Diseases, Disorders, Disabilities and Rights in the Environmental History of Cilician Armenia: The Eastern Mediterranean Context (the Late Twelfth–Fourteenth Centuries)

Sources related to the history of Mediterranean Armenia, or Cilician Armenia, a state outside the Armenian highlands that was formed during the High Middle Ages by Armenians escaping the Seljuk invasion of Armenia, offer ample information about medieval diseases, hospitals, doctors, disabled people and their rights. This information is special, not only from the point of view of the environmental history of Cilician Armenia, but also of the medieval Mediterranean and Middle East in general. The Kingdom of Armenia was an important junction in the conduct of West-East trade during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The main objective of this article is to analyze and present sources and terms related to medieval diseases, disabilities, and rights regarding Cilician Armenia and the eastern Mediterranean in this period. How were diseases named and defined in sources? How did medical information circulate in the Mediterranean, taking Cilician Armenia as an example? A secondary goal of this article is to shed light on the rights of people with diseases, disabilities, and various disorders, as described in Cilician Armenia, on the one hand, and in other medieval codes, on the other hand.