Cancer in Ottoman Surgical Books – Part I: Classical Period (1450–1730)

Abstract

Objective: Cancer is a disease known since prehistoric times; and both Western and Eastern medical literature have manyworks contain its causes and treatment during the ancient and medieval times. The aim of this study is to introduce cancerand its treatment in Ottoman jarrāh-nāmes in the classical period (1450–1730) and to make a contribution to literature ofTurkish history of medicine by determining the place of this information. Materials and Methods: Surgeon Masʿūd’s Tarjamat al-Khulāṣa fī Fenn al-Jirāḥa, Sharaf al-dīn Ṣabunjıoghlı’s Jarrāhiyyatal-Khāniyya, Jarrāh-nāme of unknown author and Surgeon İbrāhīm’s ʿAlāʾim-i Jarrāḥīn were examined. However, after thecomparison, ʿAlāʾim-i Jarrāḥīn and Jarrāhiyyat al-Khāniyya were excluded from this study. A brief information was givenfirstly about the work and its author, and then the sections regarding cancer were presented in the Results section. Theinformation on cancer in these works evaluated in the light of the relevant literature and period in the Discussion section. Results: Surgeon Masʿūd’s Khulāṣa contains chapters about cancers on the head, trunk, breast and heel and their treat ments. Jarrāh-nāme of unknown author comprises a section in which the treatment of cancer is generally mentioned withoutspecifying the place of occurrence. Conclusion: Although it is seen that Ottoman Jarrāh-nāmes in the classical period dealt with the cancer within the scopeof medical practices in the Islamic civilization in the medieval times and almost all of the works examined in this study weretranslations.