More than two hundred years ago,

The Hanbali jurist Sheikh Hamad Ibn Muammar al-Najdi (d. 1225 AH / 1810AD) was satisfied with the fatwa to dislike a type of traditional vaccination against smallpox that people were doing in the Najd region in central Saudi Arabia today, at a time when massive demonstrations were moving in the streets of Britain against the practice of vaccination with its modern pattern after it resisted Christian clergy.

As much as one stops this remarkable paradox;

It is very surprising to find that the legacy of inoculating bodies with disease - to strengthen them in front of the dangers of disease - is ancient in the history of mankind, and it is also surprising that this experience was recorded in Arabic literature, especially poetry, which is the knowledge and experimental "divan of the Arabs", which indicates a previous knowledge of this pattern. Of medication.

And if a Muslim jurist lived in isolation from the world, he understood - as we will see later - the strange relationship between the disease as the risk of death and the disease as a chance for survival

It would not be surprising to see that the Ottoman Empire in its days went through vaccination - both of which were traditional, inherited and modern, when it was discovered - to a wider extent, as its land was the first crossing from which vaccination moved to Europe and then to the rest of the world in a more modern and effective form.

It seems that the Turks are still - until now - able to make a pioneering contribution in the field of medical vaccinations.

Today, two of the Ottomans' grandchildren who hold German citizenship, Professor Ugur Shaheen and his wife, Dr. Ozlem Turiçi, who developed the most important vaccine - so far - against Coronavirus (Covid 19) are topping the global scene today.

This article presents an attempt to track the journey of medical vaccination in its path related to Muslims, especially in the era of the Ottoman Empire, and its contribution to spreading it among its citizens and transferring it to Europe with the recognition of Westerners themselves, as well as monitoring Islamic and Christian positions on this preventive medical method, and how it adopted its rejection by parliaments and scientific institutions supposedly Bias to scientific reasoning.

Historical view


Perhaps the idea of ​​vaccination is one of the most revolutionary ideas in history, and as much as the expression "thinking outside the box" is banal, it seems very sincere if we describe it as vaccination, as finding a cure solution and gaining it from within the disease itself will remain - no matter what people are used to - a brilliant idea Worthy of admiration that does not fade.

It is surprising that vaccination is so old its discovery compared to its relatively recent spread.

The American historian of civilizations Will Durant (d.1402 AH / 1981AD) - in the chapter “Indian Science” of his book “The Story of Civilization” - states that “India [knew] vaccination since the year 550 CE, even though Europe did not know it until the eighteenth century!”

Durant cited what he said, “a text attributed to Thanwantari (died in the 2nd century AD), one of the oldest Indian physicians, and this is: Take the liquid from the blisters you see on the cow's udder ... Take it on the tongue of the scalpel and then graft the arms between the shoulders and the elbows until The blood appears; then the fluid mixes with the blood and its mixing of smallpox fever arises.

After that, the American historian returns to emphasize India's merit in this field, saying: "And India taught us - through the Arabs - its simple numbers and its magic decimal fractions, just as Europe taught the minutes of hypnosis and the art of vaccination."

It also tells us that the Chinese "used the vaccine to treat smallpox, although they did not use vaccination to prevent it, and perhaps they took this from India."

Despite the contact of the Arabs with the Indians and their transfer of knowledge to Europe and the rest of the world, as mentioned above, according to Durant;

We did not find them meant by medical vaccination or vaccination, while their medicine was transmitted to us in the books of the Arab and Islamic heritage, and perhaps that was one of the reasons for the delay in its spread throughout the world.


A literary


allusion that the Arab literary treasury was not without evidence of their knowledge of an associated meaning for the idea of ​​extracting medicine from the disease in general, and acquiring immunity by successive strikes.

This Abbasid poet Abu Nawas (d. 198 AH / 814 AD) says:


Leave me blamed, for blaming is a temptation ** and deal with what was a disease!


And while the medicine of wine with wine is like hiring from the frying pan with fire;

Abu Nawas, at least, excelled in his idea, even if he farther and faded in its application!

As for Abu al-Tayyib al-Mutanabbi (d.

He said, "I have


thrown at all times with pride, until ** my heart is in a veil of nobility, and I will stop


if I have been hit by arrows.) The blades are broken on the blades!


