Father of Modern Medicine

Al-Zahrawi (936-1013) -Abū al-Qāsim Al-Zahrawi was born in the city of El-Zahra, six miles northwest of Córdoba, Andalusia. He was descended from the Ansar Arab tribe who settled earlier in Spain. He lived most of his life in Córdoba. It is also where he studied, taught and practiced medicine and surgery until shortly before his death in about 1013, two years after the sacking of El-Zahra. Abū al-Qāsim was a court physician to the Andalusian Caliph Al-Hakam II. He devoted his entire life and genius to the advancement of medicine as a whole and surgery in particular.

His best work was the Kitab al-Tasrif completed in the year 1000. It is a medical encyclopedia spanning 30 volumes which included sections on surgery, medicine, orthopedics, ophthalmology, pharmacology, and nutrition. He covered a broad range of medical topics, including dentistry and childbirth, which contained data that had accumulated during a career that spanned almost 50 years of training, teaching and practice. In it he also wrote of the importance of a positive doctor-patient relationship He encouraged the close observation of individual cases in order to make the most accurate diagnosis and the best possible treatment. Al-Tasrif was later translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century, and illustrated. For perhaps five centuries during the European Middle Ages, it was the primary source for European medical knowledge, and served as a reference for doctors and surgeons. Not always properly credited, Abū Al-Qāsim's al-Tasrif described both what would later became known as;

 "Kocher's method" for treating a dislocated shoulder & "Walcher position" in obstetrics.
 described how to ligature blood vessels
 developed several dental devices
 explained the hereditary nature of hemophilia
 described a surgical procedure for ligating the temporal artery for migraine
 Described the use of forceps in vaginal deliveries.
 invented and described the surgical needle

Abū al-Qāsim 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. In pharmacy and pharmacology, Abū al-Qāsim al-Zahrawī 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. He introduced his famous collection of over 200 surgical instruments. Many of these instruments were never used before by any previous surgeons such as scalpels, curettes, retractors, spoons, sounds, hooks, rods, and specula. His use of catgut for internal stitching is still practiced in modern surgery. The catgut appears to be the only natural substance capable of dissolving and is acceptable by the body. Abū al-Qāsim also invented the forceps for extracting a dead fetus, as illustrated in the Al-Tasrif. Abū al-Qāsim 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.

Source: Hijamah Nation Unit Study Materials