Disability in the Middle East

A Bibliography Comprising Materials with Technical, Cultural and Historical Relevance to Child and Adult Disabilities, Special Needs, Social and Educational Responses and Rehabilitation

Compiled, introduced and annotated by M. Miles
West Midlands, U.K.
m99miles@hotmail.com

For a list of abbreviations used in this document, consult the glossary.

Historical Items: Antiquity to 1750
(materials written in, and/or concerned with, this period)

KINDLY NOTE (once again...) The annotations given below must not be regarded as a substitute for reading the actual works listed! The views of textual commentators cannot substitute for the original texts on which they are commenting! All translations should be regarded with some caution!

For the present Internet version, many accents and diacritical marks have been omitted, as they still tend to be misrepresented either by the available coding systems or by differences of screen or print software across the world.

ABRAMS, Judith Z (1998) Judaism and Disability: portrayals in ancient texts from the Tanach through the Bavli. Washington DC: Gallaudet University Press. xi + 236 pp.
Detailed, well referenced review of disabilities in Jewish texts from c. 1000 BC to the 7th century CE, with insights into how these were understood in their period and how interpretations developed. The material is approached with little trace of dogmatism or of effort retrospectively to 'correct' earlier understandings in the light of modern views. Comparisons with surrounding societies and cultures (e.g. pp. 104-112) are based on secondary literature.

ABU 'L-`ALA AL- MA`ARRI. The Letters of Abu 'l-`AlA of Ma`arrat al-Nu`mAn, edited from the Leyden manuscript, with the life of the author by al-Dhahabi, translated with annotation by DS Margoliouth (1898). Anecdota Oxoniensia. Oxford Clarendon.
The biography of the blind poet, savant and freethinker Abu'l `Ala al-Ma`arri (973-1057) occupies pp. xi - xliii. He tasted the literary and cultural life of Baghdad, but after some quarrels and humiliations returned to his native city. There he developed an ascetic lifestyle and became well-known and influential. Al-Ma`arri's prolific correspondence may provide more insights into the man and his times, than the florid and often convoluted poetical and theological writings.

ABU 'L-QASIM KHALAF IBN `ABBAS AL-ZAHRAWI. Albucasis. On Surgery and Instruments. A definitive edition of the Arabic text with English translation and commentary. Edited & translated by MS Spink & GL Lewis (1973). London: Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine.
Influential 10th century physician and medical encyclopedist. Surgical section of his Kitab at-Tasrif has some disability applications. See e.g. cautery for palsy, epilepsy, hare lip, hunchback (pp. 36, 38, 60, 128); bonesetting pp. 676-836.

ADAMSON PB (1978) Terrorism and mutilation in countries of the ancient Middle East, with particular reference to Palestine. Medicina nei Secoli 15: 401-422.
Detailed consideration, from up to 3500 years past, of lethal practices, e.g. flaying, scalping, impalement, crucifixion; of other tortures, not necessarily lethal but disabling, e.g. amputations, mutilations, disfigurement, branding, castration; and of large-scale population mistreatment causing terror and severe psychosocial disruption, e.g. destruction of habitations and cultural property, semi-starvation, enslavement, deportation, etc., leading to lengthy or permanent devastation of territory and civilisation. Adamson incidentally notes some Akkadian terms in personal names, "hazimu, hazmu = having mutilated ears (also huzzmu); huppudu (hubbudu) = with destroyed eyes; kussusu = having a bodily defect, possibly being a cripple without a hand" (pp. 419-420).

ADAMSON PB (1990) Medical complications associated with security and control of prisoners of war in the ancient Near East. Medical History 34: 311-19.
[See previous entry.]

EL-AGUIZY, Ola (1987) Dwarfs and pygmies in Ancient Egypt. Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Egypte 71: 53-60.
[Based on Arabic dissertation, University of Cairo]

`ALI IBN 'ISA'. Tadhkirat Al-Kahhalin. [Memorandum Book for Ophthalmologists.]
Translated to German by J Hirschberg & J Lippert (1904, Leipzig), and to English by CA Wood (1936, The Tadhkirat of Ali ibn Isa of Baghdad. Memorandum book of a 10C. CE oculist. Northwestern University Press, Chicago). Called by Hirschberg (History, II: 53) "The classical textbook on ophthalmology ... for the Arabians", written at Baghdad around 1000 CE.

ALSTER, Bendt (1997) Proverbs of Ancient Sumer. The world's earliest proverb collections. 2 volumes, Bethesda, MD: CDL Press.
Dated before 2500 BC, the proverb collections appear in Volume I in roman transliteration and probable English translation (where known). Volume II provides commentary, glossary and 133 plates. Excluding various duplicates (unless their commentary includes additional points), the proverbs including clear reference to disability are serial numbered: 1.66 lame, halt, (comments in II: pp. 347-348); 2.61, bad hearing (II: 366); 2.120, lame, halt (II: 373); 5.57, deaf; 10.11, paralyzed; 11.85, lame; 12 Sec.C9, paralyzed; 13.22 - 13.25, lame (II: 429); 15 Sec.B6, halt (II: 433); 17 Sec.B3, paralyzed (II: 436); UET 6/2 339 (p. 322), deaf; MDP 27,111, lame, paralyzed (II: 480). Nine of these concern physical disability, though in two cases the point of the proverb is not at all obvious. Three involve deafness or impaired hearing, but in two the hearing problem is incidental to the proverb. There are some proverbs concerning fools (not listed here). Proverbs where a reference to disability is less clear, but may be deduced or appears conjecturally in the commentary, are: 1.29, blind (II: 344); 2.43, maimed, voice problem (II: 364); 3.142, eye problem (II: 390); 5.50, possibly lame (II: 402-403); 8 Sec.B11, blind? (II: 414); 8 Sec.B35, eye problem (II: 416-417); 21 Sec.A16, club foot? (II: 443-444); 21 Sec.D3, temporary mental confusion? (II: 444). Some of these conjectural meanings make up for the curious lack of blindness proverbs in the initial batch. The first of those listed above (1.66: "In the city of the lame, the halt are couriers"), is known in many languages by the equivalent, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king".

AMIN, Rida (1964) La paralysie infantile aux temps des pharaons. Cahiers d'Alexandrie, second series, No. 4. 69-77.

ANDERSEN SR (1997) The eye and its diseases in Ancient Egypt. Acta Ophthalmologica Scandinavica 75: 338-44.
Based on archaeological evidence from before the Hellenistic period.

ANTAKI S (1993) Ruwwad tibb al-`uyun fi Suriyah [Pioneers of ophthalmology in Syria]. Hims: Dar al-Dhakirah. 315 pp.

ARABIAN Nights' Entertainments, edited with introduction and notes by Robert L Mack (1995 /1998), Oxford World Classics, Oxford University Press. xxxv + 939 pp.
Often known as the "1001 Nights", many stories in this collection probably originate in India or Persia, and are associated with the story-teller Scheherazade beguiling Sultan Schahriar in order to save her own life and those of many other young women, possibly in the 9th century. The stories are well embedded in the ethics and morality of Middle Eastern life, with features of Islam prominent, but also a few Jewish and Christian characters. Some disabled people appear incidentally; a few are more noticeable, e.g. the disfigured Amine (pp. 66-80); the Little Hunchback (222-228) leading to tales of people with hands severed, and then to the hunchback Bacbouc, his toothless brother Backbarah, blind brother Bacbac, and brother Schacabac with a hare lip (229-306); and the blind man, Baba Abdalla (729-736). (HAJ, q.v., p. 39, reviewing Richard Burton's multi-volume translation of the Arabian Nights, details "fourteen different references to the blind", and over 2000 references to people blind in one eye).

ARCAS CAMPOY, Maria (2001) Las enfermedades yudam y baras (lepra) en los tratados de derecho islamico. Dynamis. Acta Hispanica ad Medicinae Scientarumque Historiam Illustrandam 21: 55-71.
The two Arabic disease terms yudam and baras (shown with diacriticals in the original) are tracked through about 25 medieval to modern Arabic lexicons and medical works, collecting a range of meanings, which are then discussed. The significance of the terms in the context of Maliki legal rulings is examined. People believed to have the diseases named may have reduced legal capacity, e.g. to enter into contracts, which has consequences for marriage, divorce, sale of slaves, under Islamic law.

ARDA, Berna & AKSU, Murat (2004) What [do] the Hittites' tablets tell us? A short historical view of deafness on the basis of genetics. Turkish J. Medical Science 34: 357-358.
Briefly mentions some features of the Hittite civilisation, and refers to papers by Soysal and Arikan-Soysal (q.v.) for information on blind and deaf people in those times.

ARETAEUS. The Extant Works of Aretaeus the Cappadocian, edited and translated by Francis Adams (1856). London: Sydenham Society.
In his "On the causes and symptoms of chronic diseases", Book I, chapter 4, (Adams' translation, pp. 296-297), Aretaeus left a useful description of the symptoms, phenomena, and social stigma of epilepsy. [His locator, "the Cappadocian", places Aretaeus in the Middle East, though to acquire the name he must have left his native region. His work apparently dates from the early to middle 2nd century CE.]

ARIKAN, Yasemine (2006) The blind in Hittite documents. Altorientalische Forschung 33 (1) 144-154.
Discusses various sources for information on blindness and blind people in Hittite antiquity. Arikan collects examples of the main word in use for 'blind', IGI.NU.GAL, in Hittite documents, and gives transliteration and translation of many of them, with some discussion. Blind people were found among prisoners of war, and were also put to work in the mills. They might have some curious roles in religious ceremonies. Several blind prisoners are identified by personal name and city of origin.

ARIKAN-SOYSAL, Y (2000) Hitit belgelerine körler. Archivum Anatolicum 4: 207-224.
[See previous item.]

d'ARVIEUX, Laurent (1735) Mémoire du Chevalier d'Arvieux, Envoye Extraordinnaire du Roi à la Porte, consul d'Alep, d'Alger, de Tripoli, & d'autres echelles du Levant: contenant ses voyages à Constantinople, dans l'Asie, la Palestine, l'Egypte etc. Paris.
Volume II, pp. 35-36. In Palestine in 1659, d'Arvieux and other French dignitaries met the Ottoman Pacha, with his mute. Over the next two days, the party journeyed with the Pacha, from Rama to Gaza. [See also BOBOVIUS; BON; BRAGADIN; DALLAM; DAMER; DOMENICO; ERIZZO; EVLIYA; LEWIS; LORICHS; MILES 2000; ÖGÜT & ÖZCAN; RICAUT.]

`ASIK ÇELEBI. The Tale of Me'ali, Magistrate of Mihaliç, translated by WG Andrews. In: Kemal Silay (Ed.) An Anthology of Turkish Literature, 138-46. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University, Turkish Studies, & Turkish Ministry of Culture.
Lewd and humorous 16th century Turkish tale of a magistrate overcome by lust for a lovely boy; interesting for its graphic depiction of the ghastly state of leprosy sufferers in a colony to which the magistrate is lured, who are tricked into believing that he is one of them.

ATERMAN, Kurt (1965) Why did Hephaestus limp? American J. Diseases of Childhood 109: 381-392.
[See next.]

ATERMAN K (1999) From Horus the child to Hephaestus who limps: a romp through history. American J. Medical Genetics 83: 53-63.
Describes a possible early connection between the lame or achondroplasic Egyptian gods Ptah-Pataikos and Bes and the lame Greek god Hephaestus (patron of metal workers), and examines a more recent suggestion that changes in smelting techniques exposed metal-workers to chronic lead or arsenic poisoning, with impairments eventually showing up in depictions of the deities.

