Al-Zahrawi: A Prominent Muslim Medical Scientist and His Impact on West

Abu al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (936-1013AD), known in the west by his Latin name Albucasis, was born in Al-Zahra’a six miles northwest of Cordova in Andalusia (Spain). He is regarded as the greatest of Muslim surgeons; European surgeons, who came after him, considered him a greater surgeon than even Galen (Greek physician and surgeon b.129AD) and described him as the father of modern surgery. His greatest contribution to medicine is the Kitab al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume encyclopaedia of medical practices. His pioneering contributions to the field of surgical procedures and instruments had an enormous impact on the East and the West, well into the modern period. This paper is a study of Al-Zahrawi’s remarkable work and its influence on medical science in the West.