Razi\'s Scientific Approaches to Surgical Sciences in Al-Hawi

Abstract

Background: Razi is one of the greatest physicians in the history of medicine, and his book, Al-Hawi, is one of the most reliable medical resources. The structure of Al-Hawi is such that in each section, Razi expresses the opinion of his predecessors and contemporary physicians after mentioning the name of each physician and also expresses his first-hand experiences after the phrase “My View”. To date, ten original papers have explored the surgical points raised in Razi’s works; however, none of these studies have extensively reviewed the entire scientific approach of Razi to surgical sciences in Al-Hawi. Materials and Methods: The source of the present library research was the original text of Al-Hawi compiled by Ehsan Moqaddas and its Persian translation by Mohammad Ibrahim Zaker. In this study, Razi’s views, which are discussed in the "My View" sections, were collected, and his ideas about the principles and knowledge of surgery were investigated. Results: A total of 48 topics in surgical sciences were found in Al-Hawi, most of which (23 out of 48) were in the therapeutic domain, and ophthalmic surgery was the most frequently-discussed topic (in 12 out of 48). In 26 (54%) of the cases, Razi addressed the topic independently, without discussing any opinions from his predecessors or contemporary physicians. Conclusion: Not only did Razi have a comprehensive understanding of the position, precautions, necessary subtleties and contraindications of surgical measures, but also in various examples, he presented original ideas on diagnosis and treatment with regard to topics in surgery.

Keywords

• razi
• al-hawi
• surgery
• islamic civilization
• traditional medicine