Potential source of Al-Zahrawi's knowledge of surgical instruments in the book of Al-Tasrif (10th A.D.).

Abstract

Background: Surgery is one of the most important branches of medical science. The importance of using surgical tools in applying various surgical methods is clear. With the development of surgical instruments, the science of surgery made significant progress. At the beginning of the era of Islamic civilization (tenth century A.D.), The book entitled Al-Tasrif Leman Ujza an Al-Talif was written by Zahrawi, an Andalusian physician, which became world famous due to its section on surgery and surgical instruments. The original of this book was in Arabic and was translated into Latin by Gerald of Cremona. After that, he made his way to Europe and taught in European medical universities for many years. In this study, the possible source used by Zahrawi in writing this part of his book is discussed.

Methods: This study was done by library and Internet research method. Reference books and relevant articles from reliable databases such as ISI, Scopus, PubMed and search engines such as Google Scholar, and also some archeological websites were used for gathering data. The date was analyzed.

Results: Zahrawi has introduced more than 200 surgical tools in an illustrated form and described their use in the 30th chapter of the 3rd part of Al-Tasrif book. Also, there are some images of surgical instruments carved on a stone inscription on the wall of the Kom Ombo temple in Egypt, dating back to 305-30 BC, which are very similar to Al-Tasrif's.

Discussion: The similarity between the images of these two mentioned documents, releaves a potential of Zahrawi's exposure to the Egyptian Kom Ombo and the use of that source in the compilation of al-Tasrif.