From "Bête Noire" to "le Mal de Constantinople": Plagues, Medicine, and the Early Modern Ottoman State

• Published in: Journal of world history Vol. 24; no. 4; pp. 741 - 770
• Main Author: VARLIK, NÜKHET
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Honolulu University of Hawai'i Press 01.12.2013; University of Hawaii Press
• Subjects: 16th century; Analysis; Centuries; Cities; Communicable diseases; Cosmology; Disease; Disease outbreaks; Diseases; Epidemics; Epidemiology; FORUM; Gods; Harmonics (Music); Historical text analysis; Imagery (Literature); Islam; Islamic culture; Language history; Medicine; Metaphor; Muslims; Narratives; Ottoman Empire; Ottoman Empire, ca. 1288-1922; Perceptions; Plague; Sixteenth Century; Skin diseases; Sovereignty; Süleyman I, Sultan of the Turks; Texts; Treatises; Turkey; World history; Turkey; Istanbul Turkey; Ottoman Empire; Constantinople
• ISSN: 1045-6007; 1527-8050; 1527-8050
• DOI: 10.1353/jwh.2013.0104

Ottoman perceptions of and responses to epidemic diseases changed dramatically in the sixteenth century. Until that time, plagues were viewed in mostly supernaturalapocalyptic terms. However, with the development of a new body of knowledge and interpretations, plagues came to be seen in a more naturalistic-medical framework. Moreover, this new approach was used for justifying administrative and legal practices implemented for the control of epidemic outbreaks. This article explores the historical context in which this paradigmatic change took place, with a view to establishing the complex relationship between the expanding powers of early modern state governance and the discourses of plagues maintained by the Ottoman society.