AUBINEAU, Michel (1975) Zoticos de Constantinople nourricier des pauvres et serviteur des lépreux. Analecta Bollandia 93: 67-108.
This detailed, scholarly study on the martyred saint Zoticos gives a provenance of the sole manuscript (probably 11th century) of his Vita; the available Greek text with French translation; points of philological interest and some detailed textual comparison between the Vita and a later source; and a discussion of the significance of the text in historical and hagiological context. The story begins in the time of Constantine (c. 274-337 CE), whose noble reign reportedly had one blemish: a decree ordering the banishment and destruction of people with leprosy and those combatting the disease. Zoticos had been given responsibilities in the new capital at Byzantium, and enjoyed Constantine's confidence. To by-pass this decree, Zoticos requested and received gold to buy "precious stones" for the benefit of the emperor; but used the gold to ransom leprosy-disabled people who were being taken to their destruction, and to set up an encampment where they were cared for. The scheme was denounced by courtiers when Constantine died and his son Constant[ius] (who favoured Arianism) took power; but Zoticos invited the new emperor to come and see the "precious stones". Constant was greeted by a congregation of lepers, among them being his own daughter, who had been expelled under the decree, and rescued by Zoticos. Unamused by this ploy, Constant had Zoticos tied and dragged by wild mules until his body fell in pieces. Miraculous events followed. Constant repented of his errors and founded the "Zoticos Hospital" to continue the saint's work.
This foundation seems to have been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times over the centuries (according to Synaxarion, Dec. 30, it was rebuilt, after an earthquake, by Romanus III (1028-1034)). Historicity of the Zoticos vita cannot easily be substantiated, but he is mentioned independently in 472, as one who cared for orphans. A tradition of care for the poor, sick or suffering from leprosy continued to the time of the Emperor Michael IV (1034-41), when the extant manuscript originated. Indeed, Michael IV (see Psellus, Fourteen Byzantine Rulers) suffered from epilepsy; and the Vita concludes with a celebration of this emperor's care for leprosy sufferers, bathing their wounds with his own hands. M. Aubineau speculates on the concepts and writings of Byzantine and earlier hagiographers, tracing back the idea of money given by rulers for building a palace, but actually spent on the poor. Parallels can be found as far back as the story of the apostle Thomas and King Gondafor (or Gundaphor and other transliterations) in the apocryphal Acts of the Apostles (Acts of Thomas, Second Act, 17-24; translation available online).
[N.B. Aubineau's journal article on Zoticos is correctly titled as shown. That article was drawn to the attention of recent 'disability studies' and commented on in interesting fashion by the philosopher and disability-historian Henri-Jacques Stiker, in his Corps infirmes et sociétés, 1982, Paris: Aubier Montaigne; revised 1997, Paris: Editions Dunod; English translated by W Sayers, 1997, as A History of Disability, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. In both Stiker's original notes (pp. 88-91, 229), and the English version of his revised book (pp. 73-76, 215), the title of Aubineau's article appears as "Biographie, vertu et martyre de notre saint Père Zotikos, nourricier des pauvres." That title is in fact a free translation (Greek to French) of the heading of the Vita text, as shown on p. 71 of the Analecta Bollandia article (but Aubineau has "vertus", not "vertu"). The Greek can be transliterated: Bios kai politeia kai marturion, tou en hagiois patros hEmOn ZOtikou tou ptOchotrophou. The use of vertus for politeia might be an interpretative move. Aubineau comments (p. 86) on the technical term ptOchotrophos.]

AVALOS, Hector (1995) Critical reviews. "Epilepsy in Babylonia". J. Cuneiform Studies 47: 119-121.
Useful review of STOL 1993 (q.v.)

AVALOS H (1998) Disability and liturgy in ancient and modern religious traditions. In: NL Eiesland & DE Saliers (Eds.) Human Disability and the Service of God: reassessing religious practice, 35-54. Nashville: Abingdon.
Reviews some features of ancient liturgical practice concerned with healing, in Mesopotamian and Eastern Mediterranean religions, comparing e.g. the locus (home or hospital), and use of animals, icons, drugs or music in the ancient settings with the mostly different practices in modern American liturgies.

AVALOS H (2007) Epilepsy in Mesopotamia reconsidered. In: IL Finkel & MJ Geller (Eds.) Disease in Babylonia [131-136]. Cuneiform Monographs 36. Leiden: Brill.
[One among 13 papers from a conference in 1996, on 'Concepts of Disease in Ancient Babylon'.]

AVALOS H, MELCHER, Sarah J & SCHIPPER, Jeremy (Eds.) (2007) This Abled Body. Rethinking disabilities and Biblical studies. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. ix + 244 pp.
This collection reads back into 'biblical studies' some elements of modern 'disability politics' and personalised interpretations, and suggests, with some plausibility, an imminent rise in studies of this kind (at least, in the anglophone world). Several chapters are based in scholarly work in Middle Eastern antiquity. See e.g. WALLS, below.

`AWWAD, Kurkis (1979) al-Tufula wa-al-atfal fi al-masadir al-`arabiyya al-qadima wa 'l-haditha. [Childhood and children in ancient and contemporary Arabic sources.] Baghdad.
Cited by GIL`ADI (1992, p.2) q.v. Some 350 bibliographical entries on childhood in medieval Islam.

BADAWI MM (1988) Early Arabic Drama. Cambridge University Press.
pp. 14-21, Ibn Daniyal's drama Tayf al-Khayal (The Shadow Spirit) is described, with a deformed hunchback in the title role and his clownish and immoral friend Prince Wisal buffooning around.

AL-BAGHAWI (revised by at-Tibrizi). Mishkat al-masabih. English translation with explanatory notes, by James Robson, 2 volumes, reprint 1990/1994, Lahore: Sh. Muhammad Ashraf. xx + 1453 pp.
Al-Baghawi's selection of hadiths (11th century CE) became popular after Tibrizi's 14th century revision. Some sayings or involvement of the prophet Muhammad concerning disability and treatment are reported: e.g. blindness and eye problems (pp. 36, 138, 217, 221, 231, 397-399, 405, 532, 663, 708-709, 745, 878, 889, 935, 945-954, 1035, 1133, 1296-97, 1302, 1342); 'leprosy' (pp. 98, 397-399, 526, 619, 955-956, 1221, 1379); epilepsy, idiocy, possession (pp. 329, 526, 638, 697, 931, 1033, 1220, 1260, 1291); various conditions, causes and remedies (pp. 5-6, 36, 313, 508, 582, 664, 689, 763, 925, 934, 945-954, 997, 1274, 1345). The usual divisions are observed, between hadiths considered perfectly reliable; those considered good but not in the first class; and those considered weak (but not completely worthless). In his introduction (pp. i - xx), Robson discusses issues of hadith transmission and selection, as well as matters of text and various earlier translations. [Any translation of an important work of Islam, by a non-Muslim, is likely to be regarded with some doubt by Muslims, and to be scrutinised closely for possible defects and distortions. Robson's work was chosen for reprinting and publication at Lahore, during a period when Pakistan was taking seriously its identity as an Islamic republic and more tools were being produced for religious uplift, in parallel with the Islamic resurgence across the Middle East. That does not guarantee the detailed acceptability of Robson's efforts; but it appears that nothing overtly obnoxious to Muslims was found in his translation and interpretation, which primarily required a strong knowledge of medieval Arabic and modern English.]

BAINES, John R (1985) Egyptian twins. Orientalia 54: 461-482.

BAINES JR (1986) Zwilling. In: W Helck & W Westendorf (Eds.) Lexikon der Ägyptologie 6: 1436-1437. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

BAINES J[R?] (1992) Merit by proxy: the biographies of the dwarf Djeho and his patron Tjaiharpta. J. Egyptian Archaeology 78: 241-257.

BARDINET T (1988) Remarques sur les maladies de la peau, la lèpre, et le châtiment divin dans l'Égypte ancienne. Revue d'Égyptologie 39: 3-36.

BARDY, Gustave (1910) Didyme l'Aveugle. Paris: Gabriel Beauchesne. xii + 279 pp.
Study of the teaching of Didymus, the 4th century blind theologian at Alexandria, prefaced by a review of his life (pp. 1-15).

BARTHOLIN, Thomas (1662) Paralytici Novi Testamenti, medico et philologico commentari illustrati. 2nd edition. Basel. 105 pp.
Member of a family of prolific medical authors, Bartholinus made some studies specifically on disability.

BARTHOLIN T (1672) De morbis biblicis miscellanea medica. 2nd edition. Frankfurt. 133 pp.
See note on previous item. The present work also appeared in English translated by J Willis, in an edition published 1994, Copenhagen.

EL BATRAWI, Ahmed M (1935) Report on the Human Remains. In: Mission Archéologique de Nubie 1929-1934, Service des Antiquités de l'Egypte. Cairo.
pp. 183-187 cover some pathological cases, starting with two hydrocephalic skulls, which are described in some detail (183-186).

BAZNA, Maysaa S & HATAB, Tarek A (2005) Disability in the Qur'an: the Islamic alternative to defining, viewing and relating to disability. J. Religion, Disability & Health 9 (1) 5-27.
Compares traditional interpretations of relevant texts, with some modern perspective on disability. Examines the meanings of some disability-related words as given in the early 14th century Lisan ul-Arab (Beirut: Dar Ehia al-Tourath al-Arabi) by Ibn Manzur [c. 1230-1311], a massive lexicon compiled on the basis of earlier dictionaries.

BECKMAN, Gary (2007) A Hittite ritual for depression (CTH 432). In: D Groddek & M Zorman (Eds.) Tabularia Hethaeorum: Hethitologische Beiträge Silvin Kosak zum 65. Geburtstag, 69-81. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Beckman gives transliteration of KUB 4.47 with KBo 45.193, in pp. 69-74, and translation with technical notes (74-78). With some abbreviation, the problem is described thus: "If a god or goddess is [angry(?)] with a person, so that his mind is ever spinning(?) ... everything is difficult for him ... cannot sleep ... always in a foul mood ... bad dreams ... always irritated ..." (74) Discussing the contents (78-81), Beckman goes beyond an earlier interpretation ("Rituel contre l'insomnie", E Laroche), finding insomnia merely one among several symptoms of clinical depression (comparing a modern American definition), and noting the combination of therapeutic regime and religious invocation to address the affliction. (The invocation involves confession of sin, offence, outrage, with penitence and plea for forgiveness; curiously, it is in Akkadian). The text seems to belong to the Hittite capital in the 13th century BC, while drawing on Mesopotamian tradition.

BIDDULPH, William [c. 1600] Part of a letter of Master William Biddulph from Aleppo. In: S Purchas (Ed.) (1905) Hakluytus Posthumus, 248-304. Glasgow: MacLehose.
The traveller William Biddulph remarked c.1600 that the Turks had various ways of naming one another, sometimes by personal appearance (p. 268). "But if Nature have marked them either with goggle eyes, bunch backs, lame legs, or any other infirmitie or deformitie, as they are knowne by it, so they are content to bee called by it." (p. 269) He also commented on the tolerance shown to "fooles, dumbe men, and mad men" (pp. 263-264).

BIGGS, Robert D (1968) An esoteric Babylonian commentary. Revue d'Assyriologie 62: 51-58.
This brief material, perhaps from the Persian period and apparently extracted from a long text, seems to concern the prediction of abnormality (izbu) at birth, involving astrological indications.

BIGGS RD (1980-1983) i. Kopfkrankheiten. ii. Lepra. In: DO Edzard et al. (Eds.) Reallexicon der Assyriologie und Vorderasiatischen Archäologie 6: 210-211; 605. Berlin: de Gruyter.

BLACK JA; CUNNINGHAM G; EBELING J; FLÜCKIGER-HAWKER E; ROBSON E, TAYLOR J, & ZOLYOMI (1998-2006) The Electronic Corpus of Sumerian Literature. Oxford: University of Oxford, Faculty of Oriental Studies. http://etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/
This 'electronic corpus' provides access to an accumulation of edited texts, transliterations and translations of Sumerian cuneiform materials, from possibly 3000 to 4000 years ago with provision for keyword searching. The English term 'blind' appears in 6 paragraphs; crazy (1 paragraph), cripple (10), deformed (3), deaf (4), disfigured (1), dolt (1), freak (1), fool (20), idiot (2), paralyse (7), weak (38). [See also note in General Introduction, under 'Search, Access & Supply'.]
In context, some impairment or disability terms were being used as insults, e.g. "His face is disfigured, his judgement is muddled, ... a smitten man who makes himself important. He is negligent, a cripple, the son of a hound. A madman, crazy..." (and further undesirable attributes, in Diatribe C, t.5.4.12), suggesting that impairments and disabilities were as unwelcome in Sumer as in any other known civilisation. The position of the "leprous man" (in "Gilgamesh, Enkidu and the nether world", c.1.8.1.4), is striking. In a list of 'Did you see (this or that ill-fated or badly damaged person)?' questions occur: "Did you see the leprous man? -- I saw him. -- How does he fare? -- His food is set apart, his water is set apart, he eats the food offered (?) to him, he drinks the water offered (?) to him. He lives outside the city." However, the story of Enki and Ninmah, in English translation t.1.1.2, provides a possible counterbalance on the positive side, containing the idea that disabled people should find, or be provided with, appropriate means to earn their bread and take up useful roles in society. (See more detailed account in annotation to BOTTÉRO & KRAMER 1989, below).

