Phlebotomy knife
Atzlan ben Abraham al-Karaji
18th Century

This illustration of a phlebotomy knife appears in an eighteenth-century Judeo-Arabic medical manuscript. Bloodletting, thought to balance the humors of the body, was an accepted medical treatment at the time.
This illustration of a phlebotomy knife appears in an eighteenth-century Judeo-Arabic medical manuscript. Bloodletting, thought to balance the humors of the body, was an accepted medical treatment at the time.
Credits
Courtesy the Russian State Library, Moscow, OR F.71 #1036.
Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 5.
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Creator Bio
Atzlan ben Abraham al-Karaji
18th Century
Nothing is known about Atzlan ben Abraham al-Karaji, though his name suggests that he hailed from Karaj, a city near Tehran in present-day Iran. A Judeo-Arabic medical text is his only known work.
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Love:I see, Brother, that my being and perfection depend entirely on your perfection; and since the perfection of the object you have conceived…
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