Ibn Zuhr
During the Middle Ages, scientific discoveries were few and far between in much of Europe. However, the scientific culture flourished in other parts of the world. In 1000, Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi (936-1013), an Arab who lived in Al-Andalus, published the 30-volume "Kitab al-Tasrif", the first illustrated work on surgery. He never performed a tracheotomy, but he did treat a slave girl who had cut her own throat in a suicide attempt. Al-Zahrawi (known to Europeans as "Albucasis") sewed up the wound and the girl recovered, thereby proving that an incision in the larynx could heal. Circa 1020, Ibn Sīnā (980–1037) described the use of tracheal intubation in "The Canon of Medicine" to facilitate breathing. In the 12th century medical textbook "Al-Taisir", Ibn Zuhr (1091–1161) of Al-Andalus (also known as Avenzoar) provided an anatomically correct description of the tracheotomy operation.