BLAU J (1916) The defective in Jewish law. In: Jewish Eugenics and Other Essays, 23-50. New York.

BOBOVIUS, Albertus. Topkapi. Relation du sérail du Grand Seigneur. Edited by A Berthier & S Yerasimos (1999). Sindbad. Actes Sud.
Includes a description in the 17th century of the 'mutes' in the seraglio, the deaf male servants who customarily served the Sultan (and deaf women serving in the harem), whose sign language became a common means of communication in the palace, probably from the middle of the 16th century. Bobovius notes that sign language was taught by older deaf people to the younger, at a specific location, and it was sufficient for communicating matters of any complexity, including the holy texts and the prophets of Islam. (pp. 33-34).

BÖCK, Barbara (2000) Die Babylonisch-Assyrische Morphoskopie. Beihefte 27, zum Archiv für Orientforschung. Vienna. vii + 348 + 32.
Böck's doctoral dissertation (1996) gives a detailed review of the Babylonian-Assyrian "morphoscopic" and physiognomic literature, processing and translating a substantial amount of relevant text, and examining the body and 'shape' terms that were used.

BON, Ottaviano (c.1608). [NM Penzer, The Harem, London: Spring Books, pp. 34-37, shows that Bon's manuscripts were translated & published as: WITHERS, Robert (1650) A description of the Grand Signor's Seraglio. London. The material was earlier published in PURCHAS: Pilgrims (1625) Volume II, ix, 1580-1611. See reprint: Samuel PURCHAS (1905) Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes, IX, pp. 322-406, Glasgow: MacLehose.]
Account of the mutes and dwarfs at the Ottoman court, including the signing system (IX: 328, 362-363, 374-375, 380, 385) and notes on deformities (IX: 369)

THE BOOK OF PARADISE being the Histories and Sayings of the Monks and Ascetics of the Egyptian Desert by Palladius, Hieronymus and other. The Syriac Texts ..., Volume I, English translation by EA Wallis Budge. London. 1904.
The Preface (p. vii) states that the work here translated was composed by Mar Palladius [365-425], Bishop of Helenopolis, in Bythinia. Several of the monks whose lives are recounted had disabilities, e.g. Didymus the Blind (pp. 136-138); Paul the Simple (183-189); James the Lame (265-273, though nothing is said about his lameness); the sage who allowed other monks to think he was mad, while in fact he was taking care to remove evil from his mind (388-390).

BOSWORTH, Clifford E (1976) The Mediaeval Islamic Underworld. The Banu Sasan in Arabic society and literature. Part One: The Banu Sasan in Arabic Life and Lore. Part Two: The Arabic Jargon Texts. The Qasida Sasaniyyas of Abu Dulaf and Safi d-Din. Leiden: Brill. 2 volumes. xiv + 179 + xi; vii + 180 + (Arabic) civ.
Reviewing texts on beggars and vagabonds in the earlier Arab world, details appear of those who pretended to suffer a variety of disabling conditions, e.g. volume I: x, 19-24, 36-47, 84-95, 99-100, 110. (Some details are obscene or scatological). Volume II contains texts, translations and notes.

BOTTÉRO, Jean & KRAMER, Samuel N (1989) Lorsque les Dieux Faisaient l'Homme. Mythologie Mésopotamienne. Paris: Gallimard. 755 pp.
With an extensive introduction to the background of Mesopotamian cuneiform literature, religion and mythology (pp. 1-104), selected texts are presented in translation (to French) from Sumerian and Akkadian, illustrating cosmological beginnings. Stories of Enki (known in Akkadian as Éa) occupy pp. 151-202, including the brief tale of Enki and Ninmah (188-194) with commentary (194-198). The available materials, from the second millennium BC, have suffered damage over the centuries, and the meaning of some words and phrases remain obscure, yet the Enki and Ninmah story as a whole is more or less comprehensible, and provides an interesting extension to the general run of cosmological accounts.
Enki and Ninmah. After the cosmos was set up, the lesser gods began grumbling about how much work they had to do. Prodded by Namma (the primeval mother goddess), the designer-engineer-fixer Enki made some midwife goddesses, so that mankind could be produced and put to work. Celebrating this manoeuvre, Enki and senior midwife Ninmah had some beer together. Ninmah reflected that their new line, mankind, could turn out good or bad, and boasted that it would depend on what fate she assigned to each. Enki, inventing the role of Vocational Rehabilitation Advisor, took up the challenge. Ninmah took clay and produced a man who could hold nothing in his enfeebled hands; but Enki assigned him to the King's service. Ninmah made one who was blind; Enki put him into the song and music line at court. Ninmah made a man with paralysed feet; Enki's solution here was not so clear - presumably a sedentary occupation, fortune telling? silver-working? [Another version has this third man created as an idiot; he would have been found a niche in the civil service.] The fourth man had a problem of keeping his sperm or his urine from flowing at the wrong time. Enki worked a cure by driving out a demon. The fifth was a woman who could not have children. This suited her for a place in the royal harem. The sixth person was made without sexual parts. Enki put this one among the eunuchs at court. [Compare some alternative translations, e.g. BLACK et al. 1998-2006; JACOBSEN 1987; KLEIN 1997.] Having arranged some kind of self-sustaining role in life for these six examples of humans with abnormalities, Enki shaped up a profoundly disabled man [or baby?] and challenged Ninmah to find him a role in which he could earn his bread. Under some taunting from Enki, Ninmah could find no solution; yet the available text has deteriorated, so the endgame is unclear.
Possible clarifications are discussed by Bottéro & Kramer, e.g. the adroitness of Enki's vocational guidance to each disabled candidate. Perhaps the man who could hold nothing in his hand had the merit of being able neither to steal nor to 'palm' a bribe -- ironic comment on functionaries in all generations? With whatever nuances of interpretation, the story could be read as one of the world's earliest discussions of the need for social roles in which people with disabilities may play their part using other abilities. [It may be significant that another Enki cosmological story, involving the deity Ninhursag, has a herb-tasting session followed by a story listing body parts (head, hair, nose, mouth, throat, arms, sides, flanks), and their ailments, for each category of which a separate solution is created. (Bottéro & Kramer pp. 150-164, specifically pp. 157-159, commentary pp. 162-164). There seems to be a recognition of some difference between categories of 'disease' and of 'chronic disabling condition'.]

BOUSQUET G-H (1961) Études islamologiques d'Ignaz Goldziher. Traduction analytique (IV). Arabica 8: 238-272.
With relevance to the histories of signing by deaf people, see pp. 269-272, on "Du langage par gestes et signes chez les Arabes", derived (with much abbreviation) from I GOLDZIHER (1886) Ueber Geberden- und Zeichensprache bei den Arabern. Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie 14: 369-386. While mainly on signing within the historical Arab world, there is some discussion of traditions embodying the finger and hand signs and gestures much used by the Prophet Muhammad, with explanations in commentaries. These are likely to have had some impact among Muslims across the Middle East.

BRAGADIN, Pietro (1526) Sommario della relazione di Pietro Bragadin Bailo a Constantinopoli. In: Eugenio Albéri (Ed.) (1855) Relazioni degli Ambusciatori Veneti, Volume IX, [series III, volume III.], pp. 99-112. Firenze.
Bragadin was the Venetian Bailo (ambassador or senior diplomat) 1524-1526, at the court of Sultan Suleiman at Constantinople. He described the Grand Vizier Ibrahim, who was indispensable to Suleiman. Frequent communication between Suleiman and Ibrahim took place via the Sultan's mute servant / messenger ("ogni giorno il Signor li scrive qualche polizza di sua man, e la manda per il suo muto", p. 103). Bragadin offered no explanation of "il suo muto", which may suggest that, in the mid-1520s, it was already sufficiently well known (i.e. by the Venetian Senate, to whom he was reporting) that there were deaf and mute personal servants or message-carriers attending the Ottoman Sultan.

BROTHWELL, Don R & POWERS, Rosemary (1968) Congenital malformations of the skeleton in earlier man. In: DR Brothwell (Ed.) The Skeletal Biology of Earlier Human Populations, 173-203. Oxford: Pergamon.
Includes malformations such as achondroplasia, anencephaly, possible talipes varus, hip joint deformities, hydrocephaly, in Egyptian and Nubian skeletons, among worldwide examples.

BRUNSCHVIG R (1949) Théorie générale de la capacité chez les hanafites médiévaux. Revue internationale des droits de l'antiquité 2: 157-172.
Discusses the meanings of legal capacity and legal inhibition (hijr) understood by various early Hanifite sources, mentioning the cases of infants, pre-pubertal children and the safih (prodigal, or person lacking reason in the disposition of his affairs and belongings) for whom guardians were necessary. (See also FAHD & HAMMOUDI; LINANT DE BELLEFONDS; NASIR; PERREIMOND; SAFAI).

BUCHHEIM, Liselotte (1966) Die altägyptische Ohrenheilkunde und ihre Bedeutung für undere Kenntnis der altägyptischen Medizin. Sudhoffs Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin und der Naturwissenschaften 7: 30-39.

BUDGE, E A Wallis (translator) (1913) Syrian Anatomy, Pathology and Therapeutics, or "The Book of Medicines" (Syriac text & English translation). Oxford University Press.
Lectures based on Hippocrates, from early centuries CE. Some discussion of epilepsy, mental disabilities.

AL-BUKHARI. The translation of the Meanings of Sahih Al-Bukhari, Arabic-English. New Delhi: Kitab Bhavan. 9 volumes.
Volume VII contains several hadiths pertinent to disability, e.g. No.s 555 (pp. 376-377, epilepsy); 557 (p. 377, blindness); 582 (p. 395, for every disease, Allah makes treatment available); 608 (pp.408-409, leprosy). Other major hadith collections contain further examples. See e.g. AL-BAGHAWI.

BÜRGEL, J Christoph (1974) Psychosomatic methods of cures in the Islamic middle ages. Humaniora Islamica 1: 157-172.

BÜRGEL JC (1976) Secular and religious features of Medieval Arabic medicine. In: C Leslie (Ed.) Asian Medical Systems: A Comparative Study, 44-62. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Detailed, lucid exposition of origins and differences between Galenic and later Prophetic influences during the formative centuries of Arabic medicine. Mentions six standard 'specialist' fields of study, among which were oculist and "orthopedist (mujabbir, literally bone-setter)". Discusses hadiths underlying Prophetic medicine, e.g. merit of patiently bearing epilepsy or blindness, using amulets against Evil Eye.

EL-BUSIRI. translated by JW Redhouse (1881) The "Burda," i.e. The Poem of the Mantle, in praise of Muhammad, by El-Busiri. In: WA Clouston (Ed.) Arabian Poetry for English Readers, pp. 319-341. Glasgow.
Redhouse provides preface and notes to his translation of this poem from the 13th century CE, which has been widely recited in time of sickness. It celebrates the Prophet's powers of healing (e.g. verse 85; see also v. 104). One legend tells that "the Poet was stricken with palsy, and obtained his recovery of God through the Prophet's intercession" (p. 322).

CAPPS, Edward, Jr. (1927) An ivory pyxis in the Museo Cristiano and a plaque from the Sancta Sanctorum. The Art Bulletin 9 (4, June) 330-340.
These items from antiquity depict scenes from the life of Christ, with healing of people having severe disabilities. Capps locates them in the iconographic context of Coptic and Alexandrian schools of art, and dates them to the early sixth century CE.

