Many medical encyclopaedias, which examine diseases from top to toe, contain gynaecological chapters as well. Al-Zahrāwī composed several chapters in his The Arrangement of Medical Knowledge for One Who is Not Able to Compile a Book for Himself (Kitāb al-Taṣrīf li-man ʿaǧiza ʿan al-taʾlīf) that offer instructions for dealing with complicated deliveries and the extraction of dead foetuses. Although these chapters are addressed to midwives, al-Zahrāwī appends some case histories that demonstrate his own familiarity with obstetrical problems...
Left: A woman giving birth attended by other women, possibly midwives.