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Bimaristan is a Middle and New Persian (بیمارستان bīmārestān) word meaning hospital, with Bimar- meaning "sick" and -stan as location and place.

The oldest recorded Bimarestan is of Gundishapur, established in 3rd century by Shapur I the Sasanian emperor, in present day Khuzestan province of Iran. When Sasanian Iran fell to Muslim Arab armies in 638 CE, the university-hospital survived the change of rulers and persisted for several centuries.

The the first Bimaristan after the Gundishapur was founded in 707 A.D. by al-Waleed bin Abdel Malek in Damascus. At that time, most hospitals had doctors that diagnosed and treated all patients, but the Bimaristan was unique in that it had doctors that specialized in certain diseases. Originally, these health centers were specifically for patients with specific afflictions such as pestilence and blindness, and all services were free of charge.

The Bimaristans were organized into two sections, one for men and one for women. Within those sections were halls, each for a specific disease and monitored by one or more doctors. Some examples of the specialized halls are the ones for internal diseases, patients that were splinted, delivery, and communicable diseases. The administration of the hospital was based on the employment of health workers that cleaned the hospital and took care of the patients, physicians; and the head doctor, called Al Saoor. The employees took shifts both day and night to ensure they were all well-rested An extra wing, called Al Sharabkhana, also known as a pharmacy, was added to enable doctors to easily distribute medication. Bimaristans mainly had two goals: the welfare of their patients and to educate new physicians. An excerpt from Ibn Al-Ukhwah’s book, Al-Hisbah reveals how the Bimaristan system made sure their patients were taken care of:

‘The physician asks the patient about the cause of his illness and the pain he feels. He prepares syrups and other drugs, then writes a copy of the prescription to the parents attending with the patient. The following day he re-examines the patient and looks at the drugs and asks him how he feels, and accordingly advises the patient. This procedure is repeated every day until the patient is either cured or dies. If the patient is cured, the physician is paid. If the patient dies, his parents go to the chief doctor and present the prescriptions written by the physician. If the chief doctor judges that the physician has performed his job without negligence, he tells the parents that death was natural; if he judges otherwise, he informs them to take the blood money of their relative from the physician as his death was the result of his bad performance and negligence. In this honorable way they were sure that medicine was practiced by experienced, well trained personnel[7].’

Once admitted into a Bimaristan, the patient can stay for as long as she/or he needed; there was no time limit. Once the patient has fully recovered, they were provided, not only with clean clothes, but with pocket money.

• Dr. Sharif Kaf Al-Ghazal, MD. The Origin of Bimaristans (Hospitals) In Islamic Medical History. Oct. 15, 2006. http://www.e-imj.com/Vol2-No1/Vol2-No1-L1.htm
• Noshwrawy, A.R., The Islamic Biarmistans in the Middle Ages, Arabic Translation by M. Kh. Badra, The Arab Legacy Bul. No. 21, P 202.
• Nur Eddine Bimaristan: Great Medical Edifice of the Islamic Civilization. Oct. 15, 2006. http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/990116/1999011635.html

• Islamic medicine
• Gundishapur