Medical Anthropology Forum “There is something about the British blade”: Islamic Healing and the Politics of Legitimacy in Manchester

This presentation analyses the biographical narratives offered by the Hijama (cupping) practitioners and their routes into healing. The aim is to explore the various ways in which practitioners gain and create authenticity and legitimacy. It seeks to unpack how one goes about becoming an ‘expert’ and how their professional practice is legitimsed. This presentation argues that that legitimacy is experienced in three realms – Islamically, through articulation of Islamic knowledge and hold over the sunnah, through following scientific norms and developing a meticulous practice, or placing themselves in an alternate realm. Each of these realms are intersecting and competing (depending on who is at the receiving end of this knowledge). In showing the competing and contrasting realms of practice, this paper argues how this emerges as a super diverse practice at the intersection of religion, medicine, and complementary medicine.