History of Death and Disease in the Islamicate World

"Collective Fears, Uncertainties and Distrust: Biopolitics and Infodemics during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Turkey." Ayşecan Terzioğlu, Sabancı University (Istanbul)
 
In the Anthropocene, marked by disasters and diseases, the historical reservoir of images, metaphors and discourses, which were used to describe the sick and stricken, are often revisited by the societies and states. The old patterns of marginalization and stigmatization against the “other”, inform the new ones both in social discourses and states’ policies, causing “infodemics”, considered as dangerous as the COVID-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization. Turkey is one of the worst-hit countries by the pandemic and the infodemics, which includes conspiracy theories and distrust against the political and medical authorities, as well as marginalization and stigmatization. Based on an extensive media analysis and a survey on the most common infodemic statements during the pandemic, this talk explores the social and demographic factors shaping the infodemics in Turkey, such as gender, age, political opinions and religious beliefs. Using the theoretical frameworks in Foucault’s biopolitics and Baudrillard’s simulacra, it will suggest more effective ways of addressing lay people’s collective fears and uncertainties in order to implement more inclusive health policies.

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"History of Death and Disease in Anatolia: New Discussions, New Directions." SHIFA-ANA Project Team (Zeynep Akçakaya, Akarsu Melike Demirkol, Tunahan Durmaz, Nükhet Varlık)
 
This inaugural meeting will be an introduction of the brand-new project SHIFA-ANA: Healing Histories of Death and Disease in Anatolia by the team members. SHIFA-ANA is an interdisciplinary research and public history initiative dedicated to the study of death, disease, and healing in Anatolia’s longue durée history. By using a unique methodology, we explore the intersecting histories of Anatolian lives in biological, environmental, and cultural context. The project will help flesh out forgotten stories of ordinary historical actors (human and nonhuman), how they endured death and disease, and pursued different modes of healing.
 
The project website: https://sites.rutgers.edu/shifa-ana/

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Bulgarian and Ottoman-Turkish medical manuscripts and sources in comparison: insights on how people dealt with epidemics in the XVII-XVIII century (Yana Georgakieva)
The Ottoman Turkish manuscripts are among the most widespread written sources in the Bulgarian lands. Unfortunately, still a significant amount of those historical documents remains uncatalogued and therefore has never been the object of detailed study. My presentation will focus on medical manuscripts currently preserved at the Oriental Department of St.St. Cyril and Methodius National Library – Sofia, Republic of Bulgaria. I will try to shed light on the correlation between the remedies in Bulgarian pharmacopoeias and those preserved in the Ottoman Turkish ones. Additionally, I will provide an overview of the archaeological situation in Bulgaria, which, at this stage of my research, seems to correspond to some of the sources. The cyclic epidemics within the Bulgarian lands have left intriguing scenes in certain churches and monasteries, and even specific features in Ottoman architecture, which I will discuss as well.

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Discussions on smallpox and smallpox vaccination according to Şanizade - Yasemin Akçagüner (Columbia University, New York)
The story of how the popular medical practice of variolation in the Ottoman Empire, championed chiefly by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, became part of learned medicine in the early eighteenth century in England is well known. Lesser known is the story of how vaccination made its way (back) to the Ottoman Empire. Building on recent studies showing the multidirectional exchange and circulation of scientific and medical knowledge, this chapter presents the first synthetic account of the arrival of the vaccine in Istanbul in 1800, through the lens of the Ottoman physician and court historian Şanizade Ataullah Efendi (d. 1826). Şanizade narrated the history of the vaccine’s arrival and relayed the European scholarly debate on the merits of the vaccine to an Ottoman scholarly readership in his 1820 publication The Mettle of Physicians (Miʿyarü’l-Eṭıbbā.) Taking part in this debate, Şanizade argued for the adoption of this new prophylaxis, but only if it was to be administered by qualified physicians who had proven their mettle thorough extensive book learning as well as excellence in surgical practice. With the vaccine’s arrival in Istanbul at the turn of the century, immunization against smallpox became the issue through which Şanizade advocated for the further professionalization of medicine. 
 
 

Merits of the Plague by Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani: Reflections on a New Translation - Joel Blecher (George Washington University) and Mairaj Syed (University of California, Davis)
 
In this session, Joel Blecher and Mairaj Syed will discuss their forthcoming translation of Ibn Hajar's plague treatise "Merits of the Plague" (Penguin, March 2023).  They will not only share their experience of the process of translation but also discuss possible venues of scholarly research based on the translation. 
 
 
 

Cholera, the Hijaz Railroad: A Reversed Reasoning? - Benan Grams (Georgetown University, Washington DC.)
 
Nineteenth century’s contemporaries and later historians agree that ships and trains, modernized transportation technologies powered by the steam engine, facilitated the rapid spread of cholera, an infectious disease that was endemic to the Ganges Valley in India, to the rest of the world. Therefore, it was not surprising that when the Ottoman government announced its Hijaz railroad project, Western press expressed concerns, anticipating another route for cholera to spread after the Hajj pilgrimage from Hijaz to the Levant and the regions connected to it commercially. 
 
 
 This article explores the possibility of taking a different approach to the relationship between cholera and modern projects of transportation. Europeans’ control over key quarantine locations in the Mediterranean and the perceived humiliation Ottoman Muslims endured may have created popular support for the idea of the Hijaz railroad a decade before the actual initiation of the project. Such an approach would provide an additional lens to examine the Hijaz railroad project that is different from the conventional geo-political standpoint that has focused on the project’s ideological discourse and the political significance.