Mònica Rius-Piniés, University of Barcelona

Life, death and illness

The practice of medicine through a literary view

AL-TAHTAWITravel to Paris (1826-1831)

We disembarked from the ship on which we had voyaged into small launches, and arrived at a house outside the city. This was used for quarantine as, following their custom, anyone coming from foreign lands must go through quarantine before being allowed to enter the city.

They laid the table for breakfast for which they brought high round tables, on which they placed white earthenware plates. In front of every plate they put a glass goblet, a knife, fork and spoon, and on each table there were about two bottles filled with water, a small container with salt and another with pepper. Around the table they then arranged chairs one for each person. Afterwards, they brought the food in. On each table they placed one or two large dishes from which one of the people at the table ladled and distributed the food to all the others. Each person received something in his plate which he was supposed to cut with the knife that was before him, and then to bring it to his mouth with the fork -not the hand. People here do not eat with their hands and they never eat with someone else’s knife or fork or drink from someone else’s glass. They claim that this is cleaner and healthier.

As concern for hygiene is a requirement of wisdom and as the Franks are the wisest among nations they attach a great deal of importance to this art in terms of perfecting both the equipment and the means that promote it. Of all people they are the most committed to using everything that is beneficial to the body: hot -and cold- water baths, and sports that train the body for difficult exercises -swimming, horse riding and games that make the body nimble.

There are many different types of bathhouses in Paris. But while they are indeed cleaner than Egyptian baths, the latter are more beneficial, more perfect and generally better.

Autobiographies

Taha HusseinNow the children in the villages and towns of the provinces are exposed to this kind of neglect, particularly if the family is numerous and the mistress of the house has much work to do. For the women of the villages and towns of the provinces have a criminal philosophy and a knowledge that is no less criminal. The child complains and the mother seldom takes any notice… For what child does not complain? It is only a matter of a day and a night and then it gets over it and recovers. And if its mother does take any notice, she either despises the doctor or else is ignorant of him. And so she relies upon this criminal knowledge of women and those like them.In this way our lad lost his eyesight. Ophthalmia attacked him, but he was neglected for some days. Then the barber was called in, and he treated him in a way that resulted in the loss of his sight.In the same way this child lost her life.

Abdelmajid Benjelloun

My mother disappeared, and I began to see a stranger with a briefcase coming home every morning and going up to her room. I did not ignore that all eyes rested on the man; sentences immediately became whispers and the house was surrounded by an atmosphere of deep sadness [...]. I did not realize, however, what was happening, and no one told me.

Anton ShammasThose days uncle Yusef was going around the bed of grandma Alia like a crazy, silently praying for her recovery. Aunt Najibeh had inherited the Grandma Alia’s secrets about folk medicine, and when she saw the ineffectiveness of herbs and fire, she advanced the hypothesis that the mysterious disease was caused by a secret curse of someone who wanted to harm Grandma. A curse made with the help of the forces of darkness, an amulet with the curse that had been placed in her bed.

Abderrahman MunifAfter a few days, the boy became ill and immediately the grandmother concluded that the real cause was that "the child have had a strong impression"; but happily the old lady Anissa intervened promptly and emphatically: "The problem has nothing to do with fear, the boy took the measles." And they covered him with heavy wool blankets. Anissa was not only midwife in the area, and many other neighborhoods in Amman, but also practiced medicine, in a very limited way and only when she was sure of what she was doing.

Mohammed Mrabet

Amigo Stettner, for two months the best doctors were examining my son, and couldn’t do anything for him. And thanks to God I had a little money saved up, which I was going to use to make a trip. I distributed it among the doctors for their work and also to pay for medicines. Finally nothing happened, and my son stayed there in bed. A friend of mine told me there was a man who lived in the country who might be able to help. The man came to the house, and gave my son massages, and chanted words over him. The second day the boy was able to stand up. The man came on three consecutive days, and then he went back to the country. In those three or four days my son was completely cured.

Laila KarrouchMy teacher, Montse Camps did not like that I practiced Ramadan. She told me that I would get sick and I did not quite understand. My classmates did not understand it either.

Grandma sent us zasotx for the eyes, it was like black dust. Hayat told me that it was used to paint eyes like a pencil and, naturally, that it was also good for curing eye diseases.

As I remember, in Morocco I had never seen a hospital, but my mother told me one day that she took me there because I was very ill. I knew that there was a hospital in Nador because I had heard of it. It seems that everyone went there. A few kilometers from the village of Karrouch there was a kind of very small clinic. My grandmother piggybacked me there when I was ill, however, I should be very ill, because it was very expensive.

Physicians & writers

❖ Yusuf Idris❖ Nawal Saadawi: Memoirs of a Woman

Doctor❖ Alaa al-Aswany❖ Raja al-Sanea

❖ Yahya Hakki: The Lamp of Umm Hashim

Men and women would also come to him asking for a little of the oil from the lamp of Umm Hashim to treat their eyes or the eyes of those dear to them. The holy oil would cure those whose perception shone brightly with faith, for there was no restoration of sight without such inner perception. And it was no fault of the oil if someone was not cured; rather it was because Umm Hashim had not as yet extended her grace to him. Perhaps it was because of the sins he had committed, or because he had not yet been cleansed of filth and impurity, so he should bear himself in patience and wait, while continuing to pay regular visits to the shrine, for if patience is the basis of the struggle in this world, it was also the sole means of attaining the Hereafter.

Physicians & protagonists

Hanan al-Shaykh: Beirut blues: My Dear Grandmother

You were still looking at me expectantly and I wanted to appear extremely intelligent. I reminded you again how you had cured me of an illness by squeezing the juice of an unripe lemon into some broth for me, and rubbing my nose with a clove of garlic.

Bahaa Taher: Sunset Oasis

I must have spent entire days standing next to Ibraheem’s bed. We treated him with disinfectants and bandages in the keeping of the soldier charged with nursing at the police station. Ibraheem’s leg, however, continued to swell and, with the fever that struck him, his pain became unbearable and he started to rave. […] Sheikh Sabir [said to me] “those leeches that you put on his leg will do him no good and may harm him. Whoever told you to apply them was wrong. Let the man I was telling you about take care of him”. I said “And if he dies?” and he replied “That too would be the will of God”.

Traditional medicine

Thank you!