Abstract:

This paper discusses how Ottoman science helped Cotton Mather, Boston and the Anglo-Atlantic World accept inoculation in 1721. Mather was more willing to put his faith as a Christian in Islamic medicine than one of America’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, and many other leading secular voices at the time. The process reflected the intersection of two trends in the Anglo-American Atlantic world in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the European Enlightenment and a vision of Islamic civilization that recognized and sought to benefit from its intellectual and social achievements. It also challenges two misconceptions: Islamic science stagnated after the medieval period and Muslims did not contribute to American history before 1800. Finally, this paper reframes Mather’s place in history. Despite his achievements, he is remembered for his unyielding defense of the Salem Witch Trials—one of the worst miscarriages of justice in American history.

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