A HISTORY OF SCIENCE 



forming labor on the building if he chanced to pass 

 one of the adjoining streets. It was the order of the 

 sultan that any person passing near could be im- 

 pressed into the work, and this order was carried 

 out to the letter, noblemen and beggars alike being 

 forced to lend a hand. Very naturally, the adjacent 

 thoroughfares became unpopular and practically de- 

 serted, but still the holy work progressed rapidly and 

 was shortly completed. 



This immense structure is said to have contained 

 four courts, each having a fountain in the centre; 

 lecture - halls, wards for isolating certain diseases, 

 and a department that corresponded to the modern 

 hospital's " out - patient " department. The yearly 

 endowment amounted to something like the equivalent 

 of one hundred and twenty -five thousand dollars. A 

 novel feature was a hall where musicians played day 

 and night, and another where story-tellers were em- 

 ployed, so that persons troubled with insomnia were 

 amused and melancholiacs cheered. Those of a re- 

 ligious turn of mind could listen to readings of the 

 Koran, conducted continuously by a staff of some 

 fifty chaplains. Each patient on leaving the hospital 

 received some gold pieces, that he need not be obliged 

 to attempt hard labor at once. 



In considering the astonishing tales of these sumpt- 

 uous Arabian institutions, it should be borne in mind 

 that our accounts of them are, for the most part, 

 from Mohammedan sources. Nevertheless, there can 

 be little question that they were enormous institu- 

 tions, far surpassing any similar institutions in western 

 Europe. The so-called hospitals in the West were, at 



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