Medicine and Religion in the Life of an Ottoman Sheikh: Al-Damanhūrī’s “Clear Statement” on Anatomy

241 Pages·2019·1.207 MB·English

by  Ahmed Ragab

Medicine and Religion in the
Life of an Ottoman Sheikh
Medicine and Religion in the Life of an Ottoman Sheikh is a brilliant work. This
book is a much-needed contribution to the history of medicine and intellectual
life in the late Ottoman Empire. The translation is elegant and finely wrought and
the accompanying chapters bring to life the intellectual milieu of Shaykh Aḥmad
al-Damanhūrī, one of the most significant intellectuals of late Ottoman Egypt.
– Jennifer L. Derr , University of California, Santa Cruz, USA
In 1768, Aḥmad al-Damanhūrī became the rector (shaykh) of al-Azhar, which
was one of the most authoritative and respected positions in the Ottoman Empire.
He occupied this position until his death. Despite being a prolific author, whose
writings are largely extant, al-Damanhūrī remains almost unknown, and much of
his work awaits study and analysis. This book aims to shed light on al-Damanhūrī’s
diverse intellectual background, and that of his contemporaries, building on and
continuing the scholarship on the academic thought of the late Ottoman Empire.
The book investigates the intersection of medical and religious knowledge
in eighteenth-century Egypt. It takes as its focus a manuscript on anatomy by
al-Damanhūrī (d. 1778), entitled T he Clear Statement on the Science of Anatomy
( al-Qawl al-Ṣarīḥ fī ʿIlm al-Tashrīḥ) . The book includes an edited translation
of T he Clear Statement , which is a well-known but unstudied and unpublished
manuscript. It also provides a summary translation and analysis of al-Damanhūrī’s
own intellectual autobiography. As such, the book provides an important window
into a period that remains deeply understudied and a topic that continues to cause
debates and controversies.
T his study, therefore, will be of keen interest to scholars working on the “post-
Classical” Islamic world, as well as historians of religion, science, and medicine
looking beyond Europe in the Early Modern period.
Ahmed Ragab is Richard T. Watson Associate Professor of Science and Religion,
Affiliate Associate Professor at the Department of the History of Science, and
Director of the Science, Religion, and Culture program at Harvard University,
USA. He is a physician, a historian of science and medicine, and a scholar of
science and religion.
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Medicine and Religion in the Life of an Ottoman Sheikh
Al-Damanhūrī’s “Clear Statement” on Anatomy
Ahmed Ragab
F or more information about this series, please visit: w ww.routledge.com/Religious-
Cultures-in-the-Early-Modern-World/book-series/RCEMW
Medicine and Religion in the
Life of an Ottoman Sheikh
Al-Damanhūrī’s “Clear Statement”
on Anatomy
Ahmed Ragab
First published 2019
by Routledge
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© 2019 Ahmed Ragab
The right of Ahmed Ragab to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
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without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-02897-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-00103-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To Soha, Carmen, and my parents

Contents
Acknowledgments viii
Introduction 1
PART I
Al-Damanhūrī’s life and career 9
1 Al-Damanhūrī: the life of a scholar 11
2 The education of Aḥmad al-Damanhūrī 43
3 Medicine and religion in al-Damanhūrī’s Clear Statement 96
Postscript: Al-Damanhūrī in anticipation: writing
postcolonially 135
PART II
The Clear Statement – a translation 147
A note on translation 149
The Clear Statement – a translation 152
Bibliography 212
General Index 223
Medical and Anatomical Terms Index 225
Teachers and Authors Index 228
Acknowledgments
This book had a long incubation period. I started working on this project about a
decade ago, but soon it was pushed to the side by another project, then by another,
and another. Throughout, it stayed dutifully as the “side project.” In the process, I
developed a connection of sorts to al-Shaykh Aḥmad al-Damanhūrī, the protago-
nist of this story – an eclectic brilliant scholar, who did not seem to get his due in
his lifetime, and who was now pushed to the side in my lifetime. I found a tragic
quality to al-Damanhūrī’s life and career, a level of sadness and frustration that
can only be hinted at but never fully uncovered. His/This book’s stay in the shad-
ows on my desk as a second project was another episode in this slowly evolving
tragedy. But then it was time for this book to become the first project, and to come
to a form of acceptable completion – if true completion can never be achieved.
And then, in the final metamorphosis, the book started to expand, to demand more
chapters, and ask for more work. It was exacting its revenge for being left on the
sidelines for so long, and its protagonist was demanding to say more after such
long silence. The end of this book is not where it stopped expanding. It is when I
believed I could no longer keep up with its convulsive expansions. Al-Damanhūrī
lives on these pages but he, like many other characters, events, and names in our
history and historiography, demand and deserve more.
N o matter how strong the obsession by a project is, or the possessive powers
of its protagonist may be, a project becomes a book because of a talented team
of editors and publishers that bring it to life. I am grateful to Joshua Wells, Jack
Boothroyd, and their talented team at Routledge Press as well as to Deborah
Kopka and the team at Apex CoVantage for bringing this book finally to life. I
am obliged to anonymous reviewers’ comments and suggestions, which helped
refine the arguments and bring the book to life. I am thankful to Harvard Divinity
School, the Department of the History of Science, and the Weatherhead Center
for International Affairs for their support in the final crucial stages of this work.
I am personally beholden to the support and generosity of David Hempton, Janet
Gyatso, Evelynn Hammonds, Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Anne Harrington, and Kath-
arine Park. I am also grateful to my students Eli Nelson, Shireen Hamza, Juanita
Becerra, Joe Vignone, Iman Darwish, and Brittany Landorf for the inspiration that
their work always provides. Shireen, Joe, Iman, and Brittany also copyedited parts
of the manuscript, helping to bring the book to the finish line.
Acknowledgments ix
I am deeply indebted to my friends Sophia Roosth, Ziad Abdel Tawab, and Zyad
El-Eleimy for their support and their presence in my life while writing the final
stages of the book. Their presence and their support were necessary for this proj-
ect to emerge from its cocoon. I could not have finished this project if it were not
for the support and the care that I received from my partner and love, Soha Bay-
oumi. She consistently validated my desire to keep this project alive for so long
and sided decisively with al-Shaykh Aḥmad al-Damanhūrī as they argued that it
was time for this project to be the first project and to be completed.
The spirit of Aḥmad al-Damanhūrī lived in my house and my office for almost a
decade, patiently demanding to be heard, and telling a story that I slowly became
more able to hear. This book is my offering.