Inoculation 🦠

Invention/Contribution:

• Long before Edward Jenner (1796), Muslim physicians practiced inoculation against smallpox.

• In the Ottoman Empire (16th–17th centuries), doctors and local healers introduced variolation — deliberately exposing a healthy person to material from a smallpox sore in order to build immunity.

• This method was observed by European travelers and physicians, most famously Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who described it in letters from Istanbul in 1717.

• Muslim medical traditions helped preserve and spread the practice of preventive medicine.

Why it matters:

• Early inoculation saved countless lives from deadly epidemics.

• The practice influenced Europe and paved the way for modern vaccination.

• Shows how Muslims valued prevention as much as cure in medicine.

“The Turks have a method of engrafting… which makes the smallpox entirely harmless.”

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, letter from Constantinople, 1717

Centuries before modern vaccines, Muslims pioneered a life-saving practice: inoculation against smallpox. In the Ottoman Empire, healers introduced variolation, giving patients a mild case to protect them from deadly outbreaks. European visitors were astonished — in 1717, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wrote letters from Istanbul praising the method, which she later brought to England. This Muslim contribution to preventive medicine laid the foundation for the vaccines that safeguard us today.