Al-Mutanabbi here likened the calamities that followed on his body with arrows that hit his heart, and then when they multiplied by the arrows, they became like a membrane or a shield that protects his heart from new arrows, so their new blades are broken on the old ones!

However, Al-Mutanabbi was not satisfied with declaring the immunity arising from physical injury, until he almost predicted the principle on which modern medical vaccination was based, when he said:


Perhaps your reprimand is praiseworthy for its consequences *** Perhaps the bodies will be corrected with ills !!

The famous Iraqi poet Maarouf al-Rusafi (d. 1365 AH / 1945 CE) - in an article entitled “The World of Flies” written in 1363 AH / 1943 CE and later published by the Egyptian magazine “Al-Risala” in its issue No. 971 - commented on the house of al-Mutanabi, noting that strange prediction lies in it;

He saw in that something like a miracle, because Al-Mutanabi “had said this [the house] in the days when vaccination with disease germs was unknown, and the art of bacteriology (= bacteriology) does not exist!"

We do not know if this Arab philosophy on vaccination has left the literary square to take its practical course in the medical field.

What we found related to this aspect - in historical Arab medical sources - is very scarce, but it expresses the existence of practical applications - of some kind - for the idea of ​​extracting medicine from the disease to combat it.

Observed experience,


and examples of this are what Ibn Sina (d. 428 AH / 1038 CE) indicated - in his book al-Qanun fi al-tibb - that it is possible to acquire immunity by taking what causes disease and harm.

He said, giving an example of the body’s ability to acquire immunity from toxins if it used to be used gradually: “Some old women at first took a very little bit of aconite (= a toxic substance), and then did not continue to accompany it until nature became familiar with it (= the nature of her body) and dared It and nothing harm her! "

Also close to that is what Ibn Abi Usaybaa (d.668 AH / 1269 CE) mentioned - in “Eyes of the News in the Classes of Doctors” - from realistic stories - repeated since the time of Greece - which are considered “evidence that snake meat is beneficial for snakes and snakes”, hence The idea of ​​an "antidote" to treat toxins with ingredients sometimes extracted from the source of those toxins themselves.

Perhaps this "antidote culture" has made a practical impact in medical practice, going beyond the field of treating toxins and preventing their harm, to other aspects of preventive treatment of injury and disease.

The validity of this conclusion may attest to what recent sources have stated that Arabs knew - from ancient times - the vaccination that we are practicing today, including what the famous German orientalist Sigrid Hunke (d. 1420 AH / 1999AD) mentioned in her book 'The Sun of Arabia Shines on the West'.

Honke said, "The attempt to introduce the principle of smallpox vaccination in Europe - at the end of the eighteenth century - was achieved by the Arabs in the first Islamic times, following the same thinking and method used today by vaccination with weak germs and the creation of immunity by artificial means. The Chinese used to apply a wet bandage. Pox of smallpox was in the nose of their son. As for the Arabs, they used another method of insemination, as they deliberately cut the palm of the hand between the wrist and the thumb and placed a few non-inflamed blisters over the wound, covering it well.

This statement was confirmed by another contemporary, the researcher in the history of science, Dr. Osama Al-Sayyadi, in his book 'The Most Important Inventions and Discoveries in Human History'.

He said: “Arab doctors used to use preventive medicine in infectious diseases. They used ... they made a kind of vaccination against smallpox, as they took some pimples from a diseased patient and inoculated with a healthy person by placing (= pimples) on the palm of the hand and rubbing it well, or they made a scratch in Its place; the same idea of ​​vaccination that was later attributed to Europe. "

A praiseworthy position,


I did not find, according to these two researchers, a witness from traditional books.

But we have a fatwa issued more than two hundred years ago by one of the sheikhs of Najd in the middle of the Arabian Peninsula, namely Sheikh Hamad bin Nasser bin Muammar al-Najdi al-Hanbali.

This fatwa suggests that insemination - as mentioned by the orientalist Honkeh and Dr. Al-Sayyadi - was an old practice popular among the common people of the Arabian Peninsula, and it was called "the Toutin" for them.

It is clear that this popular vaccination - which was known among the people of Najd - has no connection with the official vaccination that the Ottoman Empire used to care for and spread in some of its regions, not to mention that it was practiced in the English method that was known in conjunction with the time of issuance of the fatwa or shortly before it.

