Plague And Contagion In The Premodern Muslim Mediterranean

NYUAD Institute

September 22, 2020 Muslims have been familiar with infectious disease since the time of the Prophet in the seventh century. This talk reviews the diversity of Muslim views on contagion and plague within the context of Islamic law, Sufism, and medicine. What did Muslim scholars say about how one should respond to the challenge of a pandemic, how did Muslims actually respond, and how do we know? These questions have clear contemporary relevance in this time of the coronavirus and throw the stakes of framing the history of Muslim responses to contagious disease into stark relief. Speaker Justin Stearns, Associate Professor in Arab Crossroads Studies, NYUAD