Objective: Cancer is a disease known since prehistoric times; and both Western and Eastern medical literature have many works contain its causes and treatment during the ancient and medieval times. The aim of this study is to introduce cancer and its treatment in Ottoman jarrāh-nāmes in the classical period (1450–1730) and to make a contribution to literature of Turkish history of medicine by determining the place of this information.
Materials and Methods: Surgeon Masʿūd’s Tarjamat al-Khulāṣa fī Fenn al-Jirāḥa, Sharaf al-dīn Ṣabunjıoghlı’s Jarrāhiyyat al-Khāniyya, Jarrāh-nāme of unknown author and Surgeon İbrāhīm’s ʿAlāʾim-i Jarrāḥīn were examined. However, after the comparison, ʿAlāʾim-i Jarrāḥīn and Jarrāhiyyat al-Khāniyya were excluded from this study. A brief information was given firstly about the work and its author, and then the sections regarding cancer were presented in the Results section. The information on cancer in these works evaluated in the light of the relevant literature and period in the Discussion section.
Results: Surgeon Masʿūd’s Khulāṣa contains chapters about cancers on the head, trunk, breast and heel and their treatments. Jarrāh-nāme of unknown author comprises a section in which the treatment of cancer is generally mentioned without specifying the place of occurrence.
Conclusion: Although it is seen that Ottoman Jarrāh-nāmes in the classical period dealt with the cancer within the scope of medical practices in the Islamic civilization in the medieval times and almost all of the works examined in this study were translations.