In his aforementioned fatwa - which was included in a book entitled 'Several Messages on Fiqh Issues' that was supervised by Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Rida (d.1354 AH / 1935 CE) - Sheikh Ibn Muammar al-Hanbali was asked about the Shari’a ruling in “al-Tuwatayn (= vaccination) that the awaam do, i.e. they take They split the skin of the right socket and put it in that [place] that was split, and they claim that if the keloids (= infected with smallpox) relieve it. "

The sheikh replied to his questioner that this preventive treatment is a type of “treatment for the disease before it comes. They claim that figs are one of the mitigating causes of smallpox. And in which it appears to us that hatred is because its perpetrator hastens the affliction before it comes, except that in most cases if it is stained, smallpox appears in it. Perhaps he killed him, so the perpetrator would have helped to kill himself, as the scholars have mentioned about the one who ate above satiety and died because of that. This is the view of the legitimate hatred in the practice of “tawteen,” meaning popular vaccination.

It is noticeable that Sheikh Ibn Muammar disliked the "two feet" in terms of the errors that were in the conduct of this traditional type of vaccination, and the complications that occurred because of it for those who were administered to them.

Sheikh Rashid Rida commented on this fatwa of Sheikh Ibn Muammar when he published it after the spread of modern vaccination, realizing that it corresponded between it and "the two fatwas";

He said: “It appears that this fig - which is now called fertilization or vaccination - was not at the time of this mufti or in his country, he had succeeded as his success is known now, even in diseases other than smallpox, and therefore he proved that it is a speculation of harm, so it is reprehensible.”

Sheikh Rida appreciated the Hanbali jurist for his sufficiency only by issuing the ruling of disliking dislik - which is the closest jurist to the permissibility - on unprofessional vaccination, at a time when he “prohibited - at its first appearance - many people of different lands and mullahs (= religions) even the English, and it has been proven. From a long time ago, it protects against this deadly, disfiguring disease (= smallpox), and the effect of preventive vaccination is very light and easily tolerated by children, so saying that it is obligatory (= vaccination) is not far away "" from the jurisprudential point of view.

Linguistic origins


As for the name "Totin", it may be a language that came from what the dictionaries mentioned: “Fate ... [a thing] is a word ... meaning that it lasts and has not been interrupted,” as in the dictionary of Al-Sahhah by Abu Nasr Al-Jawhari (d. 393 AH / 1004 AD);

It is as if this name is taken from the permanence of the graft surgery and the survival of his scar on the body of the person being vaccinated.

And the people of Najd call their vaccination “alotna”, which is one of its eloquent meanings: “disagreement”, as in Ibn Manzur (d.711 AH / 1311 CE) in “Lisan Al-Arab” said: “Al-Watenah: contravention.”

Perhaps the meaning of this name is derived from the fact that the graft site remains different from the surrounding skin due to the effect of the grafting surgery.

The evidence here is that the presence of "Totin" - in its local name among ordinary people in the Arabian Peninsula and in its primitive way - indicates its depth in the origins of Arab folk medicine.

As for the name "vaccination" used today, it may be taken from the grafting of trees.

If they take from the blisters of the sick person and cut the skin of al-Sahih and put it in it, then what is the analogy with that of grafting trees.

Among the poetic evidence of this is the saying of the Egyptian poet Jamal al-Din Ibn Nabatah (d. 768 AH / 1366 CE): The


treachery and inscription resembled their grains **, so it became the nightclub of the seasoned beholder, and


with the "grafting", silver trees sprouted ** From the best trees all the "

grafted

"

Will Durant mentioned - in 'The Story of Civilization' - the Muslims' experience of grafting trees from ancient times.

He said: “Muslim biologists knew the method of producing new fruits by means of 'grafting', and they combined the rose tree and the almond tree, and by that 'grafting' they created rare and beautiful flowers.”

The mention of grafting plants is frequent in heritage books, including what was reported by the Shafi’i doctor and jurist Ala al-Din Ibn al-Nafis (d.687 AH / 1288 CE) - in al-Shamil in the medical industry - when he spoke about the types of pear fruits, and he said that there are some of them “called Damascus Qarasiya Baalbaki But it is formed in Damascus by vaccination. "

An attested precedent, and


if we move from exploring the heritage assets of vaccination to explaining the priorities of its practice in the modern era, and the role of Muslims in introducing others to it;

We will find that the Ottoman Turks were the owners of a remarkable precedent in the field of vaccination, but rather they were its gateway to Europe, through which it gradually spread to the whole world.

