Imagine a nation where every hospital is free of cost irrespective to your status, caste, gender, religion, nationality. A multi-speciality hospital providing you a clothes, well furnished wards, delicious food, specialized doctors, that too free of cost. Not just this even giving the patient money and food as a compensation for being out of work during his hospital stay. Isn't it mind-blowing?? This is what hospitals were in the Islamic Civilization. In early medieval where Europe belief that illness is supernatural, uncontrollable, incurable. Muslims took completely different approach because of the saying of prophet Muhammadﷺ, “God has sent down the disease and he has appointed cure for every disease, so treat yourself medically”(¹) Mobile Dispensaries The first known Islamic care center was set up in a tent by Rufaydah al-Aslamiyah r.a during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammadﷺ. Famously, during the Ghazwah Khandaq, she treated the wounded in a separ...
Imagine a nation where every hospital is free of cost irrespective to your status, caste, gender, religion, nationality.
A multi-speciality hospital providing you a clothes, well furnished wards, delicious food, specialized doctors, that too
free of cost. Not just this even giving the patient money and food as a compensation for being out of work during his
hospital stay. Isn't it mind-blowing?? This is what hospitals were in the Islamic Civilization.
In early medieval where Europe belief that illness is supernatural, uncontrollable, incurable. Muslims took completely different approach because of the saying of prophet Muhammadﷺ, “God has sent down the disease and he has appointed cure for every disease, so treat yourself medically”(¹)
Later rulers developed these forerunners of “mash” units into true traveling dispensaries, complete with medicines, food, drink, clothes, doctor and pharmacists. Their mission was to meet the needs of outlying communities that were far from the major cities and permanent medical facilities.
Muslim physicians took a completely different approach. Guided by sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, “God never inflicts a disease unless He makes a cure for it,” and “God has sent down the disease and the cure, and He has appointed a cure for every disease, so treat yourselves medically,” (¹) collected by Abu al-Darda r.a, they took as their goal the restoration of health by rational, empirical means.
The earliest documented general hospital was built about a century later, in 805, in Baghdad, by the caliph Harun al-Rashid. Over the following decades, 34 more hospitals sprang up throughout the Islamic world, and the number continued to grow each year. (³)
-- (policy statement of the Bimaristan of al-Mansur Qalawun in Cairo)(⁴)
This was policy of islamic hospital in which doesn't matter you are muslim or not, resident or foreigner, without any discrimination everything will be free for you.
Inspectors evaluated the cleanliness of the hospital and the rooms on a daily basis. It was not unusual for local rulers to make personal visits to make sure patients were getting the best care.
The course of treatment prescribed by doctors began immediately upon arrival. Patients were placed on a fixed diet, depending on condition and disease. The food was of high quality and included chicken and other poultry, beef and lamb, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
Hospitals were staffed also with a sanitary inspector who was responsible for assuring cleanliness and hygienic practices. In addition, there were accountants and other administrative staff to assure that hospital conditions. There was a superintendent, who was responsible for overseeing the management of the entire institution.
Funding for the Islamic hospitals came from the revenues of pious bequests called waqf. Wealthy men and rulers donated property to existing or newly built bimaristans as endowments, and the revenues from the bequests paid for building and maintenance. Part of the state budget also went toward the maintenance of hospitals. To patients, the services of the hospital were free.
Surviving texts, such as those in Ibn Abi Usaybi’ah’s ‘Uyun al-anba’ fi tabaqat al-atibb’ (Sources of Information on Classes of Physicians), as well as student notes, reveal details of these early clinical rounds. There are instructions on diets and recipes for common treatments, including skin diseases, tumors and fevers. During rounds, students were told to examine the patients’ actions, excreta, and the nature and location of swelling and pain. Students were also instructed to note the colour and feel of the skin, whether hot, cool, moist, dry or loose.
Another key aspect to the hospital, and of critical importance to both students and teachers, was the presence of extensive medical libraries. By the 14th century, Egypt’s Ibn Tulun Hospital had a library comprising 100,000 books on various branches of medical science. This was at a time when Europe’s largest library, at the University of Paris, held 400 volumes.(⁹)
Pharmacological advancements: Islamic physicians compiled formularies and experimented with new drugs, laying the groundwork for modern pharmacology.
