{"title":"The tale of Nebenchari: Fictional story mistaken for historical fact.","authors":"Michał Rydzewski, Jan Skrobut, Andrzej Grzybowski","doi":"10.1111/aos.17580","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The story of Nebenchari, an ancient Egyptian ophthalmologist, has been cited as an early reference to cataract surgery in ancient Egypt. However, a critical analysis of historical sources reveals no concrete evidence to support this account. Despite claims that Herodotus documented the tale, no such reference exists in his writings. The earliest known source appears to be Georg Ebers' 19th-century novel, 'The Daughter of an Egyptian King', which fictionalized Nebenchari's role in Egyptian and Persian history. Subsequent scholars, including Charles Joe Snyder (1914-1996) and Thomas Hall Shastid (1866-1947), seem to have misinterpreted Ebers' fictional narrative as historical fact, leading to its widespread acceptance in ophthalmological literature. This case highlights the importance of verifying original sources when assessing historical claims and serves as a cautionary example of how fiction can be mistaken for fact in academic discourse.</p>","PeriodicalId":6915,"journal":{"name":"Acta Ophthalmologica","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Acta Ophthalmologica","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aos.17580","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"OPHTHALMOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The story of Nebenchari, an ancient Egyptian ophthalmologist, has been cited as an early reference to cataract surgery in ancient Egypt. However, a critical analysis of historical sources reveals no concrete evidence to support this account. Despite claims that Herodotus documented the tale, no such reference exists in his writings. The earliest known source appears to be Georg Ebers' 19th-century novel, 'The Daughter of an Egyptian King', which fictionalized Nebenchari's role in Egyptian and Persian history. Subsequent scholars, including Charles Joe Snyder (1914-1996) and Thomas Hall Shastid (1866-1947), seem to have misinterpreted Ebers' fictional narrative as historical fact, leading to its widespread acceptance in ophthalmological literature. This case highlights the importance of verifying original sources when assessing historical claims and serves as a cautionary example of how fiction can be mistaken for fact in academic discourse.
古埃及眼科医生Nebenchari的故事被认为是古埃及白内障手术的早期参考。然而，对历史资料的批判性分析显示，没有具体的证据支持这一说法。尽管声称希罗多德记录了这个故事，但在他的作品中没有这样的参考。已知最早的来源似乎是乔治·埃伯斯（Georg Ebers） 19世纪的小说《埃及国王的女儿》（The Daughter of an Egyptian King），小说虚构了Nebenchari在埃及和波斯历史上的角色。后来的学者，包括Charles Joe Snyder（1914-1996）和Thomas Hall Shastid(1866-1947)，似乎将Ebers的虚构叙述误解为历史事实，导致其在眼科文献中被广泛接受。这个案例强调了在评估历史主张时核实原始来源的重要性，并作为一个警示性的例子，说明在学术论述中虚构是如何被误认为事实的。
期刊介绍：
Acta Ophthalmologica is published on behalf of the Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica Foundation and is the official scientific publication of the following societies: The Danish Ophthalmological Society, The Finnish Ophthalmological Society, The Icelandic Ophthalmological Society, The Norwegian Ophthalmological Society and The Swedish Ophthalmological Society, and also the European Association for Vision and Eye Research (EVER).
Acta Ophthalmologica publishes clinical and experimental original articles, reviews, editorials, educational photo essays (Diagnosis and Therapy in Ophthalmology), case reports and case series, letters to the editor and doctoral theses.
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