It seems that vaccination was not new to the Turks, based on its knowledge of their geographical neighborhood among the Circassian and Armenian peoples.

Durant says: "The ancient Chinese had practiced the transmission of the virus whose strength was weakened from one person with smallpox to another to immunize him against smallpox, and for this same purpose the Circassian women stored the body with needles that were affected by smallpox fluids!"

And in a sense close to that;

In his book History of Medicine, William Bynum says: “Inoculation was a procedure used in the East since ancient times. The Chinese practiced it by using powdered exanthema and inhaling it like tobacco powder. In Turkey, [this] substance was introduced through an itch in the skin.”

The scholar Anastas al-Karmali (d.1366 AH / 1947 CE) - in issue 67 of his journal “Language of the Arabs” issued on March 1, 1929 - published an article entitled: “A page from the history of smallpox preventive vaccination in Iraq and Iran,” and it was in it: It is reported .. that some Armenians used to feed their children raisins filled with little pus from smallpox blisters to prevent it. The Italian tourist Sestini (d. After 1195 AH / 1781AD) - in his book of his journey to Baghdad in 1781… - that the people of Al-Zawra (= Baghdad) All of them used to pollinate themselves! "

Then Al-Karmali asked: “What does [Sestini] want with this talk?

Perhaps it is from here that the Turkish historian Yilmaz Oztuna (d. 1434 AH / 2012 CE) - in his book 'History of the Ottoman Empire' - went on to state that vaccination "was applied by the Turks for long ages!"

Specifying the date of the beginning of the documentation of the Ottomans ’practice of vaccinating children, he added," We have information about vaccinating children in Istanbul against smallpox in 1695 (= 1108 AH). "

Gradual transmission


And supporting Oztona's words is Durant’s statement that “in [in] 1714 a letter from Dr. Emmanuel Timoni (= Emanuel Timoni who died after 1128 AH / 1716 CE) - read on the Royal Society of London - described getting smallpox by slitting or vaccination, as practiced for a long time. In Constantinople!

Speaking of Turkish health habits,

Durant stated - in the 'story of civilization' - thanks to the Turks in delivering vaccination to Europe as part of the health habits and medical methods it conveyed about them, in the form of a practical practice of vaccination and not just information explaining it, as in the aforementioned letter of Dr. Timoni.

Durant says: “The Turks were proud of their public baths, generally seeing themselves as a people cleaner than the Christians ... (= Europeans). Many members of the upper and middle classes differed to the Turkish bath twice a week, and most of them disagreed once a week ..; It is surprising then that we did not hear much about rheumatism in the joints in Turkey. [And] the Turks ... taught Europe the vaccination against smallpox, and they had no doubt that their civilization is superior to that of Christian countries.

The vaccination moved from the Ottoman capital of Astana / Istanbul to Europe in the first third of the thirteenth century AH / eighteenth century AD, according to what Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (died 1176 AH / 1762 AD) who was the wife of Edward Wortley Montagu (d. 1175 AH / 1175 AD) 1761 AD) British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.

Lady Montagu wrote - in a letter sent from Istanbul to one of them in London on April 1, 1717, corresponding to 1129 AH, and Durant relayed her text - telling her observations about vaccination in the Ottomans and its health effectiveness;

She said: “Smallpox, that very lethal disease and spread among us - we British - has made the invention of vaccination completely correct .. and every year the operation is performed for thousands of people [in the Ottoman Empire] .., and there is no single case of a person who died from it. You may believe it. I am very reassured of the safety of the experience if you know that I intend to apply it to my beloved young son. "

Durant then comments, "The six-year-old boy was vaccinated in March 1718 (= 1130 AH) by Dr. Charles Maitland, an English doctor who was in Turkey at the time!"