CASSIN, Elena (1987) Le semblable et le différent: symbolismes du pouvoir dans le Proche-Orient ancien. Paris: Découverte. 373 pp.
Two chapters discuss "Le droit et le tordu". The first (pp. 50-71) is on disability in the Jewish scriptures, with more focus on David and Meriba`al, and close consideration of Hebrew disability terms. The second (72-97) is titled "Handicapés et marginaux dans la Mésopotamie des IIe-Ier millénaires". Apart from the need for constancy in prayer by the king, rewarded by the deity sustaining his non-trembling step and non-twisted tongue, the risk was foreseen (c. 14th century BC) that some rogue might use a mad, deaf, blind or otherwise disabled person as an unwitting agent to commit a sacrilegious act, so that the resultant curse should be diverted from the instigator (81-82, 92) (see also D MARCUS; and Z FALK, below). Many Akkadian disability terms, with overlapping semantic range and possible nuances, are discussed in detail with sources (82-91, 96-97). The (apparent) custom is noted of placing a simpleton 'substitute' on the throne for a limited period to divert and absorb some curse or threat to the king; the substitute either died, or was killed at the close of the period (94-95). (Cf. KRASNOWOLSKA, below).

CERESKO, Anthony R (2001) The identity of "the blind and the lame" (`iwwer upisseah) in 2 Samuel 5:8b. Catholic Biblical Quarterly 63: 23-30.
Reviews various explanations of this curious and difficult passage. (See also CLEMENTS; WÄCHTER et al.)

CHALEBY, Kutaiba (2000) Forensic psychiatry and Islamic law. In: I Al-Issa (Ed.) Al-Junun: mental illness in the Islamic world, 71-98. Madison, CT: International Universities Press, Inc.
Examines from historical and modern understanding various questions of legal competence or incompetence, according to mental capacities or their absence.

CHARDIN, Jean [John Chardin] (1711) Voyage du Chevallier Chardin en Perse et autres Lieux de l'Orient. Nouvelle edition. Amsterdam.
Jean Chardin (1643-1713) made several visits to Persia, in the 1660s and 1670s. In volume 5, he noted the custom of rendering royal princes blind, to avoid contests over inheriting the throne (pp. 241-243). In volume VIII, pp. 47-48, three blind princes appear, and in pp. 54-59 there is a remarkable description of the blind prince Mirza Rezi and his two blind brothers, and of their lives, studies and activities. [There are various editions, with different volume numbers and pagination.]

CHARON P (2005) Tératologie du tube neural: histoire et paléopathologie. Antropo 10: 83-101.
http://www.didac.ehu.es/antropo/10/10-8/Charon.htm
Spina bifida was found in remains at Baharyia, Egypt, dating to around 1600 BC

CHASE, Debra A (1991) Evidence of disease in Ancient Near Eastern texts: leprosy in the epilogue to the Code of Hammurapi? In DJ Ortner & AC Aufderheide (Eds.) Human Paleopathology: current syntheses and future options, pp. 200-204. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

[CHICAGO ASSYRIAN DICTIONARY (CAD)] The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, edited by IJ Gelb, T Jacobsen, B Landsberger, AL Oppenheim; MT Roth, RD Biggs, JA Brinkman, M Civil, W Farber, E Reiner, et al. (1956- [?2009]) Chicago: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.
Begun c. 1921, the first two volumes of CAD were published in 1956. In 2008, the full set is almost complete. Individual .pdf files are online and are free to download: http://oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/cad/
Numerous disability-related words, and words for bodily or mental abnormalities or some kind of affliction, are found throughout the dictionary, either as entries, or in illustrative texts for unrelated words, and with many variants. Some (more or less) equivalent Sumerograms are shown (in capitals, according to convention), where they were adopted in Akkadian. Examples (with diacriticals omitted): hummuru (crippled) KUD.KUD(.DU); hummusu (baldheaded); kubbulu (lame, paralysed, crippled); kubbusu (downtrodden); lillu (fool moron); lillutu (foolishness, weakness); pessu, (crippled, deformed) BA.AN.ZA; sukkuku (deaf, obtuse), with four (apparently) different kinds of meaning, U.HUB; and many more. (See HOLMA 1914, for many 'defect' words on the 'quttulu' pattern, more of which were elucidated in the period after 1914, and appear in the CAD).

[CHICAGO DEMOTIC DICTIONARY (CDD)] The Demotic Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, edited by JH Johnson (2001- ) Chicago: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. Open online version (preliminary, and incomplete in June 2008): http://www-oi.uchicago.edu/research/pubs/catalog/cdd/
The written language known as 'Demotic' is found in Egyptian texts from approximately the 7th century BC to the 5th century CE, representing a late stage in the development of the ancient Egyptian language, and a stage in which considerable quantities of 'ordinary, everyday' text is available, as well as text on more esoteric subjects. The present dictionary updates and extends W. Erichsen's Demotisches Glossar (1954), and is based mainly on texts published during the following 25 years (1955-1979), with previous and subsequent additional materials as available, and as extended by accumulating knowledge. The CDD's current electronic format is amply spaced on the page, providing the root (transcribed with roman characters plus a few necessary symbols and diacriticals), words formed on the root and variations, and (in English) parts of speech, definition, reference in Erichsen's Glossar, other cross-references, relevant secondary literature, and (where available) a slightly enlarged photographic snippet of Demotic cursive script giving the word, with papyrus reference or other information.
Each letter is presented in its own volume, presently available (June 2008) as individual .pdf files. These were downloaded and each file was searched electronically for 'simple' disability terms (blind, deaf, dumb, mute, lame, dwarf, mad, fool, epilep.., mutilat..). Approximately 15 roots were found showing equivalence with these historical English disability terms, e.g. {3}bw, to be dumb; bl.., bl{3}, blindness; `lw{3} to be mute; gnm, to be(come) blind; gr`, lame; gl, lame; ,hshb.., to mutilate; knm, to be(come) blind; kl{3}.., (possibly) lame; l,h, fool, foolish; nm(.t), dwarf; shpe.., ? blind; [some diacriticals omitted, or differently represented]. A similar number of derivatives, variants or conjectural translations showed up, with possible or probable equivalence. In some cases, adjacent or associated roots or terms suggest the semantic path to the disability usage, e.g. terms for 'cover', 'be hidden', adjacent to 'blind'; a term for 'necropolis' (graveyard) associated with 'deceased person, ghost', 'evil spirit', 'diviner', 'epileptic', 'possessed man'; an association of 'foolish, stupid' with 'hypocrite', 'wicked', impudent'.

[CHICAGO HITTITE DICTIONARY (CHD)] The Hittite Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, edited by HG Güterbock, HA Hoffner & TPJ van den Hout (1989- ) Chicago: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago.
To be of much use, the Dictionary of an ancient language that was discovered only a century ago on thousands of clay tablets, is bound to reproduce a good deal of text embodying and displaying the semantic range of the words, phrases, grammatical constructions and so forth, as there is no other reliable method to determine and display the meanings and mechanisms. As most of the available materials (roughly letters L to S) are searchable on the web, many terms related to disability or deafness can be found in quoted texts having little or nothing to do with the main dictionary entry. For example, in the L-N volume, marlahh-, marlaishke-, marlant-, marlater, marleshshant-, represent: make foolish; become crazed, mad; fool, idiot; foolishness, idiocy, stupidity; foolish, idiotic, demented (pp. 191-192); whereas on p. 57a, a passage is quoted about the blind, deaf or lame man, while the entry itself is about a "categorical negative", le-e. In the P volume, the 'deaf man' appears incidentally on pp. 26b-27a, 211b, 309a; someone who has been blinded, on pp. 125a, 290b; diseases of the foot attract some examples under pata (p. 233a); lame or crippled men appear under pesh(sh)iya (p. 320a) and piddai (p. 353ab). In the S (Sh)1 material, there is blind or deaf material on pp. 55, 65-66, 68, 73-75, 119a, 128a, 141b; and in Sh2, on pp. 217a, 258b.

CIVIL, Miguel (1965) New Sumerian law fragments. In: HG Güterbock & T Jacobsen (Eds.) Studies in Honor of Benno Landsberger, 289-298. Assyriological Studies No. 16. Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press.
Details are given of some new texts of Liptishtar's Laws, the first of which concerns "remarriage in case of disability of the first wife" (pp. 1-3). The latter text, compared with a similar provision in the Code of Hammurabi, has more disability detail: "'If a man's first wife has lost her sight or has become paralytic, she shall not leave the house; (if) her husband takes a second wife, the later wife shall support the first wife. Variant: 'he shall support the later wife (and) the first wife.'" Discussion follows of the disability terms, the 'loss of sight' being partly conjectural. A further speculation is that, if the impairments were combined, the reference might be to leprosy, for which (in the similar text) a euphemism may have been used.

CLEMENTS RE (2003) [Hebrew] pisseah. In: GJ Botterweck, H Ringgren & H-J Fabry (Eds.) Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, volume XII, pp. 24-29.
Discusses one of the Hebrew words of 'lame' or 'crippled', with reference to linguistic and critical literature of Jewish and Christian textual studies. (See also CERESKO; WÄCHTER et al.).

CLÈRE, Jacques Jean (1995) Les Chauves d'Hathor. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 63. Leuven: Peeters. xvii + 257 pp.
Baldness is seldom seen in ancient Egyptian graphic representations, both because it would tend to be hidden by wigs worn by people of some social standing, and because in formal representation "on a affaire à des figurations idéalisées des personnages où il ne convenait pas de montrer leurs imperfections physiques, pas plus leur calvitie qu'une mutilation ou une malformation corporelle." (p. 5) Nevertheless, some exceptions exist. The phenomenon of baldness and its linguistic and iconographic representation are here studied in scholarly depth. In particular, a number of examples are examined, in which persons are represented in a religious context, asserting that they are "the bald of [this or that] deity" or the "the bald of [a named temple]", having favoured status with that deity, and claiming to purvey the deity's favours to supplicants (e.g. pp. 164-170). [The work was assembled and published posthumously, with minimal editorial intervention; so while it is highly detailed and tackles interpretative complexities, it is not in the final form the author might have wished.]

COHEN, Mark R (2005) Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt. Princeton University Press. xiii + 288 pp.
Cohen has collected years of work into a densely detailed study based in 890 documents from the Cairo Geniza, mostly from the Fatimid and Ayyubid periods, 969-1250 CE, with many comparative references to studies of poverty and its relief in other Middle Eastern and European situations. Disabilities, incapacities, infirmities and afflictions, described with many Arabic terms (shown and commented on), are well represented among reasons for poverty, and have major foci at pp. 58, 152-154, 169-172, 239-242, while also having some dispersed index entries (blind, deaf, paralysed, al-mubtala, beggars and beggary, alms, charity, illness, and 'named individuals' e.g. Abu Said, blind man, Bu Ali, blind man, David the porter (amputee), Moses the lame, Umm al-mafluj, mother of semi-paralyzed child, etc.). [See GOITEIN, below.]

CONRAD, Lawrence I (1994) Did Al-Walid I found the first Islamic hospital? ARAM 6: 225-244.
Examines evidence for claims that Al-Walid founded the first 'hospital' caring for lepers at Damascus, and some extensions crediting Al-Walid with instituting wider formal disability services. The 'hospital' claim and extensions are unlikely.

CONRAD LI (1999) Medicine and Martyrdom: some discussions of suffering and divine justice in early Islamic society. In: JR Hinnells & R Porter (Eds.) Religion, Health and Suffering, 212-236. London: Kegan Paul International.
Heavily referenced review of suffering and the supposed part of Allah in it, with occasional mention of disability.

CONSTANTELOS, Demetrios J. (1968) Byzantine Philanthropy and Social Welfare. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press. xxvii + 356 pp.
Substantial work covering especially sources from the tenth to twelfth centuries, detailing the hospitals, hospices, establishments for care of orphans, elderly and infirm people, homes for the poor, blind, epileptic, totally incapacitated, or otherwise disabled people, at Byzantium, the Eastern Mediterranean and other parts of the Empire. See pp. 10, 66, 76, 86, 98, 99, 118, 122, 128-29, 136, 138, 150, 152, 154, 155, 164-167, 179, 233, 235, 242, 244, 259, 263, 264, 275-276, and terms such as 'blind', 'cripple', 'epileptic', 'leprosy' in the index. Motivations and religious beliefs are taken into account. The author is less sceptical than some more recent historians, but nonetheless reviews sources carefully. Among the philanthropists, he also noted some whose "humane attitude was blackened by various acts of cruelty" (p. 134).

