Associate Professor Mukhtar Ali
A window into how conceptions of health, illness, and treatment are rooted in Islamic cosmology, theology, spirituality, and ethics.
Discover the historical and philosophical foundations of Prophetic Medicine (al-ṭibb al-nabawī) and how Islamic understandings of the sacred continue to shape medical practice and the pursuit of well-being.
Session 1
Topic: A Brief History of Islamic Medicine
Readings: Pormann and Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine, 6–40
Session 2
Topic: Sacred Foundations of Medicine
Readings: Nasr, Islamic Science, 153–192
Session 3
Topic: Islamic Cosmology and Human Flourishing
Readings: Nasr, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines, 44–66
Session 4
Topic: Spiritual Perspectives on Health
Readings: G.M. Chishti, The Book of Sufi Healing, 141-161
Session 5
Topic: Diagnosis and the Spiritual Physician
Readings: Ali, “Reading the Soul”
Session 6
Topic: Greco-Islamic Medicine: Theory and Practice
Readings:
Pormann and Savage-Smith, Medieval Islamic Medicine, chapter 2
