Severe epidemics of plague, cholera, and typhus swept across Tunisia
between the years 1780 and 1900. The society was galvanized into action:
medical practitioners, religious authorities, and political leaders all
tried to deal with the deadly crises. Muslims had, over many centuries,
evolved ideas concerning the origin, prevention, and treatment of
epidemic diseases that differed somewhat from those of their European
counterparts. With European economic and political expansion that
accelerated after the Napoleonic Wars, Muslims found themselves
confronted not only by a new source of political power but by a new set
of medical ideas. This study traces the medical confrontation through
the society's response to epidemic disease.