Acknowledging the skimpy historical record on his subject, Ramen fleshes out this profile of an influential Spanish physician with sweeping histories of ancient Mediterranean civilizations, early medicine, the rise of Islam, and the rise and fall of Muslim culture in Spain. Readers will come away impressed by the surgeon's contributions to medicine, which ranged from an encyclopedic surgical text to the invention of the forceps to the pioneering use of sutures. The information is buttressed by color photos of architectural remains and manuscript pages as well as by a concluding time line, glossary, and multimedia resource list. Though demand for this particular topic may be relatively low, offer this (and other) entries in the Great Muslim Philosophers and Scientists of the Middle Ages series to readers seeking general overviews of early Muslim history. Other series titles include Al-Biruni: Master Astronomer and Muslim Scholar of the Eleventh Century; Al-Khwarizmi: The Inventor of Algebra; and Al-Kindi: The Father of Arab Philosophy.