A surgical scalpel with a long handle tends in a sharp blade; the blade is less thick and less narrow than the handle. Excavations which took place in the city of Fustat – the first capital of Islamic Egypt established by Amr ibn al-'As in the year AH 21 / AD 641 – revealed a large cache of surgical instruments, considered to be the oldest extant of their kind. This collection demonstrates Islamic Egypt's remarkable progress in the fields of medicine and surgery.
Date: Hegira 3rd century / AD 9th century.
Mideum: Cast copper.
Provinence: Egypt