Solid resistance It


is surprising that Europe - at the height of its scientific renaissance - resisted the Turkish vaccination stiffly at the beginning of its acquaintance with it, and in that it was driven by very strange reasons that revolved between the political and the ideology. This was summed up by the Turkish historian Oztuna by saying: “Europe resisted for a while The vaccine that the Turks applied for long ages ... The discovery by the Turks placed Europe in a very long-term hesitation, and the monks declared that whoever allows a vaccination is considered an out of religion!

Thus, the period of European refusal to take advantage of the Ottoman method of vaccination extended until "the public and medical men took the eighteenth century almost throughout its length to accept preventive vaccination a legitimate color of curative medicine."

According to Durant, who reviewed in particular the history of the British opposition to this vaccination, and attributed this to the "conservative stance of the British society against everything new."

Durant reported from the news of Lady Mary Montagu - the wife of the British ambassador to Istanbul - that she faced a fierce war, because of her propaganda in her country for the Ottoman vaccination after watching it and its effective results in Istanbul;

“In [year] 1721, an epidemic of smallpox spread in London, killing her family, especially children, and Lady Mary had returned from Turkey and commissioned Dr. Maitland (= the doctor accompanying her husband, the ambassador in Turkey), who also returned to his homeland, to feed her four-year-old daughter He invited three of the most prominent doctors to see that the girl ... did not bother her with much inconvenience, so they were impressed by what they saw, and one of them allowed his son to be vaccinated.

According to Durant;

After these encouraging experiences, Lady Mary "spread the idea in the royal court" of the ruling family in Britain, in the year 1722 Queen Caroline Ansbach (d. 1150 AH / 1737 AD) - wife of the then King of Britain, George II (d. 1139 AH / 1727 AD) - ordered officially "to conduct the operation ( = Vaccination) on orphan children in St. James Parish, and she was a complete success, and in April (of the same year) she ordered that it be performed on two of her daughters, "one of whom was her favorite daughter, Princess Caroline (d.11170 AH / 1757AD), nicknamed" Princess of Great Britain. "

As for what is most surprising is the method used by the British court to ensure the effectiveness of vaccination, by using prisoners and orphans as a field to test the success of the experiment.

In the year 1154 AH / 1741 CE, “Princess Caroline [who was previously vaccinated when she was young] agreed to experiment with vaccinations against six criminals who were sentenced to death, and they agreed (= agreed) to a promise that they would be released if they remained alive; one of them suffered from a mild disease, and the rest did not They seemed to be doing no harm, and all six were released. "

Durant then states that those successful official steps gave the case a major societal momentum, before a setback in practice occurred that fueled its opposition movement again.

At first, "acceptance of vaccination spread in British aristocratic circles, but the death of two people vaccinated in their homes disrupted the movement and strengthened opposition to it."

Multiple obstacles


Christian clergy were at the forefront of opposing these vaccination experiments.

Some priests viewed vaccination as evidence of the objection of the one who carried it out against fate or his opposition to the divine will to inflict disease!

Durant mentioned that an English priest "named Edward Massey [remained] until 1772 preached against the" dangerous civil vaccination habit ", and strongly defends the opinion of the ancient theology which believes that diseases are sent by God as punishment for sin !!

at the same time;

It seems that one of the reasons for the rejection of vaccination was the spread of its practice at the hands of women, as one of the critics complained that “an experiment that was practiced by only a few ignorant women ... suddenly prevails - and after little experience - over one of the most polite and polite nations of the earth, until it found its way to Royal palace"".

Most of the British doctors also condemned the vaccination because of the danger it poses, according to their view.

Lady Montagu did not stand idly by in the face of this frenzied opposition to her efforts to save her community from a fatal disease, so she used as many fine tricks as she could in her fateful battle;

“Lady Mary sensed this stab and published without signing [a leaflet entitled]:“ A clear statement about smallpox vaccination by a Turkish trader ”;

According to Durant.

Perhaps it is surprising that a transformed statement of an inventive Turkish merchant is more acceptable to the British public during its days than official decisions and testimonies, and the observed and successful medical experiences !!

The European opposition to vaccination was not only English, but France "the Age of Enlightenment" had its abundant share of strong suspicion of this Ottoman arrival in Gaul and standing in front of his advance.

It is surprising that the scene of opposition to vaccination is led by the scientific and political elites represented by the University of Paris and the French Parliament.

After “the regent Philip Aurelian (d. 1135 AH / 1723 CE) - with his usual courage - struck an example for others by vaccinating his two children, the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Paris opposed vaccination until 1763, according to Durant’s account.

