Nur Eddine Bimaristan: great medical edifice of the Islamic civilization
Regional, Culture, 1/16/1999

The Islamic Arab civilization left behind to humanity a great heritage full of accomplishments in all fields of knowledge. The building up of hospitals and health care centers, which used to render free of charge services to people, prospered all over the Islamic states.

The first Islamic hospitals were built in the Middle East between the eighth and the 13th century AD., where the Muslims benefited from and developed the knowledge they had acquired from the translated medical manuscripts of the Greek and Roman civilization.

Depending on those two great civilizations, the Arab Muslims were able to build an interrelated network of hospitals, schools of medicine, health care centers and clinics. The Persian word Bimaristan (hospital) was the name given by the Muslims to the health care centers which were constructed first in the capitals ( Damascus and Baghdad) and then spread quickly in different part of the Islamic empire. The first Bimaristan was founded in Syria in 707 AD by orders of the Ummayyad caliph al-Walid bin Abdul Malik. The Bimaristan included at the time sections to treat pestilence and blindness.

But the most important achievement in the medical field during the Islamic era was the construction of Nur Eddine Bimaristan which was erected in 1154 AD in Damascus by orders of Sultan Nur Eddine Zenki. The building of Nur eddine Bimaristan, which is similar to great palaces, serves as a model of the Seljuk architecture. The building was resorted for several times and remained rendering gratis services to people until the end of the 19th century. In the 1970s the Bimaristan was repaired to be the museum of medicine and sciences.

Unlike most health centers spread at the time in which the scholar used to treat all diseases, specialized physicians used to work in Nur Eddine Bimaristan to remedy different illnesses including internal diseases and ophthalmic defects. The medical edifice was divided into different sections: lectures halls, treatment halls, laboratory for pharmaceutical industry, sleeping dormitories and other important facilities that contribute a great deal to the treatment of diseases. In addition to the free of charge treatment including drugs and lodging, Nur eddine Bimaristan provided religious facilities representing by constructing worshiping halls near the clinics. Another accomplishment realized in Nur Eddine Bimaristan is the construction of departments for rehabilitation of the mentally retarded and to cure neural disease.

Orientalists lauded highly the human treatment and the good care and attention accorded to the patients by Bimarstan Nur eddine, with a French physician having said "good health is not only achieved by the medical care but also by building a network of interrelated establishments that can meet the different needs of the patients." The French physician's theory shows the influence of Nur eddine Bimaristan and its medical system on Europe.

Music and concerts as well as presenting episodes before the patients were employed in the department which was the first in the region. The great contribution rendered by the Arab scholars in the medical field is a well-known fact to the entire world.

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