Overview

A sweeping examination of Ottoman plague treatise writers from the Black Death until 1923 Were you aware that many of the greatest and most colourful Ottoman statesmen and literary figures from the 15th to the early 20th century considered plague as a grave threat to their empire? Did you know that many Ottomans applauded the establishment of a quarantine against the disease in 1838 as a tool to resist British and French political and commercial penetration? Or that later Ottoman sanitation efforts to prevent urban outbreaks would help engender the Arab revolt against the empire in 1916? This book explores these facts in an engaging study of Ottoman plague treatise writers throughout their almost 600-year struggle with this epidemic disease. And it deals with the political, economic and social consequences of the methods they used to combat it.

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9780748646593

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Reviews

One of the great strengths of the book is its effort to show the overlap between Ottoman and early modern European responses to the plague. Bulmus is able to point to striking similarities between Ottoman and European references to cabbalistic, talismanic, and astrological understandings of plague. -- Michael Christopher Low, Columbia University, Review of Middle East Studies

One of the great strengths of the book is its effort to show the overlap between Ottoman and early modern European responses to the plague. Bulmus is able to point to striking similarities between Ottoman and European references to cabbalistic, talismanic, and astrological understandings of plague. -- Michael Christopher Low, Columbia University, Review of Middle East Studies An exceptionally readable work that explains how, from the 1400s, internal and external forces drove Ottoman public health. -- David W. Tschanz, AramcoWorld One of the great strengths of the book is its effort to show the overlap between Ottoman and early modern European responses to the plague. Bulmus is able to point to striking similarities between Ottoman and European references to cabbalistic, talismanic, and astrological understandings of plague. -- Michael Christopher Low, Columbia University, Review of Middle East Studies

One of the great strengths of the book is its effort to show the overlap between Ottoman and early modern European responses to the plague. Bulmus is able to point to striking similarities between Ottoman and European references to cabbalistic, talismanic, and astrological understandings of plague. -- Michael Christopher Low, Columbia University, Review of Middle East Studies One of the great strengths of the book is its effort to show the overlap between Ottoman and early modern European responses to the plague. Bulmus is able to point to striking similarities between Ottoman and European references to cabbalistic, talismanic, and astrological understandings of plague. -- Michael Christopher Low, Columbia University, Review of Middle East Studies An exceptionally readable work that explains how, from the 1400s, internal and external forces drove Ottoman public health. -- David W. Tschanz, AramcoWorld

Author Information

Dr Birsen Bulmus is an Assistant Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at Appalachian State University. Her academic research fields are the history of medicine, Ottoman history, and the history of the Islamic world. This book is an expanded version of her dissertation she submitted at Georgetown University in May 2008. She extensively utilized Ottoman Turkish, Modern Turkish, English and French primary sources in order to complete this project.

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