THE POPULARIZATION OF MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE IN OTTOMAN EGYPT, 1517-1800

Abstract

Abstract This paper argues that physicians, religious scholars and others wrote and simplified medical treatises for the purposes of diffusing medical knowledge in Ottoman Egypt. The process of popularising medical knowledge, as this study suggests, must be interpreted within the framework of socio-economic and intellectual developments that took place in Egypt between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. By analysing the volumes and themes of medical treatises composed or copied in the period under study, the study shows that simplified therapeutic manuals were amongst the most popular medical works. Evidence from inheritance records, as will be shown, assert that popularised medical treatises were accessible to different social categories. Finally, the study examines the reasons for the diffusion of medical knowledge and the significance of popularised medical treatises.

Keywords

• Ottoman history, history of medicine, medical knowledge, popularization, folk medicine, self-medication

References

1. Faroqhi S. Subjects of the Sultan: Culture and Daily Life in the Ottoman Empire. London; New York: I.B. Tauris; 2000, p.80-100.
2. Winter M. Egyptian Society under Ottoman Rule, 1517-1798. London, Routledge; 1992, p.116-123.
3. Raymond A. L’activité architecturale au Caire à l’époque ottomane (1517-1798). Annales Islamogiques, 1990; 25 :343-362.
4. Raymond A. Le fonctionment des écoles élémentaires (Maktab) au Caire d’àpres des documents des waqfs. in L’Orient au Coeur: en l’honneur d’André Miquel sous la responsibilité de Floreal Sanugustin. Paris: Maisonneuve & Larousse;2001, p.277-279.
5. Hanna N. In Praise of Books: A Cultural History of Cairo’s Middle Class, Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. Syracuse, New York; 2003, p. 50-54.
6. Mughith F. Misr fi al-‘asr al-‘uthmani: al-mujtam’ wa al-ta’alim. Cairo: Markaz al-Dirasat al-Qanuniyah li Huquq al- Insan;1997, p.163-165.
7. Marsot A. Women and Men in Late Eighteenth-Century Egypt. Austin: University of Texas Press; 1995. p.40.
8. Hanna N. Cultural Life in Mamluk Households (Late Ottoman Period). In Thomas Philipp and Ulrich Haarmann, editors. The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society. Cambridge;1998.

9. Al-Adl S. Studies of Astronomy According to the Chronicles of Al-Jabarti. in Nelly Hanna & Ra’uf Abbas editors, Society and Economy in Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean,1600-1900. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press; 2005. p 181-199.
10. Hanna N. In Praise of Books: A Cultural History of Cairo’s Middle Class, Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. Syracuse, New York; 2003, p.79-103.
11. Hanna N. Culture in Ottoman Egypt. in W.Daly editor, The Cambridge History of Modern Egypt: from 1517 to the end of the twentieth century. New York: Cambridge University Press;1998. p. 104
12. Slane.W Catalogue des manuscrits Arabs. Paris: Imprimerie nationale; 1883–1895. vol.2 p. 511–545. Fihrist al- kutubkhanah al-khidwiyah. Cairo; 1890, volume VI, p. 2-49. Fihrist al-maktabah al-azhariyah. Cairo: Azhar Printing Press; 1950 VI, p 97-138.
13. Al-Antaki D. Tadhkirat ula al-alabab wa al-jam’ li al-‘ajab al-‘ujab, 2 vols. Cairo; 1903, vol.1, p. 1-2.
14. Al-Muhibbi M. Khulasat al-athar fi a’yan al-qarn al-hadi ‘ashar, Beirut, Dar Sadir; n.d, vol.2, p.142.
15. Damanhuri A. Al-kalam al-yasir fi ‘ilaj al-miqa’dah wa al-bawasir. manuscript. Dar al-Kutub al-misriyah. Tibb Halim 30.
16. Gadelrab S. Medical Healers in Ottoman Egypt. Medical History. 2010 54 (3): 365-386.
17. Al-Damanhuri A.Al-Qawl al-sarih fi ‘ilm al-tashrih. Manuscript. Al-Azhar library.4515.
18. Al-Hifnawi F. Al-Tibb fi al-Azhar qadiman wa haidthan, in Al-Tibb al-Islami: ‘Ammal al-mu’tamar al-thani ‘an al-tibb al-Islami. Kuwait: Muassat al-kuwait li al-taqadum al-‘ilmi, 1982, p. 814.
19. Dietrich A. Al-Kohen al-‘Attar, Abu al-Muna Dawud b. Abi Nasr Al-Israili Al-Haruni. www.brillonline.nl (accessed 24 September 2010).
20. Bloom J. Paper before Print: the history and impact of paper in the Islamic world. Yale University Press, 2001. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Yale University Press, 2001, p.217-224.
21. Raymond A. Artisans et Commerçants au Caire au XVIII siècle.Le Caire: Institut Français d’archeologie orientale ;1993, p. XXVI.
22. Qisma Arabiyah. Vol. 78, case 165 (1121-1710).
23. Qisma ‘Arabiyah. 79, 195 (1122/1710).
24. Qisma ‘Arabiyah. 23, 461 (1027/1618).
25. Qisma ‘Arabiyah. 62, 481, (1096/1684).
26. Heller R. Priest-Doctors as a Rural Health Service in the Age of the Enlightenment. Medical History.1976, 20: 363.
27. Qisma ‘Arabiyah. 33, 348 (1042/1632).
28. Qisma ‘Arabiyah. 46 ,404 (1064- 1653).
29. Qisma ‘Arabiyah. 23, 208 (1023-1614).
30. Dahman A. Nafa’is al-durrar al-hisan fi ma yuzil al-mard wa yahfaz siht al-Insan. Manuscript. Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyah. Tibb Tala’at, 526, fols 3-4.
31. Gadelrab S. Medical Healers in Ottoman Egypt. Medical History, July 2010, vol.54, 3:365-386.
32. Al-Mar‘ashy M. Risalat tartib al-‘ulum. Manuscript. Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyah. ma‘arif ‘ammah 97, fols 2a.
33. Al-Azhari M. Muktarat min kutub ‘adidah fi al-tadawi. manuscript in Dar al-kutub al-misriyah, tibb 1224.
34. Leiser G, Dols M. Eviliya Chelebi’s Description of Medicine in the Seventeenth century: Part II. Sudhoffs Archiv.1988 (72): 53.
35. Porter R. The Patient’s View: Doing Medical History from Below. Theory and Society. March 1985 (vol.14) 2 :188-190.
36. Kitab Wasf Misr. Trans. Zuhair al-Shayb. Vol. XI p.152-153.
37. Dols M. The Black Death in the Middle East. Princeton: Princeton University Press; 1977, p. 121-143.
38. Al-Qalyubi S. Tadhkirat al-Qalyubi. Cairo: 1886. p.26, 16.
39. Al-Damanhuri A. Al-Qawl al-aqrab fi ‘ilaj las’at al-‘aqrab. Manuscript. Dar al-Kutub al-misriyah. Tibb 504, fols.11.
40. Anonymous, Dhayl Tadhkirat Dawud al-Antaki. Cairo; 1903, p.124.
41. Dawud Al-Antaki. Tadhkirat Dawud al-Antaki. p. 49, 273-274