Standardized curricula: They offered formal education in fields like anatomy, surgery, and pharmacology, integrating texts from Greek, Roman, Indian, and Persian traditions with new Islamic innovations.(⁸)
Al-Razi: A physician and polymath who wrote extensively on clinical medicine, including works like Al-Hawi, which influenced European medicine.
Ibn al-Nafis: He described pulmonary circulation centuries before William Harvey, challenging earlier anatomical theories.
the first organised hospital was built in Cairo between 872 and 874. The Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital treated and gave medicine to all patients free of charge. With two bathhouses, one for men and one for women, a rich library, and a psychiatric wing, it was quite an advanced institution.
Al-Nuri Hospital: a large Baghdadi Hospital, built in 982, with a staff of 24 physicians. the Nuri Hospital.Here, medical instruction was given and druggists, and orthopaedists, as well as oculists and physicians, were, according to manuals composed in the 13th century, examined by “market inspectors” on the basis of some set texts. These hospitals dealt with other ailments, not just the body. the medical scholar Al-Razi worked, had a ward exclusively for the mentally ill. From these early institutions, hospitals spread all over the Muslim world, reaching Andalusia in Spain, Sicily, and North Africa.
The ninth-century Al-Qayrawan hospital was a state-of-the-art institute, with well-organised halls including waiting rooms for visitors, female nurses from Sudan, a mosque for patients to pray and study, regular physicians and teams of Fuqaha al-Badan, a group of scholars who practiced medicine and whose medical services included bloodletting, bone setting, and cauterisation.
In early medieval where Europe belief that illness is supernatural, uncontrollable, incurable. Muslims took completely different approach because of the saying of prophet Muhammadﷺ, “God has sent down the disease and he has appointed cure for every disease, so treat yourself medically”(¹)
Mobile Dispensaries
The first known Islamic care center was set up in a tent by Rufaydah al-Aslamiyah r.a during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammadﷺ. Famously, during the Ghazwah Khandaq, she treated the wounded in a separate tent erected for them. (²)Later rulers developed these forerunners of “mash” units into true traveling dispensaries, complete with medicines, food, drink, clothes, doctor and pharmacists. Their mission was to meet the needs of outlying communities that were far from the major cities and permanent medical facilities.
The First Hospitals
Although places for ill persons have existed since antiquity, most were simple, without more than a rudimentary organization and care structure. In early medieval Europe belief that the origin of illness was supernatural and thus uncontrollable by human intervention: As a result, hospitals were little more than hospices where patients were tended by monks who strove to assure the salvation of the soul without much effort to cure the body.Muslim physicians took a completely different approach. Guided by sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, “God never inflicts a disease unless He makes a cure for it,” and “God has sent down the disease and the cure, and He has appointed a cure for every disease, so treat yourselves medically,” (¹) collected by Abu al-Darda r.a, they took as their goal the restoration of health by rational, empirical means.
The earliest documented general hospital was built about a century later, in 805, in Baghdad, by the caliph Harun al-Rashid. Over the following decades, 34 more hospitals sprang up throughout the Islamic world, and the number continued to grow each year. (³)
The Concept of Bimaristans (Islamic Hospital)
Islamic hospitals, also known as Bimaristans, have a rich history rooted in the Islamic Golden Age. These institutions were more than just medical facilities; they embodied a holistic approach to healthcare, integrating spiritual, social, and medical care.The hospital shall keep all patients, men and women, until they are completely recovered. All costs are to be paid by the hospital whether the people come from a far or near, whether they are residents or foreigners, strong or weak, low or high, rich or poor, employed or unemployed, blind or sight, physically or mentally ill, learned or
illiterate. There are no conditions of consideration and payment; none is objected to or even indirectly hintedat for non-payment. The entire service is through the magnificence of God, the generous one.
-- (policy statement of the Bimaristan of al-Mansur Qalawun in Cairo)(⁴)
This was policy of islamic hospital in which doesn't matter you are muslim or not, resident or foreigner, without any discrimination everything will be free for you.
