Medicine · a Light

A Damascus hospital of 1154 charged nobody and taught medicine

Nur al-Din Zangi founded the bimaristan that carries his name in Damascus in 1154. Like the other great hospitals it was paid for out of waqf, the rents of shops, bathhouses and farmland assigned to it in perpetuity, which meant its budget did not depend on a ruler staying alive or generous. Treatment was free. The rules of these institutions record admission without regard to religion, origin or means, separate wards by illness including wards for patients with mental disorders, and a resident staff of physicians, oculists, surgeons and pharmacists. Students walked the wards with their teachers and were examined before they could practise. The building still stands in the old city of Damascus and now houses a museum of medicine.

Bimaristan al-Nuri · Damascus, 1154