The Atabegs and Ayyubids
Madrasas and Education
‘Bimaristan Nur al-Din was a treatment centre and medical school equipped with a comprehensive library.’
Hospitals (bimaristans) were important centres for scientific learning. The voyager from al-Andalus, Ibn Jubayr, was amply impressed by the newly built Bimaristan Nur al-Din, which he noted was both a treatment centre and medical school equipped with a comprehensive library; he also describes ‘the ticking water clock’ he saw at the Umayyad Mosque. Abu al-Fadl Muhammad bin ‘Abd al-Karim al-Harithi, known as al-Muhandis, or ‘the Geometer’, was a resident doctor at the hospital as well as being a multi-talented polymath. It was he who designed the geometric woodcarving on the door of the bimaristan and he also repaired the mechanical clock at the Umayyad Mosque.
Hospital (Bimaristan) Nur al-Din

Hegira 549 / AD 1154
Atabeg
Damascus, Syria
Bimaristans Nur al-Din and al-Qaymari owned comprehensive medical libraries for students.