IMC 2026: Sessions

This session examines how medieval cultures conceptualised and treated suffering—whether physical, psychological, or spiritual—and how such experiences became embedded in memory, narrative, and ritual. The papers move across genres and traditions, from al-Suyūṭī’s Mamluk-era reflections on the plague and its remedies to the wounded bodies of The Shahnameh, from Anna Komnene’s engagement with maternal grief and melancholia in the Alexiad to the ritualised practices of maternal care in Byzantine iatrosophia. Together, they highlight how healing was understood not only as medical treatment but also as cultural practice, shaped by theology, philosophy, gender, and ritual. By foregrounding the intersections of trauma, care, and memory, the session explores how diverse communities articulated the relationship between body and soul, and how narratives of suffering and healing served to sustain identity and meaning across time.