Egyptian army doctors classified homesickness as a fatal clinical disease

Evidence

Faced with a near epidemic outbreak of “home-sickness” Clot Bey, the Chief Physician of the army, felt it necessary to refer to it in a booklet that he wrote for young army doctors “so that they can consult it at ease without having to refer to other larger tomes.” … Home-sickness [al-ishtiyāq ila al-waṭan] is a disease that often afflicts the new soldiers after leaving their homes, families and things familiar to them. This leads them to depression, melancholy, soreness, tiredness and sometimes to death. Therefore, they have to be kept occupied as much as possible and to be promised their imminent return home … As much as possible soldiers have to be kept in a happy, content state and their officers have to be ordered to be gentle with them … and to make them believe that the dangers they are about to encounter are not grave. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1101

Home-sickness [al-ishtiyāq ila al-waṭan] is a disease that often afflicts the new soldiers after leaving their homes, families and things familiar to them. This leads them to depression, melancholy, soreness, tiredness and sometimes to death. Therefore, they have to be kept occupied as much as possible and to be promised their imminent return home … As much as possible soldiers have to be kept in a happy, content state and their officers have to be ordered to be gentle with them … and to make them believe that the dangers they are about to encounter are not grave. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1102

Categorization

• DEFINE: Homesickness (al-ishtiyāq ila al-waṭan) was formally medicalized in 1830s Egypt as a disease with a prescribed treatment protocol.
• ADDENDUM: Ties to the reader’s interest in how the modern Egyptian army was molded by medical and disciplinary institutions over raw recruits.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1101; Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 1102