What is "al-tasrif"

The Kitab at-Tasrif ( Arabic: كتاب التصريف لمن عجز عن التأليف) (The Method of Medicine) was an Arabic encyclopedia on medicine and surgery, written near the year 1000 by Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (Abulcasis). It is available in translation. One of Al-Zahrawi’s greatest contributions was the Kitab al-Tasrif, a 30-volume encyclopedia of medical information. The Kitab al-Tasrif took Al-Zahrawi over 50 years to complete. It contains information about a wide variety of illnesses, injuries, medical conditions, treatments, and surgical procedures. He even describes over 200 different surgical instruments. Surgeons continued to use the information in the Kitab al-Tasrif well into the 1700’s. In fact, some of Al-Zahrawi’s surgical procedures are still being used to this very day.