The most imposing monument to have survived in Amasya from the Ilkhanid period is the Darüşşifa, known locally as the Bimarhane and in older records most often as the Tımarhane. On the street that runs parallel to the Yeşilırmak, in front of the Yakutiye quarter, this stone building bears over its gateway a name that belongs to neither a ruler nor a great emir: it is the name of Anber bin Abdullah, the "humble servant", as the inscription itself calls him. All we know of this man, who rose from palace service, comes from a few lines of inscription and from endowment registers kept centuries later. Even so, those few lines offer a striking example of how a person of modest standing could keep his name alive through learning and charity, and of the financial and legal foundations on which a house of healing stood for centuries. What follows concerns the building's founder Anber, the other figures named in connection with its construction, and the endowment that kept the Darüşşifa alive for six hundred years.

Who Was Anber bin Abdullah

Anber bin Abdullah was a member of the household of İlduş Hatun, wife of the Ilkhanid ruler Sultan Öljeitü (Olcaytu Muhammed Han). The lady's name is rendered variously in the sources as İlduş, İldüş, İlduz, Yıldız or, in the form found on the inscription, İl-Düzmiş. Gönül Cantay's entry in the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam plainly describes Anber as the lady's slave, while Hüseyin Hüsameddin refers to him as "Anber Ağa". The recording of his father's name as Abdullah points to a servile origin and a later conversion to Islam. In the medieval Islamic world it was common practice to call a person whose father was not a Muslim, or was unknown, "son of Abdullah", and the situation was a familiar one in the court circles of the period. Where he came from, at what age he entered the household, when he was freed and when he died are all unknown; no surviving document answers these questions.

What is known is that Anber used the means at his disposal to establish a lasting charitable foundation. He directed his lady's patronage and his own resources towards the building of a hospital. That choice lifted him from the ranks of history's ordinary servants to the standing of founder of a monument of civilisation. Some studies state that the building was raised "at the wish of Princess Yıldız Hatun", meaning that the real initiative lay with the lady and that Anber was the person who carried it out. According to a local account, Öljeitü and his wife ordered Anber and the emir of Anatolia to build it when they came to Amasya. Since no contemporary document shows that the ruler visited Amasya on such an occasion, this account remains tradition. The fact that the building is referred to today in scholarly writing as the "Anber bin Abdullah Darüşşifa" shows that, among those named on the inscription, the title of founder has been accorded to him.

The Building Inscription and the Date 1308-1309

The Amasya Darüşşifa was built at the very beginning of the fourteenth century, in the hijri year 708, that is 1308-1309. This date and the founders' names are known from the Arabic inscription that runs in a single line around three sides of the portal niche. According to the reading published in Hüsameddin's book, the text means roughly this: in the days of the reign of the exalted sultan, the great khagan, helper of religion and the world, Öljeitü Muhammed Han, and in the days of the glory of the exalted lady, greatest of queens, İlduş Hatun, God granted the humble servant Anber son of Abdullah success in the building of this blessed darüşşifa; may God accept it from him, in the year seven hundred and eight. Turkish renderings of the inscription differ slightly. In one translation the person whom God granted success is Öljeitü, with Anber's name appearing at the very end together with the prayer; in another it is Anber himself who is enabled to complete the building. What remains constant in both readings is that the names of the ruler and his lady date the reign, while Anber's name declares the owner of the building.

A notable feature of the inscription is that it speaks of Öljeitü's wife as a "queen" (melike). Fourteen buildings and sixteen inscriptions bearing the names of Ilkhanid sultans have been identified in Anatolia, and the scholars who have studied them attach particular importance to İl-Düzmiş Hatun being styled a queen. A similar practice appears a few years later, in 1310, in Erzurum: the inscription on the portal of the Yakutiye Madrasa states that Cemaleddin Hoca Yakut built it with the assistance of Ghazan Khan and his wife Bulughan Hatun. Placed side by side, the two inscriptions reveal a shared pattern. The names of the ruler and his lady appear on the building as its patrons, while the person who actually undertakes the work is someone in their service. Öljeitü's name also occurs on other buildings in Anatolia; the lost inscription of 1305 on the Şeyh Şehabeddin Fountain in Tokat is one of them.

Nothing is known of the building's architect. No master builder is named on the inscription, and the endowment documents are silent on the matter. The widespread belief that the Darüşşifa was reserved for the insane alone arose from the building being popularly known as a bimarhane or tımarhane. The inscription, however, clearly defines it as a darüşşifa, a hospital in the general sense, and the building functioned as a medical institution for a long time, both at the outset and in later centuries.

