Until the 16th century C.E. the operation
of Caesarean section was a mystery and highly controversial in Europe but in
the Middle Ages, Muslims wrote about the operation and even illustrated it with
pictures. Towards the end of the 12th Century C.E. the European nations were
beginning to surpass their rivals in the Islamic East. The increasing strength
of the West took full advantage of scientific and literary discoveries of the
Muslims. Far from giving any credit to the Muslims or acknowledging their
contributions to science, the Western scholars painted a very distorted picture
and left highly biased opinions of their predecessors from the Islamic world.
This fact can be very easily illustrated by many examples from the history of
medicine.
It is unfortunate that the Western medical historians have
not appreciated the value of the writings of early Muslim scholars. On the
contrary, for many centuries they have made positive efforts to discredit the
Muslims. As an example, it is a generally held view in the West that surgical
advancement was discouraged by great Muslim physicians like Ibn Sina because, in
his Al-Qanon he did not emphasise surgical procedures. In these futile efforts
it is forgotten that Al-Qanon was primarily a treatise on internal medicine and
not on surgery. Many European authors of later ages produced medical texts on
similar patterns. Moreover these shortsighted historians completely ignored
surgical geniuses and the contributions of people like Abu Qasim (known in
the West as Al Bucasis). In this context, the history of Caesarean section
presents a good example. In 1863 a French medical historian by the name of C.
Rique recorded that the operation of Caesarean section was strictly prohibited
in Islam . He went on to say that according to Islamic jurists any child born
by such an operation should be killed immediately as a child of the Devil. This
author also quoted the name of an unknown Arab to justify his conclusion. But
even after exhaustive searches this reference can not be found in the authentic
Arabic literature. From the middle of the last century until modem times,
Rique's statement has been quoted and referred to by many historians without
establishing the truth or its validity. The literature on this subject is
littered with references to the above quotation without even referring to the
original source. On the contrary, no medical historian has ever mentioned that
during the middle ages it was a well known belief in Europe that the devil or
the Antichrist would be born by Caesarean section before the end of the world.
This legend is mentioned and supported by a picture in a book published in 1898
by R. Procter and can be seen in the British Museum.
Unfortunately worthwhile literature of the early Islamic
period is scanty and scattered or else is in the wrong hands. Many valuable
manuscripts are either in private hands used only as profitable investments or
in museums all over Europe and America. The Islamic states and the statesmen
who can easily afford to collect and compile copies of these manuscripts for
free circulation have never shown any interest in this wealth of inheritance.
Lack of interest and research in these early manuscripts has created an
atmosphere of doubt and misinformation.
If someone cared to devote time and effort searching
through the available literature, a great a deal of truth could easily be found
buried under the sands of time. As regards Caesarean section we know that in
the pre-Islamic days the Romans used to perform this operation after the death
of a pregnant woman. This practice was strictly governed by law. Jewish religious
books have also mentioned various rules in relation to a child born by an
operation. If we go further back into history, in India we find that the Buddha
was possibly born by an operation. A famous Indian medical man by the name of
Susruta wrote about such an operation in 6th or 7th century B.C. All these rich
sources relating to Caesarean section were available to Muslim scholars of the
Middle Ages, when a vast amount of scientific literature was translated into
Arabic. In fact many of the Syriac, Creek and Sanskrit texts were only saved
and are available to us because of their Arabic translations whilst the
originals are lost forever. Many of the famous translators in the Islamic
period were Christians or Jews. We known that an Indian by the name of Manka
was appointed to translate Susruta's works into Arabic.
A unique and extremely rare manuscript exists in Edinburgh
University Library. It is manuscript number 161 called "Al-Asrar-al-Baqiyah-an-al-Qurun-al-Khaliydh"
or the Chronological History of Nations. It was written by the famous Muslim, Al-Beruni, who
died at the age of 78 in 1048 C.E. Al-Beruni has also left us a large volume on
the history of India and many other texts. He travelled extensively in
pre-Muslim India and his writings were greatly influenced by these experiences.
In particular he was impressed by medicinal plants form India. In the above
manuscript Al-Beruni has mentioned that Caesar Augustus (63 B.C. - 14 C.E.) was
born by post-mortem Caesarean section. He also wrote that a folk hero
Ahmed-Ibn-Sahl was born by Caesarean section after the death of his mother.
Apart from these two very relevant references he actually included a picture of
the Caesarean section in his book. Without any question this picture is the
first ever illustration of such an operation in a textbook and places its
author at least 500 years ahead of others.
Another famous name and contemporary of Al-Beruni was
Firdousi (935-1025 C.E.), author of the well known "Shahnama".
In this 60 000 verses long poems he described the birth of Rustum by Caesarean
section. This lively and fascinating description and use of anaesthesia during
the operation is there for everyone to read and provides convincing proof that
the concept of Caesarean section was mature and its use was an accepted fact.
When we seek help from the religious authorities we
discover no less than the towering figure of Imam Abu Hanifah (699 -767 C.E.)
who decreed that an operation on a living or dead woman to save the life of an
unborn child is allowed in Islam. This is mentioned in a book called
Radd-ul-Mukhtar published in 1844 in Egypt.
Further strong evidence is available in the Fatawa
Alamgeeria-a collection of Islamic decrees compiled by Sheikh Nitzam -ud -Din
of Burhanpur under the auspices of the Mughal emperor, Aurangzeb, who himself
was well versed in Islamic Sharia. In this document there is a decree that if a
pregnant woman dies and a child is expected to be alive, then the child must be
removed by operation. It goes on to say that the operation should also be
performed in order to save the life of a mother when the child is known to be
dead.
In conclusion it can be proved that
Caesarean section has never been prohibited by any Muslim authority. On the
contrary, the Muslims in the Middle ages were the first to write about it in
text and poetry and to illustrate the operation in pictures. They also
formulated rules governing religious matters to allow such a procedure when the
need arose.
Article by Dr. N.H. Naqvi FFARCS
HTML by Monzur
This article originally appeared in Muslim
Technologist, December 1989 and is reproduced with permission
No comments:
Post a Comment