Amasya Dârüşşifâsı hekîmi el-Hâc Mahmûd Efendi’nin mahdûmu olup pederinden fünûn-ı tıbbiyyeyi ve Çorumlu Hâfız es-Seyyid el-Hâc Mehmed Efendi’den ulûm-ı şer’iyye ve edebiyyeyi ahz ve teallüm ederek bir tabîb-i âlim oldu.
Pederinin hayâtında açdığı eczâhânesinde bir taraftan muâlecât-ı tıbbiye ve diğer taraftan müzâkerât-ı ilmiyye ile iştigâl edib 1144’de pederinin irtihâli üzerine Dârüşşifâ tabîbi ve devlet hekîmi oldu.
On yedi yıl kadar Amasya‘da icrâyı tabâbet edib insâniyete hizmet ve 1161 senesi zilka’desinde rihlet etdi. Âlim, hekîm, hâzık, müteşerrî, halûk bir zât idi. Hastaları beşûşâne tedâvî eder, fukarâdan ücret almazdı.
In Modern English
He was the son of Hacı Mahmud Efendi, physician of the Amasya Darüşşifa (hospital). He learned the medical sciences from his father, and the religious sciences and literature from Hafız Seyyid Hacı Mehmed Efendi of Çorum, and became a learned physician.
In the pharmacy his father had opened during his lifetime, he treated patients on the one hand and took part in scholarly conversation on the other. When his father died in 1144 [1731-32], he became physician of the Darüşşifa and a state physician.
He practiced medicine in Amasya for about seventeen years, serving humanity, and died in the month of Zilkade of 1161 [1748]. He was a scholar, a physician, skilled in his work, devoted to the sharia and good-natured. He treated his patients with a cheerful face and took no fee from the poor.
Notes and Research
Old Words in the Text
- mahdûm: son
- fünûn-ı tıbbiyye: the medical sciences
- ulûm-ı şer'iyye: the religious sciences
- ahz ve teallüm: taking and learning
- muâlecât-ı tıbbiye: medical treatment
- müzâkerât-ı ilmiyye: scholarly conversation and discussion
- irtihâl, rihlet: death, passing away
- icrâyı tabâbet: practicing medicine
- hâzık: skilled in one's craft
- müteşerrî: adhering to the sharia
- halûk: good-natured
- beşûşâne: cheerfully
- fukarâ: the poor
The Amasya Darüşşifa
The Darüşşifa in the text is the hospital building erected in 1308-09 in the names of the Ilkhanid ruler Olcaytu Mehmed Hüdabende and his wife İldüş Hatun. According to one study, it continued to serve after Amasya passed to Ottoman rule, with physicians and pharmacists on staff. Another article states that the Bimarhane remained in use as a hospital until the eighteenth century and that mentally ill patients were treated with music and the sound of water. The building is a museum today.
Hüsameddin's record fits this picture: Mahmud Efendi and his son are given the same title, "physician of the Darüşşifa", and the son's tenure runs from 1144 to 1161. However, the sources read do not name Mahmud Efendi or his son, and no information was found about the location of the pharmacy or the way the Darüşşifa operated in these years.
Bibliography
Primary sources
- Abdîzâde Hüseyin Hüsâmeddîn Yasar, Amasya Tarihi, Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2022, vol. 7, p. 314. amasya.bel.tr
Academic studies
Books