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Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu wrote Cerrahiyyetü'l Haniyye (Imperial Surgery) in 1465. It was the first illustrated surgical textbook in the Turkish-Islamic medical literature. Only three handwritten copies exist. Cerrahiyyetü'l Haniyye consists of three chapters (412 pp.) covering a wide range of surgical specialties, including medical and surgical management of such ophthalmic diseases as chalazion, symblepharon, lymphangiectasia, pannus, proptosis, and hypopyon.

Objectives: Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu is known to be the author of the first illustrated surgery book, Cerrahiyyetu'l Haniyye (Imperial Surgery), which was written in Turkish in 1465 a.d. at the age of 80. The purpose of this paper is to describe his contributions to pediatric otorhinolaryngology., Results: Cerrahiyyetu'l Haniyye consists of three chapters totaling 412 pages, in which there are 191 sections dealing with a wide range of surgical specialties, including pediatric otorhinolaryngologic surgery. Sabuncuoglu explains some of child diseases and their treatment in a whole section, and gives information on the same subject in relevant part of sections. The illustrations he provides are not at a state of the art level with those of his contemporaries, but they bear a great importance considering the attitudes of Islam to the art of painting. For each section, a single, poetic sentence describes in detail the diagnosis, classification and surgical technique. Some authors have claimed that he only translated Ebu Kasim-al Zahravi (Albucasis)'s Al-Tasrif (Textbook of Surgery) and added the illustrations of the surgical techniques. Even if this is accepted, the illustrations are enough to entitle this work as a milestone. Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu describes medical and surgical management pediatric otorhinolaryngologic diseases such as harelip, hypertrophy of adenoids, atresia of external auditory canal, a foreign body in external auditory canal, short frenulum, abscess of head, mass and abscess of neck in children and unpleasant odor in nose in his textbook., Conclusions: Although not recognized and rewarded in his time, Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu was a great surgeon in Turkish medical history. The sections on children in his book are of great importance in pediatric otorhinolaryngology which became a different speciality in the last century. Writing his book at his 80's, he deserves to be considered as a distinguished scientist, medical doctor and illustrator of his era, considering the insulting and discriminating ideas toward women and children, especially girls, at that period.

Serefeddin Sabuncuoğlu (1385-1468 AD) was a Turkish surgeon who lived in the Ottoman Empire during the fifteenth century, a time of progressive expansion. When in his eighties, he wrote Cerrahiyyetü'l-Haniyye, which means Imperial Surgery. His book is the first example of an illustrated surgical textbook in the Turkish-Islamic medical literature. The importance of his book rests upon the inclusion of colour miniatures of the surgical procedures, incisional techniques and instruments, all drawn by Sabuncuoğlu himself. Only three hand-written copies exist, two of which were originally written by the author and are currently exhibited in Paris and Istanbul. The book was rediscovered in 1936, but some parts of it are still suspected to be missing. At present, the book consists of three chapters divided into 193 known sections. The sections deal with all fields of surgery including ophthalmology, and cite relevant Greek, Arabic and Persian textbooks. In this historical article the sections of Cerrahiyyetü'l-Haniyye pertinent to ophthalmology are critically reviewed, including a selection of the coloured drawings.