HISTORY OF ISLAMIC MEDICINE & SYARIAH-COMPLIANT

HEALTHCARE FACILITIES
 During the Islamic golden age, spanning the 8th to the 15th centuries, many great
advances in science were embraced, as Islamic scholars gathered knowledge from
across the known world and added their own findings. The Central to Islamic
Medicine was belief in the Qur’an and Hadiths, which stated that Muslims are
obligated to care for the sick and this was often referred to as “Medicine of the
Prophet”.

 The major contribution of the Islamic Age to the history of medicine was the
establishment of hospitals, paid for by the charitable donations known as Zakat
tax. The hospital was one of the great achievements of medieval Islamic society.
These hospitals, as well as providing care to the sick on site, sent physicians and
midwives into the less fortunate, rural areas, and also provided a place for
physicians and other staff to study and do further research. The roles of the
hospitals vary, some aimed at serving the general population, with others
providing specific services, such as the care of lepers, the disabled as well as the
infirm.

o The medical Institutions in early Islamic civilisations.

 An islamic hospital was called a bimaristan, often contracted to maristan from the
Persian word bimar, ‘ill person’, and stan, ‘place’. The earliest documented
hospital established by an Islamic ruler was built in the 9th century in Baghdad
probably by the vizier to the caliph Harun ul-Rasyid (170-193 AH 786-809 AD).
Having heard of the famous medical instituition at Jundishapur as described
before, the Caliph invited the son of the chief physician, Jibrail Bakhtishu to come
to Baghdad and head the new ‘bimaristan’ which he did. The new bimaristan
achieved fame rapidly and this has led to developments of other hospitals in
Baghdad. One of these the ‘Audidi’ hospital was to be built under the instructions
of the great Islamic Physician Al-Razi.

 Al-Razi’s Method to Determine the most suitable location to establish a

hospital ;
Al Razi once said that in order to select the best site for the hospital, he had pieces
of meat hung in various quarters of the city and watched their putrefaction. He
advised the Caliph to site the hospital where the putrefaction was the slowest and
the least ! At its inception it had 24 physicians on staff including specialists
categorized as Physiologists, occulists, surgeons, and bonesetters.

Hence, from this kind of method set up by the wise and famous physician Al-Razi,
we could summarize how fundamental it is to make sure whether we’ve made the
right choice of location to establish a medical centre. Besides prioritising how
strategic the location is, enviromental-cleanliness should also be prioritised.
o Al-Adudi Hospital, Baghdad

 Built in 981 CE and named after King Adud Al-Dawlah.

 Recognized as the most magnificent hospital built in Baghdad before modern
times. Outfitted with the best equipment and supplies available at that time.
Besides having the best supply of medical equipments, the hospital was also well-
equipped with great residents, interns, and twenty-four consultants to care and look
after the patients.
 After some time, this hospital was destroyed by Hulagu, the grandson of Chengiz
Khan in 1258.

o Al-Mansuri Hospital, Cairo

 Al-Mansuri hospital in Cairo was one of the earliest and the biggest hospitals ever
bulit. It was completed in 1248 CE by the orders of the Mameluke ruler of Egypt,
Mansur Qalawun in Cairo. Very elaborate that it had a total capacity of up to 8000
people and served 4000 patients daily.
 The starting point for his intention to establish a medical centre began while he
was fighting the Crusaders, general Qalawun became sick and received treatment
in Al-Nuri hospital. On recovery, he made a vow that he would build a larger and
magnificent hospital in cairo, for the sick, poor and rich alike if he became the
ruler of Egypt.
 This hospital potrayed the Syariah Compliant concept. Several Islamic practices
included; men and women were admitted in separate wards. Separate wards were
also for medicine, surgery, fevers and eye diseases. It had its own pharmacy,
library and lecture halls. It had a mosque for Muslim patients as well a chapel for
Christian patients.
 Furthermore, music therapy was used as a line of treatment for psychiatric patients.
Hospital stay was free and upon discharge the patient was given food and money
as a compensation for the wages he lost during his stay in the hospital. It has
served for the past seven centuries. Today it is used for ophthalmology and is
called Mustashfa Qalawun.

