JSN282H1

Medicine in the Medieval Islamic World

The course examines both the scientific and social history of medicine in the medieval Middle East. We will examine the history of Arabic medicine and its relation to Greek and Sanskrit traditions of medicine and pharmacology. We will also look at “Prophetic medicine,” medical magic, pilgrimage healing sites, and folk practices, and how they interacted with the so-called “medicine of the physicians.” We will consider how doctors from different religious groups perceived each other and were perceived by their patients, and how desperation for healing made people willing to cross social boundaries and seek out help from people of different religions, ethnicities, and genders. We will also examine the lives of some of the great physicians of medieval history.