CRUM WE & BELL HI (1922) Wadi Sarga. Coptic and Greek texts from the excavations undertaken by the Byzantine Research Account. Hauniae: Gyldendalske Boghandel-Nordisk forlag.
Excavations in 1913-1914 at the religious settlement at Wadi Sarga, some 15 miles south of Assyut, Egypt, found many ostraca and papyrus or parchment fragments of minor texts in Greek or Coptic, dating from the early 5th to early 7th century (pp. 5, 16, 29). Many of the ostraca, which can be dated between 550 and 650 CE (p. 16), are a kind of waybill, carried by the delivery man and handed over when he made delivery (p. 163). Several were written by a clerk named Horus, and one of these mentions "Enoch the Deaf" [EnOch p-kour] (p. 158, no. 207), as the person delivering a consignment of barley and wheat, on the 26th day of the month Mesore. Enoch was a fairly common name among Coptic Christians of the period - Crum & Bell index other ostraca bearing names such as Enoch the builder, brother Enoch, Apa Enoch, Enoch the steward, Enoch the less, Enoch the cameldriver; so it would not be surprising if anyone called Enoch might acquire some appropriate nickname, to distinguish him from the others.

CUMSTON CG (1921) A brief historical summary of the treatment of trachoma with special reference to the Arabian school and the writings of `Ali ibn el'Aissa (Jesu Hali). Annals of Medical History 3: 244-251.

CURTIUS, translated by JC Rolfe (1962) Quintus Curtius: History of Alexander. London: Heinemann.
In Book V, 5.5 to 5.24 (translated by Rolfe, I: 370-379), the Latin historian Quintus Curtius told the story of the hundreds of mutilated Greeks who had been released by their Persian captors, and met Alexander as he was about to fall on Persepolis in January 330 BC. They were one of the earliest and largest recorded groups of disabled people, and a debate is recorded among them, as to what they should ask Alexander for. Perhaps they were also the first such group to succeeded in changing a ruler's mind, when he had decided what kind of help they ought to have, and they persuaded him instead to give them what they really wanted.

CURTIUS, translated by J Yardley (1984) Quintus Curtius Rufus. The History of Alexander. London: Penguin.
See previous annotation. In Yardley's translation, the story is on pp. 103-105. See MILES 2003, below, for discussion of scholarly opinions about the historicity of the story.

DALLAM, Thomas. [Diary for 1599: Account of an Organ Carryed to the Grand Seignor and Other Curious Matter]. In JT Bent (Ed.) (1893) Early Voyages and Travels in the Levant. I.- The Diary of Master Thomas Dallam, 1599-1600, etc. London: Hakluyt Society.
Visiting the court of the Emperor Mehmet III at Constantinople (pp. 69-70), Dallam was amazed to see 100 dwarf attendants and 100 'deaf & dumb' pages. The latter used sign language, and "lett me understande by theire perfitt sins [signs] all thinges that they had sene the presente dow by its motions". (The 'presente' to the Emperor was a musical organ which had mobile figures, e.g. a bush full of birds which sang & shook their wings.) See RICAUT's fuller description of these well-trained deaf attendants. See also Stanley Mayes (1956) An Organ for the Sultan. London: Putnam, pp. 58, 63, 201-204, based on Dallam's diary, with background from other sources.

DALLEY, Stephanie (editor & translator) (1998) Myths From Mesopotamia. Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh, and others. Oxford University Press. xxi + 337 pp.
The Epic of Gilgamesh (two versions, pp. 39-135, 136-153), possibly from the 2nd millennium BC, appears to contain an early description of a 'feral child and young man' called Enkidu, primitive, hairy (138, 321), raised on wild asses' milk (91, 138, 140), eating grass with gazelles and drinking at cattle's water holes (53, 91), unfamiliar with ordinary human food and drink (138). After some social and intimate education by a hired representative of Eve (55-56, 138), Enkidu joins Gilgamesh in his noble quest. He suffers an episode of paralysis (70, 128, 142), but recovers to support his friend through various battles. (See PRITCHARD, below, pp. 74-87).

DASEN, Véronique (1988) Dwarfism in Egypt and Classical Antiquity: iconography and medical history. Medical History 32: 253-276.
Though links from Ancient Egypt to the Levantine Arab world seem distant, Dasen notes (pp. 273-274) realistic terracotta depictions of pathological defects, from Asia Minor cities with medical schools; those of "people affected by hypothyroidism are relatively numerous. The majority come from Egypt and Asia Minor." (See next items).

DASEN V (1993) Dwarfs in Ancient Egypt and Greece. Oxford: Clarendon. xxix + 354 pp. + 80 plates.
Revised D.Phil. thesis, heavily referenced, based on iconography and medical, archaeological and anthropological evidence. Dasen concludes (pp. 246-248) that positive attitudes towards dwarfs in Egypt during some 3000 years, and a much shorter period in Classical Greece, were followed by adverse views and behaviour in Hellenistic and Roman periods. While focusing on dwarfs and small stature, a significant amount of information, discussion and documentation appears on other kinds of physical abnormality, and also on its graphic depiction and interpretation.
[This work also appears in Arabic, translated by AH Yassine (2004), Cairo: Dar el-Sharqiyat. Review: http://hebdo.ahram.org.eg/arab/ahram/2004/2/25/livr0.htm ]

DASEN V (2006) L'enfant qui ne grandit pas. Medicina nei secoli 18 (2) 431-457.
Here Dasen reviews in some detail the lives of dwarfs in the later Hellenistic and Roman periods, with iconographic evidence casting some light on the diverse and ambiguous elements in public attitudes and responses. Influences of artistic representations from Alexandria and Asia Minor percolated through the Greek and Roman worlds. The association of dwarfs with wit, entertainment, dance and music, and a worthy social status, may also have spread from Egypt, along with some notions of religious significance and apotropaic power.

DASEN V & LEROI AM (2005) Homme ou bête? Le dieu caché de l'anencéphale d'Hermopolis. In: R Bertrand & A Carol (Eds.) Le "Monstre" Humain imaginaire et société pp. 21-44. Aix en Provence: Publications de l'Université de Provence.
An anencephalic neonate with spina bifida found in the Touna el-Gebel graveyard, near Hermopolis, dated perhaps between 300 and 600 BC, provoked some curious interpretations in the 19th century, which the authors discuss from different points of view.

DAWSON, Warren R (1927) Pygmies, dwarfs and hunchbacks in Ancient Egypt. Annals of Medical History 9 (4) 315-326.
Differentiates members of normally short-statured ethnic groups from people with exceptionally short stature and/or physical abnormalities. Discusses mainly the physiology and roles of the latter, with 52 figures.

DAWSON W[R] (1938) Pygmies and dwarfs in Ancient Egypt. J. Egyptian Archaeology 24: 185-189.
[See previous item.] Revisiting the topic, Dawson again complained of the confusion of pygmies and dwarfs, and reviewed the accumulating sources, secondary literature, iconography, and features of achondroplasia from pre-dynastic times through thirty dynasties. (See DASEN, above).

DEINES, Hildegard von; GRAPOW, Herman & WESTENDORF, Wolfhart (1973) Ergänzungen. Drogenquanten, Sachgruppen, Nachträge, Bibliographie, Generalregister. Grundriss der Medizin der Alten Ägypter, volume 9. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. viii + 241 pp.
The extensive bibliography (pp. 157-213), which acknowledges various earlier compilers (p. 157), has been particularly useful for supplementing the earlier German and French sources having relevance to disability in Ancient Egypt in the present bibliography.

DEINES, H von & WESTENDORF W (1961) Wörterbuch Der Medizinische Texte. Grundriss der Medizin der Alten Ägypter, volumes 7 (i) & 7 (ii). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. vii + 1109 pp.
The German-Egyptian index (pp. 1033-1102), and brief further indices for some English, French, Coptic, Hebrew, Arabic, Akkadian and Greek words (1103-1105), give access to a variety of Ancient Egyptian terms relevant to disability, with hieroglyphs, roman transliteration, textual sources and examples, some notes and cross-referencing (from texts available up to the 1950s, and with the state of philology at the time). See e.g. abschneiden, Augenkrankheit, behindern, Blindheit, brechen, Dumpfheit, Epilepsie, halten, lahmen, Lahmheit, Lepra, Ohrensausen, stumm sein, taub sein, Trachom, and many more having reference to disabling diseases or impairments of various parts of the body or mind. [It is mostly headwords that are indexed, so further German 'disability' words appear in the textual notes. Some of the words, while in common use in Germany in the 1960s, have since dropped out of polite discourse, as is the case with most European languages.]

DE JONG, Albert (1997) Traditions of the Magi. Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin Literature. Leiden: Brill.
An extended introduction and discussion appears, on the main trends and major difficulties in constructing an evidence-based history of Zoroastrianism. Mention is made of the custom of segregating or secluding people having serious diseases or disabilities, such as leprosy, in a specific place or shelter, called the armest-gah (pp. 240-243). There may also have been some disposal of elderly and infirm people, though De Jong is cautious about exaggerations by distant historians (444-445). There is evidence that men serving in the armed forces, and contracting a serious illness or disabling condition, were set apart in an open place, and provided with a stick, water, and a little food. While they had some strength, they could keep off the wild animals with the stick; but unless they returned quickly to health, the dogs would finish them off. Some did survive and returned home, but were feared and shunned until they had been through an exorcism ceremony (232-233, 239-242, 444-446).

DELLER, Karlheinz (1999) The Assyrian eunuchs and their predecessors. In: K Watanabe (Ed.) Priests and Officials in the Ancient Near East, 303-311. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter.
The author first refers to the notable work of GRAYSON (q.v.) on this topic, and tries to avoid duplication. He outlines some conflictual positions on identifying eunuchs. Admission to the "corps of eunuchs", and their status, rewards and range of positions are discussed. Deller suggests possible links with earlier Hittite practices.

DE MAIO, Domenico (1993) La malattia mentale nel medioevo islamico. Milano: Edizioni del Corriere medico. xii + 210 pp.

DERRY, Douglas E (1912-1913) A case of hydrocephalus in an Egyptian of the Roman period. J. Anatomy & Physiology 47: 436-458.
Detailed description and measurements are given of a skull and limb bones, found in the winter 1911-1912, "in a cemetery of Roman date at Shurafa, not far from Helouan, in Egypt", being of a male more than 30 years old. The skull was remarkably large, and several authorities agreed that the cause was likely to have been hydrocephalus. Uneven limb development and joint wear strongly suggested that the man suffered left side hemiplegia, and may have "supported himself by the use of a long staff placed across the body so as to reach the ground on the left side, and grasped high up by the right hand" (p. 455).

DESRUELLES, Maurice & BERSOT, Henri (1938) L'assistance aux aliénés chez les arabes du VIIIe au XIIe siècle. Annales Médico-Psychologiques II (5) 689-709.

DETTWYLER, Katherine A (1991) Can paleopathology provide evidence for "compassion"? American J. Physical Anthropology 84: 375-384.
Found in Iraq, 'Shanidar I' was a male dating to the Middle Paleolithic period, who lived 30 to 45 years. Injuries indicate that his right arm was paralysed, and he was probably blind in one eye. The remains of this disabled Neanderthal have stimulated imaginative reconstructions of his supposed life (and the lives of some comparable cases), which Dettwyler shows to be unscientific and probably based on modern misconceptions about disabilities.

DIAMONDOPOULOU-DRUMMOND AH, DIAMONDOPOULOS AA & MARKETOS SG (1995) Four different ways of philanthropic aid to the blind in medieval Eastern Christendom. Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics 15: 609-613.
The Byzantine state made curative and welfare provisions for blind and other disadvantaged people from the 4th century onward.

DIKICI, Ayse Ezgi (2006) Imperfect bodies, perfect companions? Dwarfs and mutes at the Ottoman court in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. MA thesis, Sabanci University.
http://digital.sabanciuniv.edu/tezler/etezfulltext/dikiciayseezgi.pdf

The DINKARD. The original Pahlavi text; the same transliterated in Zend characters; translations of the text in Gujerati and English languages; a commentary and a glossary of select terms. [Volume III, English translation by Ratanshah Erachshah Kohiyar], ed. Peshotan dastur Behramjee Sanjana, 1874-1928, Bombay. 19 volumes.
The "Dinkard" (now more often shown as Denkard or Denkart), compiled in 9 books (of which the first two are missing) in the 9th or 10th century CE, a range of practical and ancient knowledge of the Zoroastrian religion. Book 3, chapter 110 (translated in Sanjana edition Volume III), differentiates people of good or of bad conduct, predicting the joy of paradise for the former and punishment for the latter, also some intermediate positions for those of mixed conduct. Two distinctions are made of capacity for moral responsibility: "Children under eight years of age, and men without intelligence, are harmless and safe (from hell). Every child not being of age and small in proportion, and imbecile men, owing to want of intelligence, do not deserve to be punished, and their souls, in addition to being saved from hell, are destined to return to the Khorshedpaya (paradise)." Book III of the "Denkart" has also been translated to French by Jean de Menasce, 1972.

