17th century.^25 “Lecturing in 1913, Sir William Osler described Avicenna
as ‘the author of the most famous medical textbook ever written.’ Osler
added that Avicenna, as a practitioner, was the prototype of the successful
physician who was at the same time statesman, teacher, philosopher, and
literary man.”^26 Avicenna, “the fountainhead of authority in the Middle
Ages,”^27 was perhaps the greatest ambassador from the rich cultural
enlightenment of the Islamic world.
Three thousand miles to the west of the House of Wisdom lay
Andalucía, modern day Spain, which the Muslims termed al-Andalus.
While eventually collapsing in 1492, Muslim rule in Spain had enveloped
the Golden Age of Islam, and had precipitated vast cultural, scientific,
linguistic, and architectural traditions that exist to this day.
Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, also known by his Latin name Albucasis,
(936–1013 C.E.) was born and raised near Córdoba (he descended from the
Ansar tribe of Arabia), and is regarded as the greatest surgeon of the
Middle Ages. “Because surgery was less burdened than other branches of
medicine by ill-founded theory, [Albucasis] sought to keep medicine
separate from philosophy and theology.”^28 Al-Tasrif (completed about
1000 C.E.) was the result of almost fifty years of medical practice, and
contained the earliest pictures of surgical instruments in history. For over
five hundred years, his encyclopedia of surgery was the standard reference
in the universities of Europe. Albucasis stated, “Whatever I know, I owe
solely to my assiduous reading of books of the ancients, to my desire to
understand them and to appropriate this science; then I have added the
observation and experience of my whole life.” If Albucasis scribed his
eminent work in Arabic, how did it find its way into Latin?
Constantinus Africanus (Constantine the African) was born ca. 1020 in
Kairouan, Tunisia, a city near the Mediterranean coast that had become
one of the great centers of Islamic scholarship. Constantine studied
medicine first in Tunisia, but traveled extensively (startling, for his time)
to Baghdad, Syria, India, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Persia. While making his
way back to Carthage (present day Tunis), Constantine passed through
Salerno, Italy (near Naples), which, at the time, was considered the leading
center of medical teaching in Europe. Unimpressed, Constantine returned
to Tunisia, likely expecting never to return to Salerno. However, within a
few years, he was suspected of sorcery and sent into exile. An avid book
collector, Constantine the (Muslim) African brought with him his treasure