In India, Unani medicine is one of the officially recognized indigenous systems of medicine. The term Unani is the anglicized form of the Arabic yūnānī (‘Greek’), which alludes to its origin in ancient Greece. Graeco-Islamic medicine probably arrived in South Asia around the twelfth century, and it flourished during the Mughal period (Speziale 2010a). After the decay of the Mughal empire, Graeco-Islamic medicine continued to be supported in some Muslim princely states during British rule, but most of its physicians ceased to have the patronage and social status they once enjoyed. During the late Colonial Period, medicine was made a theme for the nationalist struggle for independence and the institutionalization of Unani medicine was consolidated. Currently, Unani's official support is coordinated by the AYUSH Ministry, which is in charge of the development of so-called Indian Systems of Medicine (ISM) or indigenous medical systems of the country. Unani medicine is practiced in public and private (college) hospitals, in government research institutions, as well as by many private practitioners all over the country.

Drawing on analyses of Urdu sources, the work of historians of Graeco- Islamic medicine, and ethnographic details collected during clinical consultations, conversations, and interviews with a myriad of physicians and other actors of the Unani fraternity in India, this book unpacks what Unani medicine is today by attending to its multiplicity, scrutinizing apparent tensions between an understanding of Unani as a unified system of medicine and its multiple enactments as indigenous medicine, Islamic medicine, medical science, and alternative medicine. My research questions and ethnographic analysis have been informed by theoretical works and secondary sources related to the history and anthropology of (traditional forms of) medicine in South Asia and of Graeco-Islamic medicine in particular.

Through a focus on enactments of Unani and how these emerged and were reinforced, the present work challenges an assumption commonly reproduced in studies on indigenous medicine in South Asia: that modern science and traditional forms of medicine are incommensurable. While acknowledging the asymmetries involved in legitimating efforts, I question the idea that the modernization of traditional medicine, with the inclusion of new technologies and medical knowledge, invariably leads to the biomedicalization and standardization of traditional forms of medicine.