Name of Object:

Surgical scalpel

Location:

Cairo, Egypt

Holding Museum:

Museum of Islamic Art

About Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo

Date of Object:

Hegira 3rd century / AD 9th century

Museum Inventory Number:

1/ 25319

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Cast copper.

Dimensions:

Length 16.5 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Abbasid

Provenance:

Egypt.

Description:

A surgical scalpel with a long handle tends in a sharp blade; the blade is less thick and less narrow than the handle. Excavations which took place in the city of Fustat – the first capital of Islamic Egypt established by Amr ibn al-'As in the year AH 21 / AD 641 – revealed a large cache of surgical instruments, considered to be the oldest extant of their kind. This collection demonstrates Islamic Egypt's remarkable progress in the fields of medicine and surgery.
The Muslims excelled in the field of surgery from the early Islamic period. Historical sources and manuscripts provide information about the advancement of medical surgery in all parts of the Islamic world. Perhaps the doctor from al-Andalus, Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al-Zahrawi (AH 329–404 / AD 940–1013), is the most famous of the Muslim surgeons. He advised that surgeons should be familiar with anatomy and he emphasised the necessity of dissection as a means of acquiring knowledge of the human body, whereby the reasons for death could be ascertained and the benefits of seeing similar cases were exploited. Al-Zahrawi's most famous work is his encyclopaedia, Al-Tasrif liman 'ajaz 'an al-Taalif, which describes and illustrates more than 150 surgical instruments. When undertaking surgical operations Muslim surgeons took special care to sterilise the site of the operation; Al-Zahrawi demonstrated several ways to make a sterile environment in his encyclopaedia.
Surgical operations included the use of general anaesthesia. For example an anaesthetic sponge was used; soaked in hashish oil, opium, ray-grass, henbane and belladonna; it was then dried in the sun. When the time came it was moistened and placed on the nose of the patient where the tranquilizing substances were absorbed by the patient's tissues sending him into a deep sleep, thereby ensuring that the patient remained free from pain during surgery. Muslim surgeons used surgical thread made from animal gut such as cat gut. Al-Zahrawi taught his students how to sew up wounds with magical interior-stitching similar to that used in cosmetic surgery today. Al-Zahrawi's encyclopaedia covers cosmetic surgery, such as rectifying disfigurements to the lip, ear, nose, and he discusses surgery on the blood vessels. Muslim doctors practiced procedures of setting fractured bones and used splints and dressings for the treatment of fractured skulls, arms and shoulders. Perhaps the huge numbers of medical and surgical instruments extant demonstrate the extraordinary progress in the field of medicine and surgery in the Islamic world in the early period.

View Short Description

This scalpel, discovered in the city of Fustat among a large collection of surgical tools, is proof of the wide variety of tools used by Muslim physicians in treatment and surgery.

How date and origin were established:

The dating of this scalpel is based on information available in historical sources which relates to progress in the fields of medicine and surgery in Egypt during the Abbasid period. Furthermore, by comparison; in analysing illustrations of surgical instruments in al-Zahrawi's encyclopaedia, al-Tasrif liman 'ajaz 'an al-Taalif along with other contemporary medical works, with the instrument seen here.

How Object was obtained:

This object was discovered during the course of archaeological excavations, which took place at Fustat.

How provenance was established:

It is likely that the scalpel, along with the other surgical instruments discovered during archaeological excavations that took placed in the city of Fustat, were made in Egypt for there are no indications from the historical sources that instruments such as these were imported from outside the region. This is in addition to the fact that the fields of medicine and surgery flourished in Egypt during this period.

Selected bibliography:

–––––––, Quand les sciences parlent arabe VIIIe-XVe ap. J.-C./IIe-IXe siècle H,exhibition catalogue,Cairo, 2003.
–––––––, “Catalogue Ishamat al-Hadara al-'Arabiya wa al-Islamiya fi al-'ulum al-Tibiya [Catalogue of the Contributions of Arab Civilization to the Medical Sciences]” Makhtutat Dar al-Kutub al-Masriya [Manuscripts of the Dar al-Kutub al-Masriiya], Cairo, 2002.
Sayour, S. A., “La Medicina en la Epoca Islamica”, Prisma, Magazine of the Ministry of Culture, Cairo, No. 12, 2001, p.49.
'Awad, H. A., “Al-Jiraha fi al-'asr al-Islami [Surgery in the Islamic Period]”, Majalat Dirasat al-Athariya al-Islamiya [Journal of Islamic Archaeological Studies], Vol. 3, Cairo, 1988.

Citation of this web page:

Salah Sayour "Surgical scalpel" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;eg;Mus01;47;en

Prepared by: Salah SayourSalah Sayour

Salah Ahmad Sayour holds a BA in Islamic Antiquities, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University (1973) and is currently studying for an MA in the same field. In 1979 he had a four-month scholarship at Austrian museums to study museology. Preparing exhibitions for the Museum of Islamic Art's collections in the Arab World Institute, Paris and curating exhibitions held in host museums in the USA and Paris augmented his experience leading to his appointment as head of several sections at the Museum. He has written several articles on Islamic painting and arts for Prism Magazine published by the Ministry in different languages and has participated in preparing scientific texts for the catalogues for the Museum's exhibitions at home and abroad.

Copyedited by: Majd Musa
Translation by: Amal Sachedina (from the Arabic).
Translation copyedited by: Mandi GomezMandi Gomez

Amanda Gomez is a freelance copy-editor and proofreader working in London. She studied Art History and Literature at Essex University (1986–89) and received her MA (Area Studies Africa: Art, Literature, African Thought) from SOAS in 1990. She worked as an editorial assistant for the independent publisher Bellew Publishing (1991–94) and studied at Bookhouse and the London College of Printing on day release. She was publications officer at the Museum of London until 2000 and then took a role at Art Books International, where she worked on projects for independent publishers and arts institutions that included MWNF’s English-language editions of the books series Islamic Art in the Mediterranean. She was part of the editorial team for further MWNF iterations: Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean Virtual Museum and the illustrated volume Discover Islamic Art in the Mediterranean.

True to its ethos of connecting people through the arts, MWNF has provided Amanda with valuable opportunities for discovery and learning, increased her editorial experience, and connected her with publishers and institutions all over the world. More recently, the projects she has worked on include MWNF’s Sharing History Virtual Museum and Exhibition series, Vitra Design Museum’s Victor Papanek and Objects of Desire, and Haus der Kulturen der Welt’s online publication 2 or 3 Tigers and its volume Race, Nation, Class.

MWNF Working Number: ET 87

RELATED CONTENT

 Artistic Introduction

 Timeline for this item

Islamic Dynasties / Period

Abbasids


On display in

Discover Islamic Art Exhibition(s)

The Abbasids | Managing Prosperity

MWNF Galleries

Scientific objects

Download

As PDF (including images) As Word (text only)