Abstract:

The Zeynep­Kamil Hospital, co­founded by Princess Zeynep, daughter of Mehmed  Ali Pasha, the Ottoman  governor in Egypt, and her husband Yusuf  Kamil Pasha, Grand­Vizier to Sultan Abdülaziz, is the first private charitable health institution in the Ottoman capital. Located  at  Üsküdar (Scutari), “Zeynep­Kamil” continues to serve as a major maternity and children’s hospital  in Istanbul. The hospital was  inaugurated in 1882, following a seven years  construction period prolonged due to the decease of Kamil Pasha (1808­1876), and the Turko­Russian wars of 1877­78. Princess Zeynep (1825­1884) aimed to  organize the hospital exclusively for women, and the hospital was renowned as  the “hospital for poor women” (Gureba­i inas) during her lifetime. Dr. Cemil Pasha [Topuzlu] assumed the management of the hospital in  1896, which was then named “Zeynep­Kamil” after its founders. He renovated  the building and modernised the medical equipment. The hospital and its vast gardens were used for the care of the wounded during the Balkan Wars (1912­ 1913) and the First World War, especially after Gallipoli campaign. Between  1920 and 1927 the hospital became an asylum for psychiatric and neurological  patients, when Zeynep­Kamil Hospital also housed the first neurosurgical clinic  in Turkey. The institution was reorganised as a maternity hospital in 1935. Among medical institutions in Turkey, Zeynep­Kamil Hospital deserves  special attention as it can be considered the first privately­owned hospital in the Ottoman  Empire. The status of the  hospital  was  defined  by  waqf documents (annexes  to Princess  Zeynep’s  trust deed of 1861) dated 1876  and 1883  respectively. The first deed  enumerates  the properties  entrusted by Princess  Zeynep and Yusuf Kamil Pasha, the possessions they devoted to the hospital to  provide for its maintenance, the rules to be followed in the management of the trust, the nomination of the trustees, besides details of patient care. The second  deed that is indirectly related to the hospital itself, allows for a comparison of the properties endowed to the hospital with those mentioned in the initial deed  or testament of 1861. These documents contribute to our understanding of the legal and financial foundations of a 19 th­century civilian Turkish hospital, and  the formation of a private medical institution in historical context.

Keywords: