Abstract
This paper explores the medical philanthropy of Rabia Gülnüş(pronounced Gulnush) Sultan in 17th century
Makkah.To date, little study has been done on Gülnüş Sultan’s 1679 hospital waafiyath(deed of trust), despite
the significance it holds for scholarship on Ottoman imperial women’s patronage of healthcare in Makkah.As
patrons of medical institutions, Ottoman royal women shaped the standards of healthcare in not only imperial
cities but also extended their influence to the Islamic pilgrimage route. Moreover, despite the instrumental role
of Ottoman imperial women as patrons of healthcare institutions prior to the nineteenth-century, Ottoman
medical scholarship neglectstheir contributions to the emergence of modern public health.This paper
redressesthis absenceinscholarship by studying the transborder medicalphilanthropism of Rabia Gülnüş Sultan
on the Hajj route through her 1679hospital in Makkah.
Rabia Gulnus Sultan : A Forgotten Sultana
Rabia Gülnüş Sultan (1642-1715) was the Greek
Haseki—or imperial consort—of Sultan Mehmed IV (r.
1648-1687) and would later become
Mustafa II (r. 1695-1703) and Ahmed III (r. 1703
She was born as Eugénie in Rethymno on the island of
Crete, which was Venetian-ruled at the time.[1] Gülnüş
Sultan’s influence swept across the tide of turmoil and
fortunes of the 17th to 18th century empire, beginning in
1664, when she became Haseki, to 1687.[2]
The Ottoman Sultana held sway in both state affairs and
philanthropical projects across the empire from 1695 up
to 1715, when she passed away.[3]Muzaffer Özgüleş has
accordingly dubbed her “one of the most influential of
Ottoman royal women”,due to her prolonged prestige and
standing as Haseki and Valide Sultan.[4] Despite the
Sultana’s ascendancy, however, Gülnüş Sultan’s
influence has been enveloped by earlier Queen Mothers,
including Hürremand Turhan Sultan.[5] As a neglected
imperial woman inscholarship, studies on Gulnus Sultan
are particularly limited, but her medical patronage in Makkahhas been given far less attentionthan earlier
imperial women.
A Trail of Philanthropy: Women as Patrons of Healthcare in the Holy Cities
Gülnüş Sultan was not the first Ottoman imperial woman
to build a hospital in Makkah, following in the footsteps
of another haseki, Hürrem Sultan (d. 1558), in 1550
1551. However, unlike her well-known predecessor
little is known about GülnüşSultan’s dar al shifa
in 1679, that it seemingly disappears from historical
discourse on “imperial Ottoman hospitals”.[6] More
recently, however, thehistorianMuzaffer Özgüleş
dedicated his 2017 bookFemale Patronage and the
Architectural Legacy of Gülnuş Sultan to Gulnus Sultan’s
architectural patronage. It is a plausible explanation that
the paucity of studies on the 1679 hospital, unlike Haseki
Women’s hospital and Nurbanu Valide Sultan’s Hospital
may be due to the floods in Makkah which led to the
hospital’s reconstruction. This is particularly relevant as
although women’s hospitals have more recently been the
focus of scholarship, even these studies have tended to focus on women’s dar al-shifain the urban cities of
the empire, and rarely provincial cities.[7]
Gülnüş Sultan’s hospital left a stamp on the landscape of
Ottoman women’s medical institutions in the holy cities;
however, her royal patronage followed the medical
philanthropy of other imperial women in the Abbasid
period, such as Khayzuran (d. 789) and Zubayda (d. 831)
who endowed “wells and drinking fountains”, followed
by Shaghab (d. 933) who is credited with establishing
“medical facilities” in the holy cities.[8] Ottoman Sultans
commonly endowed hospitals “in major urban
centers”,[9]while others from the imperial structure
would construct edifices in provincial cities, such as,
inter alia, royal women. [10] This explains why it
wasHürrem Sultan who built the first one in Makkah
during the 16th century,[11] followed by the grand vizier
Sokullu Mehmet Paşa in 1573, and after one hundred
years—Gülnüş Sultan.[12] However, what made Gülnüş
Sultan’s medical philanthropism on the hajj route even
more significant was that it manifested as an intricate
web of interconnected projects in the form of a soup
kitchen, hospital, and a primary school,[13] which passed
on the profits from numerous villages in Egypt to the
endowment in Makkah.[14]
Maintaining endowments in Makkah was, furthermore,
permeated by sacred significance given that the location
of the dar al-shifawas Islam’s holy city,[15]which frames
the Sultana’s medical philanthropism as a pious
project.[16]
Özgüleş, however, has suggested that the geographical
distance from the imperial capital weakened the influence
of the royal woman’s philanthropy.[17] For instance,
apart from the residents of Makkah, pilgrims may have
been the primary patients of her endowment, which may
have restricted the influence of the endowment for the
whole populace.[18]
It could be suggested that the significance of Gülnuş
Sultan’s medical philanthropy in the seventeenth-century
during the “sultanate of women”, was emphasised by the
“public culture of sovereignty” that was cultivated by
imperial women during this period.[19]However, the
pattern of Ottoman imperial women’s hospital
buildingwas inherited from earlier Muslim civilisation
and consequently did not mark a major shift in royal
women’s charity.
