In presenting his personal observations and original ideas on surgery late in life, al-Zahrāwī, for the most part, was inspired by a thorough acquaintance with Greek and Arabic medical literature supplemented by lifelong intelligent observation and experience.
Through its descriptions and illustrations, the surgical treatise of al-Zahrāwī very likely played a significant role in the designing of improved surgical instruments in the Middle Ages. Also, the treatise no doubt promoted the development of improved surgical techniques in Islam and, through its translations, promoted these techniques to an even greater extent in the West, a fact that justifies the fame of this treatise as the highest expression of the development of surgery in Arabic Spain—a treatise whose influence continued to the Renaissance. It contributed in no small measure to the idea of equipping learned and well-trained surgeons with the best surgical tools and techniques of the time; moreover, it encouraged the invention of new instruments to meet differing circumstances and special conditions. These tools no doubt greatly facilitated the work of the surgeon.
Throughout the text of al-Taṣrīf al-Zahrāwī gave careful attention to the importance of pharmaceutical preparations in the healing art, including cases requiring surgery.
[1] George Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science, Baltimore, 1927, vol. 1, p. 681.
[2] Mohammad S. Abu Ganima, in Abul-Kasim ein Forscher der Arabischen Medizin, Berlin, 1929, suggested that description of operations in al-Majūsī’s surgery is clearer than that in al-Zahrāwī’s—a statement which does not seem acceptable.
[3] Max Neuburger, Geschichte der Medizin, Stuttgart, 1911, vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 178-179.
[4] Heinrich Haeser, Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medizin und der epidemischen Krankheiten, Jena, 1875, vol. 1, pp. 578-584; and Donald Campbell, Arabian Medicine and Its Influence on the Middle Ages, London, 1926, vol. 1, p. 88.
[5] See the prelude to the treatise.
[6] Fielding H. Garrison (An Introduction of the History of Medicine, ed. 4, rev., Philadelphia, 1929, p. 132), states, in reference to "Sudhoff and others," that many drawings earlier than those of al-Zahrāwī have been discovered in medieval manuscripts. However, Garrison overlooked the fact that al-Zahrāwī’s surgical illustrations were mainly depicted for instructional purposes—a unique approach. It should be noted also that al-Zahrāwī died almost a century earlier than Garrison thought. See also Martin S. Spink, "Arabian Gynaecological, Obstetrical and Genito-Urinary Practice Illustrated from Albucasis," Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1937, vol. 30, p. 654.
[7] Johannis Channing, Albucasis de Chirurgia. Arabice et Latine, Oxford, 1778, 2 vols. (hereinafter referred to as Channing, Albucasis). The text has many errors in spelling and grammar, but Leclerc went too far in criticizing this edition, which has many merits. Moreover, the surgical illustrations (reproduced from the Huntington and Marsh manuscripts of the Bodleian Library) in Channing’s edition are of special interest.