History of Death and Disease in the Islamicate World

Our working group, previously titled “History of Infectious Disease in the Islamicate World (HIDIW),” was originally conceived in 2020 in the context of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic with a view to making an “emergency intervention” to jump start the developing field of epidemiological history by bringing together various experts working in the fields of history of medicine and medieval Islamic studies, and preparing a cluster of working translations of key texts relating to the experience of infectious disease history in the Middle East and North Africa. With this in mind, we hosted our regular monthly meetings, which took place from February 2021 to June 2023. During this time, we hosted a total of 22 meetings (with 24 different presenters) where speakers introduced new primary sources and presented their ongoing research projects.
 
Where we stand today, that immediate goal for an “emergency intervention” in the context of the pandemic is no longer directly relevant. After taking a hiatus year, our newly revamped working group, now titled “History of Death and Disease in the Islamicate World (HIDDIW),” thus expands its focus to include a broader array of topics. In its new configuration, the working group will serve as a platform for multidisciplinary discussions on the history of death, disease, public health, and healing in the Islamicate World by a host of speakers from disciplines in the humanities, social sciences, and paleosciences.