The light of the day · Wednesday 16 September
The surgeon whose instruments you would recognise
Around the year 1000 in Cordoba, al-Zahrawi illustrated some two hundred surgical instruments: forceps, scalpels, specula, surgical needles. He also used catgut for internal stitches, having noticed the body absorbs it, which is why the thread inside a modern patient still does not need removing.
Al-Zahrawi · Cordoba, c. 1000 CE
Wednesday 16 September 2026 · 3 Rabi ath-Thani 1448 AH
The word · History
مَالِكُ بْنُ أَنَس
Imam Malik
The imam of Madinah, who taught in the Prophet's mosque and wrote the Muwatta.
He died in 179 and spent almost his whole life in the city, on the reasoning that its inherited practice was itself a form of evidence. The Muwatta is among the earliest surviving books to put hadith and legal rulings side by side. He was flogged for a ruling that displeased the authorities and did not retract it. When a caliph proposed making his book the single law of the empire he refused, saying the Companions…
The Path · chapter 26 of 71
عام الفيل
Year of the Elephant
Abraha marched with elephants. Ababil birds pelted them with stones.
“The House has a Lord who will defend it”, ownership implies protection
The library
The whole library, free
No ads, no account, no tracking. Every room on the phone, under the thumb.