Abu Qasim Khalaf Ibn Abbas Al Zahrawi, known in the West as Albucasis or Zahravius, was born in 936 AD in Al-Zahra', a suburb, six miles northwest of Cordoba, the capital of Muslim Spain (Al-Andalus).Removal of urinary bladder calculi.Al-Zahrawi traveled rarely, and spent most of his life in his hometown as a practicing physician-pharmacist-surgeon.1

He served as the court physician to Caliph Al-Hakam-II, at a period considered as the "Golden Age" of Arab Spain when natural and mathematical sciences reached their peak. After a long and distinguished medical career, he died in 1013 AD at the age of 77. Around the year 1000 AD, he wrote his famous book "Al Tasreef Liman 'Ajaz 'Aan Al-Taleef", (The Clearance of Medical Science For Those Who Can Not Compile It).His ancestors were from the Al Ansar tribes of Al Madina Al Munawwarah who came from the Arabian peninsula with the Muslim armies which conquered and lived in Spain.In addition to sections on medicine and surgery, there were sections on midwifery, pharmacology, therapeutics, dietitics, psychotherapy, weighs and measures, and medical chemistry.1

In Al-Tasreef, three chapters were devoted to surgery.He preceded the famous French military surgeon Ambroise Pare (1510-1590), claimed to be the first European to utilize sutures, by five centuries.He advised that the treating physician has to insert a finger into the rectum of the patient, move the stone down to the neck of the bladder, then make an incision in the rectal wall or the perineum and remove the stone.His method for setting and reducing a dislocated shoulder was centuries before Kocher introduced his similar technique to European medicine.He described the exposure and division of the temporal artery to relieve certain types of headaches.Application of ligature for bleeding vessels and internal stitching utilizing catgut.The thirty volumes of the medical encyclopedia covered various aspects of medical knowledge.Some of the procedures and techniques detailed in these chapters include the following:

Surgery of the eye, ear, and throat.He utilized cauterization, usually to treat skin tumors or open abscesses.He devised instruments for inspection of the urethra.He devised several dental devices and artificial teeth made of animal bones.He fully de scribed tonsillectomy and tracheostomy.He devised instruments for internal examination of the ear.He devised an instrument used to remove or insert objects into the throat.He applied cauterization procedure to as many as 50 different operations.He described how to use a hook to remove a polyp from the nose.Treatment for anal fistulas.Setting dislocated bones and fractures.He is credited to be the first to describe ectopic pregnancy.