The Waqfiyyath of Rabia Gulnus Sultan: Medical Philanthropy in Makkah
In the seventeenth-century, Ottoman imperial women’s
patronage of hospitals continued the trend of the medical
philanthropy of earlier female patrons,enhancing
thehealthcare that was accessible to the public.[20]
Female endowers bore responsibility towards the
empire’s subjects that extended beyond the demarcated
boundaries of the imperial cityto the holy cities of the
empire. One form of this medical philanthropism is
(pl. awqāf) in Muslim civilisation,which are “privately
owned property” that are “endowed for a charitable
purpose in perpetuity”.[21] Waqfiyyat have been referred
to as a “constitution of the Ottoman health care system
but they can also be studied to shed light on imperial
women’svisions for medicine and healing.[22]
According to Abattouy and Al-Hassani, by establishing
awqāf, female endowers were “legally empowered” to
influence society as they had the prerogative to determine
the recipients of medical care in locations of their
choice.[23] Gülnüş Sultan’s 1679 waqfiyyath, which has
hitherto not been the focus of study in English
scholarship, reveals that the Ottoman Sultana’s patronage
of healthcare transcended to the pilgrimage route and
subsequently suggests that women were central to the
development of public health in the holy cities of the
empire.
Firstly, the hierarchy of employment within Gülnüş
Sultan’s hospital conformed to the Galenic-humoral
tradition and therefore establishes the parity between
employment in male and female dar al shifa. The Chief
Physician received the highest salary of 30 paras and 20
loaves of bread daily, which may have been an even
greater amount than the “head of the medical school” that
Sultan Süleyman employed in his Mosque Complex
(1548-1549). Peçevi, for instance, indicates that the
Sultan employed Tabib Ahmet Celebi for a salary of 60
akçe” per day,[24] which may have been equivalent to 20
para based on Robert Carson’s estimation.[25] Gulnus
Sultan also specified the employment of a “skilled
physician of superior qualifications who strives to
achieve innovations in medical treatment”, and someone
who was qualified to be the physician’s assistant, for
which he would receive “ten loaves of bread and ten
paras a day.”[26] She further stipulated the employment
of “a skilled surgeon strong enough to attend the
wounded” in the deed of trust.[27]
Accordingly, women’s dar al-shifa were no exception to
the variety of staff that made up royal hospitals of the
empire, employing hundreds in “medical, administrative,
and menial duties”.[28] Although the present study omits
archival budget records, these could also be used to shed light on employment in women’s hospitals.[29] What is
known, however, concerning Gülnüş Sultan’s
the total number of employees at the endowments in
Jeddah were 28 in the hospital, 55 in the sou
and 5 in the storehouse, all of whom were rem
from the endowment’s revenue.[30] In addition to their
monetary salaries, they were given “bread cooked in the
waqf’s bakery”, while the other thirty-one staff employed
at the endowment received “yearly rations of wheat”.[31]
Accordingly, this suggests that Ottoman royal women’s
awqāfwere no different to those of their male
counterparts. There was “no distinction” or “textual
difference” visible in Ottoman records to differentiate the
endower’s gender, a phenomenon referred to as “gender
blindness” by Deguilhem.[32] This is significant given
that, preceding the 19th century, imperial women’s
hospitals were not distinguishable from men’s which
gave Ottoman royal women the influence to shape
healthcare in the empire in a manner that did not differ to
their male counterparts.[33]
Despite this, Gülnüş Sultan’s 1679 medical institution
did envision a distinctive connection between medical
practices and spirituality, a common trend among royal
female endowers tying public health to devout
doctors.[34] The royal woman stipulated, for instance,
that the Chief Physician be of virtuous character, for
which he would receive an enormous payment. She
employed a religious head for staff at the hospital, as wel
as a reciter of prayers, making it a condition that:
someone who is pious and upright […] always
attentive to his business, who is present at religious
services morning and evening, and who possesses
the strength to give to others as much as they are
entitled to shall be the religious head of those
employed at the hospital […] Someone worthy and
pious shall serve as the reciter of prayers[35]
Employees at the hospital, moreover, were expected to
perfect their moral characteristics; for instance, the
steward’s “uprightness” was to be “obvious and
clear”,[36] and the cellarer was to be “uprightly
honest”.[37] Singer comments that pious endowments
may have been “inspired by spiritual, social, economic or
political motives”.[38] In the case of Gülnüş Sultan’
medical patronage, the hospital employed pietistic staff
to cultivate this ethos in medicine, which evidences that
the patronage of the imperial women was imbued with
devotional motives.
