IBN JUBAYR

Another of the things we saw, doing honor to the Sultan, was the hospital [maristan] in the city of Cairo. It is a palace, goodly for its beauty and spaciousness. This benefaction he made so that he might deserve a heavenly reward, and to acquire merit [in the next world]. He appointed as an intendant a man of science with whom he placed a store of drugs and whom he empowered to use the potions and apply them in various forms. In the rooms of this palace were placed beds, fully appointed, for bedridden patients. At the disposal of the intendant are servants whose duty it is, morning and evening, to examine the conditions of the sick, and to bring them food and potions that benefit them. Facing this establishment is another specially for women, and they also have persons to attend them. A third which adjoins them, a large place, has rooms with iron windows, and it has been taken as a place of confinement for the insane. They also have persons who daily examine their condition and give them what is fitting for them.

Another of the things we saw, doing honor to the Sultan, was the hospital [maristan] in the city of Cairo. It is a palace, goodly for its beauty and spaciousness. This benefaction he made so that he might deserve a heavenly reward, and to acquire merit [in the next world]. He appointed as an intendant a man of science with whom he placed a store of drugs and whom he empowered to use the potions and apply them in various forms. In the rooms of this palace were placed beds, fully appointed, for bedridden patients. At the disposal of the intendant are servants whose duty it is, morning and evening, to examine the conditions of the sick, and to bring them food and potions that benefit them. Facing this establishment is another specially for women, and they also have persons to attend them. A third which adjoins them, a large place, has rooms with iron windows, and it has been taken as a place of confinement for the insane. They also have persons who daily examine their condition and give them what is fitting for them.