Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
important in the city, with over 32,000 manuscripts. The buildings
are mirror images of one another; and although the arrangement
is typical enough - cells around a porticoed courtyard - there are
interesting variations. Thus there is no portico on the north side but
instead the three hücres are open, forming a kind of loggia, while the
portico on the south side is cut by the dershane. All of the porticoes
have been glassed in to accommodate the library; this has been well
and attractively done and there is a charming garden in the courtyard
itself.
THE MEDICAL COLLEGE AND THE HOSPITAL
Just beyond the Sani medrese we come to what was originally the
Tip Medresesi, or Medical College, once the foremost in the Empire.
Unfortunately, all that remains of it now is the row of cells along the
Tiryaki Çarşısı: the other three sides have long since disappeared. In
their place has been built a modern concrete structure and the whole
now serves, appropriately enough, as a modern maternity clinic.
Across the street from this to the west is the vast dar-üş şifa, or
hospital, a large building arrayed around two arcaded courtyards,
now closed to the public. Evliya Çelebi gives this description of
the Süleymaniye hospital as it was in his time: “The hospital of the
Süleymaniye is an establishment so excellent that the sick are generally
cured within three days of their admission, since it is provided with
the most admirable physicians and surgeons.” Like most of the larger
hospitals, that of the Süleymaniye had a special section for the care
of the insane. Foreign travellers to Istanbul were much impressed
by these establishments and praised their number and size, charity
and organization. Here, for example, is Evliya's description of one of
these Ottoman asylums: “They have excellent food twice a day; even
pheasants, partridges and other delicate birds are supplied. There are
musicians and singers who are employed to amuse the sick and insane
and thus to cure their madness.”
THE İMARET
Turning right from Tiryaki Çarşısı onto the street which borders
the west end of the mosque courtyard, we come next to the imaret,
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