All the expenses will be on the Caliphate and waqf.
Dear father, if you’d like to visit me, you will find me in the surgery department and joints treatment. When you enter the main gate, go to the south hall where you will find the department of first aid and the department of disease diagnosis then you will find the department of arthritis (joint diseases). Next to my room, you will find a library and a hall where doctors meet together to listen to the lectures given by professors; also this hall is used for reading. The gynecology department lies on the other side of the hospital court. Men are not allowed to enter it. On the right of the hospital court lies a large hall for those who recovered. In this place they spend the period of rest and convalescence for some days. This hall contains a special library and some musical instruments.
Dear father, any place in this hospital is extremely clean; beds and pillows are covered with fine Damascus white cloth. As to bedcovers, they are made of gentle soft plush. All the rooms in this hospital are supplied with clean water. This water is carried to the rooms through pipes that are connected to a wide water fountain; not only that, but also every room is equipped with a heating stove. As to food, chicken and vegetables are always served to the extent that some patients do not want to leave the hospital because of their love and desire of this tasty food.”
—The Islamic Scientific Supremacy. Ameer Gafar Al-Arshdy. 1990, Beirut, Al-Resala Establishment.(⁵)
The 13th-century doctor and traveler ‘Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, who also taught at Damascus, narrated an amusing story of a clever Persian youth who was so tempted by the excellent food and service of the Nuri hospital that he faked illness. The doctor who examined him figured out what the young man was up to and admitted him nevertheless, providing the youth with fine food for three days. On the fourth day, the doctor went to his patient and said with a rueful smile, “Traditional Arab hospitality lasts for three days: Please go home now!”
Bimaristans were open to everyone on a 24-hour basis. Men only consult male physician And women only women physician, care for both in separate wings with duplicate facilities and resources. To treat less serious cases, physicians staffed outpatient clinics and prescribed medicines to be taken at home.
Special measures were taken to prevent infection. Inpatients were issued hospital wear from a central supply area while their own clothes were kept in the hospital store. When taken to the hospital ward, patients would find beds with clean sheets and special stuffed mattresses ready. The hospital rooms and wards were neat and tidy with abundant running water and sunlight.
Below is the translation of a young Frenchman’s letter from a Cordóba hospital in the 10th century:
“Dear father,You have mentioned in your previous letter that you would send me some money to make use of it in my medicines costs. I say, I don’t need it at all as treatment in this Islamic hospital is for free. Also there is something else concerning this hospital. This hospital gives a new suit and five dinars to every patient who has already got well lest he should find himself obliged to work in the period of rest and recuperation.Dear father, if you’d like to visit me, you will find me in the surgery department and joints treatment. When you enter the main gate, go to the south hall where you will find the department of first aid and the department of disease diagnosis then you will find the department of arthritis (joint diseases). Next to my room, you will find a library and a hall where doctors meet together to listen to the lectures given by professors; also this hall is used for reading. The gynecology department lies on the other side of the hospital court. Men are not allowed to enter it. On the right of the hospital court lies a large hall for those who recovered. In this place they spend the period of rest and convalescence for some days. This hall contains a special library and some musical instruments.
Dear father, any place in this hospital is extremely clean; beds and pillows are covered with fine Damascus white cloth. As to bedcovers, they are made of gentle soft plush. All the rooms in this hospital are supplied with clean water. This water is carried to the rooms through pipes that are connected to a wide water fountain; not only that, but also every room is equipped with a heating stove. As to food, chicken and vegetables are always served to the extent that some patients do not want to leave the hospital because of their love and desire of this tasty food.”
—The Islamic Scientific Supremacy. Ameer Gafar Al-Arshdy. 1990, Beirut, Al-Resala Establishment.(⁵)
The 13th-century doctor and traveler ‘Abd al-Latif al-Baghdadi, who also taught at Damascus, narrated an amusing story of a clever Persian youth who was so tempted by the excellent food and service of the Nuri hospital that he faked illness. The doctor who examined him figured out what the young man was up to and admitted him nevertheless, providing the youth with fine food for three days. On the fourth day, the doctor went to his patient and said with a rueful smile, “Traditional Arab hospitality lasts for three days: Please go home now!”
