Almost six years after my fieldwork, as I write these words from my desk in Germany, ḥijāmah therapy is only a phone call away. Websites advertising this practice in German language have proliferated in the past few years, but instead of targeting the ‘wellness’ or ‘New Age’ sector, as the advertisements of Ayurvedic therapies in magazines about organic farming and natural living in Germany often do, these websites are oriented towards a Muslim audience looking for prophetic medicine. In contrast to ḥijāmah, Unani as a system of medicine has not yet managed the international breakthrough that the fraternity was hoping for at the time of fieldwork. This development reflects that therapeutic practices are not bound to the medical systems they are often attached to, and that they can proliferate on their own under particular circumstances. Ḥijāmah owes its international success among Muslim communities to its unambiguous connection to Hadiths and the Sunna, coupled with it being an easy to learn, relatively safe, and cheap procedure, but also to the popularization of cupping as a form of alternative and complementary medicine.

It may seem strange that in today's highly scientized and technicized field of medicine, specific therapeutic practices linked to religion and spirituality such as ḥijāmah are thriving, whereas Unani as a system of medicine has been less successful in spreading itself through validation using modern scientific terms. This not only speaks for asymmetries regarding authorities of scientific recognition, but it also confirms that it is not necessarily the modern scientific paradigm what determines the destiny of particular therapeutic practices. Also the global therapeutic market where they can thrive, including commercial interests, the possibility of specific therapies to be commoditized against others, as well as the potential of specific practices to articulate identities, religious or otherwise, play a crucial role.

This book has discussed the making of Unani medicine through an examination of its generative practices in contemporary India. I addressed the question of what Unani is based on several issues emanating from the existing literature on traditional Asian medicines.