Türk Nöroşirürji Dergisi 2014 , Vol 24 , Num 3
On Cranial Anatomy, Hydrocephalus and Cranial Fractures in the 16th Century Turkish Translation of Zahire-i H'arezmşahi (Treasure of Khwarazm Shah) by Esmail Jorjani
Ahmet ACIDUMAN1, Şehriyar ŞEMS2
1Ankara Üniversitesi, Tıp Fakültesi, Tıp Tarihi ve Etik Anabilim Dalı, Ankara, Türkiye
2Serbest Çalışan Diş Hekimi, Ankara, Türkiye
AIM: Presentation of the chapters on cranial anatomy, hydrocephalus and cranial fractures of Zahire-i H’ârezmşahi (Treasure of Khawarzm Shah) and comparison of the knowledge in these chapters to predecessors’ works are aim of this article.

MATERIAL and METHODS: Turkish translations and Persian copies of Zahire-i H’arezmşahi were examined. The abovementioned chapters in the Turkish translations of Zahire were transliterated into the contemporary Turkish alphabet and these texts were compared to Persian text; a text was then prepared in modern Turkish.

RESULTS: Chapters related to anatomy of the cranial bones and hydrocephalus and cranial fracture were arranged as the 2nd and 3rd chapters of the 1st section of the 4th article of the 1st book; and the 7th chapter of the 1st section of 2nd article of the 6th book and the 10th chapter of the 2nd section of the 7th article of the 7th book of Zahire-i H’ârezmşahi, respectively.

CONCLUSION: Jorjani did not provide any knowledge that was very diff erent from his predecessors, Haly Abbas and Avicenna, on subjects related to anatomy of the cranium, hydrocephalus and cranial fractures. However Jorjani wrote in Persian instead of Arabic in the geography he lived in and wrote his book and therefore enabled people who did not know Arabic to access the scientific medical knowledge of that era. Anahtar Kelimeler : Esmail Jorjani, Treasure of Khwarazm Shah, Cranium, Anatomy, Hydrocephalus, Cranial fractures, History of medicine