Surgical Instruments by Al-Zahrawi

by Meam Wye on June 30, 2009

Muslim Polymath Al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis), regarded as 'Father of Modern Surgery', gave illustrations and explanations of about 200 surgical instruments in his 30 volume medical encyclopedia 'Kitab al-Tasrif' (The Method of Medicine).

'Kitab al-Tasrif' was written in 1000 AD and its last and largest volume devoted to surgery which is considered the first treatsie on the subject with illustration of surgical instruments many of which were devised by Al-Zahrawi himself and are still used, with modifications, today. Some of the surgical instruments invented by him are:

• scalpels
  
• curettes
  
• retractors
  
• surgical spoon
  
• sound
  
• surgical hook
  
• surgical rod specula
  
• surgical needle
  
• forceps
  
• several types of surgical scissors
  
• ligature
  
• cauteries
  
• pincers
  
• cannulas
  
• probes
  
• wooden instruments for bone setting
  
• a variety of obstetrical forceps
  
• dilators
  
• vaginal specula

“Al-Zahrawi remains a leading scholar who transformed surgery into an independent science based on the knowledge of anatomy. His illustration and drawing of the tools is an innovation that keeps his contribution alive, reflected in its continuous influence on the works of those who came after him”

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