the maintenance of this institution. The list of hospitals and other charitable organizations which were established in these early centuries is very long, and it reveals the fact that in every known land there existed, throughout these years, a strong wish to give aid and comfort to the poor, the sick and the helpless. The Musulmans appear to have been as zealous as the Christians in promoting works of this kind; for the records show that in Bagdad, Cairo, Damascus, Cordova and many of the other cities which were under their control, they provided ample hospital accommodations. Indeed, one of the largest and most perfectly equipped institutions of this character of which the history of the Middle Ages furnishes any record, was that planned and constructed at Cairo, Egypt, in 1283 A. D., by the Sultan El Mansur Gilavun. While it was building, the workmen employed were not permitted to engage in any undertaking for private citizens, and the Sultan himself never failed to visit the spot every day during the progress of the work. The site chosen was that of one of the royal palaces, and in tearing down this structure, in order to make room for the new building, the workmen brought to light a large chest filled with gold and precious stones, the value of which was sufficient to pay the entire expense of erecting the hospital. Upon the completion of the building and the equipment of its spacious wards in the most perfect manner possible, the Sultan expressed himself in the following terms:—
I have founded this institution for people of my own class and
for those who occupy an humbler station in life—for the king and
for the servant, for the common soldier and for the Emir, for the
rich man and for the poor, for the freeman and for the slave, for
men and also for women. I have made ample provision for all
the remedial agents that may be required, for physicians, and for
everything else that may prove useful in any form of illness. . . .
One of the characteristic features in the management of
this hospital, says Le Clerc, was the custom of giving to
each of the poorer inmates, when he left the institution,
five pieces of gold, in order that he might be spared the
