Three Medical Madrasahs Built in Damascus in the XIII. Century: Dahvâriyye, Lebbûdiyye, Düneysiriyye

Abstract

In the XIII. century, Damascus was the most important scientific center of the Islamic world. Ulema played an important role in the revival of scientific life and the construction of new madrasas by coming to the Syrian region from the east and west as a result of the Crusades and Mongol invasion. In this period, the growth of many scholars who had distinguished themselves in various branches of science brought Damascus to an important position in terms of scientific movements. Works that had a significant impact on religion, politics and thought were written. The studies carried out were not limited to only religious sciences such as fiqh, hadith and tafsir; In almost every field of science such as medicine, riyaziyyat, and hendese, works at the advanced levels of the age have been written. In the 13th century, the powers that dominated Syria ensured security and created suitable environments for the study of science, and made progress in mental and intellectual sciences. As in many other branches of science, medicine was among the branches of science that were in demand and protected. In addition to the prudent administrators supporting medical science and physicians financially and spiritually, the interest and need for medical science increased considerably with the effect of the Crusader and Mongol attacks that swept the Islamic world; As a result, serious leaps have been recorded in the theoretical and practical fields in the history of health education and training. Undoubtedly, madrasahs had a great influence on both the spread of knowledge to large regions and the writing of these works. The madrasahs, which were started to be established during the Seljuk period, continued to develop during the Atabeks period. For the first time, together with Atabey Nureddin Zengi, independent science madrasas such as Daru'l-hadith and Daru'l-fiqh began to be established in Damascus. The independent science madrasahs that were built were not only limited to the field of religious sciences, but also continued by building many madrasas such as Darul'l-hendese, Daru't-tıp in the field of mental sciences. In this study, three medical madrasahs named Dahvâriyye, Lebbûdiyye and Düneysiriyye, which are the first medical madrasahs of Islamic history, which were built in Damascus only for the teaching of medicine, were examined and their founders were mentioned.