o Al Nuri Hospital

 The first hospital in Islam was built in Damascus which was in 706 CE. Al Nuri
hospital was a first class hospital and medical school.
 Al-Nuri was established by the Umayyad Caliph, al-Walid. Al-Nuri hospital
named after King Nur Al-Din Zanji was built in 1156 CE during the crusades.
This hospital became the first to initiate medical record keeping in the world.
 Eminent physicians, like Ibn Al-Nafis (discoverer of pulmonary circulation),
graduated from the medical school. The hospital served the for over seven
centuries.

In 259 H (872 CE), the first hospital was built in Cairo, Egypt by Ahmad ibn Tulun, the
governor of Abassid.
o Al-Fustat Hospital

 Built in 872 CE in the city of Al-Fustat (part of old Cairo) which also
applied the Syariah Compliant concept.
 This is whereby it had separate wards for both genders. Upon admission the
patients were given special garments while their personal belongings were
stored away and returned to them once their discharged.
 Al-Fustat hospital served the population of Cairo for over six centuries.

In Early Islamic civilisation, all the hospitals in Islamic lands were financed from the
revenues of pious bequests called waqfs.

 Donation of property as endowments, whose revenue went toward building and

maintaining the institution were made by the wealthy people and rulers. The
property could consist of shops, mills, caravanserais, or even entire villages.
 All the income from an endowment would pay for the maintenance and running
costs of the hospital, and at sometimes would supply a small stipend to the patient
upon dismissal.
o The Concept of Islamic Hospital

 Hospitals served all peoples irrespective of color, religion, or

background.

 Being very secular, the government run the hospitals rather than by
the church.
 Physicians commonly directed the hospitals and they were assisted
by people who had no special religious color. In hospital, despite of
their different beliefs, they (the physicians) worked together with one
aim in common; the well-being of patients.

 Separate wards: Patients of different sexes occupied separate wards.

 Besides seperating different genders, different diseases especially

infectious ones, were also allocated at different wards.
 Fever, wounds, mania, eye conditions, cold diseases, and diarrhea
were among them.

 Unlimited baths and water supplies

 One of the most essential part of the pillars of Islam is Salah which is
the five times a day prayer. Before praying, one is obligated to
perform wudu or ablution.
 For certain conditions, full bath becomes obligatory. Therefore, the
Muslim hospitals had to provide the patients as well as employees
with unlimited supply of water and adequate bathing facilities.

 Physicians. Only qualified physicians were allowed to practice medicine

by law.

 Historically, in 931 CE, the chief court-physician Sinan Ibn-Thabit

was ordered by Caliph A; -Muqtadir to grant licenses to practice
medicine to only qualified physicians out of the 860 physicians in
Baghdad.
 Abu-Osman Sai’id Ibn-Yaqub was ordered to do the same thing in
Damascus, Mecca as well as Medina.
 Mecca and Medina were very important because of hundreds of
thousands of pilgrims visiting them every year for Umra and Hajj.

 The hospital also served as a medical school to educate and train

medical students

 Educating and imparting medical knowledge to train medical

students.
 The hospital also had extensive libraries attached to the hospitals,
containing the latest books. Tulum Hospital in Cairo 872 CE had
100,000 books. (Mustansiriyya University in Baghdad had 80,000
 volumes. Cordova library had up to 600,000 volumes; Cairo had
2,000,000 and Tripoli 3,000,000).
 The physicians even had their own compilations, at a time when
printing was unknown and book editing was done by skilled and
specialized scribes putting in long hours of manual labor.
 Housing facilities and conference halls were also available for the
convenience of both students and staff to hold lectures and meetings.