Süleymaniye Medical Medrese - II

Tuncay Zorlu

Although we have no sources fully explaining the teaching and the educational methods followed in the Süleymaniye Medical Medrese, it is understood from its deed (vakfiye), the laws for courts and medreses (ilmiye kanunnameleri) and primary sources belonging to the classical period (1300-1600), that the teaching was formerly carried out in terms of master-apprentice method. In the deed, we can't see a clear statement about the days and hours of the courses. But, we know in general, that Süleyman the Magnificent stipulated to teach five courses a day on four weekdays. Regarding the holidays, it is thought that pre-Ottoman practices were followed: Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and festival days were holidays and the rest was for teaching. But these holidays could be lessened accordingly.

Abbé Toderini who lived between 1781-1786 in Istanbul, gives information about the teaching method in the Medical Medrese of Süleymaniye in a chapter of his famous book De La Littérature Des Turcs. According to Toderini, Turkish teachers taught courses in general pathology and surgery in Suleymaniye. Beside Turkish students, the courses were open to those who wished. There wasn't any obstacle for Europeans to attend these courses. Ubezio, a physician, said that he followed the courses many times as a listener. The teaching method consisted of reading medical books, studying diseases and medicines through clinical observations and benefiting from physicians' knowledge and advices.

The textbooks used in the Süleymaniye Medical Medrese are only generally mentioned in the deed and other sources. Hasan Bey-zade Ahmed Paşa (d.1636) in his Tarih says that"Tabîb danişmendleri kütüb-i tıbdan ol medresede ders okurlar" But he doesn't mention the names of the textbooks. On the other hand, according to the deed courses on logic (ilm-i mizan), medicine (ilm-i ebdan) and fenn-i hikmet (ulum-i akliye, rational sciences) were somehow taught in the medical medrese.

This medrese offered medical education for about three centuries long and functioned as an infrastructural institution providing doctors for almost all Ottoman medical institutions and mostly for the Fatih Hospital (Istanbul). The Süleymaniye Medical Medrese's graduates or students such as Osman Saib Efendi, Abdulhak Molla and Mustafa Behçet Efendi were among the founders and teachers of the modern medical school in 1827. Thus, they pioneered in modernizing the medical education in Turkey.