DODGE, Bayard (1974) Al-Azhar. A Millennium of Muslim Learning. Memorial edition, Washington DC: Middle East Institute.
Mention is made of blind boys studying the Qur'an at Al-Azhar from possibly the 12th to the 20th century CE, on pp. 44, 86-87, 101, 165, 206. A special hostel was built for them by Osman Katkhuda in the early 1730s. The sheikh in charge was customarily a blind man. See LANE (1890, 192-193); MALTI-DOUGLAS (1988, 33-40, 43-47, 84-85, 68-69, 78-79, 125, 130-138, 180-181); HEYWORTH-DUNNE (1968, 25-27).

DOLLIE, Farida (1974) Psychiatric concepts in ancient Egyptian, Greco-Roman and Arabic civilizations. Lebanese Medical J. 27 (5) 523-530.
Brief swing through some notable cases and practitioners.

DOLS, Michael W (1979) Leprosy in Medieval Arabic medicine. J. History of Medicine 36: 314-333.
Extensively referenced, showing the sources and progress of knowledge, and problems with differential diagnosis & nomenclature.

DOLS M (1983) The leper in Medieval Islamic society. Speculum 58: 891-916.
Detailed scholarly discussion of social aspects of leprosy and other disabilities in the history of Islam. Dols found that although Muslims had ambivalent views and beliefs about leprosy, the Qur'an had nothing comparable to the Levitical 'separation' laws which [whether rightly or wrongly understood] profoundly affected both Jewish and Christian attitudes towards people with leprosy.

DOLS M (1987) Insanity and its treatment in Islamic society. Medical History 31: 1-14.
Brief mention of 'fools and idiots'.

DOLS M (1992) Majnun: The madman in Medieval Islamic society. (ed. DE Immisch). Oxford: Clarendon. xvi + 543 pp.
The most comprehensive work on the topic to date, though Dols found the available evidence insufficient to claim that the book was 'definitive'. Extensively referenced. Comparatively little is specifically about idiocy, but records of 'strange behaviour' were often not differentiated by 'modern' categories. Dols reviews madness from medical, magical/religious, social and legal viewpoints. The book includes much well-researched supplementary information relevant to disability histories. (Dols died in the late stages of preparing the book, which was completed by his student and research assistant Diana Immisch, with other colleagues).

DOMENICO HIEROSOLIMITANO (c. 1580-1590). Relatione della gran cittá di Constantinopoli ... [narrata da Domenico Hierosolimitano già Medico della persona di Sultan Murath Avo del presente Gran Turco che regna hora nell'anno 1611.] Harleian MS, No. 3408, ff. 83-141. Translated as: Domenico's Istanbul, with introduction and commentary by M.J.L. Austin, edited by G.Lewis (2001). Warminster: EJW Gibb Memorial Trust.
Domenico, c. 1552-1622, was a Jewish rabbi and physician, who spent ten or more years as one of Sultan Murad III's physicians, apparently between about 1578 and 1589, and wrote his account some 20 years later. On p. 19, he remarked that, "In that section of the rooms where he [the Grand Turk] is served by men, there are, at a distance apart, the rooms of the mutes, thirty in number, all shut up in a court in which there is every convenience for them, to wit, baths, fountains and gardens. Often the Turk amuses himself alone with them, and sometimes he lets them walk through the great garden, and to some of them he gives the convenience of a room next to his (and) of a female mute for (their) use for a certain time."

DRIVER GR & MILES, John C (1935) The Assyrian Laws. Oxford: Clarendon.
Mutilating and disfiguring punishments were often mentioned, and sometimes discussed in detail. See e.g. pp. 22, 25-27, 30-32, 47-49, 81-85, 289-292, 343-347, 355-356, 368-369, 383-385, 389, 395, 425, 433, 465, 468.

DWEDARY, Anwar (1975) Arabic: [The beemarestans of Aleppo.] Adiyat Halab 1: 129-145.

DZIERZYKRAY-ROGALSKI T (1980) Paleopathology of the Ptolemaic inhabitants of Dakleh Oasis (Egypt). J. Human Evolution 9: 71-74.
At a cemetery at Balat in the Dakhleh Oasis, four adult male skeletons were found showing cranial changes typical of damage from leprosy, i.e. atrophy of nasal spine, palatal perforation, and loss of upper teeth. It is possible that these four, having ethnic characteristics differing from the local population, had been banished from Alexandria to the South. The remains are dated to the 2nd century BC.

EBELING, Erich (1932-1938) i. Augenkrankheiten; ii. Aussatz; iii. Epilepsie. In: E Ebeling & B Meissner (Eds.) Reallexikon der Assyriologie, I: 313-314; 321; II: 409. Berlin: de Gruyter.

EBIED, Rifaat Y (1971) Bibliography of Medieval Arabic and Jewish Medicine and Allied Sciences. London: Wellcome Institute of the History of Medicine. 150 pp.
Bibliography of 1,972 items in Arabic, English, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and a few other languages. (Arabic and Hebrew titles are given in original language and script, with translation to English; those in Russian, Hungarian, Turkish etc. are transliterated, with translation). A few items seem to have relevance to disability; more of them provide useful background. Indexes of authors and subjects, pp. 137-150.

ECONOMOU NT & LASCARATOS J (2005) The Byzantine physicians on epilepsy. J. History of Neuroscience 14: 346-352.

ELGOOD, Cyril (1931) On the significance of Al-Baras and Al-Bahaq. J. & Proceedings of the Asiatic Society Bengal 27: 177-181.
Reviews evidence and uncertainties in meanings of these two commonly occurring Arabic medical terms, covering leprosy, leucoderma and various other conditions.

ELGOOD, Cyril (1951) A Medical History of Persia and the Eastern Caliphate from the earliest times until the year 1932. Cambridge University Press.
This and Elgood's later work contain many incidents and references pertinent to disabilities, and range much beyond Persian boundaries.

ELGOOD C (1962) Tibb-ul-Nabbi or Medicine of the Prophet being a translation of two works of the same name. I.- The Tibb-ul-Nabbi of Al-Suyuti II.- The Tibb-ul-Nabbi of Mahmud bin Mohamed al Chaghhayni together with introduction, notes and a glossary. Osiris XIV: 33-192.
The work by AL-SUYUTI occupies pp. 48-177. See notes on disability references below under AS-SUYUTI. Elgood notes (pp. 42-43) Suyuti's reputation for recounting unreliable traditions.

ELGOOD C (1970) Safavid Medical Practice or the practice of medicine, surgery and gynaecology in Persia between 1500 A.D. and 1750 A.D. London: Luzac.

ENGELBACH R (1938) Some remarks on Ka-statues of abnormal men in the Old Kingdom. Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte 38: 285-296.

ERIZZO, Antonio (1557) Sommario della relazione di Antonio Erizzo bailo a Constantinopoli letta in Senato nei 1557. In: Eugenio Albèri (Ed.) (1855) Relazioni degli ambasciatori veneziani al Senato durante il secolo decimosesto, Volume IX, [series III, volume III.], pp. 123-144.
Erizzo was Venetian bailo at Constantinople, commissioned in April 1554, and in post until mid-1556. Back home in 1557, he expressed amazement that Sultan Suleiman, in his private quarters, had for company only "eunuchs, mutes, and other men of the most abject varieties, who are his slaves", rather than people with good education and knowledge of public affairs.

EVANS E (1969) Physiognomics in the Ancient World. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society n.s. 59 (5): 5-101.
While this extensive study draws mainly on Greek and Roman sources, the location of writing on physiognomical lore extends through Asia Minor and the Eastern Mediterranean region. Papyri (pp. 39-46) are mentioned containing "iconistic portraits of the utmost detail", occurring in Egyptian-Greek legal documents where clear identifications of people was required, e.g. "recruits in military enrolment ... capture of runaway slaves" and in sales of land or housing, etc. Scars and other peculiarities were listed.

EVLIYA EFENDI [Evliya Chelebi] (1834 / 1968) Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa, in the seventeenth century. Translated from Turkish by Ritter Joseph von Hammer. London: Oriental Translation Fund. New York: Johnson Reprint Corporation.
Notes on simpletons, saint-fools, dwarfs, mutes and freaks at Istanbul and elsewhere; e.g. I (i): 64-65, 114-115, 149, 174-175, 180; I (ii): 21, 25-29, 45, 80-81, 115-119, 240-241; II: 141-142. Female circumcision among Arabs, I (ii) 215. Mimics pretending to be infants to advertise toy-shops, I (ii) 232. Views of the father of a boy with huge hydrocephalic head at Shin Kara Hissar in 1647, II: 207-208. (Maybe the earliest recorded parental comment on this condition?)

EL EZABI, Shereen (1995) Al-Naysaburi's Wise Madmen: introduction. Alif: J. Comparative Poetics, No. 14, pp. 192-205.
Introduces Naysaburi, a well-known theologian and Qur'anic scholar who lived at Nishapur, and died c. 1015. His short book on the 'wise mad' has a discussion of the concept of madness, and then over 100 reports about 'mad' people. Ezabi translated the first chapter, which places the wise/mad people within the purposes of Allah, who has created people with some "contradictory qualities", linking strengths and weaknesses, sickness and health. Prophets who spoke the word of Allah, shaking up the normal ways of human living, have always been considered mad, but Allah has vindicated them. Examples are given from the life of the prophet Muhammad. Real folly is the inability to discern and practice right conduct. The madman is he who "builds for his worldly life and wrecks his life in the hereafter". From the 'case histories', Ezabi gives excerpts on Bahlul, a renowned 'fool', portrayed as something of a simpleton, heedless of self-care and formal knowledge, yet holding to some higher truths.

FAHD T (1965) Firasa. Encyclopaedia of Islam new edition. Leiden: Brill.
Brief sketch and bibliography on physiognomy and allied studies, having mostly negative implications for attitudes towards people of non-standard appearance.

FAHD, Toufy & HAMMOUDI, Muhammad (1975) L'enfant dans le droit islamique. Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin 35 (Part I): 287-346.
Reviews the legal incapacity of minors, and the extent of the child's legal responsibility, in the early centuries of Islam.

FALK, Ze'ev W (1972, 1978) Introduction to Jewish Law of the Second Commonwealth. 2 volumes. Leiden: Brill.
Part I has a few passing references, e.g. p. 29, "He who sets fire by the hand of a deaf-mute, an imbecile or a minor...", i.e. who takes advantage of the legal non-liability of people in these categories; cf CASSIN, above; MARCUS, below); also p. 100; and pp. 123 (legal incapacity of "deaf-mutes, lunatics and minors" to testify in court). Part II has more detail on the legal capacities of "Deaf-mutes, Idiots and Minors" (pp. 256-261), and suggests a progressive removal of the legal 'disability' under which they suffered. Thus, "A deaf-mute may communicate by signs and be communicated with by signs ... in matters concerned with movable property. (M Gittin V 7)". See also pp. 326-331 on Guardians.

FARBER W (1985) Akkadisch 'blind'. Zeitschrift für Assyriologie 75: 210-233.
Detailed study (in German) on the Akkadian words for 'blind', with their earlier meanings and use in the context of various kinds of literature.

FEIGENBAUM, Aryeh (1957) Archeological evidence of the occurrence of regular seasonal ophthalmias in Ancient Egypt. Janus 46: 165-171.

FELDMAN, David (1986) Deafness and Jewish law and tradition. In: JD Schein & LJ Waldman (Eds.) The Deaf Jew in the Modern World, 12-23. New York: Ktav.

FEUCHT, Erika (1995) Das Kind im alten Aegypten. Thesis. University of Heidelberg. 610 pp.

