, intended for the instruction of
apprentices, its descriptions of formulas and medicinal preparations,
and its lucid observations on surgical procedures, this treatise is
perhaps the oldest of its kind._

_Scholars today have available a translation of the text and
reproductions of the drawings, but many of the latter are greatly
modified from the originals._

_This study reproduces examples of al-Zahr[=a]w[=i]aEuro(TM)s original
illustrations, compares some with early drawings based on them, and
comments on passages in the treatise of interest to students of pharmacy
and medical therapy._

THE AUTHOR: _Sami Hamarneh undertook this research into the history of
medicine in connection with his duties as associate curator of medical
sciences in the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution._

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE WRITINGS of Ab[=u] al-Q[=a]sim Khalaf ibn
aEuro~Abb[=a]s al-Zahr[=a]w[=i]--better known as Abulcasis (d. ca. 1013)--to
Western Europe was through the Latin translation of his surgical
treatise (maq[=a]lah) by Gerard of Cremona (d. 1187).[1] The response to
this treatise, thereafter, was much greater than the attention paid to
the surgery of any of the three renowned physicians of the Eastern
Caliphate: al-R[=a]z[=i] (Latin, Rhazes, d. ca. 925), the greatest
clinician in Arabic medicine; al-Maj[=u]s[=i] (Haly Abb[=a]s, d.