Mahomet Allum: Australia's Leading Herbalist-Benefactor?

Abstract

Mahomet Allum, an Afghan herbalist whose family practised medicine over centuries, arrived in 1891,and spent most of his life in Australia, eventually settling in Adelaide. He endeared himself especially to the poor and labour class, in treating their illnesses efficaciously without payment. He donated effusively to charities, and disseminated Islamic knowledge.

Allum criticised contemporary Australian medical practices – he pioneered campaigning in Australia against inhumane use of live animals for vivisection and pathological testing, and injecting animal serums into humans. He stood on his principles in the ensuing challenge between tradition and modernity, which ended in court with him being convicted for claiming to be a ‘physician’, which witnesses denied. The accounts reviewed suggest Mahomet Allum’s herbalist skill was likely superior to many Western medical outcomes in the 1930s, implying that healing capabilities of traditional Afghan cum Islamic medicine were only equalled in the past century. Allum was a rarity in challenging the prevailing view of European racial superiority. His reported shortcomings were that he lost no opportunity to promote himself, and his critique of ‘Western’ medicine, including vaccinations. Sadly, his wife died from smallpox for which effective vaccination had been discovered and used in Ottoman Turkey before 1700.