Ahmed Bey, Emir of Anatolia, and the Debate over the Reading

It is recorded that Ahmed Bey, emir of Anatolia, also contributed to the construction, and the TDV Encyclopaedia of Islam states that the building was raised by Anber together with this emir. The basis of this information is the phrase "and the emir of Anatolia Ahmed", which Hüsameddin read in large letters beside the portal, on the eastern column. Hüsameddin identified this Ahmed with Şemseddin Ahmed Bey, vizier of the Seljuk sultan Mesud II, who on the sultan's death in 1304 was appointed by Öljeitü as governor of the province of Anatolia. Son of the former chief of the çavuşes Seyfeddin Alakuş Bey, this emir also appears in the sources as "Türk Ahmed Bey" and "Şems Ahmed el-Lakuşi". In Hüsameddin's view, the presence of his name on an inscription dated 708 confirms that he held the governorship of Anatolia in those years.

This reading was later called into question. In his study of inscriptions published in 1927, İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı stated that Hüsameddin had misread a few cramped words as "and the emir of Anatolia Ahmed", and that he had not found on the building inscription some of the other names Hüsameddin gave. Later encyclopaedias and guidebooks nevertheless continued to list Ahmed Bey among the building's founders. On the evidence available today, the extent of Ahmed Bey's part in the construction has not been settled. What is certain is that Anber's name is clearly legible on the main inscription, whereas the emir's name rests on a disputed supplementary text.

Hüsameddin also records two further small inscriptions, each on a rectangular stone on either side of the gateway, which could be read only in part. On the southern stone he made out something resembling "Ala'ü'd-devle ve'd-din Ali", and on the northern stone "İbnü'l-merhum el-mağfur leh Mehmed" (son of the late Mehmed, upon whom be forgiveness). The names legible on these two fragments match those of Alaeddin Ali, who is thought to have drawn up the building's endowment, and of his father İzzeddin Mehmed, and they may be regarded as a noteworthy clue in the question of the endowment discussed below.

The Endowment Deed of 1312

The survival of a darüşşifa depended less on its construction than on securing the income that would keep it alive. In Seljuk and Ilkhanid Anatolia hospitals were not supported from the state treasury but were run on the revenues of properties endowed by their founders. The founder, or a benefactor acting on his behalf, would endow income-producing properties such as villages, fields, vineyards, shops and bathhouses, and set down how this income was to be spent in an endowment deed (vakfiye) registered before a court. The deed specified item by item the wages of the physician, the attendants and the other staff, the daily cost of medicines and of the kitchen, and the upkeep and repair of the building. Patients could thus be treated without paying anything. This system was an institutional expression of the Islamic ideal of charity and compassion, and the Amasya Darüşşifa was founded within it.

The endowment deed of the Amasya Darüşşifa is known to have been drawn up in the hijri year 712, that is 1312. The original document has not survived; in Hüsameddin's words, "its deed has been lost". The mere knowledge of its date shows that this house of healing was placed on a sound legal and financial footing only four years after it was built. The revenues of the pious endowment (waqf) secured the livelihood of the physicians, attendants and other staff, the supply of medicines and the maintenance of the building. The loss of the deed means that we cannot know today with certainty which villages or which shops were assigned to the hospital. What is known has been worked out retrospectively from the registers kept by the endowment in later centuries and from the Islamic court registers.

Who Drew Up the Endowment

The common account holds that Anber bin Abdullah established the endowment so that the Darüşşifa could continue its work. The old records, however, give a different name. Hüsameddin notes that in the old registers the building was generally recorded as "Darü'ş-şifa-i el-merhum Alaeddin" (the darüşşifa of the late Alaeddin), and in the court registers as "Darü'ş-şifa-i el-merhum Alaeddin Ali", "Darü'ş-şifa-i el-merhum Pervane Bey" and "Darü'ş-şifa-i Pervane". Recalling that the sons of İzzeddin Mehmed bin Kutbeddin Osman, pervane of the last Seljuk sultan Mesud II in Amasya, included Alaeddin Ali Pervane, Nasıreddin Ahmed Pervane and Esededdin Cafer, Hüsameddin draws the following conclusion: Anber Ağa and Ahmed Bey, who built the Darüşşifa, died before drawing up its endowment; the deed was later issued by Alaeddin Ali Pervane Bey, and the building was therefore attributed to him. Hüsameddin presents this conclusion as a possibility, but the phrase "Ala'ü'd-devle ve'd-din Ali" read on the stone beside the gateway lends it support.