Lastly, although it is not within the scope of this paper to
discuss the historiography on the origins of the modern ‘hospital’,[39] the dar al-shifa
seventeenth-century were institutions of healing
administering Galenic-humoral medicine, and
accordingly they have been studied as such. There is
debate in historiography regarding when hospitals began
to function as the primary establishments for providing
healthcare, with the more common position being the
19th century.[40] This can be disputed by the presence
of bimaristans in early Muslim civilisat
the medieval and early modern period
administered unconventional medical care which differed
to the modern institution [41] and this is demonstrated by
documentsfrom the end of the 15th century hospitals of
Sultan Mehmet II Fatih (d.1481) and BayezidII (d.
1512).[42] Items bought“for the hospital warehouses”
recorded foodstuffs and medicaments together, without
differentiating between the two which poses a difficulty
for historians to discern what constituted medicine in
imperial hospitals.[43] For example, opium was used a
great deal in “Anatolian cuisine” alongside poppy which
had medicinal benefit for not only humans, but also
“veterinary” treatments.[44] Even oil and honey, and
drinks such as coffee were known to have “gastronom
purposes” and function as medicine.[45]Similarly,
Gülnüş Sultan laid down the purchase of basic staples
such as “seven quintals of soap, fat, and honey”, as well
as “fifteen Egyptian quintals of olive oil” which were “to
burn in the hospital”.[46] She s
medicines separately, such as “drugs and syrups and
pastes” which were to be purchased for 20,000 paras per
year.[47] Wounded patients were to have “salves and
other materials” which were unspecified, purchased for
10,000 paras yearly.[48]
An incident has been recorded in the Archives of
Topkapı Palace(TSMA) from 1689, after the
hospitalrepair project during 1684
AH). The nazir (governor)of the hospital in Makkah had
a letter sent to the founder Gülnüş Sultan, listi
provision required for the hospital.[49] Although olive
oil was used by “cooks at the nearby soup kitchen”, he
highlights that “the physicians and surgeons” made use
of it too, which led to him requesting to buy a
considerable amount more.[50] This
Gülnüş Sultan’s integrated and holistic vision for
healthcare in the 1679 dar al
Pormann and Savage-Smith suggest, that female patrons
“endowed hospitals” which “constituted a considerable
contribution to public health”.[51]
Overall, this paper has shed light on Gülnüş
Sultan’smedical philanthropism in the 17th century whichmight have significantly shaped healthcare in the
holy city.
Note on translation:
Although a copy of the 1679 waqfiyyatis available in the
General Directorate of Foundations (VGMA.VKF.KS
1428), the author has used Robert Bragner’s translation
published in the 1990 Tarihimizde Vakıf
Hanım Sultan Vakfiyeleri.
Note on pronunciation:
Conventional Turkish orthography is used in the
paper i.e. Gülnüş instead of the English Gulnush.
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Ramazan 1090H,in TarihimizdeVakıfKuranKadınlar.
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(2003):335,doi:https://doi.org/10.1163/15692080332276
5164. - Abattouy and Al-Hassani, “The Role of Awqāf,” 37.
- See: Kayaalp, “An analysis of the hospitals of Sultan
Suleyman and Hurrem,” 103 - Gülnuş Sultan, 111-112
- Ibid., 112.
- Ibid., 115.
- Amy Singer, “Serving up charity: The Ottoman
public kitchen,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History
no. 3 (2005): 481 - P. E. Pormann, ‘Islamic Hospitals in the Time of al
Muqtadir’, 337. - Ibid., 337.
- Ibid., 337.
- See: Ömer Lutfi Barkan, “Fatih
1489–1490 Yıllarınaāit Muhasebe
Üniversitesiİktisat Fakültesi
(1962–63): 328–32. - Shefer-Mossensohn, Ottoman Medicine
- Ibid., 32.
- Ibid., 32.
- Gülnuş Sultan, 147.
- Ibid., 156.
- Ibid., 156.
- Shefer-Mossensohn, Ottoman Medicine
Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi Arşiv (hereafter TSMA), evrak
2211/7. - Ibid., 32. From: TSMA, evrak 2211/7.
- Pormann and Savage
Medicine, 105.
