Article of the Month - November 2021
 “Cross-Cultural Transfer of Medical Knowledge in the Medieval Mediterranean: The Introduction and Dissemination of Sugar-Based Potions
from the Islamic World to Byzantium”
(Petros Bouras-Vallianatos: University of Edinburgh)

Petros Bouras-Vallianatos, "Cross-Cultural Transfer of Medical Knowledge in the Medieval Mediterranean: The Introduction and Dissemination of Sugar-Based Potions from the Islamic World to Byzantium," Speculum 96 (2021): 963—1008.

Nomination Statement:
Dr Bouras-Vallianatos' study represents a highpoint in the maturing of the field of medieval medical history. Drawing on intensive philological work with Byzantine medical texts (several of which he has edited himself, and many of whose manuscript traditions he has personally surveyed), Bouras- Vallianatos embeds that knowledge in a rich tapestry of social, intellectual, and cultural history. This will be a landmark in the historiography of sugar, demonstrating why this singular commodity--imported initially from Indonesia and moving through the Islamicate world--became the foundation not only of a whole pharmaceutical culture, but also an element of international cuisines. The essay also demonstrates why establishing the early history of such commodities is vital to explaining why dependency on such substances would, in later years, shift the course of world history. This is Mediterranean history, and global history, at its best.
[Monica Green]

Publisher’s Abstract:
This article aims to challenge the traditional narrative about the progression of medical knowledge from Arabic to Latin by including the role of the Byzantine world in that process. It examines critically the steady diffusion of Arabic medical knowledge throughout Byzantium by focusing on the introduction and dissemination of sugar-based potions. By studying for the first time a substantial body of mostly unedited translations of Arabic medical texts into Greek and works by Byzantine medical authors, this article argues that Byzantine literature and culture were more lively than they are given credit for and that —by medieval standards—Byzantine authors were quite open to outside influence. Moreover, it emphasizes that the subsequent use of sugar in Byzantine daily medical practice constituted a significant investment in health, especially bearing in mind the high cost involved in the cultivation, production, and transportation of sugar. Finally, it points to the regular use of sugar in medical practice from the late eleventh/early twelfth century onward, at least, in Constantinople, which suggests constant importing of the commodity, despite the fact that the first source confirming the trading of sugar in the Byzantine capital dates to the first half of the fourteenth century.

Author’s Comment:
The recognition of my article by the Mediterranean Seminar is very important to me. It gives me considerable encouragement to continue working on the vastly unexplored area of Arabo-Greek medical translations and the subsequent dissemination of Arabic medical lore in Byzantium. This article was written during my Wellcome Research Fellowship at King’s College London (2016-2019) in the context of which I examined for the first time a large number of published and unpublished Byzantine pharmacological texts. I spent a long time visiting various libraries across Europe to consult a large number of manuscripts. My main aim was to show that Byzantine medical tradition was never stagnant, but rather a living and constantly reshaped aspect of Byzantine culture, and that Byzantine pharmacology in particular was far more open to outside influence than has hitherto been thought.  

This article is also part of a wider project I have had in mind since my postgraduate studies, which involves placing the Byzantine medical tradition on equal terms alongside the Latin and Islamic medical traditions in the study of the medieval Mediterranean world. In this way, it shows that Byzantium played a much more significant role than generally assumed in the progression of Arabic medical knowledge in the wider Mediterranean. Lastly, this study emphasised that pharmacological ingredients, such as sugar, were also commodities. The long distances these substances travelled illustrate the global connections between the various peoples of the Mediterranean and Eurasia as a whole and shows the interrelation of medicine and pharmacology with other fields, such as commerce and trade. 

Keywords: medieval medicine — Mediterranean — Byzantium — Islamic World — pharmacology — sugar — cross-culture transfer — honey — Southern Italy — Sicily — Constantinople, hospital — translation

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