Bathtubs as a Healing Approach in Fifteenth-Century Ottoman Medicine

Abstract

The fifteenth-century Ottoman physician Muhammad al-Shirwānī’s extensive encyclopedia of pharmaceutical science, Rawdat al-ʿitr (Garden of pharmacy/perfumes’), is an important source for understanding Ottoman medicine. The work includes a specific chapter about using bathtubs in urgent cases, along with self-prepared remedies. This essay contextualizes al-Shirwānī’s encyclopedia within the traditions of Arabic and Ottoman medicine. It presents the first English translation of al- Shirwānī’s chapter on bathtubs and analyses the kinds of ailments that could be treated by this technique, as well as the types of materia medica used in therapeutic preparations. Al-Shirwānī’s inclusion of an extended chapter devoted specifically to this home-based approach suggests that household medicine was emerging as an authoritative terrain of both Arabic and Ottoman medicine.