Al-Tasrif
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The surgical volume of a thirty-book medical encyclopedia illustrates about two hundred instruments, many of the author's own design, and became the standard surgical text of Latin Europe.
- about two hundred surgical instruments drawn and explained
- catgut ligature and internal suture described in practical detail
- complications and refused operations recorded honestly
- the surgical authority of Latin Europe for five centuries
Al-Zahrawi practised in Cordoba and wrote from long experience. The thirtieth treatise covers cautery, incision, wounds, bone-setting and obstetrics, with drawings of each instrument, and describes procedures including the use of catgut for internal sutures, ligature of vessels, tracheotomy and the removal of bladder stones. He writes candidly about complications and about operations he would not attempt. Translated into Latin in the twelfth century, it remained a surgical authority for five hundred years.
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