ANZ J Surg. 2017 Jan 24. doi: 10.1111/ans.13813. [Epub ahead of print]
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
The
unrivalled conquests of Genghis Khan (CE c.1162-1227) led to the
establishment of the Greater Mongolian Empire. By 1279, the Mongol
dynasty controlled a vast Empire which, for the first time in history,
unified Europe and China via the famous Silk Road. The ensuing century
of peace and stability is referred to by historians as the Pax
Mongolica, which facilitated Europe's renaissance and remarkably
contributed to the rise of modern medicine and surgery.
METHODS:
Secondary sources from published literature, primary sources from manuscripts and illustrations courtesy of universities, museum libraries and archives.
RESULTS:
There
is ample evidence detailing the Mongol Empire's power during the
thirteenth century and the Silk Road's role as a vehicle of commercial,
cultural and scientific exchange. Advances in medical knowledge and
surgical skills were made in all parts of the Empire and exchanged from
China to Constantinople and back. Prominent medical figures traversed
these centres, and no doubt contributed to the spread of surgical
science, including Rashid al-Din and Mansur Ibn Ilyas. Their works, it
is argued, enriched the practice of surgery and may have indirectly
ushered-in the rise of modern surgery in the early medical schools at
Salerno, Bologna, Pavia, Oxford, Montpellier and Constantinople to name but a few.
CONCLUSION:
The
blossoming and diversification of medical and surgical knowledge was an
integral part of the great cultural exchange facilitated by the Pax
Mongolica. This enhanced surgical practice in China, Persia and Arabia,
while coinciding with the renaissance of surgical teaching in Europe.
© 2017 Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.
KEYWORDS:
Genghis Khan; Mongolian Empire; Persia; Rashid al-Din; history of surgery
