Īlthough hospitals were built during the Middle Ages in all major cities in Iraq, Persia, Syria and Egypt and Allen O Whipple has given a list of 63 hospitals in these countries. Later a shortened version of this word Māristan was also widely used in the Arabic literature. About this time the word Bīmaristan was introduced into Arabic vocabulary, for example Al-Rāzī wrote a book titled, Kitāb fī sifāt al-Bīmaristan, meaning a book on the merits of a hospital. Although there is scepticism and controversy regarding founding of medical school and Bīmaristan at Jundi-Shapur but it is established that during the 8th century the decedents of Nestorians from Persia played an important role in translating Greek and Syriac medical texts into Arabic. The origin of this word goes back to middle of 5th century when persecuted Nestorians settled in Sasanid Persia where they were welcomed and over generations prospered as physicians. We are also told that Bīmaristan which is a Persian word and literally means house of the sick was introduced into Arabic during the 9th century. While during the zenith of Abbasid Caliphate, more than sixty hospitals served the city of Baghdad alone. The historians have recorded that in Damascus hospitals existed as early as 706 CE at the time of Umayyad Caliph Al-Walīd. The Muslim civilisation immediately followed after Byzantine and developed Arabic Medicine largely borrowing from the Greek traditions. There is enough historical evidence that hospitals existed during Byzantine period, these might be for the isolation of those suffering from leprosy, though convincing archaeological evidence has not yet been uncovered. We are grateful to the author for allowing publication in *** This article was first published in Vesalius 2007 8 (I), 10-15.
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