The French writer Voltaire (d. 1192 AH / 1778 CE) was a prominent exception in that opposing scene;

He "praised Lady Mary's campaign in his 'Letters on the English', and noted the spread of vaccination among Circassians !!"

Denied disclaimer


Durant asserts that Voltaire is the author of the book 'The History of the Parliament of Paris' despite his public disavowal of his attribution, and states that Voltaire wrote and published it under a pseudonym to avoid problems, especially as he presented the French Parliament as a “reactionary institution that resisted - on every occasion - progressive measures, Such as the establishment of the French Academy, vaccination against smallpox, and the free administration of the judiciary. "

Durant devotes pages to explain the efforts of the English surgeon Edward Jenner (d. 1238 AH / 1823 CE), which was an important milestone in the history of the development of vaccination against smallpox, and even against bacterial diseases in general.

He says that Jenner "noticed ... that milkweed (= cow milks) who had been infected with cowpox - a relatively mild disease - rarely contracted smallpox, which kills the sick most of the time."

He adds, explaining the critical juncture in Jenner's effort;

He says that “about [the year] 1778 came up to him the idea of ​​transmitting immunity against smallpox by vaccinating him with a vaccine made from a cow afflicted with smallpox…, and in May 1796 Jenner performed the vaccination by inoculating [a boy] with cowpox pus… and the boy did not have smallpox, so Jenner concluded That cow pollen gives immunity against smallpox! "

This success led Jenner to publish in 1798 his dangerous book “An Inquiry into the Cause and Results of the Variola Vaccine” (Variola was the medical name for smallpox) in which he narrated the story of twenty-three cases that were all successful.

Durant noted that after the success of these vaccinations, “the conviction of the experiments that followed this reached an amount that in 1802 and 1807 the [British] Parliament granted Jenner thirty thousand pounds to expand his work and improve his method, and after that smallpox infections decreased rapidly, the disease that remained for centuries a whip of flagellations. The great torment that embarked on human lives. "

Weighted quote


We have previously quoted from Durant and others who attributed the merit of spreading the vaccination to the Turks, and we referred to the efforts of Lady Montagu and others who transferred the Turkish method to their European countries, and we would like to note here that some preferred the doctor Jenner's quotation of his method from its Turkish counterpart.

It was stated in Al-Karmali's article - the aforementioned - that Lady Montagu “when she returned [from Istanbul] to her country, made every effort to define and spread this vaccination among all classes of the English people, and she succeeded in her endeavor. And I may have reached the news of this vaccination - after a while - to me. Jenner stimulated in his mind the idea of ​​his "definitive medical disclosure."

Just as Lady Montagu's efforts met fierce resistance from the strata of society, so the experiments of the surgeon Jenner met the same fate.

In

an article published

on the "History of Vaccinations" website - affiliated with the American Physicians' Association of Philadelphia - a side of the popular opposition that Jenner's vaccination faced at his time was mentioned, as "some of the protesters - including local clerics - believed that the vaccine was" non-Christian "because It came from an animal! "

The same article documented the organization of a huge demonstration at that time in Britain, in which about a hundred thousand protesters protested against mandatory vaccination when “the vaccination decree of 1853 imposed compulsory vaccination of children…, [and] it was accompanied by penalties for refusing the vaccine.”

The protesters came out carrying "banners, a coffin of a child, and a doll for Jenner"!

The demonstration took place in March 1885/1302 AH in the British city of Leicester, which was “a special stronghold of anti-vaccination activity and a place for many anti-vaccination rallies.” The march witnessed an exceptional sacrifice “of a young mother and two men who were all determined to surrender to the police and submit to imprisonment, instead of subjecting Their children to be vaccinated. "

Baghdad experiences


The procedure of vaccination in the Ottoman Empire was not limited to Astana / Istanbul, but sometimes extended to some other provinces with official care.

As Al-Karmali informs us - in his previous article - that vaccination using the Jenner method was practiced in Iraq before 1809, by a young Armenian Catholic from the people of Constantinople called Awanis ibn Badrous Muradian (d. 1247 AH / 1832 AD) or "Moradian Islambouli", who was improving six languages ​​and continuing The course of political matters, east and west, tracks the progress of science in the Franks, the emergence of scientific discoveries there, and technical inventions.