The quality of care: was subject to review and even arbitration.
If the patient is cured, the physician is paid. If the patient dies, his parents go to the chief doctor; they present the prescriptions written by the physician. If the chief doctor judges that the physician has performed his job perfectly without negligence, he tells the parents that death was natural; if he judges otherwise, he tells them: Take the blood money of your relative from the physician; he killed him by his bad performance and negligence. In this honorable way, they were sure that medicine is practiced by experienced, well-trained persons.Bimaristans were open to everyone on a 24-hour basis. Men only consult male physician And women only women physician, care for both in separate wings with duplicate facilities and resources. To treat less serious cases, physicians staffed outpatient clinics and prescribed medicines to be taken at home.
Special measures were taken to prevent infection. Inpatients were issued hospital wear from a central supply area while their own clothes were kept in the hospital store. When taken to the hospital ward, patients would find beds with clean sheets and special stuffed mattresses ready. The hospital rooms and wards were neat and tidy with abundant running water and sunlight.
Inspectors evaluated the cleanliness of the hospital and the rooms on a daily basis. It was not unusual for local rulers to make personal visits to make sure patients were getting the best care.
The course of treatment prescribed by doctors began immediately upon arrival. Patients were placed on a fixed diet, depending on condition and disease. The food was of high quality and included chicken and other poultry, beef and lamb, and fresh fruits and vegetables.
Organization
In a fashion that would still be recognizable today, the typical Islamic hospital was subdivided into departments such as systemic diseases, surgery, ophthalmology, orthopedics and mental diseases. The department of systemic diseases was roughly equivalent to today’s department of internal medicine, and it was usually further subdivided into sections dealing with fevers, digestive troubles, infections and more. Larger hospitals had more departments and diverse subspecialties, and every department had an officer-in-charge and a presiding officer in addition to a supervising specialist.Hospitals were staffed also with a sanitary inspector who was responsible for assuring cleanliness and hygienic practices. In addition, there were accountants and other administrative staff to assure that hospital conditions. There was a superintendent, who was responsible for overseeing the management of the entire institution.
Finance
Physicians worked fixed hours, during which they saw the patients who came to their departments. Every hospital had its own staff of licensed pharmacists (saydalani) and nurses. Medical staff salaries were fixed by law, and compensation was distributed at a rate generous enough to attract the talented.Funding for the Islamic hospitals came from the revenues of pious bequests called waqf. Wealthy men and rulers donated property to existing or newly built bimaristans as endowments, and the revenues from the bequests paid for building and maintenance. Part of the state budget also went toward the maintenance of hospitals. To patients, the services of the hospital were free.
Medical Schools & Libraries
one of the major roles of the hospitals was the training of physicians, each hospital had a large lecture theater where students, along with senior physicians and medical officers, would meet and discuss medical problems in seminar style. As training progressed, medical students would accompany senior physicians to the wards and participate in patient care—much like a modern residency program.(¹⁰)Surviving texts, such as those in Ibn Abi Usaybi’ah’s ‘Uyun al-anba’ fi tabaqat al-atibb’ (Sources of Information on Classes of Physicians), as well as student notes, reveal details of these early clinical rounds. There are instructions on diets and recipes for common treatments, including skin diseases, tumors and fevers. During rounds, students were told to examine the patients’ actions, excreta, and the nature and location of swelling and pain. Students were also instructed to note the colour and feel of the skin, whether hot, cool, moist, dry or loose.
Another key aspect to the hospital, and of critical importance to both students and teachers, was the presence of extensive medical libraries. By the 14th century, Egypt’s Ibn Tulun Hospital had a library comprising 100,000 books on various branches of medical science. This was at a time when Europe’s largest library, at the University of Paris, held 400 volumes.(⁹)
Pharmacology and Pharmacies:
Dispensaries: Bimaristans had dedicated pharmacies that prepared and distributed medications.Pharmacological advancements: Islamic physicians compiled formularies and experimented with new drugs, laying the groundwork for modern pharmacology.