Alaeddin Ali Pervane was an emir who held an important place in the administration of Amasya at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Hüsameddin shows him in 1305 as the candar of Amasya, that is, the commander responsible for public order in the city. The same man built Amasya's first Mevlevi lodge around 714 (1314) and drew up its endowment; it is known that the lodge appears in the court registers as "Mevlevihane-i Merhum Alaeddin Pervane Bey", and that the contents of its lost deed were later proven by witnesses and registered in his name. It is hardly surprising that an emir should have drawn up the endowments of both a Mevlevi lodge and a hospital in the same years. According to Hüsameddin, Alaeddin Ali is buried with his father İzzeddin Mehmed Pervane and his brother Nasıreddin Ahmed in the Pervaneler Türbesi (tomb of the Pervanes), east of the Pervane Bey Mosque. Some local writers also claim that Alaeddin Ali was İlduş Hatun's brother; no document confirming this kinship has been found.

The "Sultan Alaeddin" Error

The endowment registers contain a striking error. Some entries state that the founder of the darüşşifa was "Sultan Alaeddin". Over time this wording gave rise to the belief that the building had been erected by a Seljuk sultan. Hüsameddin considers this historically impossible: Alaeddin Keykubad III, regarded as one of the last Seljuk sultans, had died before the darüşşifa was built, and no other ruler known as "Sultan Alaeddin" existed in Anatolia in that century. In his view, the phrase "Sultan Alaeddin" in the registers arose when the honorific of Alaeddin Ali Pervane, who drew up the deed, was later confused with a sultan's title. The same building thus came to carry two separate memories, Anber's name on its gateway and Alaeddin's in its registers.

Other mistaken views about the building's origins have also been put forward. Mehmed Rifat Efendi wrote in his Lugat-ı Tarihiyye ve Coğrafiyye that the place had once been a pagan temple and was later converted into a hospital, while Mustafa Vazıh Efendi attributed the building to Muineddin Süleyman Pervane. Hüsameddin remarks that neither author had read the Arabic inscription over the gateway. Against the temple theory he points out that the remains of antiquity in Amasya lie six or seven metres underground, whereas the darüşşifa stands above ground without being buried even a metre.

How the Endowment Worked and Its Staff

Although the original deed is lost, there is ample evidence that the endowment functioned for centuries. Hüsameddin writes that until recently the darüşşifa's endowments and staff were known, and he lists the posts one by one: administrator (mütevelli), clerks, rent collectors, zencirci, doorkeepers, physician, students, pharmacist, laundryman, cook and noktacı. The list shows that the endowment was much more than a fund paying the physician's wages: it sustained a whole institution, from the management of properties and the collection of revenues to the preparation of medicines and the patients' meals and laundry. The presence of students, for their part, confirms that the darüşşifa also worked as a medical madrasa in which physicians were trained.

Among those who served in the endowment's administration were members of the city's leading ulema. Hüsameddin records that one of the scholars who rose to the post of mufti of Amasya in the eighteenth century had for a time been "clerk of the Tımarhane endowment". The endowment's revenues did not go to physicians alone. Salih Efendi, a Halveti sheikh known as the Sheikh of Şamlar, was called the "Sheikh of the Darüşşifa" because his breath was believed to heal the insane; he accepted nothing from anyone and contented himself with the daily allowance assigned to him from the Ayas Ağa and Tımarhane endowments. In his time the physician of the darüşşifa was Hekimzade Mahmud Çelebi, and the two are said to have treated patients together, "materially and spiritually". When Salih Efendi died in the month of Zilhicce 1078 (1668) (elsewhere in his work Hüsameddin gives a date around 1076), he was buried in his cell in the southern corner of the eastern side inside the darüşşifa. This grave within the building later became known as the "Tomb of the Saint of the Tımarhane".

