Bimaristan of Nur ad-Din
Coordinates: 33 ° 30 ′ 36.7 ″ N , 36 ° 18 ′ 12.5 ″ E
The hospital of Nur ad-Din ( Arabic البيمارستان النوري al-Bimaristan an-Nuri ) is the oldest knownhospitalinDamascus,Syria, built in 1154 by theZengid Atabeg Nur ad-Din(1118–1174). As part of a socio-religious building complex, the former hospital, along with a mosque and the donor's mausoleum, is one of the most important structures in the old town of Damascus. It is located in Suq al-Khayattin in the al-Hariqa district, southwest of theUmayyad Mosque.
Doctors practiced here according to the rules of Islamic medicine , the most progressive medicine at the time. In Western Europe at that time the sick in infirmaries were left to themselves; their care was more geared towards the salvation of the soul.
The floor plan is based on the classic Seljuk four-iwan principle with a rectangular open courtyard (20 × 15 m), in the middle of which there is a rectangular stone water basin (7 × 8.5 m). The courtyard is extended in each side center to an iwan (half-open, vaulted hall), which in turn is flanked by two chambers with cross vaults . The western iwan has a muqarnas vault, the southern iwan with the mihrab niche is covered with marble. The eastern ivan is the largest with 8 × 7.5 m and served as a lecture hall. During restoration work, two built-in bookcases were discovered in the walls of the east sofa, in which the textbooks donated by Nur ad-Din had been stored.
The Nur al-Din Bimaristan was described in detail in 1942 by the German ancient orientalist Ernst Herzfeld . Today the building is used as a museum for Arabic medicine and science.
literature
- Frank Rainer Scheck, Johannes Odenthal: Syria. High cultures between the Mediterranean and the Arabian desert. 4th edition, DuMont, Ostfildern 2009, p. 151, ISBN 978-3-7701-3978-1
Web links
- Nur al-Din Bimaristan on Archnet.org , accessed May 27, 2017.
Individual evidence
- ^ Nur al-Din Bimaristan on Archnet.org , accessed May 27, 2017.
- ^ Ernst Herzfeld (1942): Damascus. Studies in Architecture . Ars Islamica Vol. 9 pp. 1-53
- ↑ Herzfeld Papers online , accessed on May 27, 2017.