All humans experience physical and psychological suffering and seek help from a medical professional. This class examines how such experiences have played out in what is known today as the Middle East, beginning with ancient Babylonia, going through medieval Islamic societies, and ending with contemporary Middle Eastern ones.

The course provides a broad overview of the various medical traditions that have succeeded, interacted, intermingled, conflicted, or replaced one another in this area. We will investigate how in different periods of time mental and physical illness was theorized, diagnosed, and treated. For example, we will learn about cuneiform procedures that offer pharmaceutical recipes and ritual practices for expelling ghosts or “the hand of God(dess)” diseases; about medieval empirical treaties that sought physical symptoms for mental and emotional states; how politics have shaped public health responses to pandemics; and about contemporary practices of jinn appeasement and exorcism, among many other topics.

For many of us, medicine is a science that provides an objective understanding of the working of the human body, universally valid irrespective of history and culture. This class has as one of its goals to push this view of medicine to its limits, to question its coherence, and show its cracks.

Intended Audience:

Undergraduates with an interest in historical medical practices or theories

Class Format:

Two 90-minute lectures in addition to 1-hour discussion section weekly