Physicians in the Endowment Register

A register belonging to the endowment records the hospital's staff and their wages. From it we learn that until 1693 the physician of the darüşşifa was Ahter-i Bali. In 1693 Tabib Kostuce took up the post, and in 1708 Esarbali was appointed; after his dismissal came Hacı Mahmud Efendi, who had studied medicine in Istanbul. Hacı Mahmud Efendi's sons İsmail and İbrahim were also physicians, and İsmail Efendi, though a very well-known physician in Amasya, did not work at this hospital. In 1731 İsmail Efendi's two sons began to practise at the darüşşifa; in 1747 both were removed and replaced by Mehmed Halife. On Mehmed Halife's death in 1751 Abdullah Efendi succeeded him, and on his death in 1758 his son Mustafa Efendi became physician.

The register shows that medicine passed from generation to generation in certain families; families producing physicians over three generations were nonetheless very rare, and Mustafa Efendi's was one of them. The second Mustafa Efendi, son of Mustafa Efendi, handed his post to his own son while still alive. Later Mustafa bin Ebubekir took office, and Mustafa Efendi's son Ömer Efendi also appears in the list of physicians. The last physicians recorded in the register are Hafız Emin and Seyyid Mehmed Efendi, sons of Yusuf Efendi. The same register also gives the assistants in order: in 1693 Mustafa bin Hüseyin, then Ahmed bin Mustafa, then Mustafa Efendi's sons Mustafa and Mehmed Efendi; in 1762 Ahmed Efendi, followed by his son Mehmed Efendi and, on his death, another Mustafa bin Ebubekir. The register lists each person's duty and wage separately, and it is noticeable that there were no great disparities of income among the staff.

The Building

The Darüşşifa is a monumental building occupying an area of 33.60 × 25.60 metres overall, its long axis running east to west. The porticoes lining the two sides of a rectangular courtyard and the rooms behind them, together with the entrance iwan and the main iwan opposite, form a courtyard plan with two iwans. The porticoes consist of pointed arches resting on stone columns with various capitals, cubic, muqarnas and moulded, while the long halls behind them are covered by barrel vaults supported by brick arches. Hüsameddin describes the interior as resembling an old madrasa, open in the centre, with three large cells on each of the north, south and east sides and one cell on either side of the gateway, all fronted by stone columns.

The building's most impressive face is its west front, which looks onto the street. In the middle of this façade of finely dressed ashlar rises the projecting portal, a third higher than the façade; a large window on either side and cylindrical towers at the corners create a symmetrical composition. The stone carving of the portal is a mature example of the Seljuk and Ilkhanid artistic tradition of the period. On the keystone of the gateway arch is carved a human figure seated cross-legged, a detail not found in the other darüşşifas of Anatolia. Hüsameddin likened the floral reliefs on the façade to the fine arts of the Seljuks. With its solid architecture and its stonework, the building shows how grand the legacy left by a servant could be.

Healing with Music and the History of Medicine

Besides being a hospital, the Amasya Bimarhane was a centre where the advanced medical thinking of its age was put into practice. Tradition holds that mental and nervous illnesses were treated here with the sound of water and with music, and some writers count it among the first places where this method was applied. The same method is also mentioned for other Anatolian hospitals, such as the Turan Melik Darüşşifa at Divriği. The Darüşşifa also worked in a way similar to today's medical faculties with their teaching hospitals: on one side students were taught medicine, on the other patients were treated.

Hüsameddin writes that the first physician of the darüşşifa was Reşideddin Lokman bin Hasan el-Harezmi. Because this physician, who lived around the hijri year 727, owned property on the plateau south of the city, the plateau, the mountain and the spring came to be called "Lokman Yaylası", "Lokman Dağı" and "Lokman Suyu". Local people later associated the large grave on the plateau with the legendary Lokman Hekim, but Hüsameddin pointed out that this Lokman was a real person, the physician of the darüşşifa. The same source also names Bedreddin Mahmud Çelebi and Nefiseddin Mehmed Çelebi among the physicians who later won renown here.

The building's best-known physician is Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin. That the author of the Cerrahiyye-i İlhaniyye practised medicine and surgery at the darüşşifa is known from his own work, the Mücerrebname. Sabuncuoğlu served here for some fourteen years and wrote his illustrated surgical treatise, completed in 1465; with its miniatures showing surgical instruments and operations, the work holds a special place in the history of medicine. Among the other physicians trained at the darüşşifa are Şükrullah, who died in 1488, together with Halimi, associated with the date 1516, Atufi of Merzifon, associated with 1561, and Mehmed bin Lütfullah. The building founded by Anber thus became a home to the medical masters of later generations as well.

