During the nineteenth century, the increasing professionalization of medical practice led to the emergence of new institutions and laws governing legitimate use of medical knowledge. In the Ottoman Empire, the arrival of European medical schools and establishments led to tensions regarding the sovereignty of the empire over the medical realm in its own domains. This episode with Philippe Bourmaud follows the debates and conflicts over the establishment of the French medical school of Saint-Joseph in Beirut during the late Ottoman period and their meaning for own understanding of imperialism and colonialism in the Ottoman world.