Phlebotomy knife

Atzlan ben Abraham al-Karaji

18th Century

Illustration of bloodletting knife on right side of a manuscript page, with Judeo-Arabic text surrounding.
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.

Engage with this Source

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. 

You may also like

Manuscript page with Hebrew writing in triangular pattern on top, large Hebrew word in center, some Hebrew text below, and faces drawn on left margin.
Tooltip info icon

A Siddur from Parma

Illustrated title page from a manuscript siddur from Italy according to the Romaniote (Greek) rite, with prayers focused on marriage and birth rituals and customs, as well as the pidyon ha-ben…
View Source
Photograph of woman wearing a sign around her neck that reads "BLIND."
Tooltip info icon

Blind Woman

This photograph is one of a series of street photographs that Paul Strand took in 1916, using a camera outfitted with a false lens pointed away from what was being photographed. This enabled him to…
View Source