From the Ottoman Period to the Present

After Amasya passed into Ottoman hands, the Bimarhane continued to serve the same purpose. Evliya Çelebi mentions it as "the great tımarhane near the Mehmed Paşa Han, a very old building". To the south of the building Yakut Paşa built a zawiya, a masjid and a hospice in 1413, and opposite it Aşçızade Hacı Mehmed Ağa founded the wooden Çöplüce Madrasa in 1818. The surroundings of the darüşşifa thus became a centre ringed by the religious and charitable buildings of the quarter. After the Tanzimat the institution gradually lost its original function. The building became a store first for silk cocoon dealers and then for timber merchants; Hüsameddin writes that at the beginning of the twentieth century it was being used as a depot by timber merchants.

Badly damaged in the 1939 earthquake, the building was partly repaired in 1945. A restoration begun in 1992 was completed in 1997, and for a time the building housed the Amasya Municipal Conservatory. Since 2011 it has served as the Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin Museum of the History of Medicine and Surgery. The museum displays surgical instruments reconstructed from the drawings in Sabuncuoğlu's treatise, re-enactments of treatment scenes, and information on the instruments and the musical modes used in music therapy. Together with the Gevher Nesibe Darüşşifa in Kayseri, it is one of the few medieval hospitals to have been turned into a museum of the history of medicine in a way that recalls its original function.

A Legacy That Keeps His Name Alive

Although Anber bin Abdullah was neither a ruler nor a great emir, the building he left behind has outlived the works of many rulers. His endowment deed was lost, his endowment came to be known by another emir's name, and he himself was gradually forgotten in the registers. Yet the inscription on the portal has carried his name for more than seven hundred years, and the scholars who study the building today once again call it the "Anber bin Abdullah Darüşşifa". This hospital, founded by a man from palace service under the patronage of his lady, is one of the finest examples in Amasya of how a charitable work can endure regardless of its founder's social standing.

Chronology

1304: The Seljuk sultan Mesud II dies; Öljeitü appoints Şemseddin Ahmed Bey governor of the province of Anatolia (according to Hüsameddin).

1305: Alaeddin Ali Pervane Bey is candar of Amasya.

1308-1309 (AH 708): Anber bin Abdullah completes the building of the darüşşifa in the reign of Öljeitü and İlduş Hatun; the inscription bears this date.

1312 (AH 712): The darüşşifa's endowment deed, now lost, is drawn up.

1314 (AH 714): Alaeddin Ali Pervane Bey builds the Amasya Mevlevi lodge and draws up its endowment.

c. 1327 (AH 727): Period of Reşideddin Lokman el-Harezmi, regarded as the first physician of the darüşşifa.

1465: Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin completes his surgical treatise during his years at the darüşşifa.

1668 (AH 1078): Salih Efendi, Sheikh of the Darüşşifa, dies and is buried inside the building.

1693: According to the endowment register, Tabib Kostuce succeeds Ahter-i Bali as physician.

1708-1762: The endowment register records the appointment of physicians such as Esarbali, Hacı Mahmud Efendi, Mehmed Halife, Abdullah Efendi and Mustafa Efendi.

1939: An earthquake severely damages the building.

1945: Partial repairs are carried out.

1992-1997: Comprehensive restoration; the building is then used as the municipal conservatory.

2011: Opens as the Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin Museum of the History of Medicine and Surgery.

Bibliography

Primary sources

  • Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, vol. 1, pp. 171-175 (section on the Yâkûtiye quarter and the Dârü'ş-şifâ), with the relevant passages of vols. 2 and 9. amasya.gov.tr
  • İsmail Hakkı Uzunçarşılı, Kitabeler, 1927, p. 102 (on the reading of the Amasya Darüşşifa inscription).
  • Local history compilation on Amasya, "Bimarhane" (Evliya Çelebi's account; list of physicians and assistants in the endowment register).

Academic studies

  • "Anadolu Mimarisinde İlhanlı Hükümdarlarının İzleri", DergiPark article (on inscriptions and patronage).
  • A. Sarı and S. Zabun, article on Anatolian hospitals, Uluslararası Sağlık Yönetimi ve Stratejileri Araştırma Dergisi.

Official sources

  • Governorship of Amasya, introduction to the "Sabuncuoğlu Tıp ve Cerrahi Tarihi Müzesi".

Other sources

  • Gönül Cantay, "Amasya Dârüşşifâsı", TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi, vol. 3, Istanbul 1991, pp. 5-6. islamansiklopedisi.org.tr
  • "Amasya", Türkiye Maarif Ansiklopedisi.

Online sources