FINKEL, IRVING L & GELLER, Markham J (Eds.) (2007) Disease in Babylonia. Leiden: Brill. 234 pp.
[Not seen. Some contributions on disabling conditions, by Avalos; Kinnier Wilson; Kinnier Wilson & Reynolds; possibly others.]

FISCHER A (1907) Arab basir 'scharfsichtig' per antifrasin = 'blind'. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 61: 425-434 and 751-754.
Discussion (in German, with Arabic examples) of the antiphrastic interchange between terms for 'sharp-sighted' and 'blind'.

FISCHER A (1908) Magnun "epileptisch" - mu'aiiad "beglaubigt". Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 62: 151-154.

FISCHER, Henry G (1986) Ungeheuer. In: W Helck & W Westendorf (Eds.) Lexikon der Ägyptologie 6: 848-851. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

FISCHER HG (1987) The ancient Egyptian attitude towards the monstrous. In: AE Farkas, PO Harper & EB Harrison (Eds.) Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds. Papers presented in honor of Edith Porada, 13-26 + plates. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern.
pp. 13-21 differentiate hieroglyphic (non-monstrous) depictions of creatures from those truly monstrous and frightening, and trace some development over long periods of time, with illustrations. pp. 22-26 discuss human deformity and anomalies, including dwarfs, hunchbacks and grossly obese women.

FISCHER HG (2002) Some titles associated with dwarfs and midgets. Göttinger Miszellen 187: 35-39.
Reviews some linguistic debates about words applied to small-statured people in Egyptology.

FOSTER, Benjamin R (1997) In: WW Hallo & KL Younger (Eds.) The Context of Scripture. Volume I. Canonical compositions from the biblical world, 486-495. Brill: Leiden.
Foster translates several Akkadian documents of apparent theodicy, in which a 'righteous' sufferer complains of his ailments and tries to discover why the gods have turned nasty. The first includes "a veritable thesaurus of medical symptoms" (p. 486), some being also descriptions of impairment and disability: "He is the one who afflicts with demons of shaking-disease... My lips, which used to discourse, became those of a deaf man / My resounding call struck dumb (487)... Terror and panic have jaundiced my face (488)... They wrenched my muscles, made my neck limp... Numbness has spread over my whole body / Paralysis has fallen upon my flesh... From writhing, my joints were separated / My limbs were splayed and thrust apart..." (489). Eventually relief came: "My beclouded eyes... he brightened my vision... My ears, which were stopped and clogged like a deaf man's / He removed their blockage, he opened my hearing... My mouth, which was muffled, so that proper speech was diffi[cult] / He scoured (490)... My neck, which was limp and twisted at the base, / He shored up..." (491). The second theodicy, a dialogue, mentions various mental states: "You make your estimable discretion feeble-minded... your well-ordered insight [sound] like babble... scatter-brained, irrational... take pity on the fool(?)... You have let your subtle mind wander... (492-494). This time there is no happy ending, and the sufferer's friend suggests that the gods have told a pack of lies to humankind (495).

FOUCART, George (1910) Children (Egyptian). In: Encyclopedia of Religion & Ethics (1908-1926), ed. J Hastings, III: 532-539. Edinburgh: Clark.
Extensively documented from both ancient and modern literature available to Foucart.

FRANTZ-MURPHY G (1981) Arabic and earlier Egyptian contract formularies. Part I, the Arabic contracts from Egypt. J. Near Eastern Studies 40: 203-225.
A house sale contract drawn up in Egypt, early in 963 CE, mentions "the residence of the heirs of Munah the Deaf" [Arabic: al-Asamm]. Evidently a man of some substance, Munah is one of the earliest deaf people recorded by name, date and place in the region.

FRAYNE, Douglas (1993) Sargonic and Gutian Periods (2334-2113 BC). Volume 2, of The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
On p. 175, Frayne translates an inscription, collated from a published photograph of a seal that appears to depict princess Tutanapshum seated, with a servant woman named Aman-Eshtar standing before her. For the woman standing, the English given (lines 3-5) is: "Aman-Ashtar, the deaf lady, the prattler, (is) her female servant." Frayne gives two lexical references for the Sumerian U.HUB, equivalent to Akkadian, su-uk-ku 'deaf' (MSL XII, p.142; Cf. Von Soden, Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, II: 1055-56, sukkuku and U.HUB; and in greater detail, the 'Chicago Assyrian Dictionary' 15: 362b-363b). To make 'prattler', sa-bi-ri-im is taken as a part of sabaru(m), 'to be voluble, to prattle'. [Diacriticals in several quoted words are omitted here.] Unfortunately, the location of the seal itself is no longer known.
Several details of scene and inscription have been interpreted differently by various authors. Some (including Frayne) suggest that Aman-Eshtar is offering a small harp-like instrument to the princess, while another view is that a thread-spinning apparatus is being worked. For the inscription, a slightly different transliteration and translation is given by Aage Westenholz & Joachim Oelsner (1983) Zu den Weihplattenfragmenten der Hilprecht-Sammlung Jena, Altorientalsiche Forschungen 10: 209-216, who do not translate U.HUB (they give the MSL XII lexicon reference, but not the 'deaf' equivalent on p.142; and seem to be thinking of a possible occupational designator or personal name for Aman-Eshtar. (An early ruler of Kish bore the name Uhub, but it hardly seems common). The sa-at Za-bi-ri-im (Frayne) becomes "die (Angehörige / Abhängige) des Zabirum", "belonging to, or dependent on, Zabirum". Yet the use of U.HUB for 'deaf' seems to be accepted as a Sumerian term, used also more widely (e.g. in Hittite, see GOETZE 1971, pp. 78-79, also in a context of palace servants). [The modest quantity of scholarly literature making reference to the seal of Aman-Eshtar (-Ashtar, -Ishtar) is almost entirely preoccupied by the identification of Tuta-napshum and details of her life -- the female servant is an incidental. If she were in fact deaf or hearing impaired, Aman-Eshtar might have been found a job at court as a relative or dependent of some other functionary, 'Zabirum'. If the relevant word is in fact related to sabaru(m), it might be a reference to 'indistinct speech, babble', as by someone losing much of their hearing in early childhood, rather than 'prattle' in the sense of an adult domestic who chatters continually without saying anything of significance. An alternative use of U.HUB, to mean 'stupidity, ignorance', might better accommodate 'silly prattling'.]

FREEDMAN, Sally M (1998) If a City is Set on a Height. The Akkadian Omen Series Summa Alu ina Mele Sakin. Volume 1: Tablets 1-21. Philadelphia.
The Summa Alu omens seem to have accumulated over a period of more than 1,500 years, with the majority of available tablets dating to the 7th century BC (pp. 13-14). "Omen collections were viewed by the Mesopotamians as scientific reference works" suggests Freedman (p. 1). Yet the conclusion of each omen does not always have universally appealing logic -- "1. If a city is set on a height, living in that city will not be good. 2. If a city is set in a depression, that city will be happy." (Tablet 1, p. 27). [The first might make sense in an area where water was scarce, and more likely to be found at lower points than higher; the second would make no sense in a land liable to flooding.] "78. If a city's young men are good, that city will have peace. 79. If a city's young men are evil, that city (will suffer from) the hand of its god." (p. 31). [The proposition 78 comes near to be universally plausible. These examples are noted only as preliminaries to the following omens about city-dwellers with impairments or abnormalities, on the pattern: "If X-Y are numerous in a city, that city will be happy / in trouble / in dispersal/ abandonment", where X-Y may be lame men, lame women, idiots, blind men, etc.] "86. If lame women are numerous in a city, [that] city will be happy." On the same pattern, "87. If idiots ... happy. 90. If wise men ... abandonment 91. If men with warts ... dispersal. 94. If deaf men ... happy. 95. If blind men ... trouble. 98. If cripples ... trouble. 99 If disabled men ... dispersal." (p. 33) [Intermediate entries are here omitted; in some there are flaws in the tablet, or the meanings of the terms used are uncertain.] The impairment terms BA.AN.ZA and KUD.KUD (lame, cripple), and AD{4} (disabled) have brief discussion in footnotes, recognising the difficulties of interpretation; but U.HUB (deaf), IGN.NU.TUK (blind) attract no comment.

FRIEDENWALD, Harry (1944) The Jews and Medicine. Essays. 2 volumes. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.
Includes extensive "Bibliography of Ancient Hebrew Medicine", pp. 109-145, listing c. 700 items mostly published since 1600 CE, in German, Latin, French, English, Hebrew, and Italian. Partial annotation indicates specific attention given by some authors to disabling conditions.

FRIEDREICH JB (1848) Zur Bibel. Naturhistorische, anthropologische und medicinische Fragmente. 2 volumes. Nürnberg.

FROGGATT P (1962) The albinism of Timur, Zal, and Edward the Confessor. Medical History 6: 328-342.
Also reviews evidence for Timur's lameness.

FUCHS, Johannes (1964) Physical alterations which occur in the blind and are illustrated on ancient Egyptian works of art. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 117: 618-623.
Fuchs suggested that a number of physical changes in blind people, known to modern science, are reflected in the depictions by early Egyptian artists, as shown in seven illustrations of blind harpists.

FURLANI, Guiseppe (1919) A short physiognomic treatise in the Syriac language. J. American Oriental Society 39: 289-294.

GARCIA MARTINEZ, Florentino (1995) The men of the Dead Sea. In: F Garcia Martinez & JT Barrera (Eds.) The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 31-48, & endnotes on pp. 237-238. Translated by WGE Watson. Leiden: Brill.
The author, who worked extensively on the Dead Sea Scrolls, describes some Jewish men who fled to the desert to live in a strictly observant religious community at Qumran, a little over 2000 years ago. They believed their fellow Jews had been corrupted by gentile practices and impurities, including "defilement brought into the holy city by animal skins, dogs, the blind, the deaf, lepers, corpses, unlawful unions, marriages of priests with the laity, tithes, etc." (p. 33) They intended to be a holy community obedient to God. To exclude men whose spiritual, behavioural or physical characteristics were imperfect, they developed stringent tests for candidates. These seem to have filtered out anyone who was "defiled in his flesh, paralysed in his feet or in his hands, lame, blind, deaf, dumb or defiled in his flesh with a blemish visible to the eyes, or the tottering old man who cannot keep upright in the midst of the assembly" (p. 39). Angry speaking, lies, insults, deception, animosity, inane giggling, would result in punishment and possibly expulsion from the community (39-40). [The Qumran thinking was presumably based on an extreme interpretation of some revered Jewish texts, and did not represent the views common in Palestine during the life of Jesus. Yet it offers a contemporaneous view of disability that would have been known to the priests and religious teachers with whom Jesus reportedly clashed over issues of disability and ritual purity.]

GARDINER AH (1911, reprint 1964) Egyptian Hieratic Texts, transcribed, translated and annotated. Series I: Literary Texts of the New Kingdom. Hildesheim: Georg Olms.
An early suggestion of sign or gestural language appears in a series of Egyptian magisterial admonitions to an idle schoolboy or clerk: "Thou art one who is deaf and does not hear, to whom men make (signs) with the hand", in the Papyrus Koller, "dated approximately to the end of the 19th Dynasty" or around 1200 BC (pp. 35-39, 84-86).

GARFINKEL, Henry A (1995) Why did Moses stammer? and, was Moses left-handed? J. Royal Society of Medicine 88: 256-257.
Based on the legend of baby Moses grasping Pharaoh's crown. (See HAMILTON, below).

GAUCHE, William J (1932) Didymus the Blind of Alexandria: an educator of the fourth century. Master's dissertation, Catholic University of America. 42 pp.

GELB, Ignace J (973) Prisoners of war in early Mesopotamia. J. Near Eastern Studies 32: 70-98.
Some discussion of hobbling or blinding captives (pp. 86-87) to restrict their mobility and reduce the likelihood of their rising against the masters; and also branding (p. 95); in Mesopotamia during the second half of the third millennium BC.

GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE, Étienne (1826) Description d'un monstre humain né avant l'ère chrétienne, comparé à un pareil monstre de l'époque actuelle; et considérations zootomiques et physiologiques sur le caractère de ces monstruosités, dites Anencéphales; sur l'indépendance de formation de chaque sexe... [etc.]. Annales des Sciences Naturelles 7: 357-388.
[See annotation to DASEN & LEROI, above. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire was one of 19th century scientists who offered an opinion on the anencephalic neonate.]

