al-Zahrāwī , Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn al-‘Abbās (also known as Abu al-Qasim or Abulcasis, 936–1013), was a physician from Moorish Andalusia (modern-day Spain), author of one of the most important medical texts of the Middle Ages. His medical encyclopedia The pharmacological volume of al-Tasrif, often published separately in translation as Liber Servitoris, does briefly mention the distillation of wine. After describing the distillation of vinegar to produce acetic acid, al-Zahrāwī adds, “In this way wine can be distilled by anyone who wants it distilled.” This cursory reference to wine distillation and others in Arab alchemical literature that are similarly brief have led to debate over whether the Arabs produced distilled alcohol before Europeans did. Some scholars have suggested that if Arab chemists found the product of wine distillation so unremarkable, perhaps they were allowing the ethanol to escape and only collecting the “tails” of the vapors, due to insufficient cooling. However, experimental results indicate that it would not have been difficult to isolate ethanol with the alembic stills used in the Arab world. Furthermore, by the eleventh century references to the “araq” of wine (distilled alcohol) had begun to appear in the Arabic, so it is quite possible that al-Zahrāwī was aware of distilled alcohol and simply didn’t think it needed description. See distillation, history of. Little is known about the life of al-Zahrāwī. He spent most of his days in Cordoba, where he was court physician to Caliph Al-Hakam II. He is credited with either inventing or first documenting more than a hundred surgical instruments. Al-Tasrif contains the first known descriptions of ectopic pregnancy, the hereditary nature of hemophilia, the use of “catgut” (animal intestine) for internal stitching, “Kocher’s method” of treating a dislocated shoulder, and the “Walcher hanging position” for giving birth. In these things, it may be argued, lies the true value of his works. Cosman, Madeleine Pelner, and Linda Gale Jones. Handbook to Life in the Medieval World, vol. 2. New York: Infobase, 2009. Forbes, R. J. Short History of the Art of Distillation. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1948. By: Sam Eilertsen
