Public hospital (bimaristan)
Hospital público (bimaristán)
- Date
- 805 · confidence medium
- Place
- Baghdad, Iraq
- Credited to
- Harun al-Rashid and the Barmakids (physicians of Gundishapur)
- People
- 👤 Harún al-Rashid766–809
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
A secular institution offering free care, with wards organised by ailment, a pharmacy, a library, clinical teaching and patient records. The model for the hospital as a centre of healing and teaching.
An earlier Umayyad hospital existed in Damascus (707), of a more charitable character.
What it led to
- the hospitals of Damascus (al-Nuri), Cairo (al-Mansuri) and Córdoba
- regulated training and the licensing of physicians (ijaza)
- European hospitals of secular foundation and medical faculties
Built on
- Academy of Gondishapurc. 550
- Sasanian Gondeshapur hospital
- Byzantine xenodochia