Bloodletting, Cupping, and Leech Therapy in Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin’s Cerrāḥiyye-i İlkhāniyye
Elif GültekinSabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin is a Turkish surgeon who lived in Anatolia in the fifteenth century. With his work entitled Cerrāḥiyye-i İlkhāniyye, light is shed on the history of Turkish surgery in the fifteenth century. This work also has an important place in the history of world surgery due to its illustrations of surgical instruments and surgeries. The aim of this study is to examine the information provided by Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin about bloodletting, cupping and leech therapy in Cerrāḥiyye-i İlkhāniyye.
Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin’in Cerrahiyye-i Ilhaniye Adlı Eserinde Fasd, Hacamat ve Sülük Tedavisi
Elif GültekinSabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin 15. yüzyılda Anadolu’da yaşamış bir Türk cerrahtır. Cerrahiyye-i İlhaniyye isimli eseriyle Türk cerrahi tarihinin 15. yüzyılına ışık tuttuğu gibi, cerrahi aletler ve ameliyatları tasvir eden görselleri nedeniyle dünya cerrahi tarihinde de önemli bir yere sahiptir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin’in Cerrahiyye-i İlhaniyye’de fasd, hacamat ve sülük tedavisi hakkında verdiği bilgileri incelemektir.
Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin is a Turkish surgeon who lived in Anatolia in the fifteenth century. With his work entitled Cerrāḥiyye-i İlkhāniyye, light is shed on aspects of Turkish surgery in his period. This surgical textbook also has an important place in the history of surgery in general as it contains illustrations of surgical instruments and surgeries. In this article, three sections of Cerrāḥiyye-i İlkhāniyye pertaining to bloodletting, cupping and leech therapy are critically reviewed. The article also includes colored drawings of those operations and their instruments.
Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin defined cupping as the process of drawing blood from capillaries. He defined bloodletting as the practice of letting blood by opening a vein. These definitions clarify the conceptual confusion between bloodletting and cupping in the current literature. He shared all details of these treatments such as definitions, localization of practice, indications, complications, hygienic measures, stopping of bleeding, wound care after the operations as well as the measures to be taken in unexpected situations. This shows that these treatments were systematic medical treatments at that time.
An interesting piece of information was given by Sabuncuoğlu about the indication of bloodletting. He didn’t recommend bloodletting for the children under the age of 14 or for seniors over 60. Another remarkable point is that he didn’t recommend bloodletting for cholera patients even though one of the most important aspects of cholera treatment in the nineteenth century was bloodletting. The fact that Sabuncuoğlu doesn’t recommend bloodletting in a disease with diarrhea and vomiting indicates that he established a relation between diarrhea-vomiting and the loss of fluids in the body.
The information provided by Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin also contributes to an old debate about the time of cupping. Like the Prophet Muḥammad, he was of the opinion that cupping should be performed in the beginning, middle or end of the month. But unlike the Prophet, he didn’t mention any weekdays for this operation. If one juxtaposes the information given in the ḥadīth literature with the scientific evidence reported by Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin, it can be said that the appropriate or inadmissible days of the week for cupping therapy, which are mentioned in the ḥadīth literature, should be considered specific to the Prophet’s time. However, Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin mentioned the weekdays, Monday and Wednesday, as appropriate days for bloodletting. The reason for this cannot be understood from the book. In addition, Sabuncuoğlu stated that in case of a disease, these treatments can be done at any time regardless of the suitability of time.
