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Article ID: CBB919932361

Of Jinn Theories and Germ Theories: Translating Microbes, Bacteriological Medicine, and Islamic Law in Algeria (2021)

Osiris: A Research Journal Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Volume: 36
Pages: 64-85
Publication date: 2021
Language: English

URI: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/713657

DOI: 10.1086/713657

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Cross-cultural interaction; cultural influence Public health Primary literature (historical sources) France, colonies Islam Medicine and religion Microbes Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture Medicine and law Germ theory of disease 20th century, early Algeria

Focusing on colonial Algeria ca. 1890 to 1940, this article explores what Muslim intellectuals and ordinary people learned about microbes and how they responded to bacteriological medicine. Many Algerians feared invisible spirits (jinn) and sought the healing powers of saints and exorcists. Was it then permitted for Muslims to use French treatments and follow Pasteurian rules of hygiene? Specialists in Islamic law, other intellectuals, and unlettered villagers showed a persistent concern with these and other questions in the wake of colonial conquest and violence in Algeria, as novel techniques, therapeutics, and forms of epistemic authority were introduced, and new visions of religious orthodoxy and national revival were formulated. Examining writings across a range of genres and formats—including a treatise of independent juristic reasoning (ijtihad), questions and answers prepared by a mufti, popular petitions, newspaper articles, advertisements, poetry, and a cartoon—this article argues that Islamic tradition and law were integral to the emerging science and culture of microbes in early twentieth-century Algeria. While Islamic reformists sought to displace jinn theories of illness, other Algerian intellectuals and colonial officials found it convenient to explain germs in terms of jinn. Both French and Muslim elite men sought to combine religious law with hygienic advice to advance competing hegemonic projects targeted at the Muslim family, thereby attempting to displace women’s jinn-based practices.

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