Perceptions of Disability and Care in Early Islamic Central Asia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Identity, Interpretation, and Innovation: The Worlds of Islamic Archaeology" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In this paper, we apply an index of care approach to a case study of an individual with progressive pseudorheumatoid dysplasia from an early Islamic cemetery at the site of Tashbulak in southeastern Uzbekistan. Joint degeneration and progressive impingement of nerves would have severely limited individual TBK Br08’s ability to eat, drink, and stay clean. We situate this individual’s needed care within the context of Islamic philosophy and contemporary medical approaches with regards to disabled individuals. The Qur’an and Sunnah address not only the importance of caring for “disadvantaged people” by all Muslims, but also their rights within society, including marriage and ownership of property. TBK Br08 was cared for over a period of several years, and despite requiring increasing levels of care, lived at least into early adulthood. In death, TBK Br08 was buried according to Islamic prescription, in the same manner as other, nondisabled individuals at Tashbulak. Much research on early Islam in Central Asia focuses on the where and when of the religion’s spread. This paper seeks to examine the human dimension of early Islam in Central Asia, and create a framework for future studies of disability in the early Islamic world.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Identity, Interpretation, and Innovation: The Worlds of Islamic Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32227