History of Death and Disease in the Islamicate World

"Disease and Death in Early 19th Century Istanbul as Recorded in Ottoman Death Registers" Gülhan Balsoy & Cihangir Gündoğdu (Istanbul Bilgi University)
 
In the early 19th century, the Ottoman Empire established a state-sponsored system for inspecting and registering the deceased. For the first time, medical professionals known as tabib were employed to investigate the causes of death within the city limits of Istanbul. This initial surveillance effort, conducted in 1838–39, resulted in the creation of the city’s first two death registers, which documented a total of 9,500 individual cases. In this presentation, we will explore the surveillance of death and disease in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire. By examining the disease category, we aim to further discuss the causes of death and their connections with gender, age, ethnicity, profession, and location.
 

"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.

*NOTE SPECIAL DATE*
 
"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.