LETTTER TO THE EDITOR: Abulcasis, the Father of Modern Surgery

Dear Editor, The reviews by Izet Masic at al give me the pleasure of enjoying the passionate ideas and advances of Arabic medicine over the end of IX and beginning X centuries. They state this the renaissance to several representative islamic authors such as Avicenna, Averroes, Rhazes, Avenzor, Ibn al-Nafis, Abulcasis, and many other wise men in different sciences and disciplines. This period is considered as the “Golden Age of Arabic civilization”. Being simultaneously immersed on the lecture of an historical novel on these topics, kindly allow me to mention the renowned father of modern surgery: Ibn al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Albucasis), born in 936 in Al-Zahra, Cordova (Andalusia), practised as physician, pharmacist and surgeon, and wrote the encyclopaedia Al-Tasrif, essential in Europe for many centuries after its translation into Latin with various editions (Venice, 1947, Basel, 1541, Oxford, 1778).