ABSTRACT
The emphasis in the medical sections of hadith compilations was not on medicine, but rather, on knowledge about the prophet focusing primarily on the illnesses suffered by Muḥammad and his companions with little attention to medical theory or practice. Contemporary to this literature, another prophetics genre emerged where the logic of organization resembled medical texts and where authors were attentive to medical theories, diseases, and cures. This chapter traces the development of this literature to investigate the construction of an archive of prophetic medicine from the middle of the ninth century to the eleventh century. Putting Twelver Shiite and Sunni literature in conversation, the chapter investigates the “piety of health” and uncovers what health meant in a pietistic, learned-Galenic context.
