Said one devil: ‘‘To see good people, look at the saludadores, who . . . claim they do possess virtue.’’ They took offence and said that it was true that they possessed it. And to this replied [another] devil: ‘‘How can it be that virtue is found in wanderers who do naught but blow?’’ The absence of any clear dividing line between the fields of medicine and religion in early modern Spain become...

Among the forms of knowledge that express and at the same time shape world views and social standards, scientific discourse, like religious discourse, has played a key part in producing an appearance of truth, appealing to ‘‘nature’’ as incontrovertible evidence. Throughout history, medicine has helped to theorize and justify gender differences and inequalities by naturalizing them, that is, by...

In literary histories written in both Iran and the West it has generally be assumed that early modern Persian literary works are (technically inferior) copies of Western literary works. This has been and is still a claim. Almost no academically and scientifically sound works has substantiated this claim. While there is no point in denying a European influence on early modern Persian literature,...