Bimarhane / Darüşşifa (1308) — Sabuncuoğlu Museum

The Bimarhane (also known as Darüşşifa or Şifahane), built in 1308 under the Ilkhanid governor Ahmed Gazi, is one of the earliest purpose-built psychiatric hospitals in the medieval Islamic world and the principal historic structure housing the Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin Museum of History of Medicine in Amasya. The building's name combines 'bimar' (sick) and 'hane' (house) in Persian, reflecting the Ilkhanid administrative language of the period. The complex was designed specifically for the humane treatment of mental illness, with music and water therapy known to have been practised here—methods described a century later in the surgical compendium 'Cerrahiyyetü'l-Haniyye' (1465) written by Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin, an Amasyalı physician who trained in this building. The structure is organised around a two-iwan courtyard with a central pool, a spatial arrangement common to Ilkhanid hospitals across Anatolia and Iran. The portal stonework retains elaborate geometric and vegetal carving. Today the building functions as the Sabuncuoğlu Museum, displaying period medical instruments, reproductions of surgical illustrations from the Cerrahiyye manuscript (the original is held in Istanbul's Fatih Library), and models of therapeutic spaces. The building in Gümuşlü Mahallesi is approximately 300 metres north of the Gök Medrese and can be reached on foot via a riverside path. Admission is covered by the Müzekart.