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Al-Zahrawi, Abu al-Qasim (Albucasis). Kitab al-Tasrif li-man `agiza `an al-Ta'lif, Part XXX (treatise on surgery), chapters II and III, illustrated Arabic manuscript on paper, probably Mesopotamia, dated early in the month of Dhu'l- Qa`da A.H.869/A.D.1464
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Description
108 leaves (including one blank), incomplete, 19 lines per page written in neat naskhi script in black ink on buff or cream paper, headings in red, numerous illustrations of surgical instruments in black and/or red, catchwords, contemporary corrections in margins, further marginal notes in a Maghribi hand, chapter II lacking parts 56-63 and 66 to part of 77, later stamped brown morocco binding, with flap This lot contains 1 item(s).
Catalogue Note
A previously unrecorded 15th century manuscript copy of Albucasis' influential work on surgery including numerous illustrations of surgical instruments.
Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, known as Albucasis, is often recorded as the first great medical figure of the Muslim West. He was born in the royal city of al-Zahra, near Cordoba, and lived most of his life under the rule of the celebrated Abd al-Rahman III al-Nasir to whom he is at times thought to have been a personal physician. He was a great medical scholar but also a practicioner. His works are recorded to be imbued with a strong sense of personal experience and it is perhaps in part as a result of this that his fame not only spread from the Muslim West to the Muslim East but also to Christian Europe. Leo Africanus recorded his death to be 404/1010.
Albucasis' work on 'surgery' (`amal al-yad) consists of the last of the thirty treatises of his kitab al-tasrif. It comprises approximately one fifth of the whole book and is divided, by the author himself, in three chapters each subdivided in various parts. Included in the present manuscript are parts of chapter II and the whole of chapter III. The author introduces these chapters as follows (translation based on Spink and Lewis 1973):
Chapter II
'Concerning incision and perforation; blood-letting and cupping; wounds and the extraction of crows and the like, The whole is divided into parts [97 parts] in order; and illustrations of instruments are given'
Chapter III
'Concerning the setting of bones; dislocations; the treatment of sprains and the like. This is similarly divided into parts [35 parts] set in order from head to feet, with illustrations of instruments'
Spink and Lewis refer to this treatise on surgery as 'the first rational, complete and illustrated treatment of its subject'. While major sources to the tasrif include the Greek medical encyclopaedia by the 7th century Paul of Aegina and works by Galen and Hippocrates, Spink and Lewis note that, on the subject of surgery, Albucasis 'describes many operative procedures and instruments which do not appear in extant classical writings and which may therefore be regarded as his own, or at least as being part of distinctively Arab practice'. In the Encyclopaedia of Islam's entry on jiraha (surgery) M. Meyerhof and T. Sarnelli mention that 'the work which exerted the greatest influence on the West was the part on surgery by Albucasis is, section XXX of his kitab al-tasrif'.
In the 10th/11th century this text marked the peak of surgery in the Islamic world and its influence was to spread rapidly. In the second half of the 12th century it was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona. Its influence then reached France and in the 14th century the most celebrated surgeon of the age, Guy de Chauliac, is recorded to have ranked Albucasis with Hippocrates and Galen. In the 15th century the first editions of Gerard of Cremona version appeared in print together with Guy de Chauliac's Cyrurgia Parva. From then on further editions came out in Italy, England (1778), India and a French version in 1861.
The present manuscript appears to have been copied in two different hands. One hand being responsible for folios 2-25r, the marginal corrections throughout the manuscript and the colophon, the other for the main text only (folios 25v-107). Considering that the first of these two scribes made various corrections and upon completion dated the manuscript it would appear likely that he was the main scholar responsible for this copy of Albucasis' text. The other scribe, displaying a neater hand, may have been a trained scribe or pupil to whom a section of the text would have been delegated.
The surgical instruments depicted are precisely drawn and can be compared to the printed drawings in Spink a
Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, known as Albucasis, is often recorded as the first great medical figure of the Muslim West. He was born in the royal city of al-Zahra, near Cordoba, and lived most of his life under the rule of the celebrated Abd al-Rahman III al-Nasir to whom he is at times thought to have been a personal physician. He was a great medical scholar but also a practicioner. His works are recorded to be imbued with a strong sense of personal experience and it is perhaps in part as a result of this that his fame not only spread from the Muslim West to the Muslim East but also to Christian Europe. Leo Africanus recorded his death to be 404/1010.
Albucasis' work on 'surgery' (`amal al-yad) consists of the last of the thirty treatises of his kitab al-tasrif. It comprises approximately one fifth of the whole book and is divided, by the author himself, in three chapters each subdivided in various parts. Included in the present manuscript are parts of chapter II and the whole of chapter III. The author introduces these chapters as follows (translation based on Spink and Lewis 1973):
Chapter II
'Concerning incision and perforation; blood-letting and cupping; wounds and the extraction of crows and the like, The whole is divided into parts [97 parts] in order; and illustrations of instruments are given'
Chapter III
'Concerning the setting of bones; dislocations; the treatment of sprains and the like. This is similarly divided into parts [35 parts] set in order from head to feet, with illustrations of instruments'
Spink and Lewis refer to this treatise on surgery as 'the first rational, complete and illustrated treatment of its subject'. While major sources to the tasrif include the Greek medical encyclopaedia by the 7th century Paul of Aegina and works by Galen and Hippocrates, Spink and Lewis note that, on the subject of surgery, Albucasis 'describes many operative procedures and instruments which do not appear in extant classical writings and which may therefore be regarded as his own, or at least as being part of distinctively Arab practice'. In the Encyclopaedia of Islam's entry on jiraha (surgery) M. Meyerhof and T. Sarnelli mention that 'the work which exerted the greatest influence on the West was the part on surgery by Albucasis is, section XXX of his kitab al-tasrif'.
In the 10th/11th century this text marked the peak of surgery in the Islamic world and its influence was to spread rapidly. In the second half of the 12th century it was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona. Its influence then reached France and in the 14th century the most celebrated surgeon of the age, Guy de Chauliac, is recorded to have ranked Albucasis with Hippocrates and Galen. In the 15th century the first editions of Gerard of Cremona version appeared in print together with Guy de Chauliac's Cyrurgia Parva. From then on further editions came out in Italy, England (1778), India and a French version in 1861.
The present manuscript appears to have been copied in two different hands. One hand being responsible for folios 2-25r, the marginal corrections throughout the manuscript and the colophon, the other for the main text only (folios 25v-107). Considering that the first of these two scribes made various corrections and upon completion dated the manuscript it would appear likely that he was the main scholar responsible for this copy of Albucasis' text. The other scribe, displaying a neater hand, may have been a trained scribe or pupil to whom a section of the text would have been delegated.
The surgical instruments depicted are precisely drawn and can be compared to the printed drawings in Spink a