Bimarhane (Darüşşifa, 1308)

The Bimarhane — Darüşşifa of 1308 — is an Ilkhanid-period institution in Amasya's old town, widely regarded as one of the earliest surviving dedicated psychiatric treatment facilities in the world. Commissioned under Öljaitü Khan of the Ilkhanid Mongol dynasty and completed in 1308, the building was designed specifically to treat patients with mental illness through a combination of environmental therapy, medicinal treatments, and live music. Historical sources record that musicians were employed to perform in the open courtyard, a practice considered therapeutically effective within the framework of medieval Islamic medicine. The building is a two-storey ashlar stone structure arranged around a rectangular colonnaded courtyard with a central pool and garden, the design intentionally incorporating calming natural elements. The entrance portal is an outstanding example of Ilkhanid ornamental stonework featuring arabesque and muqarnas carving. The institution remained in operation for several centuries and became associated with the 15th-century physician and writer Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin, who worked here and documented both local medical practice and wider Anatolian surgical techniques in illustrated manuscripts. Today the building houses the Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin Museum of History of Medicine, but the structure itself — the courtyard, the cell arrangement, the pool basin — is as historically significant as any exhibit inside. The Bimarhane sits near Gök Medrese Camii and the Torumtay Türbe, completing the most important Seljuk–Ilkhanid cluster in Amasya.