Unani Medicine in the Making: Practices and Representations in 21st-century India

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Kira Schmidt-Stiedenroth

Unani Medicine in the Making

Practices and Representations in 21st-century India

Kira Schmidt-Stiedenroth

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English

Routledge
01 December 2025

Regional studies; Asian history; Complementary medicine

Series: Health, Medicine, and Science in Asia

Unani Medicine in the Making examines the institutions and practices of Unani medicine, the Graeco-Islamic healing practice based on the humoral theory attributed to Hippocrates and officially recognized as a system of medicine in India. Drawing on diverse materials, including Urdu sources, interviews with practitioners, and observations in clinics, the book explores what Unani medicine is today by attending to its multiplicity, scrutinizing apparent tensions between the understanding of Unani as a system of medicine and its multiple enactments as Islamic medicine, medical science, or alternative medicine. Ethnographic details provide vivid descriptions of the current practice of Unani in India, and invite readers to rethink the idea that humoral medicine is incommensurable with modern medicine and science, and that the modernization of Asian medicines invariably leads to their biomedicalization. Ultimately, the book also discusses the relationship of Unani with Muslim communities, examining the growing practice of Prophetic Medicine in Urban India and increasing representations of Unani as Islamic Medicine.

By: Kira Schmidt-Stiedenroth
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781041190011
ISBN 10: 1041190018
Series: Health, Medicine, and Science in Asia
Pages: 286
Publication Date: 01 December 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

INTRODUCTION, MULTIPLICITY, PRACTICE ONTOLOGY, AND LOOPING EFFECTS, UNANI AND TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN SOUTH ASIA, FROM THE TOPIC TO FIELDWORK, CHAPTER 1 - A SYSTEM OF MEDICINE?, OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIONS OF UNANI MEDICINE, UNANI PRACTITIONERS, TEXTUAL SOURCES OF AUTHORITY, SYSTEMATIZATION AND LOOPING EFFECTS, CHAPTER 2 - AUTHORITY, ORIGINALITY, AND THE LIMITS OF STANDARDIZATION, CREATION AND TRANSMISSION OF MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE, DEGREES AND (UN-)OFFICIAL PRACTICE, DEFYING STANDARDS, CHAPTER 3 - BEYOND HUMORALISM, FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF UNANI MEDICINE, FINDING THE ROOT CAUSE OF DISEASE, THERAPEUTIC PRACTICES, HUMORALISM AND LOOPING EFFECTS, CHAPTER 4 - THE APPROPRIATION OF MODERN SCIENTIFIC ADVANCES AND CONCEPTS, A CASE OF BIOMEDICALIZATION?, USING MODERN DIAGNOSTIC METHODS, CHAPTER 5 - SCIENCE AND THE QUEST FOR ACCEPTANCE AND RECOGNITION, SCIENCE AS MEANS FOR RECOGNITION, VALIDATING UNANI THROUGH MODERN SCIENCE, CHAPTER 6 - UNANI MEDICINE AND MUSLIMS IN INDIA, UNANI MEDICINE AND MUSLIM CULTURE, ISLAMIC MEDICINE?, SECULAR OR ISLAMIC? UNANI AND PROPHETIC MEDICINE, CONCLUSIONS, BIBLIOGRAPHY, INDEX.

Kira Schmidt Stiedenroth is assistant professor of Anthropology at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, where she coordinates the Master’s program ‘Health and Society in South Asia’. Her teaching and research interests lie mainly in medical anthropology, with a particular focus on the anthropology of drugs and pharmaceuticals, South Asian healing practices, and (forced) migration studies.