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Krapivin I. Hijama and Biomedicine: Between Confrontation and Acceptance of Authority

Ilya Krapivin
European University at Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation
ORCID: 0000-0001-6019-8248
E-mail: krapivin585@gmail.com

 

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ABSTRACT. Hijama is a Muslim therapeutic bloodletting based on the Hadith and the experience of the Prophet Muhammad. It is believed that the removal of “stale” blood has a therapeutic effect and can be used to treat various diseases. Due to its simplicity, Hijama began to gain popularity in the Islamic regions of Russia and the world in the mid-twenties. Recent years have been characterized by the movement of the procedure outside Muslim communities. This transition has influenced the practice itself, the languages of legitimization, and the professionalization and commercialization of the procedure. Biomedicine is in the focus of informants’ attention due to its hegemonic position. Attitudes towards it are characterized by ambiguity, as informants associate and simultaneously contrast their medical practices and views on health with biomedicine. This article examines how the Hajjam establish relations with biomedicine and physicians, how they define the boundaries of their practice, and what rhetoric they use to justify the efficacy of bloodletting. The study was able to identify two ways of justifying the efficacy of Hijama. The first appeals to humoral notions of health and the nature of disease, while the second makes heavy use of biomedical vocabulary to define physical conditions. Biomedical practitioners can act both as objects of criticism and as an authority on the efficacy of Hijama. As practitioners of alternative medicine, Hajjamas invariably appeal to the dominant biomedicine in order to both oppose its therapeutic method and at the same time use it as a role model.

 

KEYWORDS: Bloodletting, Hijama, Medical Anthropology, Medical Pluralism, Islam, Prophetic medicine

 

FOR CITATION: Krapivin I. Hijama and Biomedicine: Between Confrontation and Acceptance of Authority. Kunstkamera. 2024. 3(25): 151–169. (In Russian). doi 10.31250/2618-8619-2024-3(25)-151-169

 

DOI 10.31250/2618-8619-2024-3(25)-151-169
UDC 316.72:61

 

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