According to Al-Karmali,

The Awanis this “with his hand he entered Baghdad for the first time with the preventive and general vaccination of smallpox, according to the method of Jenner, but God knows what he suffered from the costs and hardships he suffered in order to reach the persuasion of the people of Baghdad by telling them and taking it, because of the illusions prevailing at the time on minds, Especially because vaccination was thought to be contrary to fate. "

If this popular reasoning for opposition to vaccination reminds us of its previously mentioned analogues to Europeans, then the position of the Islamic religious establishment in Iraq appeared very different from its Western counterpart;

With the help of the Grand Mufti of Baghdad at the time, Awanis was able to overcome the difficulties that encountered him, and to spread the vaccination in Iraq and practice it on a large scale.

After mentioning the failure of the mission of the first vaccination campaign, Al-Karmali says: “However, Awanis returned in the year 1809, so he spent his best efforts in overcoming the obstacles and dispersing the illusions that had previously prevented his goal, so he finally won his wish and his endeavor culminated with great success. / 1828 CE) Al-Hussif Al-Rai was satisfied to feed his six grandchildren and children.

And this position of the Mufti of Baghdad two centuries ago reminds us - in his general purpose - of what we see today in publishing pictures of world leaders receiving the Coronavirus (Covid 19) vaccine to reassure their citizens about its safety!

It seems that people have found what the Mufti did in terms of vaccinating his family members as a practical example that dispelled their religious and health concerns, even as this transgressed Muslims into followers of other religions in Baghdad.

Karamali confirms that the position of the Mufti of Baghdad encouraged people - regardless of their religious beliefs - so he pushed them to undertake the vaccination without fear and without hesitation, so that Awanis was able to feed with his wife Teresa (= Teresa Antoine Atri, who died after 1247 AH / 1832 AD and was the daughter of a French doctor) more Of five thousand and four hundred children in a period of nine years, without an accident that reduces people's confidence in vaccination, and the vaccination of two-thirds of the mentioned number was free.

Fruitful perseverance.


That great success did not spare Awanis from seeking to expand his scope, seeking support this time from among the Iraqi commoners who tried his vaccination, who issued a declaration for him attesting to his success and to vaccinate him with efficacy. They wrote for him a paper in which they called him “Khawaja Awanis Mardiane Islambouli”, and they testified to him that “from the history of Four years until now, everyone who uses it ... has never had natural smallpox.

Then they concluded by praying for him and documenting the history of martyrdom: “Our Lord will reward him and his children for this total good that he brought and taught in our country. Done in Baghdad on October 30, 1814 (= 1229 AH).”

In the same article, we find reference to the implementation of free vaccination campaigns sponsored by the Ottoman Empire.

In “the year 1847 (= 1263 AH), Sultan Abdul Majid (d. 1277 AH / 1861 CE) executed an order to send Ragheb Bey (d. After 1263 AH / 1847 CE) his third concierge to Baghdad and other Ottoman provinces, to inspect their conditions and look into their affairs .. So Ragheb Bey entered Al-Zawra (= Baghdad) on March 21 of the aforementioned year, and with him an Armenian doctor named Barunak Farrukh Khan (d. After 1263 AH / 1847 CE) who had accompanied him from Constantinople (= Istanbul) to cure the sick, and to feed children free of charge in all the cities and villages on their way, And he never set foot on the City of Peace (= Baghdad) until he began to perform his usual job - with an effort that does not know boredom - in many parts of Iraq, then he closed back to Constantinople, and from that day on, vaccination from Iraq did not stop, but rather increased and spread.

But it seems that the Ottoman vaccination - both of its old Turkish and modern types, which is based on the method of Jenner - was not known in the wilaya of Algeria, although it was then a vital area for the Ottomans, and the absence of their vaccination in Algeria is what made its local authorities resort to vaccinating Europeans.

In a study entitled 'History of medicine in Algeria under the French colonialism 1830-1962' by researcher Dr.

Yemeni Mujahid

The following was mentioned from the book 'Algerian Folk Medicine at the Beginning of Occupation' by the French doctor Schöneberg.

