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Ibn Zuhr’s Contributions to Surgery

Ibn Zuhr’s Contributions to Surgery

By Farid Sami Haddad

Journal for the History of Arabic Science, Vol.10 (1994)

Introduction: Ibn Zuhr comes from a famous Andalusian family of seven physicians who belonged to six generations.  The origin of the bani Zuhr can be traced back to teh Tihamah region of the Red Sea coast of the Arabian Peninsula.  The banu Zuhr physicians served in Isbilyah (Seville) from about 1005 AD to 1205 AD, a period of 200 years.  Abu Marwan ibn Zuhr belongs to the middle generation and is the most famous of the seven.

Abu Marwan ibn Zuhr (1091-1162 AD) wrote at least six books of which his al-Taysir remains the most famous and one of the three translated that were translated into Latin; it was translated twice, the first time around 1160 AD by John of Capua and the second time about 1280 AD by Patavinus (Paravicious or Paravicinus) a physician of Venice.  Between 1490 and 1628, a period of 138 years, it was printed in Latin 11 times and was used as a textbook of medicine in European universities for a very long time akk the way through the 18th century.

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