© 2000 by Society for the Social History of Medicine
The Practice of Surgery in Islamic Lands: Myth and Reality
*The Oriental Institute, University of Oxford Pusey Lane, Oxford OX1 2LE
This paper analyses evidence for the practice of surgery, as opposed to its theory, in the Islamic Middle East at the end of the first millennium. The inclusion in formal Arabic medical treatises of complex or invasive surgical procedures is compared with the lack of evidence for their actual performance, as well as with statements to the effect that such techniques were unknown at that time or should be avoided. Areas in which there is greater evidence of the practice of surgery—such as the removal of superficial growths and the treatment of eye diseases—are also discussed. In particular, the paper focuses upon treatises by ‘Ab
al-Q
sim al-Zahrw
(known to Europeans as Albucasis), Ab Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakary’ al-Rz (Rhazes), ‘Ali ibn al-’Abbs al-Majs (Haly Abbas), and Ibn Sn (Avicenna)
Keywords: Medieval Islamic medicine; surgery; opthamology; Caesarean section; Middle East; Córdoba; Ab Bakr Muhammad ibn ZakarÏy‘ al-Rz (Rhazes); ‘Al ibn al‘-AbbsÏ al-Majs (Haly Abbas), Ab al-Qsim al-Zahrw (Albucasis); Ibn Sin (Avicenna)
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