Fear of minority doctors as murderers dates back to antiquity across civilizations

Evidence

According to the first-century CE Roman philosopher and naturalist Pliny the Elder, the Roman statesman and moralist Cato the Elder (234–149 BCE), a fierce adversary of the Hellenisation of Roman culture, accused Greek physicians of having ‘conspired among themselves to murder all barbarians [i.e. non-Greeks] with their medicine’. Likewise, in Islamic Spain, the twelfth-century jurist Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn ‘Abdun expressed the view that Muslims should not consent to be treated by either Jews or Christians since these subject dhimmis (‘protected peoples’ living under Islamic rule) must be assumed to be hostile to Muslims, and any Muslim treated by Jewish or Christian doctors consequently risked his or her life. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 359 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

In comparison with judeoconversos, medical practitioners from the morisco minority largely escaped suspicions that they were orchestrating a campaign of secret medical murder. While the statutes of limpieza regulating admittance to many university colleges as well as colleges of surgeons and apothecaries also applied to them, no lasting conspiracy theory of medical murder by moriscos materialised. The reason why this was the case is not entirely clear. The research of Luis García Ballester has demonstrated that morisco medical practitioners tended to practise their skills not only within their communities, but also among a wide variety of Old Christian patients as unlicensed ‘healers’ (known as sanadores), and even King Philip II had recourse to morisco doctors to attend to the illnesses of his sons. Various factors may have mitigated the fear that Old Christian patients might unknowingly be entrusting their lives to crypto-Muslim doctors who had evil intentions. Firstly, the morisco populations residing in those parts of Spain where morisco settlement was densest—Granada (until 1571) and Valencia—remained quite culturally distinct (and thus visually recognisable) from the Old Christian population after their forced conversion, speaking an Arabic dialect and wearing distinctive clothing. This distinctiveness doubtless helped to alleviate the fears of Old Christian patients that they could be receiving treatment from a morisco doctor or healer without realising it. It would therefore seem that the fear of the ‘secret identity’ of the judeoconverso doctor did not affect attitudes towards the much more ‘visible’ moriscos in a similar manner. Secondly, in stark contrast to the Jews and judeoconversos, there did not exist an established medieval tradition of suspicion relating to Muslim medical practitioners, any myths comparable to that of Rabbi Meir Alguadex or conspiratorial documents such as the forged letter from Constantinople. Thirdly, and finally, the fact that there were few licensed or university-trained morisco doctors, and thus few reasons for professional rivalry between moriscos and licensed Old Christian doctors, may also have played a role. … Anti-Muslim sentiment among Christians did not spare morisco medical practitioners. Most of them were not university trained and were part of what Luis García Ballester has described as a ‘medical subculture’ (subcultura médica). Working as unlicensed ‘healers’, the moriscos were the object of suspicion and their medical skills were the subject of accusations of sorcery and demonic links. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 407 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Accusations that rival group doctors poison patients date back to antiquity and cross cultures — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 359; Visible cultural difference prevented a medical-conspiracy stereotype against moriscos — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 407

Broader Connections

• Accusations that rival group doctors poison patients date back to antiquity and cross cultures #corroborates (0.96) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 359
• Visible cultural difference prevented a medical-conspiracy stereotype against moriscos #complicates (0.82) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 407