Abstract
Surgery According to Fütüvvetname’s And Physician Şerefeddîn’s Fütüvvetnâme
Medicine is one of the oldest professions in history of humanity. This versatile profession, which had highly different manifestations from today's advanced medical literature in the ancient world and which we can generally refer as "healing", has been held respectable and even sacred in both Turkish culture and the Islamic civilization. This profession of healing, which was undertaken in a way by shamans among ancient Turks, gained a kind of sanctity in the Islamic world with the introduction of prayers and written texts believed to have healing powers such as "transcript" (amulet) or "sculpture". In fact, a branch of science referred as "prophetic medicine" emerged based on the sayings and behaviors of the prophet Muhammad about human health over time. One of the practice areas of this profession, known broadly as "tabâbet", is surgery.
The first works that come to mind when it comes to profession and professional ethics are fütüvvetnâmes. Fütüvvetnâmes were texts based on the principles of Islam, were joint products of Arab, Persian, and Turkish cultures, which also formed a literary genre. They aimed to present a model of good people who were useful to themselves, their environment, and the society they lived in. Surgeons, who were described as "cruel, relentless, and frightening" in some of the fütüvvetnames, which had become the guidebooks of the Ahi orders over time and had many examples in the languages of all three nations, were counted among groups for which the fütüvved (guild) door was closed, along with some other professionals.
This mentioned issue will be discussed in detail in the first part of this article and its reasons will be questioned. The matter will later be discussed specifically around the fütüvvetnâme written by Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddîn, who was among the well-known physicians of the 15th century and also a surgeon.
Keywords
Fütüvvetnâme’s, Ahi order, surgery, medicine, Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin