Dr. Zigardelakizade Salih Nabi (1886-1914): Psychiatry and Music

Edited and translated by Şeref Etker

Salih Nabi Zigardelakizade, a junior student of the Military Medical School in Istanbul at the turn of the century, was an enthusiast of both music and psychiatry. He published his lectures in a pamphlet entitled: Philosophy of Music (1910), before leaving for an internship at the Bel-Air asylum in Geneva, where he studied under Prof. Rodolphe Weber, the first director of this modern institution. Salih Nabi published a thesis on the Mental asylums of the 20th century and the Bel-Air Asylum in Geneva (in Turkish) in 1911. This well documented text constituted a blueprint for reformed psychiatric institutions in Turkey, and still serves as a reference for the early years of the Bel-Air asylum - presently, the Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève - Belle-Idée. Dr. Salih Nabi graduated in 1911, but could not pursue a career in psychiatry. He was posted in the Thracian front during the Balkan Wars of 1912-1913. Misfortunately, Dr. Salih Nabi Zigardelaki succumbed to typhus in Ankara, shortly after his appointment to Eastern Turkey. This presentation compliments his brief vita by establishing his date of decease, and is appended with a brief report of his visit to the psychiatric clinics of the Greek (Balıklı) and Armenian (Surp Prigich) hospitals in his native Yedikule district of Istanbul.