Schönberg mentions that [the Ottoman ruler in Algeria] Dai Hussein (d.1254 AH / 1838 CE) sent his children and his family to an English doctor called 'Bohn' to vaccinate them, and this issue raised public interest because it was in fact contrary to the prevailing concept in Algerian society that calls for the belief in destiny and destiny. "The vaccination process was completely successful, and it also won the approval of the Dai, so he then sent Mr. Bohan an amount of money."

The position of the Mufti of Baghdad - the forerunner mentioned - and then the common people of Iraq after him did not stem from the Islamic religious culture, which did not see anything wrong with preventing disease before its occurrence, and in ensuring treatment and realizing its existence, and the human duty to search for and find it.

It came in the hadith on the authority of Usama bin Sharik - may God be pleased with him - on the authority of the Prophet He said: “O servants of God, be cured, for God Almighty has not created a disease but established a cure for it.”

It was narrated by Al-Bukhari (d. 256 AH / 870 CE) in his book “Al-Adab Al-Mufrad,” and it also came in Sunan Abi Dawood (d. 275 AH / 888 CE) and Jami` al-Tirmidhi (d.279 AH / 892 CE).

A solid choice, just 


as Muslims did not find - in what was narrated from their Prophet - in taking treatment before the onset of illness, and they did not see in it the slightest opposition to fate.

It came in Sahih al-Bukhari: On the authority of Sa`d bin Abi Waqas - may God be pleased with him - he said: I heard the Messenger of God say: “He who takes seven dates without a date, will not be harmed by him.”

On this, contemporary jurists have relied in their fatwas that modern vaccination is permissible, and they saw that this comes under the heading of “warding off calamities before it happens,” and they did not have any harm in it if it did not come with certainty of greater harm than it.

It was preserved on the authority of the Commander of the Faithful, Umar ibn al-Khattab (d. 23 AH / 645 CE) as saying when he returned with the army of Muslims without entering the Levant for the spread of the plague epidemic in it at that time: “We flee from the destiny of God to the destiny of God.”

As stated in the two Sahihs.

Therefore, it was not surprising that Imam Muhammad Abdo (d. 1323 AH / 1905 CE) knocked on the Christian writer Farah Antoun (d. 1340 AH / 1922 CE) in gaining the status of science in Islam, and reminding him of the position of Christian Europe against vaccination, in an article he published in the magazine 'Al-Manar' - On 1 Jumada al-Akhira in the year 1320 AH / 1902 CE - entitled: “Persecution in Christianity and Islam”.

Imam Abdo says: “Do you know what happened from the [Christian] resistance to the introduction of injection under the skin with the substance of the disease (= vaccination)?” This medical method was discovered by Muslims in Astana, and then a woman named Mary Montagu took it to Europe in 1721 AD, so the resurrection of the priests (= = A priest gathered) and opposed its use, and needed to support it to seek help from the King of England, and this intensity of opposition returned when the method of smallpox vaccination was discovered, according to the method of the English doctor Jenner.

An article published by Amin Gemayel - in the issue of the Egyptian magazine "Al-Zuhur" issued in early October 1910, corresponding to 1228 AH - preserved for us a copy of the precautionary measures medically recommended in its days to confront a cholera epidemic that swept Europe and its neighborhood, and it closely resembles measures to confront the Corona epidemic (Covid 19) ) Applied in the countries of the world nowadays.

The writer began his article by saying: “The telegrams carry to us daily disturbing news about the deadly cholera in all parts of Europe, and the epidemic is on the doors threatening us, so we must - to ward off its evil and respond to its raids - we must shield ourselves from the health law, so that we have a guarded state.”

Then he mentioned the precautionary measures one by one, in length in explaining them and stating their benefits, but the most important and surprising thing that came in them was summarized:

Cleanliness is the cornerstone of the sanitary law, and the preference for hygiene over cleaning is the preference for prevention over treatment.


- Vaccination and its renewal for some diseases, especially smallpox, because it is the amazing protection from this pernicious disease ... and we are awaiting the discovery of a vaccine for the rest of the infectious diseases.


Isolation of the patient with a contagious disease from the healthy (= healthy people).


- Disinfection: that is, the contamination (= extermination) of the germ at its source and spring by means of preparations that kill microbes, or with cleansers and steam chokes, or with hot air that purifies clothes, mattresses and furniture with the power of heat.