By the 900s, Islamic medicine was the most sophisticated in the world. One of the most lasting contributions of Islam was the hospital. Funded by donations called waqf, public hospitals treated the sick, provided a place to convalesce and recover, housed the mentally ill, and provided shelter to the aged and infirm. Jewish and Christian doctors, in addition to Muslim physicians, worked in these institutions. Hospitals allowed the poorest to benefit from the knowledge of outstanding doctors: beggars in Baghdad might be operated on by Rhazes, the great surgeon of the city hospital.

As was increasingly the case in Christian Europe, great cities in the Muslim world competed to house such institutions, hoping to attract the best teachers and books. The Ahmad ibn Tulun Hospital, one of the first of its kind, was built in Cairo between 872 and 874. Perhaps the best known hospital of the Islamic world, Al-Mansuri Hospital, was also built in Cairo, by the sultan Qalawun in1285. Four wards, each one specializing in different pathologies, were reputed to house thousands of patients. The buildings surrounded a courtyard cooled by fountains.

Fonte: National Geographic History, november/december 2016, p.72-73.

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