‘Corrupted stomackes’

In the early modern period, sudden changes to the ‘six non-naturals’ – the essential components of health and preventive medicine – could endanger bodies on the move. Changes in climate, strange diets, uncontrolled and abrupt bodily movements, disrupted sleep, violent fluxes, and unexpected passions could throw the traveller into bodily and spiritual disarray. This chapter explores the accounts of early modern British travellers about their suffering and ill bodies in the Ottoman Empire. It argues that their writings about their bodies were influenced not only by political aims and literary pursuits but also by the various discomforts of journeying. Ailments, illness, and even death lurk in these accounts, suggesting heroism in the face of adversity and constructing the credibility of the traveller-author.