[Qualifications and morality requisite for the personnel to be employed in the Ottoman Hospitals (Dar-al-Shifas)].

Ottomans legislated various codes and founded several institutions to provide care and protection for the sick, disabled, orphans, widows, invalids and the aged. Sultans passed acts assigning a proportion of the tax income to the needs of the diseased and disabled people in hospitals (dar-al-shifas) and nursing; and created foundations of health with trusts of deeds (waqfiyyes). These deeds comprise interesting information on hospital management as well as the duties, responsibilities, qualities, and proficiency standards requisite for physicians and other employees of these institutions. This article deals with the trusts of deeds of the dar-al-shifas founded by the Sultans, Bayazid I. in 1400, Mehmed II. the Conqueror in 1470, Bayazid II. in 1488, Süleyman the Magnificent in 1556, Sultan Ahmet I in 1616; and the Sultans' wifes', Hafsa's in 1539, Haseki Sultan Hurrem's in 1550, and Nurbanu's in 1582, in view of the characteristics stated above. A Hospital which presumably had a capacity of 20 to 50 patients had a staff consisting of approximately 20 to 25 employees, covering primarily, physicians (tabib), ophtalmologists (kahhal), surgeons (djarrah) and assistant health personnel such as pharmacists (ashshab), cook-dieticians (tabbah), a drug-smasher (adviyekub), a cellar-keeper (kilardje), nurses (kayyum), an attendant of kitchen ware (qassa-kash), sweepers (farrash), a W.C. cleaner (ab-reze) and a doorkeeper (bevvab) etc. ...