Free Care in Medieval Cairo: Inside the Hospital of Qalawun, 1284

In 1284 the Mamluk sultan Qalawun, a former slave bought for a thousand dinars, began a hospital in the heart of Cairo that promised care to every patient, rich or poor, until they recovered, at no cost to them. It stayed open for more than five centuries, and its deed also shut some people out. The film follows the hospital from its founding to its decline: the Mongol war that framed Qalawun’s reign (Ain Jalut in 1260 and Homs in 1281), the two founding stories told by the chroniclers, the site at Bayn al-Qasrayn and the eviction of the Ayyubid princesses, the endowment deeds of 1286 and 1287, and the wards, the medicine store and the Red Sea road that brought pepper and cloves. A composite patient is shown, labeled as a composite, built from the deed and later descriptions. It also covers the teaching of physicians under Ibn Abi Hulayqa, the reading of the deed by the historian Linda Northrup, which bars Christians and Jews from working or being treated there, the gatherings of Ibn al-Nafis, and the long afterlife: Ibn Battuta in 1326, the French scholars of 1798, the eye hospital that opened on the site in 1915. Where scholars disagree, the film says who says what. Follow the full route, east to west (The World of Wayward):    • Start Here: The 1270 Silk Road Journey (Ea...   The novel behind this series is Wayward, a trilogy set along this road. Trailer:    • WAYWARD | Epic Silk Road Historical Fictio...   Part of Silk Road Cities, documentaries on life along the Silk Road around 1270. Watch the series:    • Silk Road Cities   Chapters 0:00 A House for King and Slave 1:25 The Thousand-Dinar Mamluk 3:25 Between the Two Palaces 5:06 Inside the Wards 6:53 Two Kinds of Knowledge 9:16 Six Centuries Sources Reference and scholarship: Linda S. Northrup, “The Bimaristan Qalawun in Cairo” (working paper, University of Bonn, 2013); the Qalawun Project of the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Qalawun VR pages); Ahmed Ragab, The Medieval Islamic Hospital (Cambridge, 2015) and reviews of it; a University of Amsterdam thesis on the waqf of Qalawun; Ibn Battuta’s travels in Gibb’s translation; Wikipedia (Qalawun, Bimaristan of Qalawun, Ibn al-Nafis, Battle of Homs, Battle of Ain Jalut, Bayn al-Qasrayn). The deeds, al-Maqrizi and Ibn Abd al-Zahir were not read first-hand; what comes from them is attributed in words. The Wayward trilogy These films grew out of the Wayward trilogy, historical novels by Fred Suh set on these roads around 1270. The books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/6502032990?... Music (YouTube Audio Library): “Tiburtina” by Schwartzy; “Sleep Music No. 1” by Chris Haugen; “Jomon Grove” by The Mini Vandals; “Curse Of Old” by Density & Time; “From Here on In” by Everet Almond; “A Distant Call” by Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz, Tone Seeker; “Rain Over Kyoto Station” by The Mini Vandals. AI disclosure Narration: AI voice (Kokoro). Images and short clips: AI-generated (Google Flow); maps and diagrams: drawn for this film. These are illustrations, not photographs or archival footage, and were reviewed for historical accuracy. Corrections are welcome in the comments. Subscribe for more of the 13th-century Silk Road:    / @wayward-trilogy   Topics: Qalawun’s hospital, Mansuri hospital, Cairo, Mamluk sultanate, Ibn al-Nafis, Ibn Abi Hulayqa, Linda Northrup, Bayn al-Qasrayn, waqf deed, Ibn Battuta #Cairo #Qalawun #MedievalMedicine