Lokman, Chholeman and Manik Pir: Multiple Frames of Institutionalising Islamic Medicine in Modern Bengal

Abstract

As a Muslim-majority region, Bengal is conspicuous by its absence from histories of the institutionalisation of Islamic medicine in South Asia. Bengal's invisibility in these histories is partly a result of exclusive scholarly pre-occupations with Unani Tibb and, to a much lesser extent, Tibb ul Nabi. ‘Islamic medicine’ in Bengal was institutionalised under other names and drew upon other traditions. This article explores the institutionalisation of three such traditions of ‘Islamic Medicine’ and argues that the form they took drew directly upon the distinctive history of Islam in Bengal.