INTELLECTUALS OF AL-ANDALUS

Meet some of the most revered and accomplished Andalusian academics, artists and thinkers

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Al Zahrawi Surgeon, 936 – 1013

An innovative and eminent surgeon, Abu Qasim Khalaf Ibn Abbas Al Zahrawi, more commonly known as Al Zahrawi, was born in the city of Cordoba. For most of his adult life he worked as a physician in his hometown and for a time at the court of the Umayyad caliph Al Hakam III. In the year 1000, he completed writing the Kitab Al-Tasrif, a medical encyclopaedia consisting of 30 volumes that covered a number of medical topics, including the first known description of haemophilia as a genetic condition. Al Zahrawi is also credited as the first surgeon to carry out a thyroidectomy.

ABBAS IBN FIRNAS POLYMATH, 810 - 887

An inventor, astronomer, engineer and mathematician, Abbas Ibn Firnas was born in the Caliphate of Cordoba. Some of his notable inventions included corrective lenses, used to help enhance vision, and a water clock. He is most famous for building the first glider, made of wood, feathers and silk, and testing it by jumping from a great height. The glider worked for a few minutes, but the experiment ended when Ibn Firnas crash landed and injured his back.

IBN HAZM POLYMATH, 994-1064

Born to a prominent family in Cordoba, Ibn Hazm was given an exceptional education and grew up to become a scholar of history, logic, ethics, theology and philosophy as well as an expert on Islamic jurisprudence. During his lifetime, it’s thought that he produced over 80,000 pages of work. One of his most famous texts, and a great work of Al-Andalusian literature, is Ring of the Dove, a treatise on love.

Ziryab Musician c.789 – c.857