THE INTRODUCTION OF THE WRITINGS of Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn ʻAbbās al-Zahrāwī--better known as Abulcasis (d. ca. 1013)--to Western Europe was through the Latin translation of his surgical treatise (maqālah) by Gerard of Cremona (d. 1187).[1] The response to this treatise, thereafter, was much greater than the attention paid to the surgery of any of the three renowned physicians of the Eastern Caliphate: al-Rāzī (Latin, Rhazes, d. ca. 925), the greatest clinician in Arabic medicine; al-Majūsī (Haly Abbās, d. 994), the author of the encyclopedic medical work, _al_-_Malakī_;[2] and Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna, 980-1037), the author of the famous _al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb_, a codification of the whole of medical knowledge. Because of the widespread dissemination of this Latin version in medieval Europe beginning with the latter part of the 12th century, al-Zahrāwī attained more prestige in the West than he did in Arabic Spain, his native country, or in any other part of the Islamic world.[3] [Illustration: Figure 2.--The myrtle-leaf shape recommended for paper on which medicine is to be placed for cauterizing eyelid. _Top_, from original Arabic manuscript (Tüb. MS. 91), courtesy Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen. _Bottom_, from Channing, _Albucasis_.] The fame attached to this surgical treatise, the 30th and last in al-Zahrāwī’s encyclopedic work _al-Taṣrīf Liman ‘Ajiza ‘an al-Ta’līf_, is founded on certain merits. The text is characterized by lucidity, careful description, and a touch of original observation of the surgical operations to which the treatise as a whole is devoted.[4] Al-Zahrāwī furnishes his own drawings of the surgical and dental instruments he used, devised, or recommended for a more efficient performance. The illustrations were intended to provide instructional material for apprentices--whom al-Zahrāwī calls his children--as well as for the benefit of those who would read the work later on.[5] The treatise is probably the oldest one known today that contains such instructive surgical illustrations and text.[6] [Illustration: Figure 3.--Small funnel for pouring heated lead into fistula of the eye for cauterization. _Top_, from original Arabic manuscript (Vel. 2491), courtesy Süleymaniye Umumi Kütüphanesi Müdürlüğü. _Bottom_, from Sudhoff, _Chirurgie_, courtesy National Library of Medicine.] [Illustration: Figure 4.--Circular cauterization in stomach ailments. _Top_, from original Arabic manuscript (Tüb. MS. 91), courtesy Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen. _Bottom_, from the 1531 Latin edition of Pietro d’Argellata, _Chirurgia Argellata cum Albucasis_, hereinafter cited as Argellata 1531, courtesy National Library of Medicine.] This surgical treatise has been investigated, translated, and commented upon by eminent historians of medicine and surgery to whose works I shall refer in this article. However, the pharmaceutic and therapeutic details of the treatise have been somewhat overlooked.