[HYGIENE THROUGH THE LENS OF ISLAM] Prêceptes religieux des Musulmans au point de vue de l'hygiêne. [i.e., Religious precepts of Muslims from the point of view of hygiene]

AHMED DJEYHOUN.

Typographie et Lithographie Osmanie, Constantinople, 1892.

Original greenish wrappers. Cr. 8vo. (20 x 14 cm). In French. 72 p. Some pages are not opened, slight foxing on the pages. Otherwise, a very good copy.

A late-Ottoman work examining Islamic religious practices through the lens of modern hygiene and medical science, written in French for an educated, international readership. Authored by Dr. Ahmed Ceyhun, the book aims "to demonstrate that the fundamental precepts of Islam (ritual, social, and moral) are fully compatible with, and indeed supportive of, principles of public and private hygiene as understood by contemporary medicine" (Preface). Ahmed Ceyhun was a Major who served as a military physician in the logistics department of the Imperial Mills and Bakeries located in Unkapani, a district in Istanbul where wheat trade has taken place since the Byzantine era.

Structured in short thematic chapters, the work systematically addresses core Islamic practices such as ablution, prayer, fasting, pilgrimage, almsgiving, and quarantine, alongside social regulations concerning marriage, divorce, sexuality, temperance, diet, circumcision, personal grooming, and cleanliness. By treating these subjects not as matters of theology but as rational, health-promoting regulations, Ceyhun tried to position Islamic law and custom within the framework of 19th-century scientific discourse.

The foreword explicitly states that the author does not engage in religious polemics; instead, he seeks to persuade an impartial public that Islamic prescriptions accord with medical knowledge from antiquity to the most recent discoveries. The work is also notable for its ideological and political context, written during the oppressive regime of Sultan Abdülhamid II, which includes a deferential dedication praising the Sultan as a patron of arts, sciences, and humanitarian governance.

As of January 2026, OCLC lists only two institutional copies worldwide, with no recorded holdings in North American libraries (250265334 & 1010024057).