GHALY, Mohammad MI (2006) Writings on disability in Islam: the 16th- century polemic on Ibn Fahd's al-Nukat al-Ziraf. Arab Studies J. (Fall 2005 - Spring 2006) pp. 9-38.
While focusing a particular controversy, on the issue whether an author had illegitimately drawn attention to prominent people having physical impairments and exposed them to ridicule, Ghaly usefully sketches and comments on a much wider range of earlier Arabic literature in which people with impairments and disabilities appear for various purposes, e.g. juristic rulings and comic anecdotes, from the 9th century CE onward.

GHALY M (2008) Islam and Disability: Perspectives in Islamic theology and jurisprudence. Proefschrift. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Leiden.
Detailed scholarly study, reviewing literature in Arabic and other languages (mostly English) from the early days of Islam to the present, with focus on how Muslim theologians and philosophers have debated and developed their thinking about disability and disabled people, the financial, rehabilitative and social provisions for disabled people within Islam in theory and practice, and the position of the disabled among the wider group of people living in circumstances of suffering and adversity. Dr. Ghaly takes a moderate stance, noting strengths and weaknesses in the arguments of earlier authors. He appreciates some advances in thinking and efforts to include disabled people in a positive way, while noting that social realities tend to lag behind the theoretical provisions.

GHALY M (2008) Physical and spiritual treatment of disability in Islam: perspectives of early and modern jurists. Journal of Religion, Disability & Health 12 (2) 105-143.

GHALY M (in press, 2008) Physiognomy: a forgotten chapter of disability in Islam: the discussions of Muslim jurists. Bibliotheca Orientalis [volume 65 (1-2)]

GHALYUNJI, Paul & AL-DAWAKHILI, Zainab (1965) Al-Hadarat al-taiyibah fi Misr al-Kadimah. Health & Healing in Ancient Egypt. Cairo: Dar al-Ma`arif.

AL-GHAZZALI, Abu Hamid Muhammad, Ihya' `Ulum al-Din, Cairo, 1967, pt. III, pp. 92-95.
Section titled 'On the Training of Infant Children, their Education and the Improvement of their Character'. (GILADI, 1989, q.v., traces it to Greek origin).

GILADI, Avner (1989) Concepts of childhood and attitudes toward children in Medieval Islam. J. Economic & Social History of the Orient 32: 121-152.
This and next items are extensively referenced, and sympathetically undertaken. Some reference to modern childrearing studies.

GILADI A (1990) Infants, children and death in Medieval Muslim society: some preliminary observations. Social History of Medicine 3: 345-368.

GILADI A (1990) Some observations on infanticide in Medieval Muslim society. International J. Middle East Studies 22: 185-200.

GIL`ADI A (1992) Children of Islam. Concepts of childhood in Medieval Muslim society. MacMillan. xii + 176 pp.
New versions of Giladi's published papers and some further work, provide substantial scholarly review of sources and pertinent material.

GILADI A (1995) Saghir. Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, VIII: 821-827. Leiden: Brill.
Detailed article on the infant and child in Islamic history and culture.

GILLESPIE, John (1964-1967) The Egyptian Copts and their Music. 17 pp. At: http://www.tasbeha.org and http://www.CopticChurch.net
Gillespie collaborated with Ragheb Moftah in recording the complete Coptic Liturgy of St. Basil. He made detailed studies of the background of Coptic language, culture and music, the ancient Egyptian roots, and the Jewish, Christian, Arab, and Greek connections and possible influences, citing scholarly sources. In this article, it is possible to see a continuum from the musicians of Egyptian antiquity, the Jewish cantors and 'repeaters' in Egypt from some centuries before Christ, the Coptic cantors from the 1st century CE, and the later Muslim reciters and muezzins. [With regard to the specifically blind participants, the continuum is hinted with appropriate caution by Gillespie. He makes more of the continuity from the ancient Egyptian 'chironomy' (based on work by Hans Hickmann) to some gestures made in modern Coptic musical performance.]

EL GINDI S (2002) Neurosurgery in Egypt: past, present and future -- from pyramids to radiosurgery. Neurosurgery 51: 789-796.

GINZBERG, Louis (1909-1959, reprinted 1968) The Legends of the Jews. Translated from German, by H Szold. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America. 7 volumes.
Volume IV: 382-383 (and notes in volume VI: 458-459) tells a story from the Jewish community living in exile in Persia. Among them was the nobleman Mordecai, whose niece Esther reportedly became the wife of King Ahasuerus (probably Xerxes I, reigned 486-465 BC). Of Mordecai it is written that he "knew the language of the deaf mutes." Two examples are given in which Mordecai correctly interpreted important signed (or at least gestural) messages by deaf people. The Book of Esther may have achieved written form in the 2nd or 3rd century BC. The legend concerning Mordecai is hard to date.

GOEDEGEBUURE, Petra M (2007) "Let only Nesa become populous!", and more philological notes on Old Hittite. In: D Groddek & M Zorman (Eds.) Tabularia Hethaeorum: Hethitologische Beiträge Silvin Kosak zum 65. Geburtstag, 305-312. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
The second item treated here is the purification ritual for the Royal Couple, earlier transliterated and translated to German by OTTEN & SOUCEK 1969 (q.v.), following KBo 17.3, with participation by a deaf man. The relevant parts are translated to English here (pp. 307-308). There is no difference to the deaf man: "But when it dawns, a deaf man and I enter {the royal sleeping quarters} to pick them {the ritual materials} up"; but some points are clarified by Goedegeburre in the curious ceremony, which is intended to remove "woe, pain and worries" from the king and queen, by their symbolic transfer to various ritual materials. (See General Introduction, 'Deaf Antiquity' for other references to these deaf men).
[The ritual is described 'in the first person' by the chief actor, who does not mention anything that the deaf man does. Elsewhere a deaf man is described as taking part in palace security, i.e. shutting windows, barring the staircase (see PUHVEL 1983). Could it be that in the present case, the deaf man has a similar security function, but in reverse, i.e. the responsibility and authority to unlock the way into the royal sleeping quarters, at first light, and to conduct the ritual practitioner into the presence of the king and queen? As might be expected, some surviving ancient law codes prescribe close control, of the presence of male personnel in the vicinity of females in royal palaces, with severe penalties for infringement. See e.g. ROTH & HOFFNER, pp. 195-209. (Water-carriers - one of the occupations of deaf men - are specifically mentioned, possibly because some of the carriers may have come and gone frequently through the day, carrying skins of water from sources outside the palace and filling large vessels at various convenient points).]

GOETZE, Albrecht (1970) Hittite shipant-. J. Cuneiform Studies 23 (3) 77-94.
This philological study contains 194 brief translated excerpts illustrating use of different parts of the verb shipant- (libate, pour a libation). In one religious ceremony (p.78), "8. The deaf man, [{LU}U.HUB] gives the cup to the king; the king libates. The chief deaf man [GAL U.HUB] libates into the pipe, then performs the sanctifying rite over the king. KUB XX 24 iii 6ff." [Sumerograms have been inserted.] Further, "26. The chief deaf man [GAL {LU}U.HUB] gives 2 t. vessels of m. to the king. The king libates 3 times before the table. X 21 v 15ff." (p. 79) [Location of this second example, X 21 v 15ff., is not shown in the list of passages treated (pp. 93-94); but other scholars cite it as KUB X 21 v 15, or 15-19.] In other examples where people libate, they are variously specified as: the king (No. 5); a priest (No. 9); the chief of the cup-bearers (13); the palace official (19); the cup-bearer (20); the seer (21); the foreman of the cooks (23); the oeconomos (27); the crown prince (28); the anointed one (35); the sacrificer (37); the oracle priest (40); the woman... in her inner chamber (44); a woman, outdoors (63); the 'Old Woman' (64) the nurse (96). (As the purpose of the excerpts is simply to illustrate the uses and grammatical nuances of hipant-, Goetze made no comment on the actors or circumstances). Further evidence for these early Anatolian deaf men, in the ruler's immediate vicinity, in the General Introduction under 'Deaf Antiquity'.]
[Pouring a libation to a god or gods was evidently a common Hittite religious practice, in whatever parts of the second millennium BC these various excerpts appeared. Yet the examples involving 'deaf men' have some remarkable points: (i) The appearance of a "deaf man" together with a "chief deaf man" might be taken to suggest that there was a cadre of deaf men on the palace staff (with possible implications for their use of sign language among themselves). (ii) Evidence of the involvement of deaf people in religious ceremonies (of hearing people) is rare; (iii) yet the "chief deaf man" is shown performing "the sanctifying rite over the king", a role which one might expect to be taken by one of the most senior religious officials, or at least a highly respected person, having a right of close access to the monarch. (More than 2500 years later, in late 15th century Istanbul, some of the Ottoman Sultans - who were also titled as Caliph of Islam - had deaf servants, who in some cases were their closest companions, and who caused sign language to become a medium of communication also among hearing courtiers, with evidence that this practice extended to the close of the Ottoman period c. 1920. Some senior officials also had deaf servants. The principal reason seems to have been that discussion between the sultan and his chief officials could be held with the deaf servants standing by, without secrets quickly being known and disseminated).]

GOETZE A & PEDERSEN H (1934) Mursilis Sprachlämung: ein Hethitischer text. Det Kbl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser, XXI, 1.
[See THURSTON S, 2000]

GOITEIN, Shelomo Dov (1967-1993) A Mediterranean society: the Jewish communities of the Arab world as portrayed in the documents of the Cairo Geniza. Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press. Six volumes. (Volume VI, Cumulative Indices, 1993, by SD Goitein and Paula Sanders).
Goitein's massive compilation, analysis and synthesis, based on the vast hoard of Judaeo-Arabic documents discovered at Cairo in the 1890s, gives a detailed picture not only of the immediate medieval Jewish community at Fustat, but of life in the much wider Jewish and Arab communities of the Eastern Mediterranean. Disability and some disabled individuals are reflected in texts, notes and commentaries, more particularly in volume II (The Community), and in discussion of formal and informal care, charitable arrangements, old age infirmities etc. (The Cumulative Indices, volume VI, cover the extensive endnotes, and thus indicate more than the individual volume indices, which are limited to the main text).
Blind people are more prominent, being mentioned e.g. in II: 92, 133, 134, 161-162, 199, 454, 458, 459, 501, 553, 559, 574, and V: 90, 91, 124, 531, 540, while other disabling conditions are also mentioned on some of those pages. Numerous indexed references to oculists (kahhal) are consonant with the notorious frequency of ophthalmic disease in Egypt, e.g. II: 255, 256, 257, 346, 579; and V: 100-101, 104, 110, 111, 533. Infirmities of old age are discussed in V: 119-120. Some impairments appear incidentally, e.g. in II: 93, 438, 497; III: 11, 169, 472, mostly unindexed. For example, III: 169 is indexed under 'impotence', quoting a wife's declaration that "Whenever she is alone with [her husband], he falls down and shakes convulsively and remains in this state until the fit is over ... this husband of hers to whom she was married did not have sexual intercourse with her... This illness is chronic since he was taken by it, but she had neither observed nor known of it before." [Goitein seems to have been reluctant to encroach on medical ground, but it is not unreasonable to think that the husband may have had epilepsy.] Where disabilities appear, the context is often one of care or charitable support, either requested, recommended, or granted. In II: 199, the education of blind youths to memorise the Mishnah or the Talmud accurately, and to recite from these texts in the traditional singing manner, gave some blind men employment as tanna'im (repeaters) in the yeshiva, supplying those centres of scholarship, law and education with 'living encyclopedias' of oral tradition. [This education of blind youths preceded by many centuries the 'blind schools' opened in Western Europe from the 1790s onward, as did its counterparts in the Coptic and Islamic traditions of Egypt. Cf. BARDY; DODGE; MAKDISI; MANNICHE; RAGHEB MOFTAH.] COHEN, above, provides some more detailed notes on disability in the Geniza documents.

GOLDZIHER, Ignaz (1886) Ueber Geberden- und Zeichensprache bei den Arabern. Zeitschrift für Völkerpsychologie 16: 369-386.
See annotation to BOUSQUET, above.

GOLDZIHER I. Education (Muslim). In: Encyclopedia of Religion & Ethics (1908-26) edited by J Hastings, volume 5: 198-207. Edinburgh