Journal of International Society for the History

Rosanna GORINI BIMARISTANS AND MENTAL HEALTH IN TWO DIFFERENT
AREAS OF THE MEDIEVAL ISLAMIC WORLD
as well as the beauty based on the proportion and on the
balance of the buildings, was very often considered as a
part of the patients’ therapy. Usually the ornaments were
calligraphic motifs of Koranic vesicles on the health and
its maintenance.
It is due also to the medieval travellers’s descriptions
that we have today informations about the bimaristans and
about the mental health therapies inside them. Even though
there could be some doubts concerning their credibility,
these descriptions give us an idea on the hospitalization
during that period.
Syria
The bimaristan Nur al Din, the still intact structure
of Bimaristan Nur al Din is located in the heart of the
old city at the southwest of the Umayyad Mosque in
Damascus and represents the oldest cruciform ground
plan’s example retained until now. It was built in 1154 by
the sultan Nur al-Din and in 1242 Badr al-Din added an
extension which allowed the bimaristan to serve a larger
number of patients. It functioned both as a hospital for the
treatment of diseases and as a medical school. According
to the historian al-Maqrizi (1364-1442) the revenues of
this hospital were due to the ransom paid to Nur al Din by
a Frankish crusader king to obtain his freedom.
The entrance is located on the western side of the
building. Its grand double gate is decorated with elegant
clay ornaments and leads into a square chamber that
divided the outer and inner gates. A smaller room leads in
turn to an open court with a central rectangular basin made
of carved stone. Three iwans surrounds this court. The
southern one, the most decorated, was used for the pray,
the largest iwan, in the east side, was used for the doctor’s
meetings and lectures. This iwan had two storage spaces
containing many medical books donated by Nur al Din.
The building was divided into different sections and wards
dealing with different diseases including mental diseases.
The travel book (Rihla) of the 12th century Andalusian
traveller Ibn Gubayr, who described the activity inside the
bimaristan, attests that the internement and the cure for
the mentally retarded were provided: “physicians every
morning visit the sicks and prescribe them remedies and
food….the lunatics have a particular treatment…the most
seriously ill are in chains…some of them crack witty
jokes as we really heard”. It seems that in this bimaristan
opium therapy, in which opium was dissolved in water,
was largely utilized to treat the disease called maniya (2).
The cells of the lunatics do not exist any longer and the
bimaristan is today a History of Arab Medical Sciences
Museum.
The Bimaristan Al-Qaymari
As regards the bimaristan Al-Qaymari, it is well known
in the Arabic and Western literature for the Damascus
landscape, which could be enjoyed from the windows in
the back of its îwân-hall, no more existing at our time (7).
It was located in the al-Salihiyya quarter in Damascus,
outside the boundaries of the city, by the 13th century amir
Sayf al-din Abu al-Hasab al-Qaymari. Later on the city
has expanded and it has been absorbed into the Damascus
urban fabric. It is an heavy stone-walls structure with
detailed ornamentation. Its cruciform ground plan built
around a central rectangular courtyard, looks like the
Nur ad Din one. The building is accessed from the north
through a monumental portal. Its central courtyard opens
into a iwan to the south and gives access to rectangular
rooms to the east and west. In this bimaristan too, in the
center of the courtyard, a simple rectangular basin is
located. Notices about the madmen internement as well
as the water plant utilization are given by Ibn Tulun, who
quotes the 15th century author Jamal al-Din, :” ..on the
West side of it there is a place (qâ ̀̀
ah) for the lunatics and
next to it there is an enclosed room (hâsil) for the restraints
of the madmen …an apartment (bayt) …in the middle of
it there is a large tank (birkah) continuously supplied with
water by a waterwheel (nâ ̀ ûrah) installed in the Nahar
Yazid” (7). A quotation too from the waqf charter of this
bimaristan informs us on the mad women’ restraints: “..to
the nurses who look after the sick and mad women, every
month 10 dirham and a sixth of wheat’s jar each one”.
The Bimaristan Al-Arghuni
It is not sure if it was exclusively conceived as a place
for the care and the treatment of the lunatics, but it is sure
that the treatment of the insanity has been one of its aims.
Located in the centre of the Alep city near the Qinnisrin
gate, originally it was a princely palace, which the governor
of Aleppo Arghun al-Sagir al-Kamili converted into a
bimaristan on the fourteenth century. Its plan, differently
from those of Nur ad Din and al Qaymari is more complex
and consists of some buildings asymmetrically placed. Its
main monumental entrance is located on the west side of
the building. The main rectangular courtyard is fl anked by
a series of columns and houses a bubbling fountain inside
a basin whose rims is thick and can support fl owerpots and
many kinds of basil. Two iwans are located in the southern
and in the northern sides: the bigger at the southern side
could be used as stage for musicians. By the main entrance,
through a series of narrow and dark passages it is possible
to enter three different wards particularly secluded, where
the patients were placed, depending on the degree of their
18 JISHIM 2007-2008, 6-7