Master's Theses

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    Food as medicine : the healing power of sugar in ottoman medical manuscripts during the 14th and 15th centuries
    Kadırgan, Pırıl; Samancı, Özge; Samancı, Özge; Selçuk, Oya İklil; Bilgin, A.; Department of Design, Technology and Society
    This thesis intends to explore how people perceived intertwined relationships between food and health in the Ottoman Empire during the early modern era with a particular focus on sugar. Sugarcane which originated from Southeast Asia reached the eastern Mediterranean region in the 7th century. Produced in a long and arduous process, sugar obtained from sugar cane became an object of desire and a status indicator in medieval Arab, European and Ottoman worlds. Sugar was used for multiple practical purposes, including medicinal use. The thesis explores the role of sugar in the Ottoman health system within the framework of humoral theory by examining four Ottoman medical manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries. According to the medical manuscripts sugar was considered hot and moist. Different types of sugar such as white sugar, solid white sugar (tabarzad) was used to expel phlegm from the body and to relieve cough. There are also sweets in which it is recommended to use sugar for its benefits. The thesis findings show that being a rare and valuable commodity sugar besides its cultural and symbolic meanings, played an essential role as a medicine in the Ottoman health system based on humoral theory. Moreover, the information obtained from the Ottoman medical manuscripts coincides with the use of sugar in the European medical understanding of the period.