Standardized curricula: They offered formal education in fields like anatomy, surgery, and pharmacology, integrating texts from Greek, Roman, Indian, and Persian traditions with new Islamic innovations.(⁸)
Notable Figures and Texts
Ibn Sina (Avicenna): His Canon of Medicine synthesized Greco-Roman and Islamic knowledge, becoming a cornerstone of medical education in both the Islamic world and medieval Europe.Al-Razi: A physician and polymath who wrote extensively on clinical medicine, including works like Al-Hawi, which influenced European medicine.
Ibn al-Nafis: He described pulmonary circulation centuries before William Harvey, challenging earlier anatomical theories.
Notable Hospitals in the Islamic World
the first organised hospital was built in Cairo between 872 and 874. The Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital treated and gave medicine to all patients free of charge. With two bathhouses, one for men and one for women, a rich library, and a psychiatric wing, it was quite an advanced institution.
Al-Nuri Hospital: a large Baghdadi Hospital, built in 982, with a staff of 24 physicians. the Nuri Hospital.Here, medical instruction was given and druggists, and orthopaedists, as well as oculists and physicians, were, according to manuals composed in the 13th century, examined by “market inspectors” on the basis of some set texts. These hospitals dealt with other ailments, not just the body. the medical scholar Al-Razi worked, had a ward exclusively for the mentally ill. From these early institutions, hospitals spread all over the Muslim world, reaching Andalusia in Spain, Sicily, and North Africa.
Al-Qayrawan Hospital
The ninth-century Al-Qayrawan hospital was a state-of-the-art institute, with well-organised halls including waiting rooms for visitors, female nurses from Sudan, a mosque for patients to pray and study, regular physicians and teams of Fuqaha al-Badan, a group of scholars who practiced medicine and whose medical services included bloodletting, bone setting, and cauterisation.
Al-Mansuri Hospital
By the 13th century, Cairo had three hospitals; the most famous was the Al-Mansuri Hospital. One of the largest hospitals of its time, treating over 4,000 patients daily.When the 13th-century Mamluk ruler of Egypt, Al-Mansur Qalawun, was still a prince, he fell ill with renal
colic during a military expedition in Syria. The treatment he received in the Nuri Hospital of Damascus was so
good that he vowed to found a similar institution as soon as he ascended to the throne. True to his word, he
built the Al-Mansuri Hospital of Cairo and said:
“I hereby devote these waqfs for the benefit of my equals and my inferiors, for the soldier and the prince, the large and the small, the free and the slave, for men and women.” Al-Mansur Qalawun.
"[The hospital's] duty is to give
care to the ill, poor, men and women
until they recover. It is at the service
of the powerful and the weak, the
poor and the rich, of the subject and
the prince, of the citizen and the
brigand, without demand for any
form of payment, but only for the
sake of God, the provider:"
-(⁶)[THE CONSTITUTION ESTABLISHING THE AL-MANSURI HOSPITAL, CAIRO]
Legacy of holistic care: Bimaristans inspired the integration of science, compassion, and ethics in healthcare, values that persist in medical practice today.
Specialized wards: These institutions separated patients based on their illness (e.g., mental health, infectious diseases, surgery), a practice that is standard in modern hospitals.
Hygiene: Bimaristans emphasized cleanliness, with running water systems, baths, and proper waste disposal, which influenced later European.
There are few countries which provides free hospital services but with the condition that one should be a permanent resident/citizen of their country but in islamic Caliphate there is no such conditions it's open for every body.this is the finest proofs of the glory of Islam.everyone who is reading this pray that this golden age of Islam repeat itself so our children could witness what civilized nation look like.
Source:
1. (Abu Dawood:- 3874, mishkat al masabih:- 4538)
2. Al-Hassani, Salin TS. "Women's Contribution to Classical Islamic Civilisation: Science, Medicine, and Politics". Muslim Heritage. Retrieved
3. Miller, A. C. (2006-12-01). "Jundi-Shapur, bimaristans, and the rise of academic medical centres". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
★ Bimaristan", in Esposito, John L. (ed.) The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford University Press. p.
