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Disability History in the Middle East
Disability History in the Middle East
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Description
This volume presents a comparative, cross-disciplinary approach to disability history in Middle Eastern communities, focusing on case studies from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Chapters span a number of country case studies including Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine and Iran, and cover a wide range of topics including experiences of disability during the late Ottoman Empire, the construction of disability under the British Empire in Syria and Egypt, psychiatric healing practices in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the intersections of religion, nationhood and disability.
By foregrounding marginalized voices from the past, to uniquely highlight a perspective on disability studies from the Global South, this book also questions the ethics of treatment and advocacy for policy reform in the present day.
Table of Contents
Ch. 2 – “Empire, Charity, and the Construction of Disability: The Case of the British Syrian Mission, 1860-1918,” by Sara Scalenghe, Loyola University Maryland, USA
Ch. 3 – “The Modern Prosthetic Experience of Late Ottoman Society,” by Elif Küskü, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey
Ch. 4 – “Disability, Environment, and Medicalisation of Blindness in the Late Ottoman Empire,” by Irem Yildiz, The University of Oxford, UK
Ch. 5 – “Reading Resistance and Agency Through 19th Century Citizen Petitions” by Yasmin Shafei, American University in Beirut, Lebanon
Ch. 6 – “Who Belongs in a Jewish Homeland: Disability, Gender, and Zionism in the Yishuv,” by Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University Bloomington, USA
Ch. 7 – “Contesting the Politics of British Prosthetic Care: Pain, Nativeness, and the Plight of Palestinian Jewish Amputees in WWII,” by Marco di Giulio, Franklin & Marshall College, USA
Ch. 8 – “'Discharged Uncured': The Failures of the Asylum in Colonial Egypt,” by Sam Pulliam, United States Naval Academy, USA
Ch. 9 – “On Souls, Psyches, and Spirits: Applying Trauma and Disability Studies Frameworks to Religious and Psychiatric Healing Practices in the 20th-Century Eastern Mediterranean,” by Beverly Tsacoyianis, University of Memphis, USA
Ch. 10 – “Treat Your Mind in Your Hand: Mid-20th Century Mental Health Discourses in Iran,” by Saghar Bozorgi, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Ch. 11 – “Portraying Disability in Refugeedom: Palestinian Refugees with Disability through UNRWA Photographs” by Maria Chiara Rioli, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy
Ch. 12 – “Conclusion: Enriching Disability History through Middle Eastern Studies, and Enriching Middle Eastern Studies through Disability History,” by co-editors Sara Scalenghe and Beverly Tsacoyianis
Product details
| Published | 29 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 272 |
| ISBN | 9780755653270 |
| Imprint | I.B. Tauris |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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This is a powerful and necessary contribution to the field of Disability Studies. An absolutely necessary read for anyone interested in the Middle East. Only now can we claim that Disability Studies is inclusive, with the emergence of this volume.
Shahd Alshammari, Associate Professor of Literature, Gulf University for Science & Technology, Kuwait
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Disability History in the Middle East expands our understanding of place-based disability and madness and the past. Critically attentding to the modern state, colonialism, representations, and gender, the authors model historical specificity and deep contextual analysis, reframing core disability history themes: war, technologies, incarceration, poverty, policy, and citizenship. A must-read work for everyone interested in disability history.
Susan Burch, Professor, Middlebury College, US






