4. (policy statement of the bimaristan of al-Mansur Qalawun in Cairo)
5. The Islamic Scientific Supremacy. Ameer Gafar Al-Arshdy. 1990, Beirut, Al-Resala Establishment.
6. [THE CONSTITUTION ESTABLISHING THE AL-MANSURI HOSPITAL, CAIRO]
7. The Islamic Roots of the Modern Hospital History,Written by David W. Tschanz
8. "Near East Collection: Muslim's Contributions to Medieval Medicine & Pharmacology | Yale University Library"
9. "From the Middle East, in the Middle Ages". medicine.yale.edu
10. Shanks, Nigel J.; Dawshe, Al-Kalai (January 1984). "Arabian medicine in the Middle Ages". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
“I hereby devote these waqfs for the benefit of my equals and my inferiors, for the soldier and the prince, the large and the small, the free and the slave, for men and women.” Al-Mansur Qalawun.
"[The hospital's] duty is to give
care to the ill, poor, men and women
until they recover. It is at the service
of the powerful and the weak, the
poor and the rich, of the subject and
the prince, of the citizen and the
brigand, without demand for any
form of payment, but only for the
sake of God, the provider:"
-(⁶)[THE CONSTITUTION ESTABLISHING THE AL-MANSURI HOSPITAL, CAIRO]
Global Impact
Influence on Europe: The Crusades and translations of Arabic medical texts into Latin brought Islamic medical practices to medieval Europe, shaping the Renaissance and modern medicine.(⁷)Legacy of holistic care: Bimaristans inspired the integration of science, compassion, and ethics in healthcare, values that persist in medical practice today.
Specialized wards: These institutions separated patients based on their illness (e.g., mental health, infectious diseases, surgery), a practice that is standard in modern hospitals.
Hygiene: Bimaristans emphasized cleanliness, with running water systems, baths, and proper waste disposal, which influenced later European.
Conclusion
The bimaristans of the Islamic civilization represent one of the most remarkable achievements of the medieval world.These institutions were more than ordinary hospitals. They represented centers for compassion, innovation, and education. Rooted in the principles of care and equality, bimaristans set new standards for medical practice and public health, emphasizing holistic treatment and accessibility for all, regardless of religion, status, or gender.There are few countries which provides free hospital services but with the condition that one should be a permanent resident/citizen of their country but in islamic Caliphate there is no such conditions it's open for every body.this is the finest proofs of the glory of Islam.everyone who is reading this pray that this golden age of Islam repeat itself so our children could witness what civilized nation look like.
Source:
1. (Abu Dawood:- 3874, mishkat al masabih:- 4538)
2. Al-Hassani, Salin TS. "Women's Contribution to Classical Islamic Civilisation: Science, Medicine, and Politics". Muslim Heritage. Retrieved
3. Miller, A. C. (2006-12-01). "Jundi-Shapur, bimaristans, and the rise of academic medical centres". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
★ Bimaristan", in Esposito, John L. (ed.) The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. Oxford University Press. p.
4. (policy statement of the bimaristan of al-Mansur Qalawun in Cairo)
5. The Islamic Scientific Supremacy. Ameer Gafar Al-Arshdy. 1990, Beirut, Al-Resala Establishment.
6. [THE CONSTITUTION ESTABLISHING THE AL-MANSURI HOSPITAL, CAIRO]
7. The Islamic Roots of the Modern Hospital History,Written by David W. Tschanz
8. "Near East Collection: Muslim's Contributions to Medieval Medicine & Pharmacology | Yale University Library"
9. "From the Middle East, in the Middle Ages". medicine.yale.edu
10. Shanks, Nigel J.; Dawshe, Al-Kalai (January 1984). "Arabian medicine in the Middle Ages". Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Irfan Khan
Pursuing 2nd year BAMS (bachelor of ayurvedic medicine & surgery) Student of islamic philosophy & islamic theology, social activist
“Wise people have knowledge and they use